Prologue.2
Sabrina watched the gorgeous man stride away. Tall and so handsome it nearly hurt to look at him, she’d felt something when their eyes had locked, but it was obvious he hadn’t felt the same thing. He’d felt the opposite, apparently, since he’d run.
Everyone in Bliss was so friendly except the one man who’d caught her eye.
It had been a long time since she’d connected with a man. She’d started to tentatively dip her toe into the dating pool back in North Carolina, though she was almost certain she wouldn’t be there for long. Her sister had found a home here, and if there was any way, she thought she might come west, too. Oh, not to Bliss. There wasn’t even a school here for her to work at, but maybe one of the larger towns. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be good to be closer to her sister.
“Don’t take him personally,” the sheriff said, moving around the bar. “I’m afraid Sawyer is not the friendliest guy in town.”
“Well, you always look at him like he’s about to do something illegal, so of course he’s not comfortable. You have to be comfortable to be friendly,” the woman Sabrina was almost sure was his wife said in a tone that let her know this was well-worn territory.
“I don’t have a problem with Sawyer,” the sheriff argued. “I understand him better. He’s a good man, but you have to admit he’s got some serious issues. He’s surly and secretive and can be quite rude at times, as our new friend recently discovered.”
Callie didn’t look convinced but shook her head. “I bet it took a lot for the man to walk in here, and you immediately get into his space like he was going to do something wrong.”
“I wanted to know what he was making,” the sheriff admitted. “The eggnog is awful and probably needs to be tossed out before it poisons someone, and I’m not going to try whatever the essence of winter is. I can’t find the beer, so I was kind of hoping Sawyer would make me an Old Fashioned.”
“Well, you could have asked him nicely,” his wife countered.
“No, I couldn’t because he took one look at the new girl and ran away,” the sheriff argued. He then winced and tipped his head Sabrina’s way. “Like I said, Sawyer’s a deep one.”
He probably could sense desperation. He’d looked at her, said that girl hasn’t had a date in forever, and ran the other way. She wasn’t in his league looks-wise, and her mother had always been on her about losing what she called the “baby” fat. As she neither was a baby nor had she given birth to one, she had to figure it was her mom’s way of “politely” calling her fat. She didn’t have her sister’s height or her elegant looks. She took after her father’s side of the family. Short legs, big boobs, and wide hips were pretty much the only gifts her dad had ever given her. “It’s okay. Though in his defense, he wouldn’t have been able to pull off an Old Fashioned. There’s no bitters here.”
“Oh, there will be when Marie wakes up and realizes Teeny let the children decorate her like a Christmas tree,” the sheriff promised. “And Sawyer… Well, I’ve honestly never seen the man react the way he did. I’m going to assume he had certain feelings he is not ready to deal with.”
Sabrina rolled her eyes. “You think he saw me, fell madly in love, and ran because he’s too damaged to ever love someone? I doubt it.”
“Oh, it happens.” Callie took another sip of her drink. “It happens way more often than you would think. I’m pretty sure Caleb couldn’t speak for the first six months after he met Holly. I mean he could, but he didn’t make much sense around her and he’s got an MD.”
“Sometimes I question the university who handed him his degree. They obviously didn’t teach a class in bedside manner.” The sheriff moved around the bar and poured himself a couple of fingers of whiskey. “Though you’re right about him not being ready at the time. It took Alexei showing back up to get Doc in gear. It took Noah showing up to make Jamie look at Hope. Lots of guys are dumb.”
Callie stared at him as he talked about all the other men who hadn’t been ready to find the loves of their lives. The sheriff was excellent at not noticing the death stares his wife was sending him.
“Six years, Nate,” Callie said with a frown.
The sheriff winced. “So all I’m saying is if he wasn’t interested, he likely wouldn’t have noticed you at all,” the sheriff concluded after remarking on most of the trios in Bliss. “But it’s probably a good thing because I don’t know Sawyer is marriage material.”
“I wasn’t looking to marry the man. I thought I might get a Cosmo out of him.” Did everyone in the world see her as some wallflower desperate to get a man?
Of course, when she’d first caught sight of him, her heart had fluttered. She’d had to catch her breath because he was a stunning man. It didn’t mean she was desperate. Just a little lonely. He didn’t have to run from her. It wasn’t like she would have tackled him or anything. Not when it was clear he didn’t want her to.
A brow rose over the sheriff’s blue eyes. “Really? That is not the reaction most women have to Sawyer Hathaway.”
Callie snapped her fingers. “Hathaway. And Nate’s right. He is like every gorgeous bad-boy stereotype wrapped up in an emotionally unavailable package. Don’t get me wrong. I like Sawyer. There’s a good man under all his growly protestations, but he’s not a guy I would set up with one of my friends. Now I do know some men who are looking for something more serious. We’ve got a couple of part-time deputies coming in. I’m pretty sure they’re partners, if you know what I mean.”
