5. Finn
Finn
“I don’t care what anyone says. I’ll take cleaning crap out of stalls over wrestling that donkey every time,” Bryon said as he pushed a wheelbarrow toward the far row of stalls.
“We definitely got the better job,” Joey agreed. “Plus, we get to watch Sheriff Davis shovel cow shit.”
“Language, boys,” I warned. “We don’t disrespect Miss Grier with those words.”
It wasn’t just about how protective Grier’s uncle was of her, as well as her sister and her best friend.
Grier censored herself and disliked anyone using profanity on the farm.
Children of every age volunteered here, and she wanted to be a good role model for them.
Whether she realized it or not, she was exactly what most of those kids needed.
She was what the whole town needed, in more ways than one. Even my grandmother, Raven, adored her. With Grier, she used that soft tone she only reserved for a handful of people. Affection and love mixed in with respect.
“Yes, sir,” Bryon responded instantly. “Besides, Joey, if Luca Thornton happens to hear you say things like that around Miss Grier, you’re cooked.
I saw some dude pass out right into a pile of fresh cow poop.
He said a mouthful of filth right in front of Miss Grier, which caused Luca to growl.
It was a vicious sound too, more like a bear than a human.
The guy took one look at Luca’s face, and I swear his soul left his body.
One minute, he was laughing and saying crude things.
The next, he was facedown in the cow pie. It was hilarious.”
“What happened to the guy?” Joey asked, his gaze flitting around the barn like he was making sure Luca wasn’t there.
Bryon shrugged. “Dunno. Never saw him again. He wasn’t a local.”
Joey gulped. “I didn’t mean no offense.”
“Don’t stay stuff like that, and you won’t have to worry. Miss Grier is a nice lady. She doesn’t deserve that kind of disrespect around her or her babies.” Bryon handed his friend a pitchfork. “I’m taking this stall.”
For more hours than I wanted to count, I cleaned stall after stall. Lifting hay covered in animal excrement and putting down fresh straw, working around animals that didn’t want me in their space and some who didn’t want me to leave.
Sweat soaked through my shirt by the time I was done. And my reward, a cold bottle of water and the biggest smile I’d ever seen on Grier’s face.
“Good work, boys,” she said as she held up a plate with cookies on it. “These are from my mom. She stopped by with my aunt Vi earlier.” She lowered her voice. “Don’t tell anyone, but they were a bribe. My mom is always extorting favors out of me with baked goods.”
“What kind of favor?” Joey asked before shoving an entire cookie into his mouth and groaning. “Whatever it was, do it, Miss Grier. Wait, can I do the favor for her instead? I’d work for these cookies every day.”
“Right? Those dang cookies are that good. Moms!” she said with a sigh, taking a bite of one before shoving the rest into my face. “Eat this before I make more carb mistakes today. I already had two. And now she wants me to help with a thing at WomanLand.”
I chewed the cookie, watching the frustration play over her face. “What kind of thing?”
“Just a thing,” she said evasively, setting the plate on top of the post beside me. “I have to go. Like now. Ugh! She’s already rushing me. Bye, boys. Thanks again for the help, Bryon and Joey.”
“Sure thing, Miss Grier,” Bryon called after her.
She was in a rush, practically sprinting out of the barn. Without stopping to kiss me. Unacceptable.
“Grier,” I growled, chasing after her, and I finally caught her right outside the entrance.
Grabbing her around the waist from behind, I swung her to face me and kissed her slow and deep.
When I lifted my head, her eyes were unfocused, her cheeks full of a bright flush that I knew spread along her entire body when she was turned on for me.
“You do not leave without kissing me, woman.”
“I’m sorry!” she said with a pout. “My mother is frustrating me, and I just want to get this over with. I’ll be back in two hours, give or take. Definitely sooner if I can help it.”
Agitation poured off her, her brows pulled together beneath her baseball cap, turning that beauty into an adorable scowl.
“Are you going to tell me what she wants you to do for her?”
Her eyes darted away, and I felt my ire rising. “Babe, the worst she can do is ask you to hide a body. I don’t see Shaw requiring that kind of service.”
Her mom, no. Mine…the chances weren’t zero.
“She’s at WomanLand. They’re doing a photo shoot for some of the new line that’s going on their website.
You know she has an exclusive contract with Mila and River for some of her personal creations.
One of the models canceled at the last minute.
It’s fine. I do it all the time. See you tonight.
” She gasped and stopped mid-step. “You are staying, right? I mean… Sorry, I didn’t even ask if you had plans. ”
Her mouth shut with an audible snap, and she inhaled loudly through her nose. “No. You know what, I totally meant that. Will you stay tonight? I-I really missed you last night, and I hated waking up without you this morning.”
Over the past few weeks, we’d tiptoed around the important conversation—what is this?
For years, I’d stopped myself from looking twice at Grier Armstrong.
She’d been a kid when her family had moved to the area full time; I’d already been at the police academy.
Up till then, she’d visited on holidays and special occasions, and her energy had just drawn me in.
But she’d been hanging out with my cousins, Ian and Isaac, which was the kind of disaster I didn’t want to deal with.
