Page 4 of Forever Finds Us
If they were run well, any business ventures in the Jackson Hole area were bound to profit.
I’d remained hands-off until now, but it was part of the reason I’d decided to move back home. That and the guilt I felt every day, plus the fact that I missed the closeness my siblings and I once shared, had me itching to make the move for a while now.
I’d stayed away long enough. My father was gone. He’d been dead nine years now, and his mean stain on our lives had finally faded. Mostly.
But there was something else. Something I’d been searching for, something I hadn’t yet been able to define or find, but after several years of feeling this way, when the opportunity to move Lee Construction to Wisper came up, I thought maybe I’d find what I was looking for back home.
“Here we are,” Roxanne said when she pulled up in front of the house I’d built for my mother. My little brother, Dixon, should’ve been living here with her, but he’d left town, knocked up his girlfriend, and then dumped the kid on our family and taken off again almost a year ago.
There wasn’t a day that went by when my younger brother wasn’t on my mind, though I couldn’t deny that his vacant room in my mother’s house was convenient for me now, but when I pictured walking into the room intended for Dixon and dumping my shit on the bed he should’ve been sleeping on, guilt pricked under my skin again.
I’d been gone from our home for twenty years. Dixon had only been gone two, but his absence was louder, and the fact that I’d spoken to him when the rest of our family remained clueless and worried about his wellbeing made the guilt burn in my gut like I’d swallowed liquid fire.
The house we’d grown up in sat half a mile away from the new house I’d built for my mother last year, crafted in a farmhouse style to match the old home. My brother Bax lived there now, with my soon-to-be sister-in-law Bea, my niece Athena and nephew Stuey, but instead of pale yellow, the new house was a deep blue color, the shutters crisp white.
“Thank you, Roxanne,” I said, reaching for the door handle. “Or, excuse me, maybe I should call you Officer Fitts?”
“Roxanne’s fine,” she said, but she wasn’t making eye contact. Was it just me, or was she blushing? “Or Roxi.”
“Roxanne then,” I said, noticing how her name slid from my tongue in a kind of purr.
You must be tired. Shut up now before you embarrass yourself.
“Good night. And thanks again.” I opened my door and grabbed my stuff from her back seat.
She laid her hand on the seatback and looked over her shoulder. “My pleasure, sir.”
The soft sound of her voice and the “sir” at the end of her sentence sent a flood of calm through me. It wasn’t unusual for people to address me in that way. My money and the air of quiet expectation I seemed to give off could put even familiar people on edge. I hadn’t anticipated it from Deputy Roxanne, but when her eyes finally met mine, my dick grew hard.
All it had taken was her kindness and her slightly argumentative nature, but her long legs and the unassuming way her eyes held mine didn’t hurt either.
Chapter Two
Roxanne
It was so super fun when you showed up late to the function, and static sucked your sundress to the backs of your thighs, and then you realized that the seat your BFF saved for you was in the second freaking row of chairs in front of a really pretty wedding altar, but instead of everyone staring at the roses and wildflowers and the beautiful couple about to say their vows, they were all looking at you.
Ughhh.
“Hey.” Leaning forward in the seat I’d just taken at the lakeside wedding she’d invited me to, I whispered to my boss, Deputy Sheriff Lee, or more precisely to the back of her head since she was the sister of the groom and was seated in the front row.
My best friend, Aubrey, couldn’t have known about my connection to the man sitting next to my boss in front of us because I hadn’t said a word about it to her, but she’d saved me the seat directly behind my boss’s older brother, Brand—the guy I’d picked up on the side of the highway last week and drove to his mama’s place not even a mile away from my current location.
“Sorry I’m late,” I said to my bestie and boss both. “Accident out by Mr. B’s tree farm. Everyone’s okay. Light vehicle damage. Both parties insured.”
Thank God Aubrey had saved me an aisle seat so I wouldn’t have to listen to the groans and sighs of the person behind me when they couldn’t see past my shoulders.
My boss threw me a thumbs up over her shoulder.
Aubrey pressed a finger to her lips. “Shh.”
Brand Lee’s head turned slightly, like maybe he wanted to say hello, but then, stiff as a board, he straightened.
I sat back, crossing my legs and smoothing the hem of the dress I’d changed into in the back seat of my truck. I tried not to turn my head, but I let my eyes wander the small gathering so I could scope out the attendees. My boss was the youngest of four siblings, and her oldest brother, Bax, and his girlfriend, Bea, were about to be hitched in a simple ceremony on the Lee family’s property.
Lucky fuckers. I envied them.
Just then, Bea tossed her bouquet. It whizzed past my boss’s head as she ducked and hit me in the face. I squeaked and sputtered and spit flowers from my mouth, then caught the bouquet before it fell to the ground. That was bad luck, right? I thought I’d heard that before, but maybe I was thinking of some other superstition.
