Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Wolfe
I spent the majority of my Saturday working. With Amy at home doing girl shit with Reagan and Rhys being standoffish, I figured some time alone would do me some good, too. Seemed to be what everyone else was aiming for, so why the hell not?
Didn’t matter that it was my fucking birthday.
The day had gone by fast and I'd finally managed to get some shit accomplished. Amazing how a little time without interruptions could get things back on the right path. And now, the only thing I wanted to do was head home, grab a shower, then maybe head over to Reagan’s for a beer with my cousin and hopefully my old man.
After cleaning and locking up, I headed home, calling Calvin on my way.
“’Yello.”
“Hey, old man. You up for a beer in a bit?” I asked.
“Uh. Shit. What time?”
“Coupla hours, maybe? I’m headin’ home to clean up. Then I thought I’d head over.”
“Okay. I’ve got some shit to do, but I’ll try to make it by there.”
“See you if I see you.” I disconnected and then dialed Lynx’s number.
“Wassup, hoss?”
“You wanna meet for a beer at Reagan’s?”
“Yup. What time?”
“Give me an hour or so to shower and I’ll see you there.”
“Make it around seven and I’ll see you there.”
“Perfect.”
At least someone had some time for me today.
Not to sound like a broken record or anything, but it was my fucking birthday.
Two hours later, I was climbing out of my truck in front of Reagan’s. The damn parking lot looked like a ghost town. The only vehicle there was Reagan’s. I knew Amy was working tonight, but figured she’d caught a ride with Reagan since she’d been doing so frequently lately.
As I stepped up to the door, I briefly wondered if someone was playing a trick on me. Sure, it was a little early, but seven o’clock wasn’t too early for a beer in this small town.
Opening the door, I noticed Reagan standing behind the bar and Amy leaning against it. Both women’s eyes cut to me when I made my way inside.
“We were startin’ to wonder if no one was gonna show up tonight,” Reagan noted, sounding somewhat relieved that they had a customer.
“Where’s everybody at?” I asked.
“Thought maybe you could tell us,” Reagan replied.
I glanced over at Amy. I noticed she was trying really hard not to smile.
“Okay, what’s goin’ on?” No fucking way was this bar completely empty on a Saturday night.
Amy giggled but tried to mask it. She was too late.
I moved toward her. She backed up, still grinning from ear to ear.
“What’d you do?” I asked her directly.
“Me? What makes you think I did something?”
“You’re blushin’, darlin’. I know you’re up to somethin’.”
I crowded her between my body and the wall. Planting one hand over her head, I leaned down and cupped her jaw. When I went to kiss her, Amy giggled again but was quickly silenced when I slipped my tongue past her lips.
A soft moan escaped her and I realized what I wanted for my birthday.
Her.
And Rhys.
Naked.
Before I could tell her as much, the door opened behind me. I slowly broke the kiss, then turned just in time to see…
“Happy fuckin’ birthday, hoss!” Lynx shouted.
Holy fuck.
People started filing into the room one by one, all following Lynx, who was carrying one hell of a cake.
“You seriously didn’t think we’d forget, did you?” Lynx asked. “I mean, you’re thirty and all. Not an important birthday or nothin’.”
I couldn’t help but smile. I put my arm around Amy and pulled her to my side. When I looked down at her, I noticed she was still smiling.
“Did you have somethin’ to do with this?”
“Maybe. I noticed the date on the calendar in the break room, so I asked Lynx about it.”
“You got a keeper there.”
I looked up to see my father moving toward me, a huge grin plastered on his face.
“Yeah?”
“That girl worked her butt off to get all these people to keep a secret.”
“Not an easy thing to do in a town this small,” Reagan added.
“Definitely not,” Rhys said when he joined us.
“A free round of beers helps when tryin’ to bribe people though,” Lynx added.
I glanced around at all the people. Friends I didn’t see that often, my father, my cousin, Rhys, Amy. Shit. Everyone who meant anything to me was here.
Hell, I hadn’t had a birthday celebration like this one since I turned twenty-one.
Peering down at Amy, I tilted her chin up, then leaned closer. “Remind me to thank you properly later on.”
“Okay. I’ll remind you.”
I just bet she would.
Amy
It really was hard to keep secrets in a small town. I had learned that firsthand over the past week.
The day I realized Wolfe’s birthday was coming up, I had recruited Calvin, Lynx, Rhys, and Reagan to help me surprise him. I hadn’t thought it would work, but I'd figured we could give it a shot anyway.
Turned out better than I thought it would, actually. Seeing Wolfe walk into Reagan’s, completely confused over why there was no one there, had proven to me that people were willing to go the distance for someone they cared about. The people in this town were top-notch in my book.
And now, everyone was drinking beer, laughing, joking, and telling stories about Wolfe. I was technically working, but Wolfe continued to pull me into his lap, refusing to let me go, so I wasn’t getting much done.
“For his tenth birthday, he wanted a shotgun of his own,” Calvin said from his perch on a barstool.
“His momma wasn’t on board with the plan.
But I knew how much it meant to him, so I took him out on the range and worked with him.
Turned out, Wolfe taught his momma a few things about guns that day. ”
Wolfe smiled, his eyes warm. I liked the way he interacted with his father; the love and admiration between the two were apparent. Not to mention the respect. And they both obviously missed Wolfe’s mother.
It made me miss my family. My parents had been taken from me so suddenly.
There was still a void deep inside me, one that would forever be empty.
Then my aunt and uncle… The thought of how they’d suffered.
Why they’d suffered. The ache in my chest had never gone completely away, and times like this, it intensified. I felt short of breath because of it.
“What’s wrong?”
I jerked my attention to Wolfe. It took me a minute to shake off the thoughts. “Nothing. Why?”