Grier didn’t live her life like she was waiting for anyone. She lived it for herself—and not in the kind of selfish way some people did. She was unapologetically open, wild, refreshing. I’d seen her on my periphery, just out of focus. There, but in the background.
Because she was a kid, growing up, finding her way, discovering herself.
It wasn’t until Waffles started causing mayhem that I allowed myself to truly see Grier. And suddenly, she was front and center, and I couldn’t look away. Not from the beautiful woman who enthralled me.
That energy between us had turned into a chemistry I didn’t know what to do with right away. In all honesty, it scared the hell out of me. No one had ever made me feel so…much.
As if I wasn’t even living until I looked at her the way I was supposed to.
Then one night, after I brought Waffles home from yet another day of harmless mischief, she’d already had a cup of coffee waiting for me. Exactly the way I liked it, and I realized we’d started to become friends. Coffee had turned into a kiss, and that kiss had knocked me on my ass.
I couldn’t deny it after that.
Grier was mine.
“I’m staying,” I confirmed, bending to take another kiss. “I brought a whole duffel full of clothes with me too. Sorry, beautiful. You’re stuck with me now.”
“Oh, I like that,” she hummed, licking her lips.
Her eyes were focused on my mouth, but before she could kiss me, her phone rang.
She stomped her foot as she lifted it to her ear, already turning toward her UTV that was parked in the driveway.
Alongside it were a big truck, a Jeep, and a sports car that went hella fast, all of them hers, gifts from her parents and grandparents.
Yet she always preferred the UTV. “I said I was coming. Give me a fudging minute. Good grief!”
When she turned on the UTV, Waffles came running. She paused long enough to let him jump into the passenger seat, and then she was blowing me a kiss and shifting into reverse.
“Where’s she going in such a hurry? I just got here.”
Turning, I found Grier’s dad walking toward me, coming from the direction of her house. He was dressed in dark jeans and a faded pink T-shirt that one of his daughters must have given him because it read: Awesome Like My Daughter.
That seemed like a very Grier thing to do, especially given that it was pink. What little I knew about Fallon, I could say for certain she was not the pink type.
Having known him for years before he’d set down permanent roots in Trinity County, I had taken him in slowly.
He was a good man, treated his wife like a treasure, adored his daughters in a way that stuck with a person.
There was no denying that Grier and her sister were spoiled, but they weren’t snobs.
Or entitled brats. This man gave his kids everything he could, including empathy, a conscience, and the ability to respect others, while still being unapologetic about who they were as individuals.
That wasn’t an easy feat. I knew because I’d seen the results of similar parenting with polar opposite effect.
I glanced back to where the UTV’s taillights were fading, already missing Grier. “Something about a favor for her mom. There was a cookie bribe.”
Jagger Armstrong snorted out a laugh. “Figures. It’s always the cookies.
To be fair, my wife makes the best cookies.
It’s a recipe she got from my dad.” He tipped his chin in the direction of my truck, not the cruiser I drove for work.
“I’m surprised to see you here out of uniform, Sheriff.
Usually, you show up with lights flashing so bright I can see you from my house. Eight miles away.”
“Weird, you don’t look all that surprised,” I commented dryly, turning my cap around to shield my eyes from the afternoon sun.
“Yeah, well, the world is undeserving of me being both a rock god and an actor. They only get one, and I decided rock god was it.” He cocked a brow, and I could see a hint of Grier’s features in his face. “Do you need help moving in?”
“I’m not moving in,” I corrected. Yet. For now, I was just leaving clothes here. I wasn’t sure if Grier was ready for me to tell her I was selling my house, or that I’d already switched my address on my bank accounts. And my driver’s license.
Baby steps.
He smirked, slapping his hand on my shoulder and squeezing hard.
Once. Twice. “That’s what I said to Shaw when I started moving her stuff into my apartment way back when.
Called it an indefinite sleepover. Labels don’t matter.
Until they do. And guess what, my dude? Today, they do.
” His blue eyes sharpened. “To me, specifically. Grier might not need clarification on what this is, but I sure as hell do.”
Fuck.
At that moment, it didn’t matter that I was the sheriff and served an entire county.
It didn’t matter that I was a legacy in the community or that my family could and definitely would bury a person who harmed one of their own.
And it did not fucking matter that I had been the one helping four bikers and a certifiable psychopath dismember a body and feed it to a pack of pigs the night before.
Sometimes serve and protect meant ensuring justice got handled in the dark, not by the book.
Right then and there, I was a simple man standing in front of a father whose only goal in life was to keep his girls happy and safe.
And that made him the bigger, more dangerous bear.
“Sir—”
“None of that bullshit, Sheriff. You just tell me straight up if you’re gonna make my little girl continue to smile like I’ve been seeing her smile the last few weeks. Or if you’re gonna make her cry like she almost did yesterday.”
He stepped closer, his hand squeezing even harder, that almost echoing between us. Almost didn’t count, unless it was Grier almost crying. Because of me, even if I’d never willingly cause her tears.
I suddenly heard an unholy roar inside my head. My woman would not ever shed a tear that I put in her eyes, because I was never going to give her a reason to.
“Be real careful how you answer that, son. I may only be a rock star, but I have no problem burying a body when it comes to one of my girls.”