“Yeah, the Creede boys have stopped making fun of all the trios and started asking intelligent questions about how it works,” the sheriff explained.
Callie’s eyes lit, and Sabrina knew she had to shut it down and quickly. She had no idea who the Creede boys were, but she wasn’t about to get connected to horny, curious dudes who would likely run like that Sawyer person had the minute he’d seen her.
“I’m not looking to be set up. I’m simply here to see my sister and then I’m heading home.” Back to the house she grew up in. It didn’t feel like home. It was so odd. She was sleeping in her sister’s biological father’s guest bedroom, and it felt warmer than the house she’d spent the last few decades of her life in. Of course her mom had never gently woken her up with the promise of pancakes and bacon. And beets. But she could handle beets. Cassidy Meyer was weird and warm and lovely, and Sabrina low-key wished she’d been the one to find out her bio dad was a short-term affair of her mom’s while she was in the Army. Elisa was so happy with her new family, and it was inevitable time and distance would isolate her if she didn’t find a way to stay close to her sister.
Wow. She actually was desperate, but not for some man. She was desperate to have any kind of family at all.
“I was hoping I could talk to you about that,” a deep voice said. She turned and a dark-haired man stood a few feet away from her. He wore a button-down and slacks and loafers Sabrina identified as designer and expensive. “Hello, Ms. Leal. My name is Stefan Talbot and I was impressed with how you handled the kids earlier this evening.”
She’d seen the kids needed some planned and organized activities and she’d taken them in hand. No big deal. “I had fun with them. Honestly, the older kids just needed some guidance about the crafts Nell and Holly set up and then they helped with the younger kids.”
“You were great with them. I hear you’re a teacher back in North Carolina,” Talbot said, and that was when she noticed the woman standing behind him. She was almost certain the woman’s name was Rachel Harper, and she was the mom of Paige, who’d proven so helpful with the younger kiddos. Rachel was watching the conversation, biting her bottom lip like it was taking everything she had not to intervene.
What was happening here? “Yes. I’m teaching kindergarten right now, but I’ve taught third and fifth as well.”
“How would you feel about teaching in an…unorthodox fashion?” Talbot asked.
Was this obviously rich dude looking for a tutor? “I prefer a classroom setting to one on one, Mr. Talbot. If you’re wanting to hire a fulltime tutor, I can give you some places to look. I’m afraid I would miss running a classroom too much.”
The tutor would almost surely end up being more nanny than tutor. She knew she should probably hear the guy out since she wanted to move here but couldn’t without the guarantee of a job. But she had to be honest. Her job was all she had, and she couldn’t compromise on it.
“What if you could run a whole school?” Talbot asked.
She felt her eyes widen but before she could ask what he meant, Rachel Harper rushed to his side. “Not all on your own, of course. Stef, you’re making it sound way bigger than it is.”
“Because we’re building a school from scratch,” he said in low tones, as though they’d gone over this. “I’m not going to trick her.”
Rachel frowned his way but was all smiles when she looked back at Sabrina. “He’s making it sound like so much work. You’ll have a ton of help. Everyone in town will pitch in. Paige is about to start school, and I can’t stand the thought of sending her miles away every day. I want her here in Bliss.”
Oh, she was starting to see the problem. “There aren’t enough children in the area to support one school, much less a normal system. You would need to have elementary, middle, and high school in the same building. It’s challenging but not impossible. The real problem is going to be getting funding. Is this a public school? Because funding is why most rural towns rely on bussing to larger towns.”
“Money isn’t a problem,” Callie said with a grin. “We’re going to play all the billionaires off one another. Between Stef, Seth Stark, and Caleb Burke, you’ll have all the money you could want.”
“Or you could say we all want what’s best for our kids and we’re willing to pay for it,” Stef countered with a shake of his head. “Ms. Leal, I’m not trying to turn Bliss into some bigger town. I only want the kids who live here to have the best we can possibly give them. My son will be educated here. All of our kids will go to school in the town they live in. I would like for you to be a part of it. Maybe the biggest part. It would be an enormous amount of work, but think about it. You have to let your kids go every year. They move on to another class. Not these kids. These kids would be yours. A whole generation to educate.”
Tears filled her eyes. A whole generation to love.
She would likely never have kids of her own, but what Talbot was offering her was the next best thing. To watch over a child from kindergarten until she sent them off to college. To be a part of their world.
“He will pay you anything you want,” Rachel announced.
“Rach,” Talbot huffed.
