TWO
Lisa
Even today, long after she’d settled back into the area, she still appreciated the smell of the crisp air. There was nothing like the fresh scent of home to calm her nervous system.
She was especially happy she’d come home; otherwise, she never would have met her closest friend.
No one expected to make a new best friend after the age of sixteen, and not at forty, like she had met Nina one random day only weeks after arriving back in Laketon.
No one told you that once you became an adult, making friends was like trying to find a seat on the moon.
She had tons of work colleagues, but nobody she could call late at night or dish about sex with.
It made Lisa smile to see her friend looking stunning in a fitted, modern wedding gown with her blonde hair wavy and flowing down her back. Nina looked fit to burst with happiness as Lisa handed her a flute of champagne.
“Christmas morning and wedding days are the two appropriate times for day drinking,” Lisa told her, and Nina laughed, joined by the five other women standing around her in a semicircle.
She was familiar with the other wives of the Diablo bikers and enjoyed their liveliness.
Hanging out with Nina meant they took Lisa in, even though she knew the biker wives usually stuck to themselves and didn’t invite outsiders, so she’d always felt privileged to be included in their girl-get-togethers.
“Or a Saturday if your old man treads motor oil through the hallway on your brand-new marble floor,” Casey announced, and the group of ladies gasped.
“He did not?” asked Kelly.
“Yup. Last week. Denver thought it was no big deal.” This brought on a round of tutting and discussing how men had no idea about anything.
It had been so long since Lisa’s short-lived marriage ended that she felt out of the loop and couldn’t relate to what long-term couples discussed.
She guessed ruining $10,000 worth of marble floors was pretty high on the list.
All fifty people in the garden tent looked super fancy.
Lisa wore a flirty pastel blue halter dress, high in the front and longer in the back.
Of all body parts, she was especially proud of her legs.
She hit the gym three times a week to stay fit, and just two days ago, she got a spray tan for the event.
Even though it was early October, the sun was surprisingly nice that day.
“Right, lady.” Announced Monroe, another biker wife, but mostly, Monroe was a kick-ass woman.
She swept the glass out of Nina’s hand before she could finish the champagne and handed it off to one of the catering staff.
The tent was elegant in neutral colors, with flowers and tall candles on every table.
Nothing you’d expect from a biker wedding.
Soft music piped in from discreet speakers, and every table had a linen cloth and bows on the chairs.
Lisa’s wedding had been nothing like this, with the arrangements left to her mother-in-law and the wedding co-ordinator.
She hadn’t known a soul other than her husband and in-laws.
“It’s time to say those vows again. Are you ready for round two?”
Nina smiled and then looked to the left.
It wasn’t rocket science to guess it was her husband approaching when Nina all but swooned on the spot and held out her hand for Tomb to grasp, and the big mammoth man in all black pulled his tinier wife into his chest. Their heads were bent, and his voice, although deep and rumbling, was too low to hear what words they were sharing, but they obviously made Nina deliriously happy when she beamed.
Lisa loved seeing her friend so happy.
She returned to town right after Nina’s near-divorce. She didn’t see Tomb’s attempts to fix their marriage, but she heard all the gossip from the girls, and it made her fan herself with romantic swoons.
To be loved with single-minded determination was the stuff of myths.
But obviously not, because she was looking at it between Nina and Tomb.
For the next hour, she was among the select guests who watched the happy couple reaffirm their marriage vows, committing themselves to each other.
Lisa swallowed back tears and clapped with everyone else.
The crowd went wilder when Tomb dipped Nina to kiss her in a way that should have been reserved for their bedroom.
But Lisa wasn’t actually watching her friend’s huge husband; another tall guy had caught her eye for a while.
He didn’t look familiar.
But he also did, which was weird.
That explained why her eyes kept glancing at him intermittently throughout the day.
He was dressed in a black suit, black shirt, and tie, matching the groom.
And though he was skyscraper-tall like the groom, that’s where the similarities ended.
He sported a clipped beard and quaffed dark brown hair, styled short around his skull as they’d wear from the 1950s.
Every finger held a silver ring, his thumbs included, and Lisa saw hints of tattoos around the cuffs of his shirt.
The stranger was currently laughing and smacking Tomb on the back in that bro-hug way men did. Around the happy couple, more bikers went up to offer their congratulations.
“Are there any five-foot-six bikers in the MC?” Lisa half-chuckled, leaning to the side to ask Monroe, “Or does the top of their heads have to brush the clouds to join the club?”
“Right? I said something similar to Chains once. They’re all so huge.”
“Mmm,” Lisa agreed, scanning the biker gathering.
They were all so freaking pretty, too.
Her eyes kept returning to the one who felt familiar to her, with the wide span of broad shoulders and lean waist.
As if he sensed her nosy scrutiny, the dark biker’s head turned her way, and for the first time that day, her eyes clashed with his.
And swear to Jesus and all his newborn goats, she felt the world shift underneath her feet as her chest wall rumbled with an inner earthquake.
Gunmetal gray eyes. The color of the sharpest, shiniest swords. Unsmiling, yet curiously staring unashamedly.
It was Lisa who broke their gaze, and she gripped the small purse on her lap as if it were a buoy out at sea, waiting to be rescued.
It couldn’t be him.
Taking a much-needed inhale that eased her shortness of breath, she glanced back through the marquee. The tall man had disappeared from view, now chatting with a pregnant Scarlett, her man’s arm comfortably around her.
The other man’s shoulder covered half of his face so that she couldn’t get a proper look. It didn’t stop Lisa from staring, anyway.
Through the toasts, as all the bikers took their turns with speeches, she covertly watched the man in black for any signs he might be someone she’d known a long time ago.
