Page 1 of When Morning Comes Around

Chapter One

Sadie exited the gas station and walked slowly back to her vehicle. She hadn’t wanted to stop here in town, but she hadn’t had any choice. The minivan was on the verge of overheating, and she’d needed a bathroom break.

She climbed back behind the wheel, closed her eyes, and held her breath as she turned the key in the ignition, hoping that the temperature gauge wouldn’t shoot straight back up into the danger zone. When she opened her eyes, she was relieved to see that the engine had cooled off some, but she had a feeling that situation wouldn’t last long once she got back on the road.

She should probably give it a bit longer. She wanted to get to her dad’s place before it got dark, but she had a while yet. She glanced across the street at the grocery store. She could kill two birds with one stone if she picked up a few necessities and gave the old minivan a bit more time to rest.

She parked in a spot at the far end of the lot. It’d do her good to stretch her legs – over the last few days on the road, she’d done far more sitting than walking. And besides, the longer she took, the longer the minivan would have to cool off.

She looked around as she walked toward the entrance to the store, trying to calculate how long it had been since she was here last. She’d had a weekend job at this very store when she was in high school; that was more years ago than she cared to count.

In the early years of her marriage, she used to come back twice a year to visit her dad. Her heart sank. Dale and her dad hadn’t gotten along. Initially that had made things tense, andeventually it’d made things impossible. She was such a damn fool!

Hindsight was a wonderful thing. It was easy to see now that her dad had been right all along – Dale really was an asshole. But she’d been so determined to make her marriage work that she’d sided with her husband instead of her dad after that last big blowup argument they’d had. Dale had refused to come visit after that and he’d made her life hell whenever she came. Guilt sat heavy in her chest when she realized that it had been over two years since she was last here – since she’d seen her dad.

The fact that she was only here now because he’d had a fall made the guilt weigh even heavier.

She quickened her stride. She couldn’t change the past, but she was here now. She decided to buy some of that awful saltwater taffy that they sold for the tourists. Her dad loved the stuff even though he couldn’t chew it. He’d worn dentures for as long as Sadie could remember, but he used to joke about the taffy lasting longer since he could only gum it and not chew in the traditional sense.

When she entered the store, she stopped in her tracks at the sight of three huge men standing next to the line of carts. A little laugh bubbled up from her chest at the thought that there must be some kind ofbig manconvention in town. It was a ridiculous thought, and she knew it, but she couldn’t think of any reasonable explanation for there being three good-looking men, who each had to be over six foot two or maybe three inches tall, all looking as though they spent an unreasonable amount of time in the gym, standing beside the line of shopping carts.

She stifled another laugh at the thought that perhaps she was just imagining things. She’d been on the road for a few days,but it felt like weeks, and even before that she’d barely slept for a week or so – ever since she’d found Dale and… That memory wiped the smile off her face.

When she realized that she was standing in the entrance to the store, gawking at the three giants, she forced herself to move forward. Perhaps they’d disappear in a puff of smoke when she went to get a cart.

They didn’t disappear, but one of them – she wanted to call him the dark-haired one, but his head was shaved. In her opinion, the best looking one, turned toward her as she approached.

“Sorry, we’ll move out of the way.” He herded the other two away from the carts to let Sadie pass.

She grabbed a cart and nodded her thanks. The other two continued talking, but he caught her gaze and smiled.

Holy smokes, what a smile! His eyes were kind – there was no way she could know that he was a kind person just from a smile but somehow, she did. She didn’t think she’d ever seen kindness presented in such a sexy package before – and definitely not such a large package.

She gripped the handle of the cart tightly as warmth bloomed in her chest and more unfortunately, on her cheeks. She felt incredibly foolish. Yes, it had been a long time since a man had smiled at her – and wasn’t that a sad confession for a woman who’d been married for over thirty years? But it had been even longer since a man’s smile had that kind of effect on her – the effect of making her insides feel fuzzy, and her legs feel a little shaky.

She tried to smile back, but she imagined that it must look more like the grimace of a crazy woman. Then, she scurried away, hoping that the big man convention wouldn’t be in town for long – and that she wouldn’t run into them again and further embarrass herself.

She couldn’t help it; before she turned down the first aisle, she glanced back over her shoulder for one last look. Greybeard and the largest of the giants were still talking, but… Oh! The darker one, the handsome one, he was staring right back at her, and when he smiled again…

She smiled back before scampering around the corner out of sight. She really was a crazy woman. The way he smiled at her had seemed as though he was curious about her – maybe even interested in her – and she highly doubted that was true. She was just thinking crazy thoughts because after what had happened with Dale – after what she’d seen – some part of her apparently needed to feel that she might still hold some appeal to a man. She’d do better to remember what Dale had told her – that it wasn’t her fault that she’d reached the point in her life where she was less appealing as a woman; it was just a fact of aging.

She pushed the cart at a half jog toward the candy section in the back of the store, trying to forget the mean look on Dale’s face as he’d added that although aging wasn’t her fault, she had no one else to blame for the fact that she’d let herself go.

~ ~ ~

“So, what do you say?” asked Cal. “Are you going to join us later?”

Dominic shrugged. “I don’t think so. I might have a drink with you guys when I come in to collect my dinner, but I’m looking forward to an evening at home.”

Dalton chuckled. “I get it; working with Taryn would take it out of anyone. When you get a night off, you want to chill in peace, right?”

Dominic shrugged. “Something like that.”

Cal turned to Dalton. “And what about you?”

“You know I’ll be there,” said Dalton. “I won’t stay for long; I want to get to the restaurant. It’s not like I’m much use to her – Taryn runs the show, but I like to hang out, be there in case she needs me.”

The rest of what they were saying faded away when Dominic noticed a woman come into the store and stop dead as she stared at them. He watched her curiously; she wasn’t afraid, at least he didn’t think so. He’d understand it if she were – he knew that his size sometimes intimidated people, and Dalton and Cal were each slightly bigger than him.

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