Let Me Fly (20 page)

Sara let herself into the apartment with her spare key, cursing when she tripped on a pair of work boots thrown near the door. She wasn’t sure how Bryn could handle living with a slob like Corey, but she seemed to like picking up after him. One Sunday, Bryn had even gone as far as doing Corey’s laundry as well as her own. Sara smiled, thinking that Bryn was really a people pleaser deep down under that tough exterior.

After starting a load of laundry, Sara decided to walk down to the lake while she waited. It was a beautiful August day, and she could walk along the boardwalk near Main Street and enjoy the sunshine. Her phone chirped in her jean shorts pocket, signaling that she had a text. It was from Darrin; he insisted on typing out his entire message instead of the cryptic shorthand Sara and Bryn used.

“You coming over tonight?”

Sara smiled when she thought about their relationship over the summer. The night of Bryn’s motorcycle accident, she had thrown herself at Darrin, but he had rejected her. Sara was so angry with how he treated her that she didn’t speak to him for a solid month afterwards. It didn’t help that her mother had decided to stay in Florida and Sara could either rent the farm herself, or move out so that her mother could rent it to someone else. Her lack of money made her decision for her, and she moved into a trailer park that was in between Amulet and the little town of Hampton, just miles from the farm.

Darrin had showed up at her trailer one afternoon, wanting to apologize and trying to win her affections with his sweet words and even sweeter kisses. For a few weeks, they spent almost every evening and all week-end with each other before Darrin had gone up north with his buddies for a few weeks. While he was gone, she and Bryn ended up reconnecting after her outwardly strong sister had a major breakdown on the 4th of July. Sara and Darrin continued to see each other when he returned, but it was only a few nights a week instead of the daily dates they had become accustomed to. Sara was dividing up her time between Darrin and Bryn as best as she could.

Now, they were working on building a solid relationship, one built on trust, as well as love. Not that Sara was ready to admit that she loved Darrin, yet, but she had very strong feelings for him. Smiling as she walked down the boardwalk, she started humming a few bars to one of her favorite songs. It didn’t take her long to end up on the other end of town, next to the old historic train station. Sara watched as a fairly well-built man, dressed in all black and wearing a bandana around his head sat on a motorcycle with his shoulders slumped down, fiddling with a piece of paper in his hand.

Sara was sure that the person on the bike was Brett, one of the twins that had accompanied the Double M group out to Sturgis. Thinking that someone had to come back to man the shop, Sara wasn’t surprised to see him back so soon. She quickly decided that she wanted to ask Brett how well Bryn had done riding out to the rally. Of course, Bryn had told her it went well, but she wanted to hear from someone else if Bryn was handling her issues without a full-blown panic attack.

Walking up to him, Sara called out softly, “Hi, Brett. I’m Sara Lonneman, Bryn’s little sister. Can I ask how she did on the ride out to Sturgis? Did she have any problems?”

There was no way that Sara could have prepared herself for what she saw next. The man lifted his head, turning to face her in the same motion, but it was certainly not Brett Smith. Sara could feel the air rush out of her lungs when she recognized the gorgeous grey eyes and chiseled features.

“Chris,” was all she could say before he bounded over to her, sweeping her up in his arms, spinning her around.

“I found you, Sara. Oh, sweet Jesus, I finally found you, little one.”

Chris set her down on the ground as he pulled her close to his body, the familiar mix of his cologne and manly scent permeated her nose. Without giving it a second thought, Sara pulled his face down and was kissing him, with all her passion flowing into the connection between their lips.

Sara could hear tires squealing next to them, and a door slamming before she was being pulled back from a reluctant Chris. Suddenly, the crunching sound of a fist landing on bone split the evening air and Chris was flying backwards.

“What the fuck are you doing with my girl, man?” was all Sara heard before her actions started to register in her brain.

She only said one word before her peaceful world tipped on its axis, “Darrin.”

Sara, Chris and Darrin will continue their story in Book Two of the Learning to Let Go Series. Coming late February 2013!