2. Bronson

brONSON

I'd feltit the second she emerged from around the side of the house.

Every hair on my body stood up and took notice. My gaze drank her in and my heart skipped a few beats.

My god, she was stunning.

When Lake began her teenage years she'd really started growing into her own and was pretty. By the time she was fifteen it had gotten harder to keep her at arm"s length but she was my best friend. I held my ground and didn't cross any lines. I was three years older than her so it was my duty to do the right thing. But now…

She was all woman and a fucking knockout.

As Ruby coaxed her toward the rest of the ladies mingling with one another, my eyes swallowed her up from head to toe.

Long, glossy, dark-mahogany brown hair with a slight wave to it that my fingers itched to run through; smooth, flawless, creamy-ivory skin; full, sultry pink, bubble-gum-colored lips that were begging to be kissed, and a body that was made for sin. Lush breasts pressed against her white tank-top and played a PG game of peekaboo with my gaze. Her outfit was enticing but still tasteful, just enough to get my motor running.

Full hips made for holding as—

Fuck, I needed to change my thinking fast. I shouldn't be thinking of my best friend the way I was, like I had started to over the last year before I'd left for the military. Lake would not like the thoughts and images running rapidly through my head.

I was sure she hated me for what I'd done to her. For hurting her. And I didn't blame her. She probably wouldn't even consider me a friend anymore. But I couldn't stop my gaze from finishing their descent down her long, perfectly-toned legs in her frayed, cut-off jean shorts. Even her red painted toes in her white flip-flops turned me on.

"Dude, snap out of it before you have to arrest yourself for assault with your lust-filled eyes," Lyric said, chuckling.

Fingers snapped in front of my face drawing attention to Lyric and all the other guys standing around me with smirks on their faces. Well all except Gyth, who had a raised brow in question and a confused look on his face.

I shook my head.

I needed to get my shit together. Lake had a daughter. She could be married or have a significant other in her life for all I knew. Her being with someone else felt like a knife to my chest, but I had walked away, so it was my own fault.

"What the hell is happening to this tool?" Gyth asked, drawing my attention solely his way.

Kace laughed. "Isn't it obvious, you big buffoon?" He smacked Gyth on the shoulder.

"Watch it, dumbfuck," the big man replied.

Even with my mind spinning with the reality that Lake was standing just feet away from me after so many years, I couldn't help but laugh at my crazy group of friends. As the guys kept talking, my gaze turned back to the woman who'd never left my mind since the day I walked away.

I watched as Lake and her daughter were greeted like long lost friends by the group of women. Knowing how that felt because they had treated me the same way, I wondered how the duo was going to take it all in. For me, I'd been a bit overwhelmed at first, but it had also felt damn good.

The crazy bunch of men, women, and children were a found family. One I didn't realize I needed, but that I quickly became aware I not only did need, but also wanted. Losing my mother to cancer as a young child, then my father shortly after I joined the military, and also walking away from Lake—the latter being completely my fault—I'd lost the three most special people in my life.

My family was gone.

And even though I had some relatives out there, they didn't live close, and we didn't keep in touch. I'd made some great friends, ones that were like brothers to me, in the military. But it was when I'd come home and become a cop that some tight bonds had been made. Lyric especially, and with Lyric, the whole group of people he'd introduced me to.

The same group that surrounded Lake as I approached with the guys, turmoil swimming in my gut.

Even though Ruby thought Lake might be a single mom, I found myself glancing at her ring finger in search of confirmation. No ring. I wasn't sure why it was important or even my business but I couldn't stop the question bombarding me since finding out it was her that took care of me when I got shot. Something that when I'd woken from surgery, I'd thought had all been a dream.

Introductions were made and then it came to Lake and me. Sticking out my hand like an idiot as if we were meeting for the first time rather than knowing her all her life, I wasn't prepared for the jolt that slipped up my arm at her touch. And sure wasn't ready to hear that Lake may need help and was in danger.

Before I could get a handle on the protective beast rising inside of me, Lake had her daughter and was running toward her car.

It was her turn to walk away from me but I couldn't let her.

I was in pursuit within seconds.

I owedthe big doe-eyed angel big time.

Stormi, very wise beyond her years, had talked her mother into not only going back to the party, but listening to my apology with the intent on forgiving me. While Lake had agreed with her daughter, I had no notion that our past was water under the bridge and that was true. But for her child's sake she relented for a moment.

I had my work cut out for me if I truly wanted forgiveness.

