Page 10 of Wild Bliss

“They’ll be fine,” was all he said as he opened the door andBella pounced. “Damn it, Bella, down. You know your name should have been DamnIt.”

Wyatt had saved the poor dog from the indignity. After amonth of living with the dog with no name, he’d started calling her Bellabecause he’d read it was a popular name for girl dogs. All the dogs in the MCcompound he’d lived in had been named things like Bitch and Satan and Butthole.Bella had a more classic ring to it. “Come on, Bella. Let the mean dad in.”

“I am not her dad. I’m the guy she imprinted on, and now Ican’t get rid of her,” Sawyer groused.

Sure, he was. All complacent pet owners regularly made theirdog’s food themselves because the pet they didn’t really want had a touchybelly. The man was in denial. Still, he couldn’t say it out loud. He neededSawyer to figure this out on his own. So he played dumb. “Sidney’s got a kid.She doesn’t have anyone. How are they going to be okay losing almost a week’spaycheck?”

Sawyer groaned and put the water down. “Because I’ll fuckingpay them anyway. Let it go, man.”

He would. For now. He headed back out for the case of beerthey’d bought. The wind had picked up, and the snow was thick now. It wasstunningly beautiful here. All of Colorado was, but here they were right on thecontinental divide, and this high up everything felt fresh and clean and new.Like he felt.

Wyatt let his head fall back, snow landing on his face.

“You having one of those moments?” Sawyer asked, walkingpast him.

“I’m just happy to be here, man.” Months of therapy hadcracked him open wide, and he couldn’t quite stop feeling lucky, feeling likehe had a real chance at something that had felt so far from him before. “I knowyou say this storm is going to be dangerous, but it’s so beautiful.”

“Well, anyone stuck out in it now is going to be a beautifulcorpse,” Sawyer replied, grabbing the last of the groceries and closing theback of the Jeep. “And it’s not a big deal I pay them even though the bar’sclosed. My grandfather was smart enough to diversify. He told me to never counton one source of income. When he had money, he invested it. When his money mademore money, he bought land and invested in businesses. When he died he leftbehind more money than we could ever need. Well, not Wes. From what I’ve heardhe’s already gone through all of his, and I have no idea what Jimmy did withhis portion. We split everything three ways, with me buying out their parts ofthe businesses. It was lean for a while, but I’m back to being comfortable.”

Damn, he hadn’t meant to remind Sawyer of everything he’dlost. “Well, I’m just glad you’re able to take care of your people.”

“You’re getting paid, too, if you’re worried about money.”

Of course he would go there. “I might be if you allowed meto pay rent.”

Sawyer frowned. “You won’t be here long, and like you said,I owe you.”

It had been almost a year. They had different definitions ofthe wordlong. “Sure, I’m going to start looking for a rental realsoon.”

Sawyer’s brows rose. “Really? This is a bad time to look fora cabin to rent. I think you should wait until the spring at least. And youshould think about finding a place close to the bar. Even when the snow’s notso bad it can be hard to get to. That little bike you bought won’t handle thesnow and ice the way it needs to. You should probably stay put until you haveenough money for a proper SUV.”

And this was why he thought his plans might work. He wouldspend this weekend softening the guy up and then suggest they go down to thevalley and deal with some of the tenant complaints they’d recently had. He’dtaken over that part of the business, too. Sawyer owned a total of fiveproperties in the area, including his own cabin. Marie Warner was the gobetween and almost as surly as Sawyer. Wyatt had figured out how to soften herup, though. He went into town once a week to meet with her and sat and had teawith her and her wife, Teeny. He asked about her grandkids and how the businesswas going. He had a whole checklist of things to ask people to indicate he wastruly interested in their lives.

The weird thing turned out to be hewasinterestedin their lives. He kind of loved gossip, and Bliss thrived on it.

He wished he had more gossip on Sabrina beyond she was sweetand smart and probably dating the guys from Creede. If she was into lawenforcement guys, it would make things harder, but he intended for her to neversee the Wyatt he used to be. Only the man he was becoming.

“I will definitely take your advice. Besides, I liked lastwinter.” Wyatt followed him back to the porch, but Bella had gotten out and wasdoing zoomies in the snow. “It was nice and quiet, and the cabin is warm.”

Sawyer snorted. “You liked not getting your ass handed toyou on a daily basis and not living in a place where the cops could invade atany moment and take you to jail.”

All true. “I also liked playing games and learning to cookand reading books without someone telling me the state of my sexuality is tiedto illiteracy. It’s also nice to not listen to some dude screwing in the roomnext to me. The dorms there had paper-thin walls. Some of the things I heard…They were extremely wrong.”

“Well, you didn’t get nearly molested by a moose there,”Sawyer pointed out, his lips coming up in a grin.

It had been a weird morning. Wyatt had been standing in theyard, taking in the morning air, and then there was a moose licking the back ofhis neck. Scared the hell out of him. “I don’t know. Some of those guys got sodrunk they didn’t care whose bed they fell into. And one of them liked tosnuggle.”

Sawyer laughed, the sound booming in the quiet of themountains. He put a hand on Wyatt’s shoulder. “I’m glad you got out, brother.Come on. Let’s get settled in. I’m starving. I’ll see if the Internet’s stillup. Maybe we can play some Xbox.”

Bella barked and ran past them, zooming around the cabin.

“Bella, come inside,” Sawyer shouted with a shake of hishead. “You would think that dog is a damn husky.” When Bella didn’t come backaround the other side, Sawyer set down the bags and huffed. “She’ll freeze outhere.”

He stomped off, and Wyatt took the rest of the groceriesinside before heading out since Sawyer wasn’t back with Bella. He hoped shehadn’t run off chasing a bunny or a deer or something. The sky was gettingdark, and the snow was coming down like a thunderstorm now.

He rounded the cabin and then stopped because Sawyer wasn’talone.

Standing there in the middle of the drive leading from theroad down the mountain was Sabrina Leal. She had on jeans and sneakers and acoat that wasn’t anywhere close to warm enough. She was shivering.

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