by Cat Porter
“He did?”
“He was very helpful and interested. He even found that antique bicycle for me. We had dinner, talked.” I shrugged. “It was nice.”
Grace laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“I’m having a hard time imagining the two of you spending a nice time together and enjoying it.”
“I know. Years ago, I was a jerk to him, and he was always a jerk right back. But we’ve both grown up since then.”
“I’m glad.” She put her glass back on the coffee table. “You stayed at a motel last night?”
I went back to my tea. “Yeah, so many tourists around. The place was hopping.”
What would she say if she knew what had happened?
I’d never told Grace about me and Butler at her wedding years ago, and I was just too tired and stressed out right now to get into the latest development. He belonged to someone else. And that someone else was a sexy twenty-something girl who was definitely old lady material.
My body seemed to have its own memory of events, no matter how my brain tried to shut it down. My flesh remembered the press and stroke of his fingers, sending a jolt right through me, and I crossed my legs, squeezing them together. Butler’s sexy murmurings seared me fresh. His smoky tone of voice, his raw words, his gentle caresses, which slowly, slowly had become more and more intense.
My grip tightened on my cold glass. There had been more carnal sensuality, eroticism, and intimacy in those brief moments with Butler last night than in a long number of years with Kyle.
“Tania? You seem really tired. Why don’t you go lie down? We can talk more tomorrow.”
I sat up. “Oh, I’m fine.”
“Divorce going through? Obviously. You’re here—”
“It’s going through. And don’t say, I’m sorry, because I’m not sorry. It’s a good thing.”
“I’m glad for you then. I really am. I’m just so happy that you’re back in Meager with me.”
“Me, too, Grace.” I sank back into the sofa, bringing my cold glass to my chest.
“You are really distracted. What are you thinking about?”
“Touching,” I blurted out.
“Touching what exactly?” Grace asked, a hint of a smile on her lips.
She wasn’t sure if she should laugh or give me a hug. Neither was I.
“Men and women touching,” I replied, adding a wicked smile.
“Ah, there is nothing like someone touching you. No, correction—someone you want to touch you. And badly.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely. Here’s to that!” I raised my glass of iced tea in the air. “Oh, by the way, biker lady, there was a little incident with a member of the Broken Blades when Butler and I stopped for dinner on the road.”
I told Grace about the encounter at the restaurant.
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. It wasn’t fun, but Butler handled it swiftly. Of course, that must have been nothing for him. My brother’s name seemed to be my bonus ticket out of that mess. Imagine that.”
“I don’t have to imagine.”
We shared a look.
“No, you don’t, do you?”
“Change of topic.”
“Yes, please.” Enough about men. I drained my glass.
“Are you still interested in opening a store here in town?”
“Yes. Why?”
“I think I’ve found a great space for you. Dillon’s is up for rent.”
“The old five-and-dime smack in the middle of Clay Street?”
“Yep. Right in the center of town.”
I sat up. “But Dillon’s is a huge space, isn’t it?”
Grace got out her cell phone, her finger sweeping over her screen. “The owners are about to divide the store into three separate retail spaces for rent. Brick walls, wood flooring, pressed copper ceiling from its turn of the century days as Meager’s one and only General Store.”
“I remember.”
“I think you’re going to love it.” She held her phone out to me.
I peered at the photo, and my muscles tightened. A bell tolled in my distance, the sound unmistakable. “I want to see it now.”
“That’s enthusiasm.”
“That’s determination to do what it is I really want to do for a change.”
“Amen, sister. By the way, Miller has most of his brother’s stuff in a new storage facility that the club just built on the property, so you can come over anytime you want and start going through it.”
“He agreed?”
“He’s thrilled.”
“Oh my gosh! Terrific! Okay, first thing tomorrow, let’s meet at Dillon’s and check out the space together, and then you can show me Wreck’s stuff in the storage unit.”
