26. Mace
MACE
The Last Stand Tavern looked nothing like the building my Ranger brothers had inherited years ago.
The sign hung straight.
The porch had been repaired.
Fresh paint covered the brick, flower boxes sat beneath the windows, and enough trucks filled the parking lot to prove the place was doing well.
I almost kept driving.
Max lifted his head from the passenger seat and looked at me.
“Don’t start.”
His ears moved forward.
“I’m not nervous.”
He stared.
“I faced men with machine guns without blinking.”
Max yawned.
“Your support is overwhelming.”
For three years, the two of us had driven wherever the road took us. We slept in cheap motels, camped beside lakes, crossed mountains, and left every town before anyone could ask whether we planned to stay.
We never did.
There was always another road.
Another state.
Another reason not to stop.
Then Wolf called two weeks ago.
He hadn’t asked where I was.
He hadn’t told me to come to Eagle River.
He had only said, “Your room is still here.”
I never told him I was coming.
If I had, I might have changed my mind.
I turned into the parking lot and backed my truck into a space near the porch. Max stood before I switched off the engine.
“Stay.”
He sat.
“You’re enjoying this.”
His mouth opened in what looked too much like a grin.
I climbed out and stared at the tavern.
Music drifted through the open windows. Someone laughed inside. Glasses clinked, chairs scraped across the floor, and the smell of grilled onions reached me from the kitchen.
It smelled like a business.
It sounded like a home.
I opened Max’s door.
He jumped down and took his place beside my left leg.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s find out if they remember us.”
The front door opened before I reached the porch.
Wolf stepped outside.
He stopped.
I stopped.
For several seconds, neither of us said anything.
Wyatt “Wolf” Maddox had more gray at the temples in his hair than the last time I saw him. His shoulders were still broad, his eyes still sharp, and he still looked like he could make a room fall silent by walking into it.
His gaze moved from me to Max and then to the truck packed with everything I owned.
“You got lost?” he asked.
“Several times.”
“You need directions?”
“I found the place.”
“That remains to be seen.”
The door opened behind him.
Trigger stepped onto the porch carrying a tray of empty glasses.
He looked at me.
The tray slipped out of his hands.
Glasses shattered across the boards.
“What the hell?” Wolf barked.
Trigger pointed at me. “Mace?”
I lifted one hand. “Hello, Trigger.”
He came off the porch so fast Max moved in front of me.
“Easy,” I told him.
Max held his position as Trigger stopped three feet away.
Trigger looked at the dog.
Then at me.
Then back at Max.
“You brought backup?”
“He has better manners than you.”
“That is hurtful.” Trigger put a hand against his chest. “Probably true, but still hurtful.”
“Are you going to stand there all day?” Wolf asked.
“I haven’t decided.”
Trigger stared at me for another second.
Then he hit me.
Not with his fist.
With his entire body.
His arms locked around my shoulders, and he nearly knocked both of us into the side of my truck.
“You stubborn son of a bitch.”
I held on to him.
“Good to see you too.”
“You couldn’t call?”
“I have a phone.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I know.”
Wolf came down the steps more slowly.
When Trigger finally released me, Wolf gripped my shoulder.
“You staying?” he asked.
“I parked.”
“You parked in Colorado too.”
“That place had mountains.”
“We have mountains.”
“Theirs were bigger.”
Wolf pulled me into a hug before I could say anything else.
It lasted only a second.
That was enough.
“You took your time,” he said.
“I had places to go.”
“You always did.”
The tavern door opened again.
Havoc walked outside with Saint, Ace, and Blaze behind him.
Every one of them froze.
Havoc recovered first.
“Well,” he said. “Look what the dog dragged in.”
Max looked up at him.
Havoc pointed. “Not you. You look useful.”
“He is,” I said.
Saint crossed the porch with a smile. “Mace.”
He hugged me without hitting me first.
That was why everyone liked Saint.
Ace shook my hand, then pulled me against him.
Blaze looked at the truck.
“Is that everything you own?”
“Most of it.”
“Where’s the rest?”
“I left it in places I didn’t like.”
Trigger glanced into the back of the truck. “You’ve been traveling for three years, and all you collected was a cooler, two bags, and a dog?”
“Max isn’t something I collected.”
Max sat beside me.
Trigger crouched several feet away. “Does he bite?”
Only if I tell him to...or if someone is the bad guy.
Trigger stood again. “I’ll wait until we know each other better.”
“He already knows you.”
“Has Wolf been talking about me?”
“I warned him,” Wolf said.
The men surrounded me in the parking lot, talking over one another and asking questions I wasn’t ready to answer.
Where had I been?
Why hadn’t I called?
How long was I staying?
Did I still snore?
I answered the easiest one.
“I never snored.”
Six men laughed.
Some things didn’t change.
A woman appeared in the tavern doorway.
Nora stood with one hand on her hip, staring at the broken glasses scattered across the porch.
“Wyatt.”
Wolf turned.
The dangerous former Ranger commander disappeared.
In his place stood a married man who knew he was in trouble.
“It wasn’t me.”
Nora looked at Trigger.
Trigger pointed at me. “Mace surprised me.”
She shifted her gaze in my direction.
Her expression softened.
“You must be Mason.”
“Mace,” I corrected.
“Don’t encourage him,” Trigger said. “We should all call him Mason until he apologizes for not calling.”
Nora smiled and came down the steps.
“I’m Nora.”
“Wolf’s wife.”
Her smile widened. “He talks about me?”
“Constantly.”
Wolf frowned. “I do not.”
“You do,” every man said together.
Nora ignored them and looked at Max. “And who is this?”
“Max.”
She held out her hand but waited.
Max looked at me.
“Friend,” I said.
He stepped forward and sniffed her fingers.
Nora scratched beneath his chin.
