Page 43 of Bear Haven
Gus followed the direction of Blake’s gaze. Bex, Maxine, Mari, and Leah all walked toward him, Blake, and Michael with what looked like the entire display case of donuts.
The same punch to the gut feeling took hold of him as it had when he first spotted her in Bryson City. The prettiest, sexiest woman with the saddest eyes. He’d seen that change over the months. The sadness had slowly turned to light and happiness.
The night of the fire took all of it away again and that, more than anything else, had him spoiling for a fight.
“You buy ‘em out?” Gus inquired when Bex got within earshot.
“Pretty much, yeah, we did.”
“Good. No tellin’ when I’ll get more.”
“I even got the recipe,” she whispered when she was close enough.
“Damn, girl. You do know how to turn me on.”
“God…” Michael groaned. “Let’s go before they start fucking in the parking lot.”
“Do you always have to be so crude?”
“No, but I am anyway. It cuts through the bullshit.”
Maxine shook her head and shoved the box she was carrying at him. The women all hugged each other and whispered among themselves. At one point, Leah glanced at Michael and stuck out her tongue, then said something softly to Maxine who burst out laughing.
“You might’ve bit off more than you can chew, brother.”
“Yeah, I would have to agree with that assessment. Especially, if she’s anything like my mate.”
“She’s not my mate,” Michael denied with less conviction than Gus would’ve expected if there weren’t a grain of truth to it.
“We’ll be in touch,” Gus said.
Blake and Leah headed for their vehicle with Mari in tow. “We’ll be waiting.”
Michael helped Maxine onto the back of his bike, then started the engine.
Gus held Bex close as they watched Michael pulled out of the lot, followed by Blake’s jeep. “It’s just us now. For a while at least.”
“Yeah,” she agreed.”
“You ready, pretty girl?”
Was she? She took in the quaint area and had to admit sadness. She didn’t want to leave Deal’s Gap. She hadn’t wanted to leave Dandridge. She wanted to stay in the seclusion of the mountains that she’d desperately tried to call home.
Only, they weren’t in seclusion. Maybe they never had been.
“Are we going to be okay?”
“Better than.”
She wanted to believe him. “I just don’t understand how everything went so horribly wrong.”
“I don’t think it went wrong. Just a little sideways.”
“A little?”
“True. A lot sideways.”
“But why do you say it like that?”
