Chapter 9
Everly
Looking around my office in the clinic, I’m satisfied with the choice I made last week. In the weeks since the Kings rode through and cleaned up Kent, my dad and friends back home have all sounded more energized than they have in a long time.
Energized, but I’m sure there are several outsiders who think they’re all suffering from mass amnesia.
None of them seem to remember what happened to Sheriff May, just that it was a pity that he somehow was run over by his SUV just a couple of blocks from where the tree in the main square was being lit for the season.
Not a sole heard a thing, nor discovered his body until the next day.
That the majority of the deputies and Balo all disappeared around the same time is an equal mystery. The only real problem is that the Kings have no idea where Balo is, and honestly, I’m losing some sleep over that myself.
Bull’s father has sworn to hunt him down and with so much of Balo’s money tied up in the land he purchased around Kent, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he surfaces.
Now, I just need to find a place to land, but that’s a problem to face after the holidays.
I had leased the existing clinic with the idea that I would either buy it or move on. Recently I’ve been in a holding pattern with Jessup.
Understandably, his brother encouraged him to head back to Clear Creek after the showdown, to see a doctor that specializes in humans.
At first we video chatted several times a day, then once a day, and yesterday he missed our call altogether. I was going to surprise him with the news that I was wrapping things up out here and had a couple of leads close to him.
Now, now I think I’ll just take some time, maybe work with Dad for a bit before I make a decision.
I’ll keep telling myself that it was just a fling for him, no matter how real it felt to me.
Then my phone rings and my heart lights up all over again.
Rage
I had ridden through storms before, but this one was bordering on an omen. It’s been years since I remember there being so much snow before January, but today’s white-out conditions have me driving a steady thirty miles an hour. With my hazards on.
After talking to Everly last night, I spent the next couple of hours analyzing every word, then the tone of voice she used. It was hours later that I finally realized what it was that bothered me so much about our conversation.
I’m not strong on picking up subtext, but in the early hours of the day, it hit me that there were the words we were exchanging and, almost, a conversation she was having with herself—like she was trying to convince herself that we didn’t have a chance in hell.
Getting dressed, I threw a small bag together, then thought things through a little more. That’s when I went down to Thunder’s room looking for a larger bag.
A quick trip to Wyoming wasn’t going to convince her of what I already knew. That she was mine.
“About damn time,” Thunder grumbles after dragging his ass out of bed.
“You’ll let Bull know?”
“He already knows,” he replies, shaking his head. “Anyone with have a brain knows you don’t let a woman like that go.”
“And we’re good?” That’s as close as I’ve ever come to talking about feelings with my brother.
At this stage of my life, finding out that Damien was my father only affects me in regards to Thunder’s feelings on the subject. It’s a lot to unpack, not just for me but for Thunder and Bull also.
“You’re not any less my brother than you were last week,” he says, keeping his eyes trained on me. “Just a little jealous, because I thought Damien was cool as shit when we were kids.”
“Yeah, I guess I’m a lot like him in that way, huh?” I crack, ducking behind the door as he looks around like he’s trying to find something to throw at me.
“Hey!” he calls out before I can get too far, and I look back at him. “I have better snow tires on my truck, so take that and I’ll get yours upgraded.”
Catching the keys he tosses to me, I smile, simply thanking him before turning to go.
“You check in every day.” I hear that loud and clear through the door.
Looking through the windshield just hoping to see a color other than white or light grey, I look down at the speedometer and consider pushing it harder. Thunder was right, his tires were in better shape than mine, on the other hand, he’d be pretty pissed if I ended up in a ditch out of stupidity.
Besides, this trip is about slowing down enough to convince Everly I was worth taking a chance on. I know that if I lose her, I’ll spend the rest of my life regretting it.
Up until now, I’ve lived my life in high gear.
The moment I saw her, something in me shifted. I didn’t recognize it at first, but even when I was caged, beaten, and freezing my ass off, I couldn’t stop picturing the wink and smile she gave me before she walked out of the bar that night.
Taillights ahead of me have me tapping the brake, happy to have the company and something else to focus on other than what I could possibly say to get her to relocate back to South Dakota.
“Your type might be the ‘girl next door’, but maybe because that’s where the grass always looks greener,” she had said. And she wasn’t wrong.
I’d always been better at fighting than at feeling. As a kid, I was so angry at how the man I thought was my father could barely spare me a glance; lavishing all of his attention on Lincoln.
That anger turned to simmering rage that could ignite at the slightest provocation. I quickly learned how to break a man down, but never why I felt the need to do it or how to share my feelings.
Everly didn’t want the happy-go-lucky, pretend version of me. She wanted all the pieces of myself that I’d spent years hiding away from everyone except my brother.
I need to fix this. Not by clinging. Not by letting my temper talk for me. I need to show her something real.
A few days of me on my best behavior, promising her all of her dreams isn’t going to cut it. Even as I lay healing the past couple of weeks, some part of me knew that my weakness was my greatest strength with Everly.
And that scared the shit out of me, making it harder and harder for me to talk to her.
Thunder always said I was a big softy, no matter how I presented myself. And he’s always been right about that. For all that woman looks at me like I’m the only water in the desert, she’s also a realist and naturally cautious—worried about placing her trust in the wrong person.
And that’s when another thought hits me. How Rob is a huge part of her life; they’re a package deal in a way so I need to treat it that way from now on.
“Call Dindak,” I speak after hitting the voice command button.
“What’s wrong?” Just before the fourth ring, a voice blurry with sleep answers, sounding completely worried.