“We’ll work it out.” Sabrina Leal knew a good thing when it opened in front of her. A whole future flowering. She’d worried about finding a job. This wasn’t a job. This was a calling. Her calling. “I’ll do it. I have to finish out the year…”
“We can work remotely,” Talbot said quickly as though he was afraid of losing her. “What we mostly need is your input on things like supplies and how to build the school. We’ll hire some helpers, of course.”
“And you’ll have all the volunteers you could ever want.” Rachel looked positively giddy.
“Someone want to tell me why my sister is crying?” Elisa frowned at Talbot, stepping between them.
Her sister was an Amazon of a woman. A few years older, Elisa had always protected her, sheltered her. There had been no mean sister antics or jealousy from her. Elisa had been a solid presence in her life. She’d joined the military and there had been years and miles between them, but she’d always loved her.
She got to live in the same town with her sister.
“I’m going to run the new school,” Sabrina said, her voice shaking. “I mean if the fact that I’m about to burst into tears doesn’t scare them off. They don’t understand how much I wanted to find a way to live here with you. They don’t know the gift they just gave me.”
Elisa turned, and now it was her eyes shining with tears. “You’re moving here? You’re going to live in Bliss?”
Sabrina nodded.
“If I wasn’t pregnant I would drink a whole bottle of champagne,” Rachel said before turning and shouting out. “We got her!”
The whole hall erupted in cheers, but Elisa had wrapped her up in a bear hug.
“Oh, I don’t have to give up my new baby?” Cassidy Meyer joined in, her husband, Mel, looking on with a big smile on his face.
Sabrina welcomed her. “I’m staying. I wouldn’t want to miss your pancakes.”
Sabrina stood there in the middle of the town that was to become her family and felt the love she’d been missing for years.
A brief thought of the man who’d dissed her floated through her brain, but she dismissed him. She didn’t need some man to be nice to her.
This was what she needed.
This was bliss.
* * * *
Wyatt Kemp sat back, the heaviness of the night pressing in on him and the cold threatening to shake his bones.
Maybe it would be good if he looked super pathetic. Maybe Sawyer would take pity on a dude and not force him to sleep in the snow.
It was almost Christmas.
If he was back at the clubhouse… Well, it wasn’t like there would be some homey, happy shit going on. Nope. Joy was not what the Colorado Horde was known for.
Years. He’d wasted years of his life because he’d tried to make his father happy and then his brother. All those years gone because he hadn’t understood there was a world outside the brutal one he’d been born into. He hadn’t understood it until he’d met Sawyer Hathaway.
You ever decide to get out of this hellhole, you come to my place. It’s just outside of Bliss.
Just outside of Bliss, the crazy little town he’d talked about all the time. The town where Sawyer had friends and a couple of businesses he’d been forced to walk away from to try to protect his dumbass brother, who should have known better. Wes had joined the MC because it sounded cool. Wyatt had been born into it.
Damn, but he wished he’d let Sawyer save him back then. If he had, he wouldn’t be standing out here in the freezing cold waiting for the man to come home, his chest aching like a motherfucker.
He hoped he hadn’t bled through again.
He sat on the porch of the surprisingly large and cozy-looking cabin he’d discovered was owned by Sawyer. He’d thought about sitting at Hell on Wheels until Sawyer returned. They’d kept in touch over the years, mostly Sawyer asking him if he was ready to get out and telling him not to call him if his ass ended up in prison. Wyatt took those calls as Sawyer’s sign of affection. He was pretty sure the guy didn’t check up on any of his old “friends” from the Horde. They came through his bar every couple of weeks, and Sawyer was mean enough they mostly behaved. They always stayed out of town even though Wyatt had been dying to see it.
Ain’t no use unless you get out of this life. All it will do is tempt a man with something he can’t have. Because you cannot have the whole happy family, wife and kids thing if you’re constantly under threat of going to prison.
He could, he supposed. His brother had an old lady and three kids he barely paid attention to. His brother would tell him he had it all. The family. The power. All the women he can possibly want to fuck.
Wyatt wanted more.
Of course none of it would matter if he froze to death here. What had he been thinking? Sawyer might be out with a lady. He wasn’t at the bar. The nice lady there had told him Sawyer had taken the night off. He would probably be gone all night.
Wyatt was pretty sure he’d used the last of his energy to walk up this damn mountain, and now he was going to die. Freeze to death and all because he didn’t have a cell phone. They’d taken his when they’d taken his bike and every cent of cash he had.
You want to leave, brother? You do it the way you came into this world. With nothing except a reminder that you are no longer family.
Wyatt took a long breath and tried to forget his “reminder.” He’d survived the ceremony and hidden out for a couple of days with a woman who was club adjacent while she nursed his wounds and got him some clothes. He’d hated taking her money for the bus to Alamosa, but there’d been no other way. He couldn’t stay with her because she wasn’t leaving the club.
