“Because I’ve seen the way she looks at him. She’s got it bad,” Sawyer explained.
“She doesn’t know him. She sees all the crap he went through, and that makes her want to help him. You know how she is. She can’t see a person in pain without feeling for them.” Unless it was him. She could perfectly well sweep him out when he was hurting.
“It’s more than that.” Sawyer leaned back against the bar.
They could argue all night, but Ty knew something Sawyer didn’t. “It doesn’t matter because I happen to know that he’s planning on leaving.”
“He told you that?”
“Not in so many words, but I know he met with his old boss last week.”
“How do you know that?” Sawyer asked.
“Polly’s daughter Kelly recently took a job at the Alamosa Chili’s.” Polly ran Polly’s Cut and Curl, Bliss’s one and only salon. “You know Polly runs on information. So Kelly listened in while she was serving them some boneless wings. She reported back to her momma, who told Marie that she should get ready to sell that property Michael’s living on, and Marie told me because she’s got twenty bucks on me in the betting book.”
Sawyer’s brows rose. “Do they really have a betting book at the Trading Post?”
“Oh, they do. Some of those bets have been going on for years. Let’s just say if there is ever real proof that aliens exist, Mel’s going to make a shit ton of cash off this town.”
“What does that betting book say about Novack?”
He didn’t want to think about the bets that Michael would end up with Lucy. “It doesn’t matter.”
A light hit Sawyer’s eyes. “The town thinks she’ll end up with him, don’t they?”
The town, in this case, was wrong. “Like I said. It doesn’t matter because she won’t. I know I’ve been an idiot the last couple of years, but it’s time to stop sitting on my ass. It’s time to get my girl, and if that means getting nasty with another dude in the room, then that’s how it has to be.”
“You know all of this is weird, right?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been around it so long it seems normal. Though I have to admit I’m probably not going to mention it to my parents. They don’t come into Bliss much.” They were closer to Creede, and his parents had friends there so they rarely made it into Bliss.
Sawyer pointed his way. “The fact that you’re not telling them means you know this is a bad idea.”
“It means I know that it’s temporary, and I don’t want to worry them.” He didn’t want a lecture on how he’d screwed up. It would be a nice lecture and would come with cookies, but it would still be a lecture. His mom had always told him he should go after Lucy before it was too late. His dad would shake his head and tell him he’d always known it would end poorly.
“Sure,” Sawyer said in that way that told Ty he didn’t believe him at all.
“Okay, what do you think I should do?” He was always open to suggestions.
Sawyer seemed to think for a moment. “Tell me why you would share her with Michael.”
He wasn’t about to tell Sawyer that it had been an impulsive decision. “Because she wants him, and I want her happy.”
Sawyer hesitated for a moment. “Even if she picks him in the end?”
The thought made his gut twist, but there was only one answer. “Yeah. Even if she picks him.”
“And if she doesn’t want to pick? She’s been here long enough that she might view this as her right. Not many men tell a Bliss woman she has to choose.”
He’d told Michael he wouldn’t care, but he wasn’t sure he could share her long term. It was blatantly obvious that Michael didn’t like him, and despite his previous statements, he wasn’t sure he could turn that around.
“I don’t know.” He’d known Sawyer most of his life. They’d been odd friends over many years, the big, intimidating guy and the one with the constant smile.
“Well, I’m glad at least you’re honest with yourself.” Sawyer leaned against the bar. “I think it’s probably for the best that he said no. Especially if he’s leaving anyway. You’ll see. River will be home soon, and Luce will go straight to her for advice and she’ll back you up. She’s always been in your corner. You have to be patient.”
“I hope so. I thought this might work.” He was still a bit surprised it hadn’t. “He seems to care about her. As much as he annoys me, he’s a good man.”
That questioning brow rose over Sawyer’s dark eyes. “How do you know that?”
“He was a US marshal.”
“That doesn’t make him good. I’ve known lots of bad cops.”
“Not Michael Novack. I’ve studied his record. I did it because I didn’t like the way he was looking at Lucy,” Ty admitted. “I talked to Alexei about him. When Alexei came back to Bliss from testifying against his old cohorts, it was Michael who protected him. Alexei thinks the world of him. He says he hasn’t always been this way.”