Page 28 of Claiming Ours (Anchor Bay #2)
LIAM
M y content grin hadn’t dropped since the sounds of her laughter and the scent of something delicious cooking met me when I opened her cabin door.
Baylee had turned to me when I walked in, joy radiating off her, and beckoned me over, pulling me into her arms to kiss me like she hadn’t seen me all day.
While I sipped on a glass of water, wishing like hell it was a cold beer, she and Memphis traded crazy memories from high school while he cooked, and she watched from her perch on the island counter.
The whole fucking thing was homey, warm, and damn amazing after working my ass off all day. Dinner was fresh, healthy, and fucking delicious, and I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Baylee ate more in one sitting than I’d seen her eat before, maybe ever.
Drying my hands on a towel after finishing the dishes, I headed for the couch to join the other two.
Heat radiated from the fireplace, flames casting a relaxed glow over the living room from the small fire I started before dinner to chase away the damp chill brought in by the storm raging outside.
Rain had been battering on the metal roof and pelting the windows for the last hour, adding to the cozy evening.
The cushion dipped beneath me, the motion causing Baylee to press against my side.
At her content sigh, I glanced at Memphis in the single armchair and inclined my head in silent thanks for his part in making my girl so damn happy and relaxed.
The serene smile tugging at his lips as he watched her contradicted the tatted hardass his outward appearance made you want to assume he was.
“I need to get cleaned up,” Baylee announced while pushing off the couch to stand. She stretched both arms high into the air, making the scrub top lift, exposing a sliver of soft porcelain skin. “I won’t be long.”
Both our gazes followed her out of the room until she disappeared into the bedroom and we heard the click of the bathroom door.
I studied him out of the corner of my eye, still unsure of his real reason for being in Anchor Bay.
Memphis stared into the fire, tatted fingers loosely interlaced and dangling between his spread knees, as if lost in thought.
“Shoot me straight, Memphis. Why are you really here?” I asked, my deep voice cutting through the fire’s peaceful crackle.
His eyes didn’t leave the dancing flames.
“I wish I could tell you, but I honestly don’t know myself.
I saw her picture, and I knew I needed to see her.
There was this insistent pull to this place that I couldn’t ignore.
” The leather groaned when he leaned back in the chair and rested his ankle over the opposite knee.
“Baylee is the woman no one else could live up to in my mind. I guess I’m here for some closure regarding Dean and to see if she’d want me in her life again.
I miss my best friend, but after today, I realized maybe I missed her more. ”
I hummed in agreement and shifted on the couch to get comfortable. “I can see that. Now that I’ve known her, had her in my life, I’d miss her too. Do anything, including fly across the country, to see her again.”
He nodded, running a hand through his hair, disheveling the styled dirty-blond strands. “I wasn’t sure how she’d react. It’d been so long since we last saw each other, but I’d hoped that she’d remember me the way I remembered her, want that connection again. Fuck, I don’t know.”
“Were you hoping for more than a friendship with her?” I asked carefully. I didn’t want to push either of them, but it was clear they each still had unresolved feelings for the other. Now they were both in a position to explore that connection—with me directing it all, of course.
Fuck, just thinking about that had my cock twitching.
His odd, light green eyes met mine. “I hoped for anything that she would give me. If that was just friends, then that was what I’d be. But yeah, a part of me wished that the spark we had back then, even with Dean in the mix, would still be there.”
“Is that what the fallout between you and him was about?” I leaned forward, not dropping his intense gaze. “You told Dean how you felt about her?”
He bit his lip and shifted his stare back to the flames. “No. Though he threw that in my face, saying I was trying to break them up so I could have her for myself.”
“Were you?”
“Fuck no. I wanted to be a part of the relationship, not the rift between them.” He shook his head and dropped it back to regard the ceiling.
“I wanted what they had so fucking much, wanted them to want me even if that was crazy talk. Dean liked to fuck with me since he knew I liked her, would start shit on the couch with Baylee while I sat right there. And hell yes, I’d watch.
She knew I was, too, which made it all so fucking hot. ”
“Have you ever tried it?”
“Tried what?” he asked, sounding exhausted.
His dog pushed off the floor from where he lay beside the chair and rested his large head on Memphis’s leg. Long tattooed fingers brushed over his fur before scratching behind each ear, causing the dog’s tail to rapidly thump on the hardwood floor.
