Page 2 of Meant for You

“Yeah.” I pulled myself away from the window, which wasn’t easy, and headed for the door. Riff had tried to convince me to prospect for the Ramblers, join his club, but it wasn’t something I was ever interested in. But the bikes? Yeah, I liked them a lot. My summer transportation was now a Harley Softail. That bike gave me a feeling of freedom like nothing else. Helped clear my head when shit got too much.

And if all else failed, I got in the ring to work off some steam. The Ramblers had a gym, organized fights fairly regularly, and I’d discovered it was something I was good at and a way to work out my anger without ending up behind bars. Win-win for everyone.

We walked through the shop, which was closed since Cal took Sundays off, and out onto the street. Eves was still outside the bar, and it took everything in me not to stride over there and try to get her to talk to me again.

We needed to clear the air, move past this. She was working on Cal and Cassy’s ranch, for fuck’s sake, spending time with my nephew, Jack. Despite the fact that not talking to her felt like someone had sawn my arms off and was beating me round the head with them repeatedly, it was also making shit difficult.

Riff swung his leg over his bike, and I did the same. The roar of both engines firing to life echoed off the storefronts. Everly’s head turned my way, and I noted instantly there was a Band-Aid just below her hairline. What the hell? Was she hurt? I scanned her face for bruises, but then her beautiful soft brown eyes finally hit mine and that was all I could see.

I didn’t move, just stared back, fucking willing her to run to me, to throw her arms around my neck like she used to when we were living in the same foster home together, after I hadn’t seen her a whole day.

Just one day would get me that kind of welcome.

She’d told me once, while we lay in the dark of my bedroom, that she was always scared I wouldn’t come back. That I’d forget about her.

My gut clenched uncomfortably.

Knowing that, then disappearing on her anyway, had been the worst kind of betrayal to her. She didn’t give a fuck that my intentions had been good ones. I’d done the one thing I said I never would. And I was afraid she’d never forgive me for it.

She quickly looked away again, shoving open the door of The Mule and disappearing inside.

That sick feeling that hadn’t left me since shit went south between us eighteen months ago intensified. Yeah, I’d hurt her so much that after all this time, instead of a hug, I was getting the cold shoulder. Not surprising really. The last time she’d seen me I’d been on top of her date, trying to beat the life right out of him.

I shook off that thought, fought down the rage that still tried to overtake me even after all this time when I thought of what could have happened to her that night, and pulled out onto the street.

I had no destination in mind. I just wanted to chase that feeling of freedom, the desperate need to run from the look I’d seen on Everly’s face that night.

A look that had haunted me ever since.

* * *

Several hours later, Riff, who was crashing at my place for a few days after helping me move home, had gone to The Mule for a drink and I was on my way to the ranch. Cal wanted me to “check in” before I started work tomorrow. My brother still had trouble trusting me. He looked at me like I was the same loose cannon who left town bruised and angry, a wake of destruction behind me.

I didn’t blame him after the shit I’d caused my family.

But being separated from them when I was just a kid, it messed me up. Yes, I’d talked to Bull and Cal regularly, and we’d eventually managed to see each other occasionally, but when I came back we’d struggled to find a new normal. I’d felt like a third wheel, and I’d acted like a fucking idiot. I’d been too afraid to let them in, that being home wouldn’t last—it wasn’t real. Afraid I’d lose them all over again.

That wasn’t me anymore, though. I hoped not anyway. I didn’t want it to be, and I’d worked hard to try and put the past behind me, to be the man I needed to be.

The only way Cal and Bull would believe it was by me walking the walk. Words didn’t mean jack shit at this point.

I rode through Springhaven, the neighboring town thirty minutes out of Rocktown, with its cutesy, brightly colored storefronts and hanging flower baskets, and out the other side toward the ranch. It came into view a short time later with the sun setting behind it, streaks of orange and gold lighting up the sky, the mountains a breathtaking backdrop.

I’d missed this place. I’d missed all of it.

I took the winding driveway slowly, watching as the huge but still somehow rustic ranch house came into view. There was an impressive guesthouse behind it and a large barn in the field to the side. I assumed Everly was staying in the guesthouse, and the urge to bypass the main house and go looking for her was hard to squash, but I did, because that was what she wanted and I had to respect that, right?

The old me would have said “fuck that shit,” gone to her, and wouldn’t have left until she talked to me.

The new me…shit, who was I kidding? I still wanted to do that, but I wasn’t the same fuckwit with rocks in my damn head. That would only push her farther away. I’d wised up enough to know that much.

I rolled to a stop, kicked down the stand, and swung my leg over my bike. The door opened before I’d taken a step, and Cassy was standing there with a huge welcoming smile on her face and Jack, my nephew, in her arms.

“Come on in,” she said. “I’ve made your favorite.”

She handed Jack to me as soon as I reached her. I took him kind of awkwardly, but the kid was insanely cute, and I wanted to get to know him. He was only six months old but a weighty little guy.

“Feels like you’ve been feeding my nephew lasagna as well.”