Lucky didn’t know if that sentiment was for Hawk, or both of them, but she took it to heart. She’d endured a lot of heartache and abuse in her young life. Now she wanted the good stuff.
And he was sitting beside her with her hand in his, their fingers laced together like he never wanted to let her go.
Lyric picked up her water glass with one hand and wiped her tears with the other as she recovered from the swell of emotion her pregnancy hormones had unleashed. Mason followed her lead and raised his bottle of beer, but it was Lyric who gave the toast. “To the saviors in our lives, the ones who show up when we need them most.”
Hawk and Lucky picked up their drinks, her wine only a quarter full because she was taking pain meds. “To saviors.” She clinked her glass to Hawk’s first, then Mason and Lyric’s.
“So how long are you in town?” Lucky asked, wanting to get to know Hawk’s family better.
Lyric buttered another roll. “We head back tomorrow. Mason has a case. But you’ll hear from me often, since I’m Hawk’s best friend.”
She looked from Lyric to Hawk, then back again. “Yeah. How did that come about? And aren’t you a bit jealous?” she asked Mason.
Hawk spoke up right away. “You don’t need to be jealous. Most of our calls she’s got Mason on speaker. We’re not telling each other our secrets or anything like that.”
Lyric grinned. “We share a lot of recipes. I’m the chef at the Dark Horse Dive Bar I own with my family. That’s where Mason and I met. And when I learned about his cousin who’d withdrawn from everyone in the family because of what he’d experienced during his military service, well, I decided maybe he just needed a friend. So I called him. The first few conversations were mostly just me talking. But I wore him down.”
Hawk shook his head. “I couldn’t resist her. Not the way Mason can’t. It’s just, she’s usually so happy and it didn’t matter if all I did was grunt at her those first few calls. She made me get to know her and I liked her. I especially liked her for Mason, who also needed some sunshine in his life.”
Mason held his beer up again and the two clinked bottles over that.
She turned to Hawk. “So you’ve basically had two women who saw you needed someone in your life and forced their way in.”
“I guess you could put it that way. I was trying to spare everyone my bad temper and the trauma I couldn’t process. Itstarted with you, and I guess you could say it opened the door for her to sneak in, too.”
She picked up her wine glass. Lyric followed suit with her water, and they clinked them together.
For the first time Lucky felt like she was making new friends and connections with people who thought she mattered.
“So you own a bar?” She wanted to know more about Lyric.
“She’s also an amazing singer-songwriter. If you like country music, you might have heard a couple of her songs on the radio.” Hawk’s pride in his best friend showed in his eyes.
“Really? Do you tour?”
Lyric shook her head. “No. I write the songs and sell them to other artists. I sing at the bar a lot, but I love being home with my family. I want to hear my songs on the radio or live at a concert, but family is what’s really important to me.” She rubbed her hand over her baby bump. “We’re happy in Wyoming with my family. And Mason loves his new job. He’s left undercover work behind and loves having more regular hours.”
“That’s nice. I always wished my family was different. Nicer. I thought about taking my brother when I turned eighteen and just leaving with him. I couldn’t imagine going off to college and leaving him behind at my father’s mercy. But then they were gone and I was truly alone. My mother ran the cleaning service I took over and own now.”
“The one she’s tripled in size.” How did Hawk know that?
“That’s impressive.” Mason studied her.
“Not really. When I took over, there was twelve of us. Now, we’re thirty-seven. I expanded the business out of necessity. I inherited what my family left behind, including their debt. I needed to put a roof over my head once I realized I couldn’t afford to keep the house.”
Lyric looked impressed. “I know what it’s like to run a business. I hope you have help.”
“I have one full-time office person. Everyone else is in the field, so to speak.”
Hawk squeezed her hand. “Why do you still clean houses instead of running the office?”
“Because the office is boring. Endless paperwork. My mom put me to work when I turned fifteen. I spent time after school and on weekends cleaning other people’s houses and businesses. It kept me away from my father. Not that my mother did it to help me. I was free labor. And my dad waited for me to come home so he could let off some steam and play with his prey.” It felt so easy to open up to Hawk, she didn’t care that his family heard the truth about her past, too.
Hawk’s whole body went tense next to her. “That sounds ominous.”
“Imagine walking into it night after night.” Since he had her hand, she went to use the other one without thinking and pulled at her sore shoulder. She winced through the pain. “Some nights, he was just a jerk, pushing my buttons, putting me down. Other nights he was worse.”
“You didn’t get paid to work because he wanted to keep you under his thumb. He wanted to make sure you didn’t have a way out,” Hawk guessed correctly.
