Wild Card (North Ridge #1)

When my mother and I decided to press charges against my father, we really weren’t sure what the outcome would be. In fact, the first lawyer that we hired had advised against it, telling us there was no point, since my father wasn’t going to be coming out of prison anytime soon.

Needless to say, we got another lawyer, one who completely agreed with our need for closure and for the correct justice to be served. It takes a long time for things to go through the courts here, but it’s been set in motion now and every day I’m more and more grateful that my mother decided to take a stand and proud that I had the courage to stand with her.

My mother waves at me cheerfully and comes over, gesturing to the empty bar stools beside me.

"Are these taken?" she asks me.

I roll my eyes. "Even if they were, I'm sure Del could get them to move in a second."

At that, Del flexes her biceps. They're actually pretty impressive.

"Sorry I'm late," Shane says, coming over to give me a kiss on the head before sitting down on the other side of me. "We had some trouble in the snow."

"Think it's about time to get a new truck," Hank grumbles. "Lord knows how you'll be able to afford it."

"Technically," I say to Hank as he sits beside my mother, "Dick promised Shane a truck for Christmas."

"And how would Dick afford a new truck?"

Hank grumbles again. "He has his ways. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a treasure chest hidden somewhere on the property. He told me when he was young he used to save every single penny his mother would give him for candy until he was finally able to buy his own damn pony."

"We'll see," Shane says as he gestures to the keg, nodding at Del. "I'm pretty sentimental about the old girl. I won't give up on her until she's truly done with me."

I can't help but smile. It sounds a lot like Shane's attitude toward me. And thank God he didn't give up. He was resilient in his love for me and didn't stop trying until I was finally brave enough to see the truth.

He loves me beyond reason, just as I love him. And love either makes you afraid or brave. I chose to be brave.

Del pours Shane a pint, gets Hank a glass of whisky and my mother a cider. I get another beer and lean against Shane, feeling all my worries slip away. There might be a snowstorm raging outside but beside Shane I feel as safe as can be.

Another cold blast comes in, a few snowflakes floating across the bar.

Everyone turns to look because that's what you do in a place like this, but instead of seeing Fox, who was supposed to come by tonight, or maybe even Maverick if he's off-duty, it's someone I've never seen before.

And she's fucking gorgeous. Fairly tall, slender and pale with long blonde hair, pouty lips and sweet green eyes. I mean, it's pretty rare you see a babe like that in North Ridge, let alone the Bear Trap pub.

Del doesn't seem to miss a beat though and smiles at the newcomer.

"What can I get for you tonight?" she asks.

"A glass of white wine, please," the girl says. Her accent sounds American.

I know none of us should be staring but we all watch as she goes and sits in a booth, takes out a paperback from her leather knapsack and starts reading. I guess she doesn't know that Del's not exactly a waitress.

"Do you know her?" I ask Del as she pours her wine.

"Not really," she says, keeping her voice low. "She came in the other night. Ordered a wine, read a book. Her name is Riley, that's about all I know."

"Oh," Shane says slowly as Del goes over and drops off the drink at Riley's table. I hope she’s happy with the house wine because that’s all this place has.

"What?" I ask.

He looks over his shoulder at her and then back at me, nodding. "She's the new hire at the Search and Rescue."

"You mean with Maverick?"

"Yeah. Mav said they hired a woman from Colorado called Riley. He says he hasn't met her yet..." Shane trails off and starts grinning. "Man, he is going to hate this so much."

"Hate having to work around a hot piece of ass?"

"Rachel," my mother admonishes.

"What? She's got a good ass."

"I haven't noticed," Shane says, totally straight faced. "And anyway. Yes. Maverick is the head of the crew, he can't go around screwing the people he works with and believe me...he's going to fall head over heels for her."

I can't help but smirk. "Good. It's about time he can only look at something and not touch it."

"You're right about that. Oh man. If only I could be a fly on the wall."

I look back at Riley who seems to be totally engrossed in a book. "She's reading something with an Oprah Book Club sticker on it. She might even be smart enough to stay away from Maverick in the first place."

"Let's hope," Shane says.

We spend the next couple hours at the pub drinking, though Shane just has a glass or two because he's driving. The Riley chick stays for almost the whole time, giving us all a shy smile as she leaves and steps out into the cold.

"We should probably head back too," Shane says to me.

"We're going to stay for a bit longer," my mother suddenly says.

"Really?" My mom is not the type to stay long at a pub, in fact I'm kind of surprised she and Hank decided to come tonight to begin with.

"You two go ahead," Hank says and I swear to God he winks at me.

I glance at Shane, eyebrows raised. "Okay?"

"I'll give them a ride home later," Del speaks up.

"Suit yourself," I tell them as I get off the stool. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Don't worry about us," Hank says. "Just go and enjoy yourself."

Go and enjoy ourselves? It's a Saturday night, nothing unusual about it at all. Usually we just go to the bar, then come back home, drink some whisky by the fire and have crazy sex and I’m pretty sure that’s not what he meant. If he did…well, maybe we’ve all gotten a little too close.

We open the door and step outside, the winter air hitting me right in the face. I shiver, pulling my toque down until it covers my eyebrows, tucking my scarf into the collar of my parka. Shane grabs my arm and helps me down the snowy steps to the parking lot where cars sit amongst snows drifts. Under the streetlamps, the snow dances with an orange glow, swirling together in time with the howling wind.

“Fuck it’s cold,” I say.

Shane doesn’t say anything and when we reach the truck, he reaches out and pulls me to a stop.

“Rachel,” he says and there’s a strange nervousness about him, the way his eyes are both hopeful and cagey, the way he’s pressing his lips together. Snowflakes gather in his brows, pile up on the shoulders of his coat.

“What?”

He’s either about to say something amazing to me or something totally horrible and I honestly can’t tell. I’ve never seen him this anxious before.

He closes his eyes, breathes in deep through his nose and gives his head a little shake.

“I’m going to make this short and sweet,” he eventually says.

Uh oh.

He goes on, managing a smile. “Mainly because it’s cold as fuck and when I originally had this all planned in my head it was the end of summer and everything was still sweltering hot. But anyway. Rachel, I know that this is just a parking lot to most but it’s more than a parking lot to us.”