Wolfe frowned, clearly not believing me.
Feeling too many eyes on me, I dislodged myself from Wolfe’s grasp. “I need to take care of some customers,” I murmured, then headed for the bar.
I took a deep breath, tried to compose myself. This was a party. I was supposed to be having a good time, not getting trapped in the past.
“The surprise party turned out great,” Reagan said. “You did good.”
The unexpected praise helped to ease some of the longing that had consumed me. “Thanks. I couldn’t’ve done it without your help.”
“Pfft. Whatever. It was all you.”
I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t all me. Not by a long shot. Sure, it might’ve been my idea initially, but I suspected someone would’ve come up with it if I hadn’t. Wolfe was popular in this tight-knit community. They would’ve pitched in to celebrate his thirtieth birthday without me.
The thought didn’t sit well, though.
I hadn’t realized how much I'd come to love this small town, the people, the interaction. It was so much more than I'd ever had. I almost felt like family, and I didn’t want to think about how it would be if I weren’t here.
A warm hand curled around my hip and I turned to see Rhys standing behind me. “You okay?”
I nodded, wishing I could lean in and kiss him.
Wolfe was all about public displays of affection when it came to me, but Rhys and I had to remain distant.
He had never out-and-out said anything, but I had gotten the sense when we were in public.
He always seemed to keep a safe distance between us. With us but not with us.
I briefly wondered if it would always be like that. Should this thing between us become permanent, how would that work out?
Geez. I needed to get my head back in the game here. Why I was thinking about things that didn’t matter, I wasn’t sure. This thing they had going was great. It was simple and easy and…
It wasn’t either of those things, I realized.
Not simple.
Certainly not easy.
However, now was not the time to be dwelling on shit like that. I had more important things to do.
Like celebrate Wolfe’s thirtieth birthday and enjoy myself. There’d be time to get lost in my own head later.
Much, much later.
Rhys
When Wolfe asked me to check on Amy, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
I'd been sitting at a table on the far side of the room when Wolfe came over.
The first time since I'd arrived, in fact. Although I hadn’t known what the man would say, I admitted I'd been a little disappointed when he had mentioned she was acting funny.
I had figured Wolfe was being overly dramatic, but now that I was looking at her, I could tell something was bothering her.
“I’m good,” she said, although her eyes seemed far away.
“Sure?”
“Positive.” She paused for a moment, studying my face. “Well, that’s mostly true.”
I frowned, hoping she would elaborate.
When she leaned in, her mouth close to my ear, I tried to ignore the chill that raced down my spine. The woman turned me on simply by breathing.
“I’d be better if I could kiss you right now.”
I jerked back, my eyes locking with hers.
The sexy smile on her face had me tempted to give her exactly what she wanted.
Except half the town was in that bar right now, and the last thing I needed was for people to start talking about the three of us.
In all the time I'd held out for a permanent relationship with a man and a woman, I hadn’t thought about the logistics.
How it would play out in public. I still wasn’t sure what to do about it.
And I'd admit, I'd been giving it some serious thought these past few days, but I hadn’t come to a conclusion.
“How ’bout a rain check?” I offered. “When we leave here, I’ll be sure to cash it in.”
Amy smiled but it didn’t quite meet her eyes.
Did she want this thing to go public?
Was that even possible? Being the sheriff was an important role. One I hadn’t really considered until the people of my county voted me in. That meant something. If I came out in a ménage relationship, how would they take it?
Shit.
That wasn’t something I even needed to be thinking about right now. For one, this thing between Wolfe and me and Amy was new. It wasn’t serious. We were having a good time. A damn good time, actually. And based on that gleam in Amy’s eyes, we would be having more fun tonight.
“Rain check it is,” she said before turning away to deliver a beer.
I peered down the bar to where Wolfe was perched on a barstool beside his old man. Beside them were Lynx and a couple of buddies Wolfe had gone to school with. They were laughing at something Calvin said. Wolfe was smiling when he looked up, his eyes meeting mine.
It wasn’t that I felt like an outsider when it came to the Caines.
Not usually anyway. However, tonight I did feel a little separated.
With the feud between our families a real thing, it wasn’t like I could sidle up to them and join in the conversation.
Not to mention, I was the law, and those boys had never been much into interacting with me in a social setting.
Even if I wasn’t on duty tonight.
And I didn’t even want to think about what would happen when the town figured out we were bisexual. God only knew how people would react to that. Ours was a conservative town. Marriage was a sacred thing. Between a man and a woman. And once vows were spoken, only death could come between them.
Hell, Lynx’s divorce had caused a slight stir, and that had been nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Fuck.
I took a sip of my beer and tore my gaze from Wolfe’s, choosing to watch Amy as she maneuvered around the room. Funny how I'd been a huge part of making this party happen, yet I felt as though I shouldn’t even be here. And Wolfe damn sure wasn’t trying to make it easier on me, either.
Sure, I had put some distance between us these past few days, but that was because I felt like things were moving too fast. That didn’t mean I wanted it to come to a screeching halt.
Amy moved back to the group, leaning into Wolfe as the Caines continued to laugh and joke.
When another round of laughter erupted from the group, I decided it was time to go.
I damn sure didn’t need to be the third wheel here tonight.
And I'd rather sit at home by myself than stand on the opposite side of the room and watch the two people I cared most about enjoying themselves while I was forced to keep my distance.
“Where you headed, Sheriff?” Reagan called out when I dropped a twenty on the bar and headed toward the door.
Raising one hand over my head in a half-ass wave, I didn’t look back.
“Hey!” Wolfe’s deep baritone rang out behind me, but I continued out the door and into the warm evening air.
I had something important to take care of in the morning anyway. Might as well call it an early night.