“Dindak, it’s Rage. Jessup, I mean. Everything’s alright,” I tell him, pausing to give him a second to get his bearings.
“Doesn’t anyone ever sleep anymore?” he grumbles before I hear him drinking something. “Okay, I’m awake. What can I help you with Mr. Nerella?”
“I love Everly and I want to make it work with her. Knowing how close you two are and wanting to do the right thing, I am asking for your blessing,” I explain, the words coming to me easier than I imagined.
“My blessing?” he asks with a chuckle. “This isn’t the sixteen hundreds. You don’t need my blessing to court her.”
“I know. She’s very much her own person. I guess what I want to know is if you have any problems with me being with her and if you do, what can I do to change your mind?”
“If my daughter’s happy, I’m happy,” he answers me. “What’s that noise? Are you on the road? In this mess?”
“Yeah, I wanted to see her and put the time in to convince her how serious I am,” I tell him.
“Good man,” he says. “What time should I expect you?”
I pause at that, not understanding why he wants to see me and wondering if he misunderstood the point of my call. “I’m about halfway to Everly’s.”
Then there’s a beat of silence on his end.
“The two of you,” he sighs but doesn’t leave me hanging. “She got here a few hours ago, thankfully she was ahead of the storm for most of the trip. I’ve already doled out my allotment of relationship advice for the day, so you’ll have to get her to tell you what I said.”
Biting my tongue on a string of curses, I thankfully see a sign for the next exit and slow down even more to prepare to take it.
“It’ll take me a couple of hours to get up that way.”
“I’m going back to sleep, so I’ll leave the side door unlocked. Her room is upstairs, last door on the left.”
“Thank you,” I say, guessing that him giving me directions to his daughter’s bedroom is as much of a blessing as I can ever expect.
*
It’s still snowing when I’m pulling into Dindak’s driveway, so I park near the street, enough so the plow won’t hit me but also leaving plenty of room for them to get their vehicles past me if needed.
I sit there for a moment, clenching and unclenching my fingers before I start to massage the stiffness out of my shoulders.
Taking a deep breath, I stop delaying what I came here to handle and step out of the truck, my leg sinking several inches into the heavy snow. Every step feels like I’m walking toward my final judgment.
Christ! What’s gotten into me? Shaking off my dark thoughts, I double-time my steps to the side door, entering a mudroom.
Concentrating on kicking my boots off first, I sense motion to my right and look up to see Everly watching me intently. She’s framed in the doorway to the kitchen, her hair pulled into a loose knot, holding a mug of coffee out toward me.
“Dad slid a note under my door sometime between when I finally crashed and when I woke up a little while ago,” she says, looking tired, beautiful, and wary.
“What did it say?” I ask, letting the heat from the mug soak into my bones.
“Just in case I woke up with the ‘foolish idea of getting on the highway during a white-out’, he wanted me to know that you were coming here and that I should hear you out.”
“The Kings have a chapter in Wyoming. I can ask to transfer there, or I can move here and commute back and forth to Clear Creek,” I tell her, putting the mug on top of the dryer but holding myself back when all I want to do is pull her into my arms and kiss the hell out of her.
Her breath catches and it was like I felt it more than I heard it, and it made something inside of me crack open.
“I don’t know what you want from me right now,” she admits, her voice trembling as she crosses her arms over her chest.
“It’s not just that you’re the girl-next-door type.
You’re sunshine and fresh air and everything I want more of in my life.
I understand that I can’t just snap my fingers and you’ll agree to be my Ol’ Lady, but I need you to know that I will always show up for you.
Yes, I have a temper and I’m a fighter. I promise that will never be turned on you. ”
“I never thought it would be,” she interrupts me with a soft smile. “Even from that first night, you wanted to protect me. But I’m still scared.”
“Me too,” I say, finally stepping forward and reaching for one of her hands. “Nothing in this world has ever scared me more than the thought of losing you.”
“Come in,” she says, taking a step backward into the kitchen, then she giggles when I pick her up and I wrap her long legs around my hips.
Heading toward the stairs with my original destination in mind, I hesitate for a quick moment. “Um, is your dad a sound sleeper?”
“He is,” she instantly replies.
“Thank God,” I say, continuing up the stairs. “Otherwise, I was going to have to find someplace else for us to go.”
I’m not in top shape right now, but I’m still able to carry her upstairs, where she insists on me putting her down and tiptoeing to her room like we haven’t already made enough noise to wake the dead.
Surprised at the amount of luggage in her room, I start to ask about that but am easily distracted when she pulls her nightshirt off.
Everly crawls onto her unmade bed while I undress and join her. It doesn’t escape my notice that her eyes first go to the scar on my upper arm before checking out my calf.
“I’m better. I promise,” I reassure her.
“Good, you can be on top,” she says, giving me a wink that reminds me of the one she shot me weeks ago.
“Hey, do you think Grease and Griddle will be open today?”
“Work up an appetite first, worry about that later.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Laying beside her, I lean in to gently kiss her first, sliding my hand down from her shoulder to her breast and following it with my tongue. She shivers when I close my lips around her nipple and suckle first one, then the other, my hand continuing down to her warm and waiting pussy.
Like that day in her office, I stroke her clit before sliding my finger further down and inside of her, needing her to be ready for me.
“Jessup?”
“Yeah?”
“You can skip the foreplay this time,” she says, catching my earlobe between her teeth.
“Thank God,” I growl before thrusting my cock inside of her.
As much as I wanted to take my time with her, neither of us could slow down for a hot second.
And no matter how healed I thought I was, I was starting to feel it by our second round, and during our third round, her dad told us to keep it down.