“You sure you don’t want to take a day or two to relax and—”
“Hell no.”
“Whatever you say. Sounds like a plan then.”
Yes, it was a mighty good plan. I would focus on me, getting my business off the ground. Yes, yes, yes.
The front door shoved open.
“We’re home!” Jill exclaimed as she stood behind my mother, who used her walker to slowly and carefully maneuver herself into the house.
“Hey, you two!” I darted over and hugged my mother. “How was physical therapy today?”
“It was a pain in my ass.” Rae kissed my cheek as she squeezed my arm with her free hand. “Good to see you again, baby.”
Jill slid her sunglasses onto her head, pulling back her wavy strawberry blonde hair from her freckled face. She held up a familiar white bag with the Meager Grand Cafe logo on it. “Rae made me promise to stop on the way home and get her a cappuccino and doughnuts.”
I hugged Jill and turned to face my mother once more. “Rae, you know what the doctor said about your cholesterol.”
“I know what he said, but that’s what those pills are for, aren’t they? I need a treat after all that torture this morning.”
Jill raised her hands in the air. “I tried to talk her out of it.”
“That therapist boy is so pushy,” Rae continued, smoothing a hand through her sleekly bobbed jet black hair. “Putting me through the ringer like that. Honestly.”
Jill laughed. “Aw, Rae, Matt’s pretty sweet to me.”
Grace steadied the walker as I helped my mother into her reclining chair.
“I’m glad someone’s getting something out of those visits. Sure isn’t me.” Rae let out a deep sigh as she pushed the button on her electric chair. The reclining motion went into full swing, lifting her legs up and out. “Ah. My cappuccino, please.”
Jill opened the bag and removed a coffee cup for herself and handed another to me, along with a glazed doughnut wrapped in waxed paper.
“Go ahead, Mother, have your poison,” I muttered, taking the coffee and doughnut from Jill and handing them to Rae.
“This is my only vice, Tania.” Rae took a sip of her coffee. “Yesterday Jill did lots of food shopping at that new health food store co-op and got us all sorts of grass-fed veal and buffalo meat, free-range chicken, brown rice, strange greens, and milk that isn’t milk. Didn’t you, honey?”
“Yes, I did,” said Jill. “I’m going to go start on that chicken cacciatore you showed me how to make. Grace, are you staying for dinner with us?”
“No, Miller is coming soon to pick me up. I’ve got braised beef that’s been in the slow cooker since this morning. I’m going to make some homemade mashed potatoes once we get home.”
“Oh, yum, that sounds good,” said Jill, absently rubbing her curved belly. “Shoot, I’ve got to go take my iron pill.” She darted into the kitchen.
“Have half this doughnut, Jill!” said Rae.
“No way!” Jill’s laughter rose from the kitchen. “I gained a lot of weight with Becca, and it was hard to lose, so I’m determined not to overdo it this time around. A glazed doughnut? Evil!”
“See what a temptress you are, Mother?” I said.
“Strength is found in fruits and vegetables, nuts, and lean proteins, not in sugar and flour.” Jill’s voice rang out from the kitchen.
“Killjoy!” Rae hit the button on the remote control of her lounge chair, and the chair hummed as it eased back further. “Time for my cooking show, girls. Hush and admire Tyler Florence with me, or leave the room. Those are your options.”
Grace grinned as she leaned over and planted a kiss on my mother’s cheek.
Yes, it was good to be home.
“DID YOU GET ANYTHING GOOD?” I asked Jill over the phone. Once again, I was at the Jacks’ new storage unit, up to my ears in Wreck’s belongings. Jill was on her way home from the mall in Rapid where Boner had taken her and Nina so she could shop for maternity clothes and Nina could get her hair done at a salon.
“Yeah, I did,” Jill said, her voice flat.
“Something wrong?”
“Nope.”
“Was Nina a bitch again?”
Nina had picked a fight with me and Jill earlier, and Boner had broken it up.
