Northern Renegade

For the first time in a long time Liam felt as if he could exhale, at least a little. He still didn’t know what the hell he was going to do with his life but for now, being here felt right.

“Yeah, it seems to have treated you well.”

Liam had seen some things—terrible things, but it was nothing compared to Bull’s experience. As a POW in Vietnam, Bull had been to hell and back.

Bull grinned. “Can’t complain, can’t complain. Nice job on that mission. How’s the leg?”

Liam shrugged it off. “Not a problem.” The only problem had been when they’d been patching up what was little more than a flesh wound they’d found his faulty heart valve. That was the damned problem, not his leg.

Bull simply nodded and moved on to ask, “You hungry?”

Liam grinned. “Damn near starving.”

“Then belly up to the bar and we’ll feed you while you meet everyone.”

Throughout the entire exchange with Bull, Liam had had an undercurrent of awareness, always sensing the presence of the woman sitting in the booth to his left. He would find out who she was, but he’d wait until Bull had made introductions and see if one was forthcoming. Two characteristics had been honed by his training, his instinct and patience. He could wait, but in the meantime he was cognizant of her.

Several minutes later he felt as if he’d met damn near everyone in the joint… except her. However, the blonde at the booth with her, a woman named Jenna, had stopped by on her way out. Liam now knew the other woman’s name. Tansy. Tansy Wellington. She was Jenna’s sister and was here visiting from Chattanooga.

He’d never met anyone named Tansy. But he’d also never reacted that way to a woman, either. In an instant she’d slid beneath his skin. It wasn’t as if his guard was down because his guard was a permanent fixture. Nope, she’d just slipped in, marched straight through and set up camp. He didn’t like it a damn bit.

A tall, raw-boned woman plunked a plate heaped with a healthy portion of potpie on the counter before him. “Thanks,” he said with a nod, picking up his spoon. He turned to Bull. “So, congratulations. Merilee says the two of you tied the knot.”

He took a bite. The potpie was damn good.

“Yep. When you find a good woman you’ve got to hold on to her, even if you have to spend twenty-something years to pin her down.”

Liam spoke frankly to Bull. They’d always had that kind of relationship, even though they didn’t see each other often. Both of them were straight shooters. “I’m surprised you and Merilee married after all this time.”

“Yeah? Well, that’s because the crazy woman was still married, but just hadn’t mentioned that minor detail. Hell, I’ve been trying to marry her since I met her. When you find a good one you have to keep her.”

“No kidding? She was still married?”

“Yep. Her old man wouldn’t give her a divorce. Picture an asshole with control issues. She kept thinking she’d get a divorce at any time and then it just became a thing. He showed up a couple of years ago engaged to Jenna, the woman who just left.”

Jenna had mentioned her husband and a baby. “Merilee’s ex lives here and they just had a kid?”

“Hell, no. Merilee ran his ass out on the rails once she got her paperwork signed.” He grinned and nodded his satisfaction with his woman’s actions. “Jenna decided to stay. She married a guy she knew from high school last year. Nice fellow. Speaking of marriage and divorce, sorry to hear about Natalie.”

“How’d you know about Natalie?”

“Dirk. He rolled in last September, stayed a couple of months and then rolled back out.”

Liam’s cousin Dirk did that. He’d show up for a while and then vamoose. Dirk was something of a rolling stone. And they’d had some damn good times together as kids and teenagers. Dirk was a year younger than Liam and Lars and a year older than Liam’s baby brother, Jack. The four of them had spent many a summer vacation and holidays fishing, hunting, making slingshots, four-wheeling, skinny-dipping, generally doing a bunch of fun stuff at their grandparents’ spread in upper Michigan.

And that Dirk would know about his and Natalie’s divorce made sense. Liam’s mom didn’t get along with her two brothers, Bull and Dirk’s dad. However, Natalie and Dirk had grown up next door to each other and their moms were good friends. Hell, that’s how he’d met Natalie in the first place.

In fact, Natalie had been a sore spot between Liam and his cousin. Liam hadn’t known he was encroaching at the time, and the truth was, it probably wouldn’t have made any difference. Dirk thought Liam had stolen Natalie from him, and it had definitely driven a wedge between the two of them.

Liam felt sure that Natalie’s mom had been the one to tell of his and Natalie’s breakup. You knew you were in a crazy family when your former mother-in-law was the one telling your kin about your divorce.

“How long was Dirk here?” Liam asked. He was sorry he’d missed his cousin. He hadn’t seen him in probably six years or more.

“For a couple of months.”

Behind him, Tansy stood. He sensed her movement. The mirror beneath the stuffed moose head mounted on the back wall over the bar merely confirmed it.

Unlike nearly every other person in the room, she didn’t approach them for an introduction. He looked over his shoulder at her retreating backside as she headed for the door. Bull followed Liam’s gaze.

“So, what’s her story?” Liam said.

There was no point in anything other than cutting to the chase. Bull would see straight through it.

“She’s working on a book. She caught her fiancé fooling around on her and came here to get away for a while and finish up her work. She got here last week and she’ll be heading out at the end of the month.”

“Ah. One of those scorned women hating on men.”

“I wouldn’t say that. She strikes me as a nice gal. Now when she asks if you’re one of those scorned divorced men hating on women, what should I say?”

“What makes you think she’ll ask?”

“Oh, she’ll ask. What should I tell her?”

She’d sighted him in her crosshairs. She’d peered down her scope at him. He didn’t like it one damn bit. “Tell her it’s none of her business.”

TANSY STEPPED OUT INTO the September sun and hesitated as the door to Gus’s Restaurant and Bar swung shut behind her. Indecision washed through her. She really should just head back to the cabin and get to work. However, focus didn’t seem to be her strong suit these days. If she went back out there now without knowing who the stranger with the magnetic gray eyes was, well, she’d simply sit around and wonder.

Jenna was going to be tied up with a client so asking her was out, and the need to know burned inside her.

“What’s up, Tansy?”

Lost in her own indecision, she’d missed Alberta’s approach. Which merely proved how distracted Tansy had been by the nonverbal encounter with the stranger because Alberta was one hard lady to overlook.

Alberta was, in a word, “colorful.” A flowered kerchief covered some of her bright red hair. A brocade vest topped a mutton-sleeved cream blouse. Full, multicolored panels comprised her handkerchief-hemmed skirt, which ended right above her lace-up ankle boots. Turquoise eye shadow, Popsicle-orange lipstick and purple nail polish rounded out her full presentation of the color spectrum. There wasn’t a color known to God or man that Alberta wasn’t wearing today.

“Not a lot on going on,” Tansy said. “I just grabbed a bite to eat with Jenna. How about you?”

“Can’t complain.” Alberta issued a gap-toothed grin. “Me and Dwight are still in that honeymoon stage.”

The thought that she, Tansy, wouldn’t have a honeymoon because Bradley was a liar and a cheater, crossed her mind. She brushed it aside, focusing on Alberta and the conversation.

That was the remarkable thing about Good Riddance. Tansy had only been here a week, but between Jenna’s weekly emails and being here, she felt fully tuned-in to the town and its people.

Alberta, a traveling Gypsy matchmaker, had shown up in Good Riddance back in May. She’d wound up marrying the man who’d commissioned her to find him a wife.

Dwight Simmons had spent most of his life prospecting and his latter years playing chess and checkers with his prospecting partner, Jeb Taylor. When Jeb died, Dwight decided he was ready for a wife and sought Alberta’s expertise. She’d found him one all right—her.

At eighty-one, it was his first marriage. Dwight was Alberta’s sixth husband. It was all rather mind-boggling in a charming way.