“Guilty as charged,” Taryn answered. Lacie looked closer. Taryn’s violet eyes captured and fractured the lights hypnotically.
“Are those contacts?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“Nope,” Taryn grinned. “They’re the real deal.” She leaned in close so Lacie could get a better look. “They drive Jake wild,” she winked.
Lacie couldn’t help herself. She laughed, the first time since Shane kissed her goodbye.
They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, each on a different side of the bar. Taryn got up a few times to tend to a customer, but other than them there were only a few guys watching the game being rebroadcast and shooting pool. Anyone stupid enough to eye Lacie with interest received a lethal warning look from Taryn. Lacie realized she was every bit as tough as the men.
“So,” Taryn said finally. “You and me, we’ve got something in common.”
Lacie bowed her head. She’d thought she was ready to talk about it, but now that the moment was here, she wasn’t so sure. At least until Taryn leaned closer and said quietly, “Thank God I’m not alone anymore.”
Lacie’s head snapped up as Taryn grabbed a set of keys from behind the register. “Hey Dad, you okay if Lacie and I make scarce for a bit?”
An older man on the far side of the bar smiled and stood. Lacie knew immediately she was looking at the patriarch of the Callaghan clan. His hair, now woven liberally with silver, still boasted a fair amount of blue-black. And there was no mistaking the trademark Callaghan eyes, now looking at her with fondness.
“So this is the young lass that has stolen my boy’s heart,” he said, smiling warmly. “I was wondering when I would get to meet you.” He held out his hand and Lacie took it, expecting a handshake. Instead he brought it to his lips in an old-fashioned gesture.
“Well, at least I know where Shane gets his gentlemanly charm,” she said. Jack Callaghan chuckled.
“Aye, you’ll do just fine,” he said, his blue eyes sparkling. He turned to Taryn. “Well, go on then. Be off with you. No need to hurry back.”
Taryn grabbed Lacie by the hand and tugged. “You ever ridden a Harley before?” she asked.
Uncertainty flickered in Lacie’s eyes. “Uh, no.”
“Awesome. You’re going to love it.” Taryn fitted Lacie with a helmet, then showed her how to straddle the bike and hold on. “Hang on tight,” Taryn advised, kick starting the machine with one powerful down stroke. Before Lacie could catch her breath, it was stolen from her completely.
––––––––
“That was ... amazing!” Lacie said half an hour later, reaching absently for a French fry. She and Taryn sat on a rock overhang high above the valley, digging into the bags of take-out they’d picked up at a drive-thru on the way.
“I know, right?” Taryn said, grinning. “It’s such a rush. Jake broke down and got me my own bike for my birthday,” she told Lacie, “but I’m only allowed to ride it when he’s not around. He says I make him nervous, if you can imagine that.” She laughed and rolled her eyes; Lacie felt as though a tiny bit of weight had lifted from her shoulders. Though it was hard to imagine Jake Callaghan being nervous about anything. A few minutes in his presence was enough to convince Lacie that he was a force of nature.
They ate in silence for a little while, enjoying the view. “It never goes away, you know,” Taryn said finally, wiping at some ketchup on the side of her mouth. “But you learn to live with it. You use it to make you stronger, to appreciate everything more because of it.”
Is that why Taryn was so strong? Because she had been through hell and fought her way back?
“What happened to you?” Lacie asked. She hadn’t really expected an answer; it was meant more to deflect the conversation from her own painfully recent experience. But Taryn told her. Everything. Beginning with her life as the privileged daughter of an aspiring US Senator with presidential hopes, through the assassination and murder of her entire family. The six months of torture she’d endured at the hands of an obsessive psychopath – a man who had been like family to her, who had been her protector. Her dramatic escape and subsequent rescue by a saint of a man named Charlie. She ended with her fateful unplanned stop in Pine Ridge and the erasure of her previous identity.
Lacie was speechless. “I’ve never told anyone the whole story before,” Taryn admitted when she was finished. “Jake and the others, they know pieces of it. Even Nicki, who had it worse than I did. Think they know all of it, but they don’t.” She looked at Lacie; silent understanding passed between them. “I think it would kill Jake if he knew everything.”