Riggs (Arizona Vengeance 11)

I glare at Baden but without any real malice. “How did you get to be so fucking zen with everything that’s happened to you?”

Baden has been through hell since last summer when he valiantly tried to stop a mugging in progress and got seriously injured. Beaten with a crowbar and stabbed multiple times, he ended up with a spinal contusion that paralyzed him from the waist down. His battle back to where he is now has been nothing short of miraculous.

His smile is mischievous, eyes sparkling. “When you face death, and then face life with the possibility of never walking again, you reprioritize things. I remember you coming into my hospital room when you moved to Phoenix, and you didn’t know me from Adam. And yet you came and sat by me in silence because I didn’t want to talk. You came back again and again and again until I finally talked. You made yourself my friend. You took on my problems just by being there. Made all the difference. Every one of my teammates who did that changed my focus, my outlook, and knocked my pessimism on its ass, replacing it with optimism. I’m pointing out the value of friendship and that you should never discount it, no matter what’s in your past.”

I pick up my beer and take another long drink. He’s giving me some food for thought. I had a natural camaraderie with my Renegade teammates. I missed them immediately upon leaving. But when Janelle came to live with me, everything changed, and I didn’t keep up with them, despite their attempts.

Baden is right. I’ve closed myself off completely, and I never used to be that guy.

But even before I was that guy who loved the friendships with my teammates, I was a very different person, one that if they knew the things I’d done, they might not want to be friends with me at all.

CHAPTER 5

Veronica

Clarke is probably in the most enviable position an independent bookstore owner could be. She doesn’t have to keep her store open crazy hours just to make money. While she may have started that way, it’s certainly not how things are now.

Much of it has to do with her brilliance and ingenuity—tailoring her retail space and services to heighten customer satisfaction. While she has no control over whether a book she sells is any good and will satisfy a reader, she makes the entire experience of buying that book something customers want to come back for, regardless if they liked what they chose. She obviously buys and sells what she believes will appeal, but that doesn’t always hit the mark.

Instead, she makes the shopping experience inspiring, joyful, and seamless. She goes above and beyond what her customers expect. It might be setting up book readings, signings, or special merchandise, and even sometimes reaching out directly to a famous author to get an autographed book for one of her customers. No doubt, Clarke has built her business based around exceptional customer service.

It didn’t hurt when she started dating Aaron Wylde of the Arizona Vengeance. Through Aaron, she met Legend’s wife, Pepper, a famous children’s book author. It took only one visit from Pepper to do a signing, and Clarke’s customer base almost quadrupled. Since then, she’s dedicated about a quarter of the store to children’s books.

The benefit to Clarke’s success over the past year is that she can set her own hours. She opens from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. She closes the doors Sunday and on any other day she feels like it, though mostly when she has the opportunity to travel to an away game with Aaron. She’ll simply put a closed sign on the door with an apology that she’s gone to see him play in Toronto or San Diego or Florida or elsewhere, and her customers think it’s pretty freaking cool, so they forgive her.

Still, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t work her ass off. As a sole proprietor, everything falls on her shoulders. She has me and one other girl working part time. Clarke handles everything else, which is why it’s going to cause some turmoil when I leave. Or rather, when I start taking classes so I can finish my undergraduate degree. I’ll still be around when time allows.

Of course, it was Clarke’s idea that I finish my degree. “You’re floundering around like… well, a piece of flounder.”

She’s not wrong. Ever since the divorce, I’ve been wandering through life aimlessly and without purpose. It’s sad that my entire existence focuses around helping Clarke in the bookstore twenty hours a week. It would be forty, but she doesn’t need someone that amount of time with her other part-time worker, Marie, who’s been here longer, and she doesn’t pay me, anyway, since I don’t need the money. If I had my way, I’d come and hang out with her all day, every day, but she won’t let me. She says I need to get out in the world and expand my horizons.