Did I want Lake back in my life? Truth was, I had always wanted her with me, but I'd fucked up. When I realized just how badly, so much time had passed. I was a different person after the death of my father and the things I'd seen overseas in the military. I didn't think it was fair to go back to try and grovel.

A small hand slid into mine, abruptly yanking me from my thoughts. Some foreign feeling trickled through my body. Sure there was surprise and a dose of nerves, but there was longing, a nostalgic feeling that had me perplexed.

Stormi grabbed her mother's hand as well and pulled us back to the party. As we moved into the backyard Embry and the other kids came running up to us.

"You're back," Embry said. "You want to play with us now? I promise I'll watch out for you and it will be okay."

When I looked at Lake, her eyes misty with unshed tears, and then down at Stormi who lit up like the fireworks we'd be setting off later that evening, a warmth settled inside me. These two girls were capable of stealing my heart in a nanosecond.

Hell, Lake always had my heart but her daughter was about to snatch it up too.

How did these feelings come on so fast? If Lake had a man in her life, I was just setting myself up for disappointment.

Stormi pulled her hands free from her mother and me. "I want to play." Her smile was radiant and her big, brown orbs sparkled with flecks of gold. Then she ran off.

"Be careful," Lake called out to her with a worried look on her face.

My hand reached out and this time, unlike at the car, I let it come to rest on her upper arm. "She'll be okay."

"She's my world," Lake whispered. "She's all I've got."

Guilt and hope hit me like a freight train, both battling for the win.

Even when my father was alive, I didn't allow him to talk about Lake. When he died, I had nobody to ask even if I wanted to know. It would have felt like torture. One that was worse than the elements I had endured while away and with the things I'd seen.

I felt like a dick for not being there for her. I wondered why she didn't have anyone else. But if she didn't have anyone then maybe there was no man in her life. God, I was an ass thinking of it that way but it slid through my mind anyway.

"What about your parents?" Hesitating, I swallowed. When she didn't reply, I continued. "Or Stormi's dad?"

Her gaze left where she was following her daughter and snapped to mine. I was transfixed by her big, caramel-colored eyes. I remembered when we were younger and she'd look at me with a sweet, inviting look that could melt my heart in a second.

It still can and you know it.

That was how I wanted her to look at me now, but she turned away causing disappointment to settle into my soul. Those beauties were spitting fire from them now.

My hand fell from her arm but I tried to coax her to talk. "Lake, you must have someone else."

Turning, her face full of fury as tears spilled down her cheeks, she let me have it.

"If you were around or stayed in touch, then you would know that my parents died in a car accident when I was eighteen and pregnant with Stormi."

I sucked in a breath thinking of her so young, pregnant, and not having them. And the guilt chewed at my insides even more. But she wasn't done by far and kept on.

"They didn't get to meet her and they would have loved her like they had loved me." She swiped at the tears falling like rain down her cheeks. "If you must know, not that it's any of your damn business, I made a drunken error in judgment. I didn't know the father of my child and he didn't stick around."

A protective look full of love blazed in her eyes.

"But it wasn't a mistake because I have her." She pointed to where Stormi followed the other kids, laughing with joy. "I have that beautiful, smart, caring, precious girl right there and she is the best thing that has ever happened to me. She's mine and that's all I need."

My gut tightened and I wasn't sure what to say. Nothing I could say would be enough but I had to try. "Lake, I—"

She cut me off. "Don't!"

I didn't need to look behind me to know all my friends were probably watching the scene unfold.

"Don't you dare say you're sorry. I don't need it anymore. And I certainly don't need you."

Her words were like a knife slicing my heart into pieces.

Once again she swiped at the tears.

"I used to dream of you coming back for me but that didn't happen. I pulled my life together without you. Without anyone." Her body vibrated with anger but something else too.

I looked deep into her eyes.

"I taught my daughter to forgive but some things just aren't forgivable so let me say this again. I d-don't n-need you."

With that she stormed off toward the other women, her shoulders back and her spine straight.

She was magnificent and so fucking strong.

So many fucking things were running through me, but it was hope that flared once again. Lake had stumbled over her words at the end when she said she didn't need me. And her eyes told me something else. Lake was lying. I knew Lake better than I knew anyone else and I knew when she wasn't telling the truth. Maybe she didn't even know it, but she was not only lying to me but to herself.

I would protect her, I would be there for her, and I was determined to change her thinking.

Lake needed me as much as I needed her.