When Love Intrudes (When the Mission Ends) (13 page)

They were both breathing heavier when the sound of Sam barking at some wildlife among the trees brought them back to reality.

Toni settled under his arm and they sipped their coffee while looking out over the lush forest landscape. “It’s so pretty here. If I had access to this place, I’d have a hard time leaving.”

He nodded. “When Hudson and Rand bought it, we all planned to come out as much as possible, but life and work got in the way. I would bet good money that neither one of them have been here in over six months. It’s too easy to lose sight of what’s important.” He pulled her in tight against his chest. “It’s too easy to lose sight of what living really entails. Work isn’t the be-all, end-all. I’m beginning to figure that out.” He kissed her lightly on top of her head. “Thank you for helping me with that.”

She leaned back to look up at him with a surprising misty sheen to her eyes that melted his heart just a bit. She swallowed hard against the emotions. “Anytime,” she said and quickly turned mischievous as she hopped up on the porch railing, hooking her legs around his waist and pulling him in tight against her. “I’m thinking we could live a little right here, too.” She patted the top of the railing and then ran her fingertips across his burgeoning erection.

He swallowed a groan. “Hmm, you want to give the wildlife a show, huh?”

“Probably not a good idea, is it?” Her smile was flirty, but then suddenly her eyes widened. “I completely forgot about it this morning, how is your back doing?”

“My back is perfectly fine. You distracted me from it completely.” He pulled her tighter against him. “But I’m afraid I’ve left you with the wrong impression. I’m fully in support of the general idea.” He thrust lightly against her hand. “It’s the location that I find a little problematic.” He leaned down to whisper into her ear, “But right now I’m hungry for more than just you. I need some food for energy if you want to keep this up. We need to go into town for supplies.”

She hopped off the railing and glanced around the yard and surrounding mountain. “Do you think we’re safe here?”

“There’s no reason for anyone to think to look for us here. I have friends in town, but this is a small town. No one here is connected to what is happening with Nathan’s case in Lubbock. And no one should be able to trace me to this cabin since it’s not mine. We should be fine. Right now, we’re more in danger of starving to death than anything.” He held up his steaming cup of coffee. “Although, I’m surprised but very thankful you were able to find some coffee. I didn’t figure there were any supplies here at all.”

“Yeah, there was a bag in the freezer, but I didn’t see much else as far as provisions go, unless we can live on twenty-year-old malt Scotch.” She wrinkled her nose at him.

“Okay, well let’s get the teen awake and we’ll head into town for some breakfast and some groceries. Have you ever been to Snowcroft before?”

She shook her head. “No, I’ve always heard about people visiting here, but haven’t ever made a trip myself. From what I’ve seen, I can definitely see the appeal.”

“Just wait until you see the town. You’ll want to move here immediately. If only there were jobs here.” He frowned for a moment. “Not that I have one of those in Lubbock anymore, either.”

“How are you feeling about that today?”

“I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet. It all feels a little surreal and I have no idea what I’m going to do now.”

She gave him a hug. “You’ll figure something out. Don’t worry about it this week. Look at this as a mini-vacation which I know you’ve earned. So what is there to do in Snowcroft?”

“Hiking, fishing, mountain biking. Hell, there’s even a golf course up here.”

“Seriously?” She eyed the up and down terrain of the mountain. “I’ll bet that’s a workout.”

“Oh, yeah, but before we do any of that, we need some sustenance. Come on. Let’s go get the boy up and find us some breakfast.”

* * *

An hour later they walked along the boardwalk in town. Toni couldn’t believe they had an honest-to-God wooden boardwalk that fronted a couple of blocks of old-time looking stores. The complete kitsch of it was just too cute. They headed toward The Loggers Bar and the teen bitched.

“I can’t believe y’all are taking me to a bar for breakfast. Seriously, don’t they have ‘contributing to the delinquency of minors’ laws in New Mexico?”

