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“See?” Myra gave her husband a smug look, all but sticking her tongue out at him. “Some peopleliketalkin’ to me.”
“Oh, honey,” Bennett chuckled as he moved in and wrapped one of his long, thick arms around his wife’s dainty waist before dipping her backward and planting a smacking kiss on her lips that had both our cheeks pinking. “I’ll enjoy talkin’ to you every day for the rest of my life. No better sound on this earth than your voice.”
My nose began to sting and I had to blink quickly against the threat of tears at the sweet display in front of me. What it must have felt like to not only have someone to love, but to have them love you back so completely and whole-heartedly.
“Ugh! Will the two of youeverstop feeling each other up?” a voice called out, the tone playful. I looked over as a woman with long, flowing red hair a few shades richer than mine came around the corner, a tall, stunning blonde-haired woman trailing behind her. “I swear, the honeymoon period never ended for you guys,” the redhead teased.
Bennett stood Myra upright and winked at the newcomers as he stated, “And it never will.” With that, he sauntered deeper into the house, leaving Myra to pat at her perfectly quaffed hair and clear her throat, still somewhat hazy from her husband’s ministrations. It was adorable to see.
The blonde poked the redhead with her elbow, smiling as she said, “Oh, Pop. Stop giving them a hard time. Like you and Jase are any better.” Her face scrunched up, taking on a disgusted, pained look. “And he’s mybrother. I only wish I could unsee some of the things you two have gotten up to.”
“All right, all right,” Myra cut in while brushing invisible wrinkles from her shirt. “Now that you kids have all been properly scandalized”—she arched a sarcastic brow—“I want you to meet Deva.” She took my hand and pulled me closer to her side as she started introductions. “Deva, sweetie, this here is Farah, Cannon’s wife.” She pointed to the striking woman with the long golden hair that hung past her shoulders in fat, glossy curls. She looked like she belonged on the cover of those magazines I’d seen at the checkout registers at the grocery store. There was something almost regal about the way she held herself. Never in a million years would I have put her with the tall, scary-looking, tattooed man I met that day at the Oakes’s house, but if there was one thing I’d learned in my life, it was to never judge a book by its cover.
“It’s lovely to meet you, Farah.”
Her expression was open and welcoming, her eyes assessing, yet somehow they didn’t make me feel as though I was being judged. “Same. Any friend of hers is a friend of ours, for sure.”
“And this is Poppy,” Myra pressed on, indicting the redhead woman. “The owner of Redbud Inn, just the cutest little inn you’ve ever seen.”
I pointed at her, trying to click all the puzzle pieces of this group into place. “And you’re married to Jase, right?”
“Right,” she confirmed. “Which makes this one my sister-in-law.” She threw her thumb over her shoulder at Farah.
“Well, it’s very nice to meet you both. Myra has spoken so highly of both of you.”
They turned their focus to the older woman for just a moment, and it was clear to see the adoration that both women held for Myra.
“She’s had nothing but nice things to say about you too,” Poppy said, coming up beside me to link her arm through mine. “Come on, I say we have some wine and swap some stories.”
Suddenly I couldn’t believe I’d been so nervous about meeting these women. They were nothing but nice, and I couldn’t wait to hear their stories.
Dinner was absolutelyto die for, the food delicious and the wine sweet and refreshing this time around. But it was the company that had me enthralled through the entire two hours we sat at the table, eating, drinking, and talking.
Turned out, the stories they had to share were fascinating.
From everything Myra had told me, I knew Jase and Farah weren’t Bennett’s blood relation, not that he loved them any less for it. Judging from the pride shining in his eyes, they might as well have been born to him for all he cared.
Come to find out, Bennett had been a Redemption native in his younger years before leaving Tennessee in search of work. He’d found that in Connecticut as the personal driver to Farah and Jase’s wealthy grandfather, then eventually to their parents, two despicable, horrible people with more money than common sense and cold, shriveled hearts.
Bennett was their one bright ray of light growing up, and the three of them forged a bond so strong, nothing could break it. When Farah was attacked and nearly killed, she’d made the decision while her body healed that she was going to start over in the town Bennett had always spoken so highly of.
It was here in Redemption that she managed to heal her mind, as well as fall for the love of her life. She and Cannon might have seemed to some to be oil and water, but when you watched the two of them together, the love they shared shining through everything else, they made the perfect match.
Jase and Bennett had come down for a visit, and that was when he and Myra rekindled their romance. It didn’t take Jase long to pack up and follow suit, and he and Poppy’s fairy tale started while he was staying at the Redbud Inn. He’d needed her help to clean up his image so he could wrest his grandfather’s company from his father’s filthy hands. She’d agreed to pretend to be his girlfriend to repair his reputation, and it took no time at all for their relationship to become very,veryreal.
There were more than a few bumps in the road, what with Farah and Jase’s parents having Poppy kidnapped in order to extort money from their own son, but with the help of Laeth and his partners, they’d gotten her back. The bad guys were locked in a cell they were never getting out of, and everyone gathered around the table was now living their happily ever after.
My eyes were wide as saucers as they finished recounting their stories to me, and all I could do for several seconds was blink before finally muttering,Wow.”
Poppy giggled around the rim of her wineglass. “Wow is right.”
“That all feels like something out of a book!” I proclaimed.
“Well, that’s a book I’d be more than happy to read,” Myra enthused, and I agreed wholeheartedly.
The whole tale of the Hylands moving to Redemption and finding love was mesmerizing to hear, but there was one thing that stuck out the most to me. “And Laeth was really a part of saving you?” I asked Poppy, feeling my eyes widen with wonderment.
She nodded. “Yep, he sure was. All three of them, as well as this group of badasses from V