“He’s beautiful.”
“He knows.”
“Do not let the Magnolia Ladies hear there’s a new man with a dog in town,” Blaze warned. “They’ll be here before you get your bags inside.”
A car horn sounded behind us.
Everyone turned.
A pale blue sedan pulled into the parking lot.
Trigger closed his eyes. “You had to say it.”
Three doors opened.
The Magnolia Ladies emerged.
Agnes carried a pie.
Mabel carried a covered casserole.
June carried what appeared to be a new dog bed.
I looked at Blaze.
“How?”
“They know everything,” he said. “We stopped asking.”
The women marched toward me.
Agnes reached us first.
She was small, white-haired, and moved with the confidence of someone who had never lost an argument.
She looked me over from my boots to my face.
“You’re too thin.”
“I’m two hundred and ten pounds.”
“Thin,” she repeated.
Mabel walked around me and inspected my truck.
“Living out of this?”
“Sometimes.”
“Absolutely not.”
June set the dog bed on the ground.
Max stepped onto it and lay down.
Traitor.
June smiled. “See? He agrees.”
Agnes shoved the pie into my hands. “Apple. You look like an apple-pie man.”
“I didn’t know there were different kinds.”
“There are.”
Trigger leaned close to me. “Do not argue. It makes them stronger.”
Mabel touched the scar near my jaw.
“What happened there?”
“Mabel,” Nora warned gently.
“What? I’m getting to know him.”
“I met a knife.”
“Did the other man survive?”
“No.”
Mabel nodded with satisfaction. “Good.”
Saint covered a laugh with his hand.
Agnes looked toward Wolf. “Which room is his?”
“We haven’t gotten that far.”
“The front room,” she said.
Trigger shook his head. “That’s my old room.”
“You don’t live upstairs anymore.”
“I have memories there.”
“Most of them are inappropriate,” Wolf said.
Trigger smiled. “The best kind.”
Rylie appeared in the tavern doorway behind Nora.
She looked at the broken glasses, Trigger, and then me.
“Is this Mace?”
Trigger pointed at her. “My wife.”
Rylie walked down the steps and hugged me.
“I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“None of it was true.”
“Most of it came from Trigger, so I assumed that.”
Trigger looked offended. “You’re supposed to support me.”
“I support you when you make sense.”
“That doesn’t happen often,” Havoc said.
Rylie glanced at Max.
“He’s handsome.”
Trigger moved beside her. “I’m handsome.”
“You’re pretty.”
The men laughed.
Trigger frowned. “That sounded like an insult.”
“It was affectionate.”
I stood in the middle of the parking lot holding an apple pie while my old teammates argued, their wives laughed, and three older women discussed whether I needed new sheets.
Max slept on the dog bed June had brought him.
I hadn’t been in Eagle River for ten minutes.
Everyone had already made room for us.
Something tightened in my chest.
I looked toward the road.
For three years, the road had been the only thing that made sense. I never had to explain where I had been or decide where I belonged. I simply kept moving.
Stopping was harder.
Wolf stepped beside me.
“You can still leave,” he said quietly.
I looked at him.
He knew me too well.
“I just got here.”
“That never stopped you before.”
Across the parking lot, Trigger attempted to take the casserole from Agnes and got his hand slapped.
Nora was helping June adjust Max’s new bed.
Saint and Ace began unloading my truck without asking.
Havoc carried both bags toward the tavern.
Blaze had found the cooler.
“Anything good in here?” he called.
“Close it.”
“Beer?”
“Close it, Blaze.”
Wolf watched the men empty my truck.
“You kept the room?” I asked.
“We keep all the rooms.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
His gaze moved toward the windows above the tavern.
“Your name has been on the door since we opened.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
Wolf saved me from trying.
“You’re on breakfast duty tomorrow.”
“I don’t cook.”
“You’ll learn.”
“I could still leave.”
“No, you can’t.”
For the first time in three years, I almost believed him.
My room was at the front of the second floor.
The furniture was simple. A bed, dresser, nightstand, and chair near the window. Someone had placed clean towels at the foot of the bed.
A wooden sign hung on the door.
MACE.
I touched the carved letters.
Trigger leaned against the hallway wall.
“I made that.”
“It’s crooked.”
“It has character.”
“It looks drunk.”
“You’re welcome.”
Max walked into the room, inspected every corner, and jumped onto the bed.
“No.”
He turned in a circle and lay down.
Trigger grinned. “He listens well.”
“He usually does.”
“Maybe he knows you need company.”
“I’ve had his company for three years.”
“I meant human company.”
I gave him a look.
Trigger didn’t move.
Marriage had made him braver.
Or more foolish.
Probably both.
He crossed his arms. “You planning to tell us why you finally came?”
“Wolf said the room was here.”
“He has said that every time he called you.”
“I was busy.”
“Driving?”
“Yes.”
“From what?”
I looked out the window.
Main Street stretched below us. People moved between the stores. A woman pushed a stroller along the sidewalk. Two men repaired a sign near the diner.
Life continued at a pace that didn’t require anyone to run.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
Trigger was quiet for once.
Then he pushed away from the wall.
“Dinner is at six. The Magnolia Ladies will arrive at five thirty and pretend they weren’t invited.”
“Were they invited?”
“They don’t believe in invitations.”
He started down the hallway.
“Trigger.”
He looked back.
“It’s good to see you.”
His teasing expression disappeared.
“You too, brother.”
He left me alone with Max.
I sat on the edge of the bed.
Max rested his head on my thigh.
“You like it here.”
His tail thumped against the blanket.
“That makes one of us.”
His tail thumped again.
I scratched behind his ears and looked around the room my brothers had kept waiting for me.
I wasn’t ready to call Eagle River home.
But for the first time in three years, I unpacked my bag.