Into the Storm (Signal Bend #3)(5)

The front door opened, and Shannon looked past Lilli’s shoulder to see who was coming in. “And speak of the devil.” Isaac had walked in, filling the doorway as he stepped through it. He came up and put his arm around Lilli, who tipped her head as he leaned down to kiss her cheek.

“Hey, Sport. My ladies ready?”

“Yep. Could have done this on our own, you know.”

Isaac laughed. “Yeah, not gonna happen.” He gave Shannon a wink. He leaned in and lightly brushed his daughter’s cheek, then took the stroller from Lilli. “Come on. Let’s move.”

Turning to Shannon, Lilli explained, “Doctors’ appointments. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Shannon nodded and, smiling, feeling a touch relieved, she walked her boss and her family to the door.

“We’re good here. I’ll see you.” She followed them out onto the porch and was surprised to see Showdown standing out there, leaning down to kiss Lilli’s cheek.

“Oh! Hi, Show.” He glanced her way with a curt nod, then turned and watched Isaac take Lilli and Gia across to their SUV and load them in. Shannon watched, too, not sure why Show was there. He made her nervous. Not in a serial-killer way. That, she would probably have been better at dealing with. No, he made her nervous because she found him unbearably good looking. She didn’t understand it. He was not her type at all. She’d decided a long time ago that she was done with country boys and roughnecks, and Showdown was both. He was a huge biker, his light brown hair and beard long, his monumental arms—which so far, during this summer that she’d known him, were almost always bared—covered in tattoos. He wore a black beanie constantly, even in the heat.

She’d first seen him the day of her interview here, when Lilli had taken her on a tour. Isaac and Show had been outside in the back, building the gazebo that was now the centerpiece of the lovely English garden. Both had been shirtless, sweating in the May sun. Shannon still saw that picture of Show in her mind, especially at night, alone in her cute little apartment. Insanely broad, muscular shoulders. Defined chest and back, tapering to a hard, narrow waist. Ink covering his arms, shoulders, and back. She’d about swallowed her tongue.

Since she’d left home, she’d focused her attention on clean-cut, success-oriented guys. College boys first, and then businessmen. Men who wore suits to work and out to dinner. Men who went out to dinner.

Lawyers. Executives. Doctors. She’d never found ‘The One,’ but she’d found some good guys who’d treated her well. A few jerks, too, of course. But Shannon liked to dress up and go out. She liked to have a good time. Showdown was not that kind of man; that could not have been more obvious. She didn’t have any idea why her stomach did that annoying fluttery thing when he was in any kind of proximity.

Especially vexing was the fact that she wasn’t sure he’d ever actually looked at her. They’d had cause to interact a few times. The inn seemed to be some kind of a focal point for the Night Horde MC, because Lilli and Isaac owned it, and several of the other Horde worked at or with it in one capacity or another.

Showdown managed the town feed store, and that had brought him by a few times, even though he mainly dealt with Badger, the livestock manager—who was also a Horde Prospect. But Show paid her almost no mind at all, rarely more than nodding at her, never more than asking a terse question or answering one she’d asked.

Shannon knew her attributes as well as her flaws. She wasn’t built like a model. She didn’t wear a tiny size. There were stores, the ones that catered to the “youth” aesthetic, that didn’t even stock her size. She was taller than quite a few men she knew, and she had a body that was more generally appreciated fifty years ago—an excess of tits and ass. But she also knew that many men appreciated her hourglass just fine.

Most men, in fact. The straight ones, anyway. Not always in ways she liked, but she’d learned early how to deal with guys like that. What she wasn’t used to—at all—was being summarily ignored. She was noticeable. For good or bad, people noticed.

But not Show. She wondered if maybe her growing obsession with him wasn’t at least partly rooted in his utter lack of notice. Her eyes were constantly drawn to him, and she often found herself feeling fluttery in his presence. She was not a woman who fluttered. If she was interested in a man, she told him so. But something about Show both compelled her attention and discouraged her advances, as if there were a kind of force field around him. She didn’t understand it any better than that. The result of that uncomfortable coexistence in her of powerful interest and uncharacteristic shyness was that she was acting like a high school freshman with a crush on the hot senior. Or, at least, she felt like one.

Frustrating as it was, there was no great mystery about why he seemed so closed off. She’d been around town long enough to understand the grapevine, at least partly, enough to overhear things. So she knew he’d gone through some deep trouble in the past year—divorced, a dead child. She didn’t know much more than that, but she’d never seen him smile. She was becoming consumed by the desire to see him smile. To make him smile. She barely knew him, and yet.

He was still standing there, looking out over the grounds. Isaac and Lilli were away, out of sight, but Show hadn’t moved. Shannon didn’t see his bike. Instead, parked in the lot next to Isaac’s bike, was Show’s old, green Chevy pickup. He only brought that when he was at the inn to work in some way. That must be why he was still here.