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5
Seb rolledhis shoulders trying to ease the screaming pain as he drove between green fields. His session with the new PT was different than he’d thought it was going to be. Harder. He’d gotten used to his PTs in L.A. but Dr. Lee had a whole different program. To look at him, one would have never guessed how strong the man was. He was barely five foot six with a thin build, but the man had what his mom referred to as farm strength. He was naturally, deceptively strong. Not like the muscle builders on Venice Beach. And damn, even though it was his first visit, Dr. Lee definitely hadn’t gone easy on him.
Seb’s eyes were heavy as he drove through town. He’d driven through the night to make it in time for his first appointment and his lack of sleep was catching up with him. He was doing his best not to nod off as he made his way to his new home for the next few months. Seb was going to be staying at the apartment that was above Knox’s fiancé Laura’s shop and as soon as he got there, he was going to take a hot shower, ice his back, and go to sleep. He’d been on the road for days driving from Los Angeles and he was ready for a good night’s sleep.
The rehab facility was about ten miles outside of town which meant it would take him ten minutes to get back into town. Thankfully, unlike Los Angeles where ten miles away could easily be a two-hour trip one way. Whisper Lake had a much slower pace that was going to take some getting used to. But less time in the car was definitely a perk since he still had so much anxiety every time he got behind the wheel. It was easier when he was driving. He really white knuckled it when he was a passenger.
Large blue flowers bloomed in the green pastures to each side of him and they reminded him of the bright blue eyes that had looked up at him earlier. Seb hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the woman whose name he didn’t even know. He hadn’t felt that sort of instant connection with anyone in his life.
During his twenty years in the tattoo world, he’d met hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world. He’d felt attraction before. But this was more than that. It was more than déjà vu. It was as if his soul recognized her soul.
Ezra Hawk, Seb’s tattoo mentor had died six years prior. On his deathbed, he’d held Seb’s hand and told him, “One day, you’ll meet your bunny.”At the time, Seb thought Ezra was just out of it and not making any sense. Seb hadn’t thought about that statement at all in the years since his death, but it came back to him now.
Was it possible that he had met his ‘bunny’? Could that be Pretty Eyes’ name?
No.Seb shook his head. He’d been driving ten hours a day for the past three days and only sleeping a few hours a night. He was exhausted. Or maybe he was losing it a little, or a lot.
He just hadn’t felt attracted to anyone since the car accident. That was it. That had to be why his reaction to her had felt so much more intense.
Of course, that didn’t explain why he’d felt the urge to go after her when she’d left in such a hurry. Or why he’d wanted to tell the man who turned out to be her father that if he ever made her upset again, he’d knock him the fuck out.
Seb had never been a fighter. That was his cousin Keaton’s lane. His cousin became a world champion MMA fighter before he was legally allowed to drink. Ford had also gotten into more than his fair share of scraps. Knox had always been able to talk his way out of every situation that could have come to blows.
Whatever it was in some people that turned their frustration or anger into violence, Seb just didn’t have that in his DNA. Even when his brothers and cousin would play fight, he’d never really understood why they did it.
So why had he wanted to punch a man he didn’t even know in the face?
Maybe it was just a side effect of his mental health being bad. And maybe Whisper Lake was exactly what he needed to get better. As a kid, Seb’s grandad used to bring him and his brothers and cousin up to Whisper Lake to fish. He’d always enjoyed the town, but never imagined he’d be living here full-time.
As he drove through the main street, he passed the Princess & the Pea B&B, the Drawbridge Diner which had a working drawbridge. The Eat Me sandwich shop, which was Alice in Wonderland themed. And Lanterns Bar & Grill which was Rapunzel themed.
The town had really embraced the fairytale theme after the success of the Fairytale Love. He had to admit, there was a sense of nostalgia being here. His plan was to be here for the upcoming birth of his brother Knox’s twins and his wedding. After that, he’d decide what his next move was going to be.
His phone rang and he saw that it was Genesis calling. She owned several art galleries around the world and had showcased his canvas collections. They’d been in talks of him having another show in the late summer or fall. Since his accident had left him unable to tattoo, she’d suggested he put all of his creative energy into his next collection.
In theory, that sounded like a great idea. In execution…not so much.
Instead of answering her call, he sent her to voicemail. He had nothing to say to her. He tried and failed to paint nearly every day for the past four or five months. He’d sat staring at a blank canvas for hundreds of hours over that time.
He had a block. An artistic block. Nothing was inspiring him. Nothing was pouring out of him. He wasn’t going to pick up her calls until he had something to show her.
Seb pulled into the parking lot and saw his brother standing under the Snack Shack sign. He was going to be staying in the apartment above the shop, which Laura owned and was where Knox had stayed last summer. Ford had offered him his house, which was empty since he moved in with his wife Chrissy and her four kids, but his nieces were also staying there.
As much as Seb loved the twins, he didn’t want to live with two twenty-three-year olds. He liked to have his alone time. His own space. He’d always valued peace and quiet. It was probably because as the youngest of four boys in the house, he never had any of that. He shared a room until he was sixteen and Knox moved out when he joined the Navy. But by that age Seb was barely home himself. He’d dropped out of school and became a full-time apprentice at a tattoo shop. Ezra, the owner, his mentor, traveled a lot for conventions and residencies, and Seb went with him. It was strange, he just realized this would be the first time, since they were all kids that his brothers and cousin would be in the same town.
Seb’s shoulder twinged as he stepped out of the car. Typically, it bothered him for several hours after PT. He used to believe that meant the treatment was working and he was going to get full sensation and control back in his hands, but that never happened. Now the discomfort just irritated the shit out of him and reminded him how damaged he was.
No matter how many times he was told that nerve damage didn’t have a linear path to recovery, he still felt frustrated that he wasn’t getting better. There had been ‘no significant improvement’ in six months. If he did the work, he wanted the results. Unfortunately, that wasn’t how this was playing out.
“Hey man, good to see you!” Knox smiled widely as he held out his arms.
“You too.”
Knox pulled him into a one-armed man hug. He hadn’t seen his brother in six months, which was actually not that long for them. Knox spent twenty years serving as a SEAL. Between his trainings, being stationed in other countries, and deployments, there were years that the brothers went without seeing each other. Six months was nothing.
“How was the drive?” Knox asked.
“Not bad,” Seb lied. The drive had been a test of his resolve. The accident had resulted in him having serious driving anxiety. He’d figured that the cross-country trip would be a practice in exposure therapy and by the end he would be cured. He’d figured wrong.
