Rolling his eyes with a big smile on his face, Johnny steered her away, letting Bane shoulder in with a beautiful woman. And she was beautiful in that girl next door, unsuspecting way. She had on a pair or purple rimmed glasses, and her hair was up in a messy bun. “Hi,” she said, waving a shy hand.
Bane slid a protective arm around her waist. “This is my woman, Frankie.”
Frankie elbowed him in the ribs. “Do you have to be such a caveman?” she growled, narrowing her eyes at him.
My head went back and I laughed out loud. I couldn’t help it. I liked her already, which I said in the next instant. “I like her.”
He dropped a kiss on top of her head like she was his whole world. “Me too.”
“Okay, you guys. How about you all give the girl a break,” Roxy instructed, pushing through the crowd and pulling me into a momma bear hug. “It’s been too long, princess,” she rasped, “Too damn long.”
Instinctively, my arms went around her and my eyes closed. I breathed her in. Roxy had been like a mom to me after I’d lost my own parents. She was pretty much a mom to us all.
“I’ve missed you so much,” I whispered, my voice thick with emotion.
“I know, baby girl. I know.” She pulled back, her crystal blue eyes studying my face like she was memorizing every detail. “You’re still just as beautiful. I don’t know how that idiot could let you–”
“There she is,” Eagle’s gravelly voice interrupted hurriedly as he came up from behind his wife. He hit Roxy with a look that I didn’t understand. She curled her lips over her teeth and walked away.
“What was that?” I asked.
Shaking his head, he dipped his chin and hit me with the notorious Benson smile that made women forget their own names. “Nothing, baby girl.” He squeezed me tighter. “Rox was right. Been too damn long.”
Being wrapped up in Eagle’s embrace was like being hugged by the sun. He had a way of making you feel warm and safe, like nothing bad in the whole wide world could touch you as long as he was around.
“I’ve missed you too,” I admitted, my voice muffled against his chest.
Stretching out his arms, he held me at arm’s length, his cobalt blue eyes serious. “Can’t stay gone this long again, girl. We’re your family.”
“I won’t,” I promised, and I meant it.
Looking over his shoulder at all these faces—my family—something inside my chest cracked wide open. I’d missed this, missed them, missed feeling like I belonged somewhere.
After Weston broke up with me, I felt like my whole world went up in flames. Like I was alone, like I’d lost everyone all over again.
When my parents died, the Kings became my family. Then Weston ended us, and the grief swallowed me whole. I lost the person I loved most all over again. God, I’d been so naive to think that what we had would last forever.
But seeing how genuinely happy everyone was to see me, I realized how wrong I’d been. My family was still there, and they’d been waiting for me to come home.
Sondra appeared at my side with two beers in her hands.
“Thank you,” I said gratefully, taking one and immediately taking a long sip. The cold beer felt good going down.
“You okay?” she asked, bumping my shoulder with hers.
“Yeah,” I said, and realized I actually was. “I am.”
Chapter Six
Bash
The secondI stepped through the front door of the clubhouse, I knew exactly where she was.
It’d always been that way.
Hattie Lynn was a magnetic force that pulled everything into her orbit. She was like this beacon in the pitch-black that you had to get closer to. You couldn’t stop it. Lord knew I’d never been able to.
Shoring up my defences, I glanced over, and there she was.
