Page 83 of Small Town, Big Storm
Clover just glares at her.
“I don’t know.”A dainty shrug paired with a roguish smile that rivals the smirk Shep has been sporting.“It’s late and you never know what can happen.Storm lives next door.Maybe he can?—”
“I’ll walk Clover,” Shep interrupts.“I’m staying with Storm so I’ll be next door too.”
“You are?”Storm mutters dryly, and I stifle a giggle.
Clover sighs but doesn’t bite as she looks at Blossom and Daisy.“Ready?”
“I think,” Daisy says, sinking back down into her seat, “that I’d like another drink.Blossom, you said the same, right?”she adds, tugging at Blossom’s arm in such a way that the only answer is to sigh, sit down, and mutter, “Yeah, I’d like another.”
“Me too,” Clem says.
Glares all around from Clover.
But to her credit, she just—still ignoring Shep—says goodnight to everyone.
“Night, babe,” I tell her, and when she comes over for a hug, I offer, “You can always chill upstairs until he leaves.”
“No,” she mutters.“I might as well get this over with.”
Then she’s gone.
And to no one’s surprise, Shep tosses some cash on the bar (and the man definitely gets points for covering Clover’s drinks too) then follows her out into the night.
“I wonder ifthatwill make the Gazette,” Storm stage whispers.
I grin, and even though the girls talk him into taking the chair Shep’s given up, and Tommy and Roger holler, and I’m pulled away to make a few final drinks as last call approaches, I don’t miss that Storm…
Well, I don’t miss that some of the thunder and lightning and hurricane-force winds around him have quieted.
It’s like he’s settled.
Like he’s calmed.
At least until Clem asks, “So, what’s up with the trade from the Sierra?”She finishes the dredges of her drink, The Fine Print (which is light—verylight on the whisky), and sets the empty glass on my tray.“Weren’t you supposed to be the backbone of their long-term succession plan or something?”
Storm’s free hand tightens into a fist and he glares at her.“Jesus, Clem.Still as blunt as ever, aren’t you?”
A shrug.“Nothing’s served by hiding shit.”
He stills.
Then exhales.
I open my mouth to intervene?—
“Ain’t that the damned truth,” he says before I can.Then he finishes his glass of water—he made the switch from Storm Warnings about the same time Shep gave them up—and turns to her.
But he’s speaking to me.
“Yeah, I was supposed to be there for the long haul.”A sharp breath.“Until I fell in love with a woman who didn’t love me back.”The blow of those matter-of-fact words has me gripping the edge of the table.“I left Cedar Hollow looking for a fresh start away from all the shit with my dad, and I found it—for a time—with the Sierra.”He exhales.“Then I fell in love with my coach, with Joey, and she…well, she fell in love with Damon.”
“The GM and the Coach,” Clem whispers.“Fuck.”
A brittle laugh.“Yup.That about sums it up.”
“So yeah.That’swhy they traded me.”He sighs.“Well that, and the fact that I’ve been stinking it up out on the ice.”