“Nope.”
“Everything good with Boner?”
Boner was always a bit standoffish with Jill, so I was surprised he had offered to take her to the mall today. He’d invited Nina to go along with them in an effort at making friends with the new girl on the block. She was his buddy’s woman, after all.
“Yep.”
“Jill, you sound weird. What happened?”
“I should be home in twenty minutes or so,” said Jill in her fake relaxed voice.
“You can’t talk now, right?”
“Hmm.”
“Do I need to punch anyone?”
Jill only let out a dry laugh.
“That’s better,” I said, still not convinced. “Don’t worry about cooking anything, okay? I’ll bring food for us. Mom and Becca are staying at Penny’s for dinner.”
“Okay.” Jill clicked off.
Jill was usually super chatty and blabby, what the hell could have happened at the mall, for Pete’s sake?
Half an hour later, Boner pulled up on the Jacks’ property in his truck, and a glammed-up Nina hopped out and strode into the club. She cast a cursory glance at me and kept walking.
“Hey, Boner!” I said. “Everything good?”
“Yeah. Great.” He shot me a dark glare, his green eyes flashing as he swung out of the parking lot once more.
I think I needed to get home sooner rather than later.
Within an hour, I’d brought home a bottle of red wine for myself and a small lasagna from the new family style Italian restaurant in town for me and Jill to share.
“Jill?” I swung open the back door, which led to the kitchen, plopping the wine bottle and the heavy bag of food on the table. “Jill? I’m home!” I took off my messenger bag and dropped it on the nearest chair.
“Tania?” Jill’s panicked voice rose from down the hall.
Moments later, Jill shuffled into the kitchen in her bathrobe, bare feet, hair mussed, blue-gray eyes dreamy, face flushed.
I bit my lip. “Oh…”
Now, it all made sense. Boner’s cool attitude, yet overly protective behavior. Jill’s usual skittishness in his presence, yet her eagerness to spend the day with him. Every instance of their awkwardness together over the past several weeks suddenly fit into place.
I wasn’t the only one under this roof with a crush on a One-Eyed Jack.
“Shit, sorry. Did I interrupt you?” I asked.
Jill’s face reddened again.
And I wasn’t the only one who tended to her own needs to deal with her intense feelings for her crush.
“I have an idea,” I said. “How about you take a cool shower, while I open my wine and pour you a glass of chocolate almond milk on ice, and then you can tell Tania all about it.”
Jill let out a heavy sigh as she drew open a kitchen drawer, grabbed the wine bottle opener, and tossed it on the counter. “Make it a tall glass.”
Early the next morning I stopped off at the Meager Grand and got a triple turbo cup of Americano to battle the post-Cabernet cloud that had taken over my brain cells, then shot straight to the club and got back to work on Wreck’s collection. I was committed to going through as much of it as possible as I prepared to open my store. I had already found quite a number of pieces that I wanted to re-sell for Lock.
“Morning,” a choppy voice rose behind me.
I spun around, clutching a box of rusty handlebars.
Sweat ran down Butler’s flushed face, his wet hair pulled back in a short ponytail. He’d been to battle with himself and won. The sheen on his sculpted arms shone in the early morning light in the small courtyard to the side of Eagle Wings, Lock and Grace’s custom-detailing and repair shop at the club. The club’s new storage unit where I’d been going through Lock’s brother’s mountain of worldly goods was to the rear of the shop.
Weeks had passed since that day we’d arrived in Meager together, and I had managed to stay out of Butler’s way.
Until now.
I took in a short breath. “Hi.”
“What the hell are you doing here?” Butler’s voice was sharp, his eyes cold, hard aqua stones.
Is he annoyed to see me?
He took the earbuds from his ears. “I mean, I’m surprised to see you here this time of day.”
“Lock gave me the key to his unit. I try to get here early. There’s a lot to get through.”
“You’re brave.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“And how’s it going?”
