Page 13 of Every Sunset

ANNA

A week had passed since the night of Max’s terrifying nightmare and since then things had been calmer.

Maddox had fixed my car, so I’d been able to get into town and ask around about a job.

I’d ended up with twenty hours a week at the hardware store.

It wasn’t anything glamorous, and mainly I just worked the register, since I knew not a damn thing about most of the products sold in the store.

Neil, the store owner was an older man, likely in his sixties.

He’d owned the place since his father passed decades before and he knew everything there was to know on the subject of hardware.

He worked the shop floor, talking to customers while I did some cleaning, shelving, and mainly served at the cash register.

Max had also gotten a summer job at the local outdoor swimming pool.

He was working as a lifeguard there five days a week and he seemed to enjoy it.

He’d made friends with a couple of other kids who were working the summer there, so at least he’d know someone when he started school soon.

He’d had a few more nightmares since that night, memories of the night his whole life had been turned on it’s head, but thankfully none of them had been as violent or terrifying for either of us.

I knew Maddox was right – my son needed some kind of therapy to help him through what had happened – but how could I send him when there were so many secrets we needed to keep about what happened?

Once again I was a shitty mom, allowing my son to suffer just to protect our lies and secrets, but my fears over what would happen if the truth got out was much worse.

I’d tried to maintain some distance between Logan, Maddox, and I since the night of Max’s nightmare. They were getting too close to the truth and I was terrified I would break and tell them everything. So I’d been polite when I saw them, but I tried hard to avoid them where I could.

They seemed as genuine as they’d assured Max and I they were, but that didn’t mean they’d help us or even keep our secret if they knew the truth, and I couldn’t risk that.

Of course, none of that stopped them from making appearances in my hot and heavy dreams, or stopped me from spying on them through the slats in my bedroom blind when they were outside grilling, or just drinking beers.

I was a creeper, but who could blame me?

Those guys were both as handsome and sexy as sin, and I seemed to be obsessed with thinking about them.

I knew it was likely because I was beyond desperate to just get laid.

It had been so long and my emotions were running high.

I was pretty sure sex and satisfaction with one of those god-like men would calm me right down.

“Hello? Earth to Anna?” I startled at the hand being waved in my face, then blushed furiously when I found Cat, the owner of the diner across the street from the hardware store, grinning at me knowingly. “Dreaming about the Easton brothers were you?” she asked teasingly.

I hadn’t even told her I lived on the property of Logan and Maddox, but she had known anyway the first day I met her at the beginning of the week.

Ever since we had chatted when I came into the diner to grab coffees for Neil and I, or to have lunch.

She was around my age, and married to Tate, who worked as the manager at Logan’s bar - Easton’s.

Cat was fun and bubbly, things I needed to feel in all of the chaos, and I had found that chatting with her gave me some semblance of normality that I needed.

“No…o-of course not!” I floundered, and she just laughed as she pushed two coffees across the counter closer to me.

“Girl, every woman in this town dreams about those two brothers, even us married ones. You got nothing to be ashamed of,” she told me playfully.

“I wasn’t dreaming about them. I was actually thinking about my work situation. I need another job if I plan to pay rent and be able to eat next month,” I said, desperate to change the subject.

“I’ve been asking around, but there doesn’t seem to be anything else about right now. I promise I’ll call you right away if I have any shifts here I can swing your way though.”

“Thanks Cat. I better get back,” I said as I grabbed the two coffees and turned for the door.

“Don’t worry, hon. Something will come up,” she called after me. How I wished I could be as filled with hope and positivity as that woman was.

The store was quiet when I got back, not that it was unusual.

Grand Lake was a small town with a low population.

There was only so much hardware people needed.

Still, I enjoyed the quiet and methodical job of emptying shelves, cleaning them, and then neatly re-stocking them.

It beat my usual work, which was being run off of my feet in some crummy diner.

The sun was shining brightly when I left the store later that afternoon, my shift over.

It was also almost unbearably hot and I was relieved I’d thought to wear shorts that morning instead of my usual jeans.

There was no dress code at the store so I was only in my denim cut offs and a faded, but much loved, Ramones t-shirt.

I scraped my hair up into a ponytail, allowing some air to my already sticky neck and tied it up messily.

The town was quiet too, most people at work in the middle of the week, but still parents were milling around with their kids who were still on vacation, and it just seemed filled with happiness and excitement.

It was something I had definitely fallen in love with - the safety I felt and the easy going nature that surrounded me as I walked down the main street.

It was so different from the city life Max and I were used to, and I had a feeling my son was falling in love with our new life even faster than I was.

After a quick trip to the grocery store for essentials and a ton of Ben & Jerry’s – my new best friends – I was driving home feeling pretty good for the first time in weeks.

Things were looking up for Max and I. Apart from the landlords whose good looks seemed to drive my libido crazy, we had a great place to live.

I’d found some work, and more would come, I was sure.

Max was smiling and seeming so much like his old self, likely because I had found a way not to constantly freak out on him.

I was really starting to think maybe making this move had been the best decision I’d ever made, even if I’d made it under the worst possible circumstances.

I was surprised when I pulled up to our little cottage, to find Logan walking around the side from the deck.

He was dressed in running shorts and a sweat soaked t-shirt that did not a thing to hide how perfectly ripped and muscular he was beneath it.

He’d obviously been exercising since his face had a sheen of sweat to it, and his wet hair was pushed back from his face.

I groaned quietly as just seeing him set my body alight once again in the perpetual state of arousal I seemed to be in around this man and his sexy brother.

Logan’s face brightened with his wide smile as he stalked towards my car, and he was almost to the door by the time I realized I needed to do something other than just sit there staring and drooling like the desperate, horny, sex deprived woman I was.

I fumbled to undo my seatbelt with one hand as I threw the car door open with the other in my panic to move and not allow him to see how he’d had me completely transfixed with his perfect body and panty-melting smile.

“Hey!” I greeted way too loudly as I practically threw myself from the car and slammed the door closed way too hard. “What are you doing here?” I almost slapped myself at that question. It was pretty damned obvious what he was doing from his outfit and the sweat drenching it.

“Just took a run. There’s a good path through the woods just down there,” he turned and pointed to the wooded area behind the cottage. “It has a great beach too if you ever want somewhere peaceful to just be,” he added.

He turned back towards me with his smile still in place and I just melted like some kid with her childhood crush before her.

I couldn’t seem to keep it together. He just looked so freaking good, and I wasn’t even into the sweaty look.

I always thought it was kind of weird in books when women swooned at a man drenched with sweat.

I had never imagined it to be something I would find attractive, but Logan Easton wore the look so damned well.

His golden skin glistened and his usually wild and messy hair just looked even hotter to me all tamed and pushed back as it was.

“Anna?”

“Huh?” I looked back up to his face and panicked as I realized I had completely spaced out from whatever he’d said, if he’d said anything. I didn’t even know.

“You okay, sweetheart?” he asked as he took a step closer. His smile dimmed as he looked me over with concern.

“Yep!” I answered way too enthusiastically. “Uh-huh. Absolutely fine!” I added, only making it all so much worse. What was wrong with me? I had spoken with men before. Even an attractive one or two. I had never lost all sense as I was in that moment.