#ThrowbackThursday - Lone Star

 

“The club is a family,” Reese insisted.

“Yes, I’m painfully aware.”

“Don’t you want a family?”

More surprise. A blanking of the face and a rounding of the eyes. A beat of silence. A shift in tone. “Do you?”

“I’ve always had a sister.”

“To whom you are related by blood, and with whom your former employers controlled your allegiance. I was briefed on you,” he said. “But these men will never be your brothers. Do you think they care for you? That they love you?”

He thought about his phone call with Mercy earlier, the now-familiar softness and affection in the big man’s voice. Mercy was many things, but never duplicitous. Never subtle.

“What?” Tenny asked, brows lowering, because he must have had another facial malfunction.

“The club is a place for people who don’t fit in anywhere else,” Reese said, repeating what Mercy had once told him. “It’s a family for people like us.”

Ten studied him a moment longer, and then let his head fall back, let his eyes fall shut. Just talking like this had exhausted him. He yawned, and it didn’t seem fake. “Christ,” he murmured.

“You can sleep,” Reese said. “I’ll keep watch.”

“Oh, wonderful. I feel safer already.” But a few moments later, his breathing had evened, and the cruel line of his mouth softened.

Reese settled back in his chair to wait, and watch, an inexplicable kernel of warmth blooming in his chest.

We're getting closer and closer to present day with these throwback posts! 

Lone Star was the first book that revisited an established couple as the center storyline. There were new and developing relationships - Albie and Axelle, and of course Reese and Tenny, who were my favorite parts of this book - but the brunt of the emotional burden was carried by Candy and Michelle. That's always a risk with a book series. I'm the sort of reader who loves going back to revisit characters once they're in established relationships, but I know that's not always the case for others. I would happily gobble up petty domestic squabbles and slice-of-life content about my faves, but I think the majority of readers want things to chug forward at a rapid pace. 

So it felt risky, but there are lots of plot and character developments in this one that make it essential reading for all the books to come.