“I’ve been able to plow through a good section of Wreck’s eagle collectibles of all varieties, and I organized the piles strategically around the room. Now, I’m finding non-eagle items and trying to organize those. Next, I plan on cataloging it all and taking photos of certain pieces that I feel need a specialist’s appraisal. I’m hoping Lock will let me sell some really nice pieces at my store or keep a few on permanent display there, if he doesn’t want to sell them.”
“Store? You moving ahead with your business plan?”
“Yep. I found a great space in town, and I signed the lease yesterday. It’s official.”
“Holy shit, woman. Congratulations.”
A huge grin split his face, making him even more handsome than he already was, an almost boyish enthusiasm racing over his features. The tense version of this man had its own appeal. I had to admit, I liked that, too.
His hands hung on his hips. “That’s great news, Tania. There you go, taking off. I’m really happy for you.” The lines around his mouth deepened, the hollows just under his cheekbones making an appearance.
I cleared my throat. “Thank you.”
“Let me get that for you.” Butler took the box from me and set it down on top of two other boxes in the vast storage unit. “Jesus, look at this place. It’s packed. Wreck used to find all sorts of stuff everywhere we went; he was always buying something.”
“Yeah, it’s quite obvious.”
“He could get the toughest old coot to sell to him, I swear. Find anything interesting yet?”
A whiff of hard man and determined exertion wafted over me. It wasn’t the clean soapy scent of him from that night in the motel but raw, wild natural, and it set off a raw, wild urge spinning inside me.
I stepped back and let out a breath. Bending over a box, I busied myself with ripping the yellowed tape off the ends. “I found a few interesting things, but there’s plenty more to go. I’ll be here a long while yet.”
He held up an ice cream company sign from a now defunct chain in Wisconsin and studied it.
“Wreck was a good talker but genuine, you know? Not a bullshitter,” Butler said. “He gave a shit about the regular guy on the street. It came through when he talked to people.”
“I remember.”
“People responded to him.”
Like I was respondi
ng right now to the visuals of post-workout Butler?
“You went out for a run?”
“Yeah.”
“Good for you.”
“Running keeps me sane.”
I smiled.
“What is it?”
“I run for that very same reason. Well, that, and it keeps the love handles at bay.”
He lifted an eyebrow, his gaze locked on mine. “You don’t have love handles, Tania.” His growly voice curled around those words, making my stomach flip.
Why is he reminding me of his familiarity with my body, of his touch over my skin?
My face heated, and I mentally kicked myself for having said such a thing.
“Tania, look, I wanted to tell you—”
Oh God, please no! Don’t tell me! Don’t say anything!
“What’s that?” My voice came out overly chirpy, a desperate attempt not to be awkward.
“You must be wondering. You must be—”
“It’s none of my business. It certainly explains why you didn’t want to complicate things, and we didn’t, right? Things didn’t get out of hand—I mean, out of control.” I threw in a shrug to make myself seem casual and unruffled. “We didn’t go far, so things are fine.”
He only stared at me, his jaw stiff.
Ohh, harsh Butler.
Gah!
“Actually, I’m grateful,” I continued.
“Grateful?”
“Yes, grateful. I’m just getting out of a bad relationship. You’re newly in one, um…not a bad one—well, I guess—” Ah, shit! “Anyway, what happened between us showed me that part of me is still alive and ready to…” My face heated yet again. “You know what I mean. I’ll shut up now.”
“Right. I get it.”
I crossed my arms. “That’s very exciting for you—your new girlfriend. I mean, old lady. Although why you didn’t mention her, yes, I do find that odd, especially since you initiated—I mean, it was unexpected. But good. I’m good.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. “Unexpected that something happened between us or unexpected that it was good with me?”
“Do you care?” I shot back.
“Answer me.”
I returned his glare. “All of the above.”
He held my glare. “Huh.”
I shifted my weight. “Nina is really…”