Page 4 of When Autumn Arrives

“Millie Baker has a little sister named Riley.”

His head snapped in my direction. “Sorry. What the actual fuck?”

“Weird, right?” I asked. “How does this add up?”

“I don’t know. Fucking odd, Hen. What are we going to do about this?”

“Not tell Calder and Shane for starters,” I declared.

I had been debating this for a while. Calder and Shane didn’t need more ammunition, more of a reason to make us stop seeing Thea. As much as I was pissed that she lied to us, that she was keeping things from us still, even after being confronted, I knew that she had her reasons. This girl had a rough past from everything that I could see. Her dad wasn’t around, always traveling for work. It seemed that her mother went through boyfriends as quickly as she did a pack of cigarettes, and that left Thea raising herself. She was just a child when Paisley Rose came into her life. Not even eighteen and raising a baby in a state where neither of her parents lived. How her mother could allow that was beyond my comprehension.

Her wanting to protect Kyle despite the massive waste of breath that man was? Well, I couldn’t even fucking fathom that at all. It was something I had an issue with. A massive issue. I understood he was the father of her daughter, but his actions were inexcusable. Even more so as the father of a daughter.

“I agree,” Parker said, cutting through my thoughts. “They don’t need to know. It’ll just cause unnecessary drama. If she’s connected to Millie, though? We need to figure out how—why—she wound up here in this town with us.”

“Agreed,” I said. Relief hit me, easing the tension in my shoulders. I was worried about how he would react, and it’s why I kept the secret from him.

“Next time, fucking tell me what you’re up to.” He reached over, punching me in the arm.

“Stop,” I snapped, shooting him a warning look.

He knew I didn’t like rough physical touches. Not outside the bedroom, at least. I hated punching, slapping, smacking, any of it. Probably because I still hadn’t gotten over the way my father tossed me around as a kid. I took all the hits he covered as playful when really he was mad. One day, I woke up bigger than him, and I started to hit back. Now, those nudges covered as playful hits were a trigger for me. One I tried to keep under control because my triggers aren’t anyone else’s responsibilities.

“Sorry.” He raised his hands in surrender.

Chapter three

Thea

I woke the next morning still exhausted. This was going to be my new life, though. Late nights and early mornings were in my foreseeable future when Paisley came home. I’d have to get up at six am to get breakfast going before school, and on the weekends I still wanted to be able to take her on adventures. Lack of sleep came with being a parent, but this? The tired, aching feeling that resulted from mental exhaustion, as well as physical, was rough. The argument with Hendrix yesterday still played in my head.

Even now, I made mixed drinks for customers and waited to see if one of my boys would come in to greet me.

Was I still angry with Hendrix for digging into my past? Fuck yeah, I was. It was a violation of my privacy and made me feel gross. And I had no doubt he knew about Paisley. If he was able to find out about that fucked up evening, he was able to find her.

Still, I couldn’t admit it out loud. I didn’t want them to know if they didn’t already. So it would remain the elephant in the room until someone was brave enough to bring it up.

The door to the bar opened, and the bell I hooked to a string above it rang.

I turned my gaze, smiling when Shane entered, his face clear of any grease smudges, but his hair tousled from a long day of working under the hood.

My heart picked up in pace as he glanced around the room before his gaze met me. Heat crawled up my skin when he gave me a once over, assessing me in that cheap way men often did when they were attracted to a woman.

I loved the way these men looked at me. So much so, that I didn’t even feel guilty anymore that the same way Hendrix and Parker made me feel, Shane was now doing it too. I basked in the attention. Besides, it’s not like the boys cared about sharing.

Shane offered me a lopsided grin, walking straight for the bar. Toward me.

“Long day?” I asked, grabbing an empty glass and filling it with water. I set it in front of him on a coaster as he took a seat.

He nodded, and my line of sight dropped to his mouth as he pressed the glass to his lips and swallowed the cool water.

“Yes. How about you? How was your opening the other day?”

“Great,” I said, cheerfully, bouncing on the balls of my feet.

At the opposite end of the bar, an older man waved me over to refill his beer. I’d learned the last hour that his name was Hank, and he was a local who owned a towing business.

“Can I get you anything?” I asked Shane after telling Hank I’d be down to help him in a second.

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