“A poly relationship, more than one romantic partner, like in our community. Have you ever tried it?”
He shook his head, not looking away from Elvis. “No, though I’ll admit after being here, I’m intrigued. What about you?” He peeked over through his light lashes. “Was this all new to you, or were you in this lifestyle before?”
“I was in one but didn’t realize it,” I grumbled, and his brows rose.
That single ring glinted in the firelight.
“Before moving here, I was married, faithful to her even though we hardly saw each other because of my deployments. She was killed in a car wreck, head-on collision. Later I found out she wasn’t the driver—her fucking boyfriend was. ”
“Oh fuck. I’m assuming he died in the crash, too, or you killed him with your bearlike hands.”
I snorted a laugh, which was shocking considering this topic always fueled that undercurrent of anger running through me.
“I figured out she was having an affair with some guy for a while behind my back. The cops relayed all the information on the accident investigation, and I also did my own, uncovering a lot of other shit I really wish I hadn’t. ”
“Like?” He leaned forward, clearly engrossed in my fucked-up past.
I rolled my eyes to the ceiling, trying to remember some of the worst of those discoveries.
“Like the fucker wasn’t her first boyfriend and probably wouldn’t have been her last. She told her friends she was unhappy in the marriage but didn’t want to leave me, so she just fucked around while I was away, then acted fine when I was home.
That fucked with me for a long time. How she could act happy but was doing that behind my back.
Everything felt so fucking fake, and I hated it. ”
The dog’s head swiveled my way with a whine. I tapped a single finger on my thigh, and he trotted over and rested his muzzle on my leg, with big dark eyes gazing up at me like he desperately wanted to soothe me.
“Is he a therapy dog?”
“Not trained, but he picks up on moods. Elvis has been with me through it all—the rehab program even let him come with me. I think he’s more hyperaware of strong emotions than most dogs. He likes his ears scratched,” Memphis added. “What happened after all that?”
“A funeral that I didn’t even want to attend because I felt so fucking betrayed, but I still went out of loyalty to our marriage.
After that, I lost myself for a while. Went back to the rodeo circuit in Montana, picked up amateur MMA fights, too, but none of it helped the”—I pressed a fist to my chest where the pain used to live—“anger and grief. Someone knew a guy named Brandon who started an adventure and rescue company in Alaska and needed help. I had one conversation with the guy and knew it was my shot at breaking out of the misery I’d fallen into.
I packed up my shit and moved here.” A small smile pulled at my lips. “Then she came.”
“Baylee.” At a whine and pressure on my thigh, I resumed running the tips of my fingers through Elvis’s short coarse fur. “She moved here right after Dean’s death?” Memphis questioned, watching me and Elvis with a goofy grin.
“A while after the funeral, yeah. Even in her utter grief, the sadness that wrapped around her, she was breathtakingly beautiful. Every aspect of her felt real, no agenda or manipulations. It was the complete opposite of what I knew before, and it instantly drew me to her. But knowing she was mourning and vulnerable, I didn’t want to take advantage, so I waited. ”
“And waited and waited and waited.”
Both of our heads whipped around at the sound of Baylee’s voice.
She tiptoed into the room, rounding the couch to stand in front of where I sat.
I swallowed the distressed groan that wanted to escape at the sight of her in the oversized shirt that hung down her thighs, covering up whatever sleep shorts she wore beneath. If she even wore any.
She looked down at me. “You’re a good man, Liam, and I’m sorry I made you wait so long, that my grief?—”
Hands around her hips, I guided her onto my lap, her legs falling to either side of my hips. Over her shoulder, I smirked at finding Memphis’s heated stare locked on her ass.
“You’re allowed whatever time you need, Little Bit. My biggest fear was you getting stuck there. You deserve so much more than that dark, sad state of living.”
“I don’t know if I do.”
“Please tell me you don’t believe that, Bay.” She shifted to glance at Memphis. “Dean wouldn’t have wanted you to mourn him forever, to not move on and be happy.”
“It just feels so wrong to be here, to be happy when he’s not. He’s gone.” Her voice broke and her head fell forward, allowing her blonde hair to curtain around her face.
Pulling her even closer, I wrapped both arms around her back until she buried her face against my neck.