Page 47 of Georgia-Blue & Hudson

“We’ll get you out of here.” His voice isn’t the usual voice of reason; I feel an edge to it and that’s disturbing to say the least. “Bucko is on the defensive.”

He should probably finish me off. I’d fucking deserve it. It’s not the first time I’ve thought this is a cruel fucking gig at times, though I’ve never, ever used spurs and I never would.

“Hudson!” He slaps me again. “Wake up!”

Everything just feels so heavy. I don’t know how to keep up anymore. Everything is a fucking mess. Me and Everly are definitely through. I guess I’d better be finding some new place to live after this is over. If I get through this I’ll go to my cabin in Slate Mountain and take some R&R. My parents warned me about getting into a sport so dangerous. I’ve had so many broken bones and injuries lately, I’ve lost count.

“Everything’s fading, Bil—” My words don’t even sound like my own and the pain is coming from all sides now. There’s pulsing in the back of my head as my eyes squeeze shut and I see something in the vague darkness behind my eyelids.

A woman.

Dark hair. Blue eyes. Fair skin. A face that isn’t my ex-girlfriend, the woman I’ve lived with for the past two years.

It’s a face I’d know absolutely anywhere, as I’ve known her since forever.

Georgia-Blue Bassett.

She’s smiling and I’m pretty sure I’m smiling back. Well, I am in my head.

“You’re gonna be alright,” she whispers. “You’ll see. GP.”

I splutter, or at least I think I do. I haven’t seen her in ages but she’s still calling me Grumpy Pants? “Don’t call me that, Blue Belle,” I murmur, unaware if I’m even talking out loud or just inside my head. Am I dead? I don’t even know. But if hers is the last face I’m going to see before I die, then that can’t be a bad thing.

12

Hudson

Two weeks later

“Can we just get there already?” I lug the last of her luggage into my truck ready to drive us to the airport.

Beau, Gayle and Bob are out front as I’m re-organizing my boot and trying to fit Georgia’s array of crap in.

GB ended up booking the flights herself, only putting the accommodation on my card, which was not what I fucking told her to do and I’ll be reimbursing her for the flights as soon as she gives me her account details.

“I should have warned you,” Gayle smiles warm-heartedly, watching me put the last bag in the back before I close up thetrunk. She’s so much like Georgia, with long dark hair and those piercing blue eyes. She’s a tiny southern-belle, too, and is a real momly-mom which again, makes me think about my own mom. That dream I had weighs in on me at the most inopportune time but I try to not let it show.

“Some warning would have been good,” I muse.

Bob pats me on the shoulder. “Good luck to you, son.”

“Yeah, something tells me I’m gonna need it.”

“Hey!” Georgia pouts, just a few feet away, as she stops to give Autumn’s cat, Bruiser, a little scratch behind the ears. He’s not really a people’s cat but seems to have gotten used to her since living in close quarters. “Why does everyone keep saying that?”

“Umm, because it’s true,” Beau chortles, giving me a wink. He knows his twin better than anyone.

“Listen to the man,” I add. “Beau knows best.”

“You should all be saying good luck to me for putting up withHudson Nashall weekend!”

There’s my full name again. I resist the urge to facepalm myself.

“No one would ever say that, George.” Beau chuckles.

I give him a high five as Georgia scowls. “And aren’t you going for five days?”

I raise a brow as I recall how she persuaded me into staying on a few extra days because she hasn’t had a vacation in two years.

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