Chapter 65
Chapter Sixty-Five
WEST
We spent the next few days remembering the lines and curves of each other’s bodies while getting to know each other on a level we hadn’t trusted to do before.
Blue didn’t rush back to Fiddlers, and I didn’t flee to my penthouse.
We skipped Sunday dinner, ordered food to be delivered to the lake house, and moved around each other in the easy, careful way of two people rediscovering the habits they wanted to keep.
I could have lived the rest of my life in that cocoon, showing her what she meant to me.
Then Friday night happened: Tuffy sent an SOS text and the little world we’d made dissolved into responsibility.
Marshal and Marcus had the week off because neither of us expected to need to go anywhere.
So when Blue said she had to go help Tuffy, I handed her the keys to my truck and told her to leave her fixed-up Toyota at the house.
She didn’t protest, just kissed me quick, and said she’d be home late.
Home. Damn it sounded good.
I’m sure Blue thought I’d stay home, maybe open my laptop or close my business deal while she worked, but I didn’t want to wait all night to see her again.
I pulled on a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, knowing they made her eyes linger and darken with need.
I always wanted her to look at me that way.
Nothing made me feel more powerful. Not even my pristine suits.
I climbed into her Toyota, turning the engine a few times until it kicked to life.
Then I made my way out of the gated property and onto the old road that led away from the lake.
A big SOLD sign attached to the FOR SALE sign of the house next door made me slow down, and that brief pause was just enough to make the old car sputter and stall.
I laughed when it finally turned over again, and that time, I floored it like the engine was a fuse about to blow, because it felt like there was only so much time before she’d sputter again.
Once at Fiddlers, I opted for parking like a regular patron, and went in the newly fixed glass front door.
Inside was louder than I expected. Word had already spread about the Murphy brothers’ debacle and the locals treated the reopened doors like an event.
A cover band played on the small stage, people were dancing, and the room smelled of fried onions and beer.
There was a Friday night electricity in the air, with the kind of happiness you only get at a place you love.
Blue was behind the bar and I watched her work, with her hair loose and smile full and bright.
As if she sensed me, she looked up, and somehow her smile grew bigger and brighter when she saw me.
Then her eyes scanned my attire and the smile fell, just long enough to let me know her thoughts had shifted to the want and need that only I could give her.
Pretending to be a Fiddlers’ regular, I found a spot at the bar and squeezed onto a stool between two separate groups that were distracted by their own good times.
I was acting like the kind of man who could stroll into a bar, order a drink, and take the pretty woman behind the bar home for a good time.
I leaned on the bar like I was just another customer and she played along, sliding a clean pint glass in front of me and cocking her head.
“What can I get you, stranger?” she asked.
“A dance,” I said, and watched the small question flit across her face.
“Is that a fancy pink drink? Should I add an upside down umbrella to make it look like a tutu?”
“You know exactly what I’m asking for,” I growled playfully, making her feign exasperation.
“I’m kind of busy and my boss is an ogre.”
She was referring to me, because she had yet to accept the contracts and deeds that were already drawn up in her name.
But I let it go for now, because we were in the middle of creating new promises to one another.
Ones that didn’t require paperwork and signatures.
She didn’t want to take anything from me, just like I didn’t want to take anything from her.
Turning around, I mouthed something to the band. The singer nodded and the tempo softened into something slow and tender. Blue hesitated, then smiled as I tilted my head with an unspoked insistence that she join me for that dance.
She wiped her hands and discarded her apron, before meeting me at the front of the bar. When I took her hand and led her into the center of the room, the rest of the bar blurred. Couples swayed, neon signs buzzed, but all of it was background noise to the rhythm of her breath against my chest.
We moved like we belonged together. My forehead found hers. I pressed my lips to hers between lines of the song. When the song ended, I didn’t step back. I held her there, and the words I had repeated to her all week came out of me like they’d been waiting for breath.
“I love you so much, Blue.”
She smiled, small and honest. “I love you too.”
“I know you’ve got to work tomorrow night,” I said, tucking a loose curl behind her ear. “But Sunday, maybe we should go back to Sunday dinner. Then you come with me to Atlanta. You stay until Tuesday.”
“Back to the same routine, huh?”
“It worked for us, didn’t it?”
“True.” She leaned into me, warm and familiar. “But I want something else.”
“More deals?” I teased, though I knew deals were just compromises, and love between two people demanded compromise.
She nodded slowly, and then, after a beat, offered, “Sunday dinner at your family’s. But how about Sunday lunch with my dad? He wants to know you better.”
“I’ll be there.” The thought of sitting across a table from her father felt like another small brick in the house I wanted to build with her.
She laughed and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Wanna tend some bar tonight?”
Not really, but I’d do anything to stay close to her, so I shrugged and nodded while adding, “Let’s bring Mandy on full-time.”
“I already suggested that to her and she’s happy for the job, but she’s not here tonight.”
“Then let’s get to work,” I nudged her.
When we walked behind the bar, Tuffy gave us a satisfied smirk. “I was afraid to ask,” she said, nodding to Blue’s hand. “I saw the ring missing and—” she pointed and stalled before sighing in relief. “It’s just good to see you two being happy newlyweds.”
Blue looked at me, eyes searching. She seemed uneasy, and I knew she didn’t want anyone to know we had been deceptive. At the same time, she wanted us to be real and more forward, just as much as I did.
I wanted everyone to know that I was falling more and more in love with Blue every day. I wanted to shout it from rooftops. Maybe hire a plane with a banner to fly over town. I wanted everyone in Harmony Haven to know the blue-eyed girl who charmed the whole town from behind the bar was mine.
“We decided to take a step back and do things the old-fashioned way,” I shrugged with vagueness and truth. “There is a lot more to come for us, and we wanted to share that with everyone that loves us.”
Blue nodded, satisfied, with that answer, then leaned into me, pressing her lips to mine. The noise of the bar disappeared once again. It was only her. The taste of her smile, the promise in her eyes, and the undeniable truth that Harmony Haven home once again.
For the first time in years, I wasn’t chasing power or burying myself in guilt.
I was chasing a future worth more than both of those combined.
Harmony Haven wasn’t a cage I had to escape, it was the place that gave me back my heart, and the girl who made me believe in something bigger than redemption.
And with Blue’s hand in mine, I knew everything ahead of us wasn’t an ending at all, but the start of a life we were finally brave enough to claim.