“No, it doesn’t,” she agreed. “If you had hung back another second, someone else would have stepped in, I’m sure, but I do appreciate you for taking action, considering I almost ran you over.”
I watched as a cute pink flush rose on her cheeks. “Who would have stepped in?” I asked, feigning idle curiosity even though I was ready to find out who my competition was so I could put them down. I was drawn to the cute brunette with her bewitching eyes.
“Us.” I turned at the voice down the bar from me. There were three men sitting on the barstools in the corner. I’d noticed them when I walked in, and I would have taken a seat where they were in the corner had they not already been there. All three men looked at me with speculation and intensity, then looked at Patience. There was a beautiful, curvy blonde woman with the group, and she was sitting there smiling softly while holding the hand of the guy who was sitting closest to me.
“And you are?” I asked, eyeing the group.
“Family,” the guy holding the blonde’s hand answered shortly. His voice clipped as he continued to look at me withassessing eyes. He still looked angry about what happened—though I couldn’t tell if he was angry with me for arguing with Patience when I first came in, or just about her ex-asshole.
“Cut it out, Griff. I’m fine,” Patience said quietly as she grabbed the group some more beers and placed them on the bar in front of them.
“I’m still having a talk with that asshole for touching you,” he informed Patience with a growl.
“Don’t go starting any trouble. I get in enough of it for the both of us.” She gave the two other men sitting with him a big smile and rolled her eyes.
I discretely watched as she went around the bar and approached the group, pulling them all in for big hugs and shared grins. When the blond guy with long hair pulled her in for a big hug, he whispered something in her ear that made her laugh, and the grin he gave her was a little too flirtatious for him to be family. The urge to pull a woman I just met out of his arms, and closer to me, claiming her as mine, was overwhelming.
From the way the group acted, I suspected the only one who was actually related to her was the one she called Griff.
“Did my cousin really almost kill you?” the man asked, confirming my suspicion that he was really family.
I looked away from Patience as she floated away from the group at the bar and made her way to the other tables, giving smiles and taking orders as she went. “Yes,” I muttered and took a sip of the beer she had given me. “If I hadn’t been paying attention, she would have hit me, or I would have had to lay my bike down to avoid hitting her.”
He grunted. “I’ll have a talk with her later.”
I shook my head. “It’s over. I’m here and unharmed. Let it go.” I took another drink from the beer and pulled a menu toward me to give myself something to do.
“You staying here or passing through?” he questioned me. I got the distinct impression he was sizing me up.
“Both. I’m here temporarily, but I may leave sooner rather than later.” I gave him a noncommittal shrug, but could tell he was waiting for more information. “I came here for some relaxation and peace. So far, a car has almost taken me out, and the crazy ex-boyfriend of the driver of that car was trying to pick a fight that he had no chance in hell of winning. Brook Cove doesn’t seem to agree with me.”
Laughter floated across the room, and I followed the sound, seeing Patience talking with another group of men sitting at a booth. What is it with this woman? Does she have to attract every male eye in the joint? These guys definitely weren’t related to her with the way their eyes were roaming hungrily over her body. Is Patience the go-to girl around this town, and why did the thought of that piss me off so damn much?
I took another drink from the bottle, keeping my gaze on her through the mirror behind the bar. My gut churned, and I wanted nothing more than to go over there to stake my claim on her. It was a new and foreign desire for me to want to claim someone as mine and let every other man in the world know it. I don’t do relationships because of my job, but this girl was affecting me in ways I never thought possible. It was both surprising and slightly terrifying that I wanted her so much.
Patience greeted everyone as if they were the most important person in the room, and for reasons I don’t want to evaluate, it bugged me. I fished my phone out of my pocket and looked at the time to distract myself from the woman who was bothering me like a sticker in a sock.
It was late enough, so I grabbed my wallet and threw money down on the bar to cover the beer and a generous tip. I had to get going before it got too cold and icy for me to ride. In the city, I drove my cruiser or took public transportation everywherewhen it wasn’t riding weather. I didn’t have that option here. There was no Lyft or Uber in Brook Cove. The cold and rain were definitely the biggest downfall to only owning a bike. I made a mental note to look for a truck to drive if I decided to stay here instead of moving on and heading farther south.
I was torn between two options: stay in this small town and hide out until I figure out my next step, or keep moving farther away from Seattle and the “life” I left behind.
Chapter 3
PATIENCE
I yawned and stretched before crawling out of bed the next morning. My blankets tempted me to burrow farther into their welcoming warmth rather than getting my ass up to go downstairs for breakfast.
A quick look at the alarm clock told me it was after eight in the morning, so I knew I needed to get a move on my day. Coffee and breakfast would be waiting for me downstairs, then I needed to get my computer booted up for my morning class. When all my friends left to go off to school after graduation, I stayed behind and worked while going slowly through school.
Three years after graduation, and I still had no clue what it was that I wanted to do with my life. I know it’s lame, but I love my little town and my family, so going to school was never a big dream for me. I never had one direction I wanted to head in. How does a person determine what they want from their life when they haven’t lived enough to really know?
I didn’t have a passion, drive, or the patience to go to school full time like my friends did. I hated the thought of being stuck inside a classroom as much as I hated the thought of ending up behind a desk. I wanted to be moving and interacting with people. I didn’t have any desire to bury myself in the work and stress that came with having a nine to five. I’d work with Griff if their business was strong enough to support another person, but they were just getting started with their outdoor excursion company, Brook Cove Adventures, and Griff’s new girlfriend had just moved in, adding another person the company needed to support.
With another long stretch, I groaned and pushed myself up and out of bed. My hair was a mess as I made my way downstairs to the kitchen, following the smell of freshly brewed coffee. My eyes were only half open when I walked into the kitchen, but they sprang wide when I saw who was sitting at my mom’s kitchen table.
“You?” I shouted at the beautiful, angry knight in shining armor from the night before.
He quirked a brow at me over the top of a coffee mug as he lifted it up to his lips to hide his smirk. His eyes tracked down my body, and I was suddenly aware of what I was wearing and how it must’ve looked. My neon green donut covered pajamas that said Sweet Dreams across the chest are anything but sexy. They were never meant to be seen by anyone but me and my parents.Crap. If a hole would have opened right there in my mother’s kitchen, I would have welcomed it at that point.