“Chill, Nate. This is life in a small town. I can promise you there will be very little alcohol served for breakfast.” Brian reassured him.

Nathan smirked. “Very little, huh? Which means some. And God, it’s so early.” He twisted his arm to look at his watch with a groan. “It’s too damn early to eat, much less drink something alcoholic. Who the hell drinks at breakfast?”

Toni rolled her eyes at him. “Haven’t you ever heard what the best cure for a hangover is?”

“No, what?”

“More alcohol.”

Brian gave them both a push down the sidewalk. “He probably didn’t need to know that much,” he muttered to her.

Aw, there was her cop. They may take away his badge, but that didn’t change who he was inside.

“He’s seventeen and lives on his own in a college town,” she retorted. “I don’t think I told him anything he wouldn’t learn on any given Friday or Saturday night out on the town in Lubbock.”

Nathan grinned at her. “You know that argument might hold more water if I actually went out sometime.”

Brian looked at him quizzically. “You never go out?”

“Not really,” Nathan mumbled, looking down at the ground.

“Why not? As Toni already pointed out, you’re still young. You should get out and at least hang out with other kids your age, although I really hope that won’t include the drinking Toni is so sure about.”

When Nathan looked up from the ground, stark pain reflected in his eyes. “I don’t have a working
gaydar and I’m trying to avoid bad situations like what happened. It’s safer to stay home.”

The poor kid had had nothing but pain and ostracism dumped on him based upon his sexuality. That was hard at any age, but at seventeen could become completely debilitating. She exchanged a worried look with Brian, but he just gave her a reassuring nod and slung an arm over Nathan’s shoulder.

“I think I have something that may help. Just relax for now.”

“No offense, Alpha, but I don’t think you’re gonna be able to help the gay boy on this one.”

“Trust me. Right now, don’t worry about anything but filling your stomach. I think you’ll find this place was worth waking up for.”

Toni hoped that wasn’t an empty promise. She didn’t know what to do to help Nathan, but she had to agree with Brian.

They arrived at the door and stepped into a bar that looked like it came straight out of the nineteenth century. An entire wall was dominated by a huge dark wood bar with a mirror behind it and a brass foot rail along the bottom, the kind of bar cowboys used to lean up against in the old time westerns.  All the walls in the place were covered with rough wood planking barely seen with the memorabilia tourists had tacked to them. There were about a dozen small tables scattered throughout the room for dining.

About three quarters of the tables were full and with the way that people were talking from one table to the next, Toni would guess that most of the diners were locals who knew each other. Brian led them to an empty table and the three of them sat down as he nodded to a couple of people in the restaurant.

“Do you know many of the locals?” she asked.

“Not as many as I used to, but I recognize some faces. I worked here during the tourist season every summer through college, so I probably know more than the normal vacation folks do.”

When their waitress walked up, she spotted Brian and squealed. He stood and she threw herself into his arms. “Brian Barnes, why the hell didn’t you tell me you were coming to town?”

He gave her a wide, natural smile which sent Toni into high-alert. He never looked at her with that easy smile. In fact, she was pretty sure she’d never seen Brian that natural except for maybe this morning right after she’d treated him to an amazing orgasm. Jealousy immediately ate at her.

“Hi, Cherise.” He ducked his shoulders. “It was a last-minute decision to come up for a visit so I didn’t let anyone know.” He turned toward them. “Let me introduce you to my friends. This is Nathan and Toni.”

The woman sent a quick nod to Nathan and a measuring look toward Toni, but quickly refocused back on Brian, while she murmured the perfunctory, “Nice to meet you.”

Nathan nudged Toni and rolled his eyes. Who was she to Brian? The way she rubbed up against him made Toni think she knew him pretty well. She was everything Toni wasn’t…tall and willowy with none of those annoying curves like hips that Toni had. Her hair was up in a ponytail, but even with that, Toni could see it was platinum blonde, perfect to frame her silky porcelain skin. She batted her almond-shaped eyes with perfect lashes at Brian like he was the last man on Earth.

