Prologue #2
“Keep an eye on her. Be there for her when I can’t.
If she needs anything, make sure she gets it because I know there will come a day when I take her away from everything she knows.
I’ve seen my future in her eyes, and it’s beautiful.
Don’t know what I did in this life to deserve her, but she’s mine and no one is taking her from me. ”
Josie didn’t immediately answer.
Maybe there wasn’t anything left to say.
I knew how insane I sounded. An hour ago, I would’ve laughed at any other man making the same declaration about a woman he’d just met.
Now the dark window reflected a man I barely recognized.
The curse had finally come for me.
And apparently, it had silver eyes.
Rosewood High School, Rosewood, Virginia, The next morning...
I pulled into the Rosewood High School parking lot just as the first bell rang. Students hurried toward the red brick building in groups, backpacks bouncing and phones still in their hands until they reached the doors.
I should’ve been back at the resort.
Better yet, I should’ve been enjoying breakfast somewhere before the wedding festivities swallowed another day.
Instead, I’d spent half the night thinking about Joseph Higgins.
Mostly his face.
I didn’t know what the little bastard looked like yet, but I had plenty of imagination.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Fiona on that couch again. She hadn’t been furious; though, anger would’ve been easier. She’d simply looked hurt and confused, still trying to understand why someone she considered a friend would deliberately humiliate her.
That bothered me.
I parked the bike, removed my helmet, and looked toward the school.
Going inside to terrorize a teenage boy was not among the wiser decisions I’d made in my life.
Still going.
The La Croix curse might’ve decided Fiona belonged somewhere in my future, but she had no idea that had happened. At seventeen, she damn well shouldn’t. Whatever came later could wait.
Joseph Higgins, however, had already made her cry.
That required a conversation.
I walked inside and immediately regretted how much schools apparently smelled the same everywhere. Floor cleaner, old books, teenage body spray, and whatever questionable breakfast the cafeteria had served.
A girl with purple streaks in her hair stood at a locker near the entrance. She glanced up as I approached, her eyes moving over my cut before settling on my face.
“Excuse me, darlin’. You know Joseph Higgins?”
Her eyebrows rose. “Why?”
Smart girl.
“I’m a friend of a friend. Need to speak to him.”
She looked me over again, clearly deciding whether helping me was going to create a problem she didn’t want.
“He’s usually in the senior hallway before first period.”
“Which way?”
She pointed down the corridor. “Right at the end.”
“Much obliged.”
I gave her a smile and headed that way.
Joseph wasn’t difficult to find. A group of boys stood near the lockers, laughing over something on one of their phones, and the name Higgins carried clearly enough when one of them called to him.
Tall kid. Athletic. Clean-cut. Probably handsome enough by high school standards to have gotten comfortable with girls wanting his attention.
He noticed me approaching and slowly lowered the phone in his hand.
“Joseph Higgins?”
“Yeah?”
“Need a word with you.”
His friends immediately went quiet.
Joseph glanced at them before looking back at me. “About what?”
“Fiona Mitchell-Steiner.”
The change in his face was subtle.
It was enough.
“Somewhere private,” I added.
One of his friends frowned. “Who are you?”
“Nobody you need to worry about.”
The kid apparently believed me, because he didn’t ask again.
Joseph followed me a short distance down the hall to an alcove near a stairwell. Not completely private, but far enough from his friends that I didn’t have to embarrass him in front of half the senior class.
I wasn’t here to humiliate him.
Fiona already knew what that felt like.
Joseph folded his arms, trying for confidence. “What do you want?”
“I want to know why you asked Fiona to the dance if you planned to take someone else.”
His gaze dropped for half a second.
“I changed my mind.”
“Then you should’ve told her.”
He shifted his weight. “Look, I don’t know who you are, but it’s none of your business.”
I smiled.
“See, that’s where we disagree.”
His attention flicked toward my cut again.
Good. He could read.
“You asked her to go with you. She showed up expecting you to keep your word, and you walked past her with another girl.”
“I didn’t know she was sitting there.”
“She waved at you.”
That ended whatever excuse he’d been preparing.
I stepped closer.
“You want to take another girl to a dance, take another girl. You want to change your mind, change it. But you call Fiona first and tell her the truth. You don’t leave her sitting in a fucking parking lot wondering what she did wrong.”
His jaw tightened. “She told you?”
“Enough.”
“Who are you to her?”
That question was considerably more complicated than he knew.
“Someone who doesn’t like seeing her hurt.”
“She’s just—”
I caught the front of his shirt before he finished whatever stupid sentence had been about to leave his mouth and backed him against the lockers.
The metal rattled.
His eyes widened.
“Choose your next words carefully, son.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“Good choice.”
I released his shirt but didn’t step away.
“You’re going to stay away from her.”
His fear shifted toward annoyance. Teenage pride making a last stand.
“You can’t tell me who I can talk to.”
“No. But I can explain what happens if you decide hurting her twice sounds like a good idea.”
His eyes went to my cut again.
I leaned closer and lowered my voice so only he could hear me.
“If Fiona wants to speak to you, that’s her decision. You don’t bother her. You don’t ask her out again. You don’t make some bullshit apology because you think it earns you another chance. You leave her alone unless she decides otherwise.”
Joseph swallowed.
“And you don’t tell her I was here.”
“Why?”
“Because she told me not to beat you up.”
His eyes widened.
I smiled.
“I’m trying very hard to respect her wishes.”
That seemed to get his attention better than anything else I’d said.
“I won’t bother her.”
“Good.”
“What about my friends?”
“Tell them whatever you want except my name. Tell them Fiona has people who care about her. Tell them treating her like shit is a bad idea. I don’t particularly care how you phrase it.”
He nodded.
I stepped back and smoothed the front of his shirt where I’d wrinkled it.
“There. Almost respectable again.”
Joseph stared at me.
“One more thing.”
His shoulders stiffened.
“If you ever make her cry like that again, I won’t stop at a conversation.”
This time, he believed me without needing details.
“Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Good man.”
I turned toward the exit.
“Wait.”
I looked back.
Joseph glanced toward the floor before meeting my eyes again. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”
For the first time since I found him, he sounded less like a kid caught doing something shitty and more like one who actually understood that he had.
“Then learn from it.”
He nodded.
I left him there and headed back outside.
The cold December air felt considerably better than the overheated hallway. I pulled on my helmet and climbed onto the bike, taking a moment before starting the engine.
That should’ve been enough.
Fiona didn’t need me policing every boy who looked in her direction. She sure as hell didn’t need to know a thirty-one-year-old biker had walked into her school the morning after meeting her and scared the piss out of her almost-date.
Josie would call me insane.
She’d be right.
I started the engine.
The certainty from last night hadn’t gone anywhere.
That was the problem.
I had spent my entire life hearing stories about La Croix men and women who recognized forever before they had any logical reason to. I’d laughed at every one of them.
Then Fiona walked into my life.
Now I understood why logic had never mattered much in those stories.
I knew what I wanted.
She was seventeen and had no fucking idea what I’d decided, which meant what I wanted could wait.
For the first time in thirty-one years, I was going to have to learn how.
I pulled out of the school parking lot and headed toward the resort.
Behind me, Joseph Higgins was probably reconsidering every decision he’d made in the last twenty-four hours.
Good.
As for Fiona, she didn’t need to reconsider anything.
She had school, graduation, college, and an entire life in front of her. She deserved the chance to discover who she was without some older man stepping in and deciding it for her.
I could give her that.
At least, I thought I could.
The road curved through the mountains, and I opened the throttle.
The La Croix curse had made its choice.
Fiona had no idea.
For now, that was probably for the best.