Page 2 of Savage

A smile stretched across his face, his grin rattling something inside me. “How have you been? What’re you doing back in town? Your mom said that you weren’t ever coming back—you said you weren’t ever coming back.”

“I… I moved back.” I forced myself to be truthful with him, just thankful that Iris was in the backseat of the car—with the door open—and that she wasn’t getting a glimpse of the man she got her eyes from. “I see you finally joined.” My words came out a little bitter, enough that even Gunner caught them.

“Viper and Axle are in it, too. A lot has changed since you were here…”

“Yeah, it doesn’t really look like it,” I motioned around me. “The town looks exactly the same.”

“Uh, yeah, I guess so.” His large hand rubbed the back of his neck. “I just can’t believe you’re here—I tried to call a few times…”

“I changed my number once I moved to San Francisco.” I was careful about my word choice, not wanting to insinuate thereasonI changed it. “I just wanted to start over.”

“So then what brings you back?” He leaned against the side of my silver SUV, his taught biceps and forearms bracing against it, giving me a spectacular view. My inner thighs squeezed as I thought about those arms wrapped around me…

But I brushed it off. “I lost my job at the bank I worked for and couldn’t find another job that could pay the bills.”

Or all my debt.

“Ah, I get that. Working at bank sounds…fun.”

I rolled my eyes at the smirk on his face. “It wasn’t bad, and it was just fine. I met a lot of people that I liked. I’ll be starting here at Vision, actually. Taylor Green helped me get the job.”

“Holy shit, Taylor Green?” Gunner laughed. “I didn’t even know your old best friend was even living in town still. I thought she had gone off to chase her dreams of acting in like New York City or something.”

“I don’t think she made it very long,” I giggled, catching myself relaxing in his presence. That’s the way things had always been between us. The sex had been fiery, but the friendship goofy, everything coming so easy. “She’s really excited though. She’s married now, too.”

“Oh yeah? Who’d she marry?” Gunner’s face shifted a little when he said the wordmarry,and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was thinking about the same thing that I was—all those times thatwesaid we would get married someday.

“Some guy named Dalton Huskins,” I answered him, ignoring the sadness looming over my head. “I don’t think he’s from here.”

And good for her for that.

“Ah, well, congrats to her, I guess…” his voice trailed off as he met my gaze full on, and despite all that time passing, he still carried his emotions in his eyes—and the spark was clearly still there. “Hal, it’s so good to see you.” His voice was husky and deep, the years having matured it in a way that made the woman in me want to rip her clothes off.

I bet he has this effect on all the women around here.

“It’s good to see you, too.” I pushed away the thoughts of all the women who hung around the clubhouse, begging for a chance to jump in the sheets with the bikers. I didn’t want to think about someone else being with him—even if I knew they had been.

“Mom!” Iris’s voice called from the back seat. “Come on!”

Gunner’s eyes went wide as Iris stuck her head out, standing on the edge of the floorboards and peeking over the top of the door.

“Hang on just a second,” I called back to her before turning to Gunner. “Um, that’s Iris.” I pointed over my shoulder awkwardly, trying not to show the fact I was fuckingfreakingout internally. Would he see the resemblance?

“You have a daughter?” He gave her a wave from where he was standing, and then his eyes dropped to my left hand.

“Yeah, I’m a single mom,” I said softly. “We do okay.”

He nodded, growing silent for a few moments.

“Mom!I want to go tell Granny about the ice cream! Come on!”

I let out a sharp exhale, shaking my head. “I have to go, but um, it was nice to see you, Gunner. You look great.”Hope the club was worth losing me.

“You look amazing,” he perked up as I gave Iris a look and shut her door. Gunner opened my door for me, and I leaned in to start the car and get the air conditioner going. “Hallie, wait,” he stopped me as I went to climb in.

“Yeah?”

“Let’s catch up? I… I don’t have anything going on tonight. I could buy you dinner—the both of you.”

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