Toni had to give him props though. He honestly seemed immune to
Cherise as they discussed what all she’d been up to in the last few years. Finally, he seemed to remember why they were here and sat down so the three of them could order.

After they ordered and
Cherise flounced off, Toni cocked an eyebrow to him. “An old girlfriend?”

Brian had the grace to look chagrined. “Yeah, we may have hooked up a few times during college.”

Toni crossed her arms across her chest and nodded her head. “Oh, so she was your mountaintop booty call. Got it.”

He actually turned red and she tried to hold off her grin. He was too easy to mess with.

Nathan shook his head. “Man, what is it with heteros? She’s so obvious. That’s really what you like?” They watched Cherise flirt with another table full of three very middle-aged, overweight men. Cherise obviously wasn’t too discriminating, but Toni figured in a town this size, there wasn’t a lot to choose from.

“No,” Brian responded as he pried her crossed arms apart so he could hold one of her hands. “That’s not what I’m interested in anymore.” He looked directly into Toni’s eyes. “Now I like my woman to be a little more real with a sprinkling of freckles right across her nose.” He lightly brushed a finger across her cheekbone and Toni was tempted to see if she really had melted into a puddle in the middle of the floor. She was in so much trouble here.

“Um, guys.” Nathan’s strained tone broke through the spell Brian had woven over her and she glanced up at him to see him scowling at their entwined hands. “What the hell did I miss after I fell asleep last night?”

He turned accusing eyes to Toni. He started to say something, stopped, and then he shook his head and started again. “Do you really think you can trust him not to shatter your heart again? I know, I know.” He raised both hands while shaking his head. “He’s a good guy, but he seems to be toxic to you. Don’t you remember what it was like before?”

Embarrassment swamped her. She never wanted Brian to know just how much his rejection devastated her before. It was embarrassing at just how weak she was then.

She swallowed hard and met Nathan’s challenging gaze. “Hey, that’s not fair to me or Brian. Things were very different then and that wasn’t entirely his fault. He’s been nothing but good to us. In fact, he’s given up everything for us, so I think you’re being incredibly harsh to him. Did you realize he quit his job on the force yesterday? For us, because he wanted to be able to protect you and me.”

Brian squeezed her hand before letting it go. “Hey, it’s okay, Toni. Let’s all just calm down a bit. I like that he’s protective of you. It’s great that you both have this friendship where you take care of each other. It’s really admirable. Don’t begrudge him that when he only wants the best for you. He doesn’t want you to get hurt. Out of all the things he can complain about, I’m fully on board with that one. I don’t want you hurt, either.”

Nathan examined the two of them for a moment before mumbling, “I’m sorry, Brian.”

“It’s okay, kid. I get where you’re coming from, believe me.” He gave Toni a bone-melting smile.

Nathan’s gagging sound echoed across the table. “Okay, really? This is breakfast. It is way too early in the morning for looks like that. Ugh. So, what’s going on? Are you guys dating now or what?”

She smiled softly. “Yeah, something like that.”

“In that case, we need to establish some ground rules. No PDA’s in front of the impressionable teenager.”

She smirked at him. “So now you’re impressionable, huh?”

“I am if it will stop him with the lovey-dovey looks he keeps sending you. I don’t need or want to see that crap.”

Brian got a mischievous glint in his eye as he leaned over, winked, and then lifted Toni’s hair off her ear to give her lobe a soft nuzzle. “Didn’t anyone tell you, kid? I’m on vacation this week. That means I get to have fun and
she
is fun.”

“Was I really complaining last week about the fact that I didn’t have any family? I’ve changed my mind. I think I’m gonna move to another table.” Nathan began to rise before Toni began to laugh and shoved Brian off her.

“Stop giving him a hard time. Come on, Nate, sit back down. He’ll be good.” She pushed Brian’s hands off her and back into his own space. “Won’t you, Brian?” She gave him her stern look.