So this was the end of the road. Either Sawyer would let him in or he would die on his porch sitting in an Adirondack chair and watching the most beautiful set of stars he’d ever seen.
The sound of tires on dirt let Wyatt know he’d at least had one lucky break in all this misery.
His gut twisted because he was about to find out his fate. He was betting everything on a friendship that had been strongest years and years ago. Sawyer was kind of a dick most of the time.
Twin lights shone on the tree line in front of him, and Wyatt stood up. Sawyer was also a guy who probably shot first and asked questions never. He moved off the porch, holding his hands up.
The door opened and a big dog bounded out. Wyatt closed his eyes because he was probably about to be eaten by a guard dog. Sawyer would have the biggest, nastiest, best-trained guard dog in the world.
Wyatt managed to stay standing as the dog hit his chest. And then he felt a wet tongue on his cheek.
“Well, shit,” Sawyer said with a sigh. “I probably should have taken my chance with the schoolteacher.”
Wyatt opened his eyes, and the dog let its paws go back to the ground, running toward Sawyer with a happy bark. So not a guard dog. “Hey. You remember that time I saved your brother’s life and you said you owed me one?”
Sawyer stepped close enough the moonlight illuminated his stark features. “You know I owe you for more than one night. You saved me, too. You finally wake up and leave the cult?”
Something eased within Wyatt. He supposed there had been a knot in his gut telling him no one would help him, that he was truly alone in the world. From the moment he’d known he had to leave, there had been a piece of himself thinking he would die. “Yeah.”
Sawyer looked him over, taking in the T-shirt and track pants and sneakers. None of which fit since they’d been Lydia’s ex’s. “Suppose they took everything. Your bike?”
He nodded. “A friend got me a bus ticket. I hitchhiked from Alamosa. Don’t call me a dumbass because I didn’t call.”
“They took your cell, too.” Sawyer stared at him for a moment. “How’d they take your tat? I’m betting they didn’t let you laser it off. Or black it out.”
“I’m okay.” He had to be. There was no other way to be.
Sawyer cursed under his breath. “Acid, or did they burn it off you?”
“I’m okay.” He didn’t want to think about it. Or rather he didn’t want to talk about it. It still hurt.
“Let’s get inside. I’ll call the doc. Hopefully he didn’t get into the eggnog.” Sawyer stepped around him, going to the door. “Don’t mind the dog. She’s not here forever. Just until I can find someone to take her.”
The dog seemed pretty at home to Wyatt. The minute the door was open, she ran inside as though afraid of being left out in the cold. It was actually a smart idea. If he was inside, Sawyer probably wouldn’t lock him out. “I don’t need a doc. I’m handling it.” He managed to walk in like he wasn’t desperate to get warm. Cool. He was going to play this cool. It didn’t matter that now he felt a little hot. Weird how he’d been cold before and now he might be sweating. “I only need a place to stay for a couple of days until I get my shit together. Maybe you could help me look for a job.”
Sawyer slipped off his jacket and hung it on one of the pegs by the door. “Sure. You can get your shit together in a couple of days. And what kind of job are you thinking? Since you’ve been in an MC all your life.”
It was stuffy in here. He took off the way too thin for this climate jacket Lydia had provided him with. A weariness struck him like a wave. “I’ll find something. I only need a couple of days here, and then I’ll be out of your hair. I have plans.”
Sawyer stood in front of him, hands in fists on his hips. “You got no place to live, no job, no skills and you’re going to…what?”
His tongue felt thick in his mouth, and his chest burned. It was like he’d held it all together with adrenaline and pure stubborn will, but now he was in this warm cabin and despite the surly attitude, he suddenly knew Sawyer wasn’t going to kick him out, wasn’t going to demand he kill his soul off piece by piece. Sawyer was going to be kind. It made it easy for the pain to creep back in. But also the hope. “I’m going to get a job and then I’m going to move to Bliss and find some other dumbass guy to be my best friend and we’re going to find a woman to share and I’m going to be fucking happy with kids and barbecues and I’ll get a truck so I can help my friends when they have to move. And my wife will yell at me to do the dishes.”
Sawyer put a hand on his shoulder. “Good, Wyatt. Sounds like a good life. Buddy, you’re bleeding through your shirt. Maybe we should move you to the sofa.”
“I’m okay.” But he wasn’t. He felt the world tip and heard Sawyer curse as he caught him and maneuvered him to the couch.
Where the dog decided she could lick him healthy.
“Yeah, I’m going to need someone to get Doc out to my place,” Sawyer was saying. “No, Luce, People Doc.” He paused. “Unless People Doc drank the damn eggnog, and then bring out the vet. How different could it be?”
It was different, he wanted to say, but it was getting dark.
And it was okay. It really was okay.
Wyatt let go and found a certain amount of peace in oblivion.