He didn’t like thinking about Michael in some prison. “What’s that?”
“Fucking forgive yourself,” Sawyer said in that low growl of his. “That’s what you can’t understand. You’ve never done something so bad you can’t figure out how to come back from it. For Novack it wasn’t something he did, but something he allowed to happen, and he can’t trust himself again. That’s precisely why I think he’s stayed away from Lucy. You’re giving him the chance to get close to her without having the responsibility of being the only one to take care of her.”
“Yes. That’s why it could work.”
“Or why it could go wrong, and you could end up being left behind. If he relaxes and lets his guard down, Lucy is going to get inside, and that girl is pure sunshine. She might be able to do what he can’t do on his own—get him to forgive himself. Once he does that, he’ll want to keep her.”
Sawyer could be a pessimist. “Or he could get better and go on with his life. Everyone wins.”
Sawyer patted his arm. “And that is why we’re friends. Because I cannot even think like that. You know if it all goes to hell, I’ll be there for you, right?”
“It doesn’t matter. He said no.” He would have to think this through. Maybe it was better this way. Maybe he should listen to Sawyer and try to be a little more patient.
The door slammed open and suddenly Sawyer had a massive gun in his hand, pointing it at the entryway.
Michael stood there, and if he was worried a six-and-a-half-foot dude was pointing a gun at him, he didn’t show it. He simply frowned Ty’s way.
“It won’t work, but I’ll try.”
Had he heard that right? “You’re in?”
Michael nodded, grunted, and then turned and walked out.
Ty sat there for a moment. “Should I go after him? Doesn’t he think we should talk? Plan a little?”
Sawyer slid the gun back into the holster he wore at the small of his back. He could be touchy, but then at one time he’d had a whole MC after him. “Absolutely not. That man has had enough stimulation for one night. I’m locking the door. Pour us another drink and I’ll tell you again how dumb this idea is.”
He might be right, but he also might be wrong. Sawyer knew a lot but he didn’t know everything, and he often took a pessimistic view of life.
This could work. And hey, if Michael Novack got a new lease on life, then he and Lucy would have done something good and they would remember the man fondly.
“You’re not going to listen to a word I say, are you?” Sawyer locked the door this time.
“Of course I am.” He would listen. Sort of.
But he knew this could work.
It had to because he worried this might be his very last shot.
Chapter Three
“So are we asking the new chick in? I’ve heard she’s shot more sons of bitches than all of us combined.” Callie had a big mug of coffee in front of her.
Lucy sat in Stella’s Café the following morning, her brain still working on what had happened the night before. She’d gotten very little sleep and still felt like she was strapped onto an emotional roller coaster. Why had Michael followed her home? She’d known his SUV had been the one behind Van’s Subaru. She’d also recognized Ty’s Jeep, but she knew why he’d followed her. Habit.
Rachel frowned her friend’s way. “Yes, she did that on a professional basis. She didn’t shoot her sons of bitches out of self-preservation.”
“No, but she did blow up someone who was trying to kill her,” Jen pointed out. “At least that’s what I heard. I don’t know. I like her. She seems fun.”
“Then why did your husband tell her husband he couldn’t put in a shower?” Hope Glen-Bennet sat to Lucy’s left. Stella had shoved three tables together close to the back of the restaurant for this midmorning meeting of the Winter Festival committee.
It was a meeting of some of the most powerful people in Bliss, and like all things that required intricate planning, long hours, and free labor, it was entirely made up of women.
A brilliant smile came over Jennifer Talbot’s face. She was married to Stef Talbot, known all around as the King of Bliss. Mostly because he was the richest man in town and had his fingers in all of Bliss’s pies, including the fact that he was the town’s chief engineer. He’d also been on the committee that declared Hiram Jones’s rundown cabin a historical landmark shortly before it sold to a friend of Henry Flanders. The Taggarts were a robust family of five who came up for vacations and loaned out the place to their friends. They were good tippers, and while the husband seemed like a dude who could kill everyone in the world, the wife was super nice.
The scary dude was also attractive. Like stare-at-him hot.
Like Michael. She had a type. Dark. Brooding. Dangerous.
Sweet. Kind. Sunny.
No. That last one was just Ty, and he actually ran against her type. It was only habit to be attracted to Ty. He’d been her first love, and she was over him.
Of course it hadn’t felt over the night before. She could still feel Ty’s lips on hers, feel him pulling her close. She’d placed her hands on his chest and felt the muscle there. For a moment she hadn’t thought of anything but being in his arms.
And then Michael had been there.
“Stef is only fucking with him. He likes how Big Tag gets completely red in the face and then threatens to do all sorts of terrible things like taking his insides out,” Jen replied. “Stef thinks it’s funny. But he always gives in. The latest renovation was to the bathroom. Hi didn’t believe in showers. He always said if he wanted a shower, he would wait for it to rain. So he only had that tiny bathtub. Stef explained that the tub itself was a historical landmark since several baptisms had happened there before the Feed Store Church put in running water.”
Marie Warner raised her hand. “I was baptized right in that tub. Taggart wants to take it out he can go through me.”
Teeny Warner shook a finger her wife’s way. “Absolutely not. I am talking to Stef about that. Charlotte stopped bathing the kids because that tub is rusty, and now when they’re in town they stink to high heaven about three days in, and she sends them into the store and they run off all the other customers.”
“He’s already approved the plans,” Jen promised. “They’re adding on another bathroom with a shower. Henry’s going to oversee the work since they’re back in Dallas until Christmas break.”
“Well, I don’t think we should have members who aren’t actual full-time residents,” Rachel Harper said. “Though we should absolutely invite her to give a lecture on how to blow up a son of a bitch. We never know when that skill might come in handy.”
“I thought we were supposed to be talking about Winter Festival,” Callie gently reminded everyone.
Lucy picked up her pen. She was the notetaker. She also might end up being the liaison with the resort. She prayed this weekend went well. She was taking a couple of shifts to see if she fit in. The way Cole Roberts had put it, those shifts should help her decide if she wanted the job. She rather thought it was to decide if Cole wanted her there.