But that long-ago man’s frame didn’t resemble the one across the tent as he held a bottle of beer by the neck, occasionally taking it to his lips for a long sip.
Even the way his throat swallowed was so fricking hot.
It made the earth tremble beneath her heels.
Feeling like a creepy pervert for staring at someone for so long, she drew her gaze away and only took a few more tentative glances.
It didn’t hurt to admire a handsome man from time to time.
From experience, admiring their prettiness from afar was the best choice.
Up close, men were mostly pains in the asses and not worth the hassle of having to deal with one personally. It was why her dating life was dead in the water, with no desire to revive it. Lisa was so contentedly single, it was almost comical.
But oh, admiring the hard lines and full lips of a man across a room sure did her body good, and she smiled as she set her champagne glass down on a table and climbed to her feet.
“You can’t leave yet,” Casey complained. “The night is still young.”
“Yeah, it’s not a Diablo party until the cops turn up to shut us down for noise disturbance.” Added Kelly, Devil’s wife.
“I wish I could stay, but I need to finish some work tonight; I’m on a deadline.”
Being her own boss meant she had to be boring and tough with the hours she worked.
“You’ll be at Monroe’s next week, though, right? You promised to bring your brownies.”
“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it.”
She did the round of goodbyes, leaving Nina until last.
They embraced. “Woman, if I could bottle your happiness today, I’d make a fortune,” Lisa told her.
“That belongs to me,” a gruff, amused voice said, and Lisa watched Tomb slip his arm around Nina’s waist, pulling her close, kissing the top of her head.
“Noted.” She laughed. “Congratulations again; it was a gorgeous ceremony. I was blessed to be here.”
“Are you sure you can’t stay?” asked Nina.
“From the in-love look on your face, you won’t even notice I’ve left.” She teased, and Nina grinned, not denying it.
At that moment, the small crowd parted, and though she wasn’t looking directly at the person, Lisa was aware of him as the black-clothed man moved toward them until he was standing at Tomb’s side.
Up close, he was even taller and broader in the shoulders, but his waist was tapered, the wedding suit fitting him perfectly.
Nina had been in the middle of telling Lisa about their upcoming second honeymoon; they were catching a plane in the early hours, but her friend’s words all merged into one noise as Lisa tried to avoid the eyes of the man who was so obviously staring at her.
“Let me introduce you guys. I don’t think you’ve met yet, though this troublemaker is Tomb’s sidekick.” Nina stated. “And he’s like the son I never wanted.” She added, smiling.
That’s when she heard the voice, and it sent whispers of memory through her stomach, tingles of shock in its wake.
The man flashed a smirk, and the short-clipped beard framed his lips. “Hey now, don’t malign my good name; I’m the one who keeps him out of trouble.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Nina said, then turned to Lisa with a smile. “This is Splice. Splice, this is my good friend Lisa. I’m surprised you haven’t crossed paths before now.”
Splice.
Oh, wow. So he’d done it.
She’d heard that name so many times since meeting Nina, having been told he was a member of the MC and a good friend of Tomb and Nina, but she never thought that person would be someone she’d once known. Back then, he wasn’t a biker and didn’t have a biker’s name.
But he’d spoken about his ambition to join them.
A nervousness Lisa rarely felt percolated in her belly.
She was totally unfazed by meeting all kinds of people, thanks to her once socialite in-law family and her worldwide career.
Only one person had ever reduced her nervous system to rubble, and that same person was once again in front of her.
She’d mused that it was possible she’d run into him if he still lived in Utah, but once she was back in town for a bit, that idea faded away.
And when she lifted her gaze to look at those familiar gray eyes, the only thing that seemed recognizable, and forever unforgettable, she wondered if he remembered her.
Probably not, she surmised.
Why would he? It was a lifetime and forever ago.
Lisa gave a slight nod and smile to prevent embarrassing them while playing “Where do I know you from?”
“It’s nice to meet you, Splice.”
And as she figured, he didn’t seem to know her, which was a relief when he replied. “Yeah, you too.”
But his stare didn’t leave her face, and Lisa forced her body to relax so as not to show her edgy energy.
“My car should be here by now.” She said so to make her escape. “Call me when you’re home from your vacation, and have the best time, guys.”
The pair embraced, and Lisa’s stride carried her around the side of their house, out of the gate, and thankfully into the waiting car.
Only then did she exhale, blowing the blonde bangs from her forehead.
“Holy shit.” She muttered to herself.
Of all the times and places, huh?
She’d randomly run into former dates from time to time, and it never bothered her. If they were good guys, she’d say hello and ask how they were doing. If they were colossal assholes, she’d walk on by.
So why was she feeling altogether different now? So much time had passed. She was probably a different person from the one he knew.
The journey back to her house took next to no time because Lisa only lived on the next block to Nina, and as she paid and unlocked her front door, she paused, scrunching her nose.
“Did I really avoid reminding him we knew each other?” she asked herself. “Lisa, you crazy girl.”
Then she shook her head in her doorway as she punched in her security code to turn off the house alarm.
Lisa had been married into a fancy family that threw parties just for kicks. The guests were always big shots, politicians, and stars, and she’d never freaked out like that before.
But then, she admitted, some people were always meant to affect you in fundamental ways, big or small. It had been a decade since she’d laid eyes on that man.
Ryan Gold—now Splice—was one of those memorable people.
Their passing might have only been brief—barely filling up a few pages of her book of life—but she’d never forgotten one moment she’d spent in his presence.
And as she kicked off her heels, her feet were grateful to be set free. She walked over to the fridge to grab the creamer to make a coffee before she went up to her home office.
She smiled to herself, knowing that memories of the past and her first love would come to mind sometime tonight.
Even that was inevitable, though she hadn’t thought about him in forever.