Prologue
Noah Lamb watched the startling red-headed beauty as she laid her mother to rest. All of the town had turned up to show their respect. At twenty-three years old, she had lost the only real parent she knew. He wanted to go over to her and comfort her but held himself back. She would need the time to mourn.
Noah stood with his own family at the graveside, and he saw his best friend, Drew Patton, with his family. Cheryl Fisher threw the dirt on the lowered coffin and stood back. He saw no tears spill from her eyes. She had probably spent so much time crying already.
He wore a pair of leather pants, as he refused to wear anything else, but he’d made sure to wear a shirt and tie.
The priest finished saying a few words, then fell silent out of respect. Then Cheryl spoke up. “I want to thank you all for coming. It means a lot to me how many of you turned up. The town hall has been opened for us, and there will be food and drink if you wish to join me.” She nodded her head and went to the priest.
“He should be here,” Noah’s aunt said with a hiss to her voice.
“Don’t start. This is already hard on the poor child. Her dad left, and you can’t expect him to come back,” Noah’s uncle said.
Shaking his head, Noah went to his friend. They shook hands and watched the woman disappear behind the crowd of guests.
“Are you going to the town hall?” Drew asked.
“I don’t want her to be alone.” Noah’s fascination with Cheryl had begun some time ago. He’d known how she cared about her mother, and he loved it when she visited him in the mechanic shop.
“We’ve got to give her some space.”
“I know, Drew. We can still be there for her even if she doesn’t know how we feel.” Noah knew he wanted to be more than a mechanic to her, but he didn’t know if his feelings would last longer than one night. Most of the woman he’d taken to bed only lasted the night, and then it was for a few short hours.
Following behind the guests, they walked the short distance to the town hall. They watched, eating sandwiches and drinking beer, as Cheryl conversed with all the guests. After a time she made it ‘round to them.
“Hi,” she said with a blush.
“How are you doing?” Noah asked.
“I’m getting there. Thank you both for coming. It really means a lot to me that you came.” She gripped their hands and placed a kiss on their cheeks.
“Anytime.” Drew said.
She smiled and walked off to the next person. Noah felt the sizzle of electricity up his arm. He wanted to do something about the attraction he felt towards her but knew he couldn’t. She was too fragile at the moment.
For the longest time she’d been conscious of Drew and Noah. They were the only two men she’d gotten to know during the course of her mother’s cancer. She talked to everyone and retreated to a quiet corner to think. Her hand and lips were numb from all the talking, but she still felt the heat of Noah and Drew. They always had the ability to affect her unlike any other men.
She wished she could approach them and ask them to be with her. The timing was awful, and she knew she needed the space to get her head on straight.
Losing her mother had been hard, despite knowing for six years that she would eventually. Knowing didn’t make the grieving any less painful.
Sipping her sweet tea, she stared out at the sea of people and wondered if she would ever have the guts to approach the two men and ask them to be hers?
Chapter One
One year later
Drew Patton stared at his best friend, Noah Lamb, as he danced with the gorgeous blonde on the dance floor. Her skirt was too short and showed the bottom of her ass. The gorgeous blue thong was visible to anyone who took the time to look. Drew sipped at his bottle of beer and watched for any signs of the redhead coming into the bar. Noah gripped the blonde’s ass, inserting a leg between her thighs and pressing against her cunt. Drew saw everything his friend was doing and smiled. Noah was incorrigible. He did what he liked and never asked for anyone’s permission. People thought that because Drew wore the leather jacket and drove the motor bikes he was the more brooding of the two. They were wrong. Noah held a darkness that Drew did not possess.
The local bar owner had decided to call his place, The Dugout. It was the only bar in town, and many of the town-folk converged there at the weekend. The blonde looked hot, but she wasn’t the woman Drew wanted to fuck. Glancing down at his watch, he wondered when the right woman would be walking into the bar.
The door at the front of the room opened, and several women walked inside, followed by a couple of guys. At the back of the group that had just entered stood the woman he’d been waiting for.