Page 9 of Eye of Her Storm

“Bye,” she told her guys, patting her hands on their chests before fully breaking free. “I’ll see you at noon.”

“Both of them?” Mads asked in disbelief after the men had said their goodbyes, headed out and Riv had regained her seat behind the desk.

“Yeah. They’re the ones you saw me with at Moon’s wedding.”

“Both?” Mads repeated.

“Yeah. It’s kind of a thing here in Daly. You’ve been here over a week. You haven’t noticed?”

Madison shook her head. “No, I’ve pretty much been at the O’Keefe’s B&B or here. I haven’t really gotten out much.”

Riv frowned, realizing her friend was still nursing a broken heart. It was part of why Mads had jumped at the job in Daly. Her fiancé had cheated on her then married the other woman just a week after the breakup. She and her ex had been together for four years before the engagement, and his cheating on her then marrying a girl he’d known for mere weeks had devastated Madison. She wouldn’t talk about it beyond the barest details but Riv knew her friend had been hurting and running from the pain when she’d come here.

“Well,” River started. She cleared her throat. “Around here, it’s called the Daly Way. Even if you haven’t gotten out much, you must have noticed the severe shortage of women in town.” Hell, the first time Riv’s sister Paisley had gone to the diner alone, she’d been mobbed.

“I thought maybe I just hadn’t seen them. Most people live outside of the town-proper.”

“True, they do, but let’s just say…when my sisters and I moved here, we nearly doubled the female population. This is a cow town, with men who come here just for work. They’re mostly single, without connections. Many are getting away from a world that’s beat them up and escaping to a better place. A lot of them were drifters before they came here and found home.”

“So they’re mostly transient?”

River shrugged. “Some, I guess. Most come here and stay, though. Those who end up with a woman—especially if it’s one guy and one girl—tend to leave to raise their families in the city. That’s crazy, if you ask me. This is the perfect place to bring up kids. Pretty much no crime to speak of. Everyone knows everyone. A rock star lives on Daly’s outskirts—okay, that last part isn’t really a factor. But Daly’s pretty much perfect, save for the lack of women. Rayna—she’s one of the owners of the B&B—is trying to change things around here. Bring in more people.”

“She’s nice and so in love with her husband, Jamie. He’s kinda shy, isn’t he?”

“It’s the scars. He believes people will think he’s some kind of freak, but he’s one of the nicest men I’ve ever met. Rayna saw that in him right away. Anyway, when she decided to move here a couple years ago, she appointed herself as head of our tourism—something she created because there was no such thing before her. Her plans have taken time and run into some roadblocks, but she’s starting to make headway. But that’s another story. You want to know about my guys. My boyfriends.”

“Both of them.”

“Right…the Daly Way. It’s not an official motto or anything. That’s just what people have taken to calling it because it’s the way around here. Because there are so few women, relationships in this town are usually of the polygamous variety. Trinogamous, even. Sometimes more.”

“You just made up that word.”

River laughed. “Maybe, but anyway… Even if relationships or marriages end up being one guy and one woman, like Rayna and Jamie or my sister, Moon, and her husband, Pete, generally, they started out as ménage relationships. Sometimes, like with my sister Paisley—or Jamie’s brother, Patrick and his partners—it stays as a ménage.”

Interest lit in Madison’s eyes. “So will you end up with one of them or both of them?” she asked, nodding toward the doorway to indicate Seth and Tai, though they’d long departed.

River paused for a moment. “They’ll…end up together.”

“Oh crap! River, I’m sorry. I forgot!”

She gave Madison a rueful smile. “It’s okay. It is what it is.”

“I know, but—”

“Don’t worry about it. I should have just said ‘both’. I don’t want my imminent demise to be on the forefront of everyone’s minds. I want to be normal, live normally, be treated normally. You know?”

Madison’s eyes looked watery, but she blinked it away. “Yeah, I do. How are you feeling? Truly. Not the BS crap you fed Doc this morning. Physically? Emotionally?”

“Other than the headaches and the original symptoms that sent me to the specialists in the first place, I’m okay. The constant pain is exhausting. And emotionally? I don’t know. Some days, I’m good. Other days, I’m a basket case. Sometimes, I feel like I’ve got this. What will be will be. It had to happen to someone, right? Why not me? Other times, I’m cursing the universe or crying or both, and I don’t understand why I got this. Why I’m the one dying at twenty-six. Why I ended up with a brain tumor. It’s not genetic, you know? They don’t know why I developed it.”

“The roller coaster emotions are normal. Have you spoken with someone?”

River nodded. “They set me up with a counselor at the hospital. I’ve seen her a couple times already.”

“Good. Make sure you keep seeing her and follow her advice. It’ll help. And…just because you feel pretty good…don’t overdo it. Okay?” She placed her hand over Riv’s forearm. “Don’t ignore your symptoms. Listen to your doctors. Don’t be that nurse.”

“Is this visit free of charge?” Riv joked.

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