by T. S. Joyce
“It was just really sweet to see a story like that.”
“Okay, we need to cut to the weather.”
Joe turned down the television as it panned over to a man in front of a weather map. Joe looked around, but nobody moved. No one talked. “Holy hell, Holt. She just outed you.”
“No, Holt,” Gram murmured, twisting in her seat to look at the quiet room. “She just gave you an army.”
Holt turned to see a man standing behind him, offering his hand. Mac Turner. He’d never said a word to Holt, but he offered his hand and murmured, “You need anything, my family got you.”
Stunned, Holt shook his hand. “I appreciate it, Mr. Turner.”
“Call me Toby.” The old man nodded once and made room for Nall Redding to shake Holt’s hand.
Holt looked at Liam, but his childhood friend was just smiling up at the TV, drinking his beer, sunglasses still on.
Holt and Gram stood and started greeting the masses of people pushing forward. Oh, there were some who walked out. Some who looked scared to talk to them. But the majority of the men and women went out of their way to show Holt their support.
“You got a good one,” Stacy, who ran the general store, told him. “Maybe don’t let that one get away.”
“That was the Norman Motel up the road she was filming in front of,” one of the Harris brothers called out. “Maybe she’s still there.”
Another man shook his hand and pulled Holt in for a hug, clapped him on the back. The next townie did that, too, and then the next as Holt slowly made his way through the crowd.
Look what she’d done. Thirty five years in a cage, and she hadn’t shoved him back in it at all. Instead, she’d thrown a grenade on his prison so he could never go back. She’d done that for him.
I love you just the way you are.
He had to find her.
“Are you gonna go get her?” someone called from the crowd as he moved through the maze of people toward the door.
“I’m gonna try!” he said through a grin.
The chorus of cheering was deafening, and over and over, he was clapped on the back. He shook so many hands on the way out. At the door, he turned and said, “Thank y’all for being…” He cleared his throat. He’d never been good with words. “Thank you for being you.”
“Awwww,” said some lady who worked at the gas station.
Another man yelled, “Get the fuck out of here. You’re ruining my buzz.”
Holt laughed and gave a two-fingered wave to the crowd behind him. Fargo followed beside him, barking excitedly, but Gram stopped at the door. “I think I’m gonna hang out here for a little while.”
“You sure?” he asked, walking backward.
Gram shrugged. “’Bout time I make some friends in town.”
Holt slowed to a stop and nodded. He was proud of her. Neither one of them had to be lonely anymore. “Call me if you need anything.”
“I will. Holt?”
“Yeah?” he asked, his fingertips on Fargo’s head.
“Lachlans are loyal.”
Holt nodded. “Yes, we are.”
“She’s a Lachlan, boy.”
Holt’s face stretched with a smile. “I know she is.”
He gave Gram a wink and jogged to the Bronco, let Fargo in, and then blasted down Main Street toward the motel. Her truck wasn’t there. He circled the lot twice, even went inside to ask the clerk at the front desk if she was still staying there.
He shook his head and told him she’d checked out this morning.
Holt’s disappointment had never been quite so deep. She was gone, and right now, all he wanted to do, the only thing that felt important, was holding her.
He got into his rig and pulled his phone from his back pocket.
That picture on his lock screen. He would never change it.
He opened up a text to her and typed…
Come home. Send.
A few seconds later, her response came through, and in an instant, three words changed his entire life.
I’m already here.
Chapter Eighteen
Come home.
Home.
Bre sat on the porch and read that two-word text a dozen times through the tears blurring her vision. She’d come here because nothing else had felt right. This was the only place that felt important and safe.
She heard the Bronco before she saw it, speeding up the driveway toward her, leaving a trail of dust in its wake.
He didn’t park where he usually did beside her truck. He pulled right up to the house and slammed on the brakes, skidded through the yard and rocked to a stop in front of her. He barely had it turned off before he was headed for her.
He was smiling.
Bre stood, but lost it when he bolted up the stairs for her. Just shoulders shaking, heart breaking back together, sobbing like she never had before just from sheer happiness.
She held out her arms, and he picked her straight up off her feet, walked her backward onto the porch, crushing her to him.
She squeezed her eyes closed and hugged him as hard as she could. Her other half wasn’t missing anymore. She didn’t feel empty anymore. For the first time in her entire life, Bre felt completely whole.
“One,” she whispered. Her breath hitched as she eased back and cupped his cheeks. “One is the number of men who will ever hold my heart.”
He smiled up at her. Oooh, that smile. The one she caused, the one that made her heart stutter, the one that meant more to her than anything in the world. It was the rainbow after an awful storm. It was hope after days of emptiness. It was a sign of happiness etched into the face of the man she adored. It was her favorite part of this life she’d stumbled into.
“I love you just the way you are, too,” he murmured thickly.
This life she’d found with him was enough.
It was more than enough.
She would now and forever be the guardian of the Lachlan Legend’s heart.
And he would be the guardian of hers.
Up Next in this Series
Liam gets his story in
Dig Deeper
Keepers of the Swamp, Book 2
Coming July 2019
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More Series by T. S. Joyce
Daughters of Beasts
Novak Grizzly (Book 1)
Beck Bear (Book 2)
Ash Bear (Book 3)
Sons of Beasts
Son of the Cursed Bear (Book 1)
Son of Kong (Book 2)
Son of the Dragon (Book 3)
Red Havoc Panthers
Red Havoc Rogue (Book 1)
Red Havoc Rebel (Book 2)
Red Havoc Bad Cat (Book 3)
Red Havoc Guardian (Book 4)
Red Havoc Bad Bear (Book 5)
Harper’s Mountains
Bloodrunner Dragon (Book 1)
Bloodrunner Bear (Book 2)
Air Ryder (Book 3)
Novak Raven (Book 4)
Blackwing Dragon (Book 5)
Kane’s Mountains
Blackwing Defender (Book 1)
Blackwing Wolf (Book 2)
Blackwing Beast (Book 3)
Bears Fur Hire
Husband Fur Hire (Book 1)
Bear Fur Hire (Book 2)
Mate Fur Hire (Book 3)
Wolf Fur Hire (Book 4)
Dawson Fur Hire (Book 5)
Chance Fur Hire (Book 6)
Saw Bears
Lumberjack Werebear (Book 1)
Woodcutter Werebear (Book 2)
Timberman Werebear (Book 3)
Sawman Werebear (Book 4)
Axman Werebear (Book 5)
Woodsman Werebear (Book 6)
Lumberman Werebear (Book 7)
Fire Bears
Bear My Soul (Book 1)
Bear the Burn (Book 2)
Bea
r the Heat (Book 3)
Gray Back Bears
Gray Back Bad Bear (Book 1)
Gray Back Alpha Bear (Book 2)
Gray Back Ghost Bear (Book 3)
Gray Back Broken Bear (Book 4)
Lowlander Silverback (Book 5)
Last Immortal Dragon (Book 6)
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About this Author
T.S. Joyce is devoted to bringing hot shifter romances to readers. Hungry alpha males are her calling card, and the wilder the men, the more she'll make them pour their hearts out. She lives in a tiny town, outside of a tiny city, and devotes her life to writing big stories. Foodie, bear whisperer, ninja, thief of tiny bottles of awesome smelling hotel shampoo, nap connoisseur, movie fanatic, and zombie slayer, and most of this bio is true.
Bear Shifters? Check
Smoldering Alpha Hotness? Double Check
Sexy Scenes? Fasten up your girdles, ladies and gents, it’s gonna to be a wild ride.
For more information about T. S. Joyce and her work, visit her website here.