Free Nolan: Return to Signal Bend by Susan Fanetti Page A

the end of the video: You helped me have everything. Thank you for loving me. It will break my heart to leave you. Don’t be sad for long. I want you to have a life of love and good things.
     
    “It’s been four years.”
     
    “I know, Iris. But grief doesn’t have a timeline. Maybe you’re right that he doesn’t know what he wants. I think you probably are. But you can’t make that decision for him. You can only decide for yourself. So no, I’m not going to tell you if he gets with anybody tonight. I’m going to do all I can not to notice that at all, and to keep your father from noticing, too. Okay?”
     
    “Okay. It was a dumb idea, anyway.”
     
    Shannon hugged her. “Not one of your smarter, no. But now I understand why you’re having Camp New Year instead of going to the clubhouse. That’s a smart move.”

CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    Even in these days of calm, the Horde met in the Keep every Friday. Even on New Year’s Eve. While the women got things set up in the Hall for the Horde New Year’s Eve party, which was, in effect, the Signal Bend New Year’s Eve party, the fifteen members of the club sat around the table.
     
    Nolan liked the way things were now, a balance between past and future at the ends of the table. In the center were Dom, the current Intelligence Officer, and Bart, the former IO, and the soldiers: Tommy, Kellen, Thumper, Saxon, Cox, Darwin, and Mel.
     
    Badger, as President, sat at the far end, flanked by Double A, his VP, and Nolan, his SAA. Facing Badge at the other end of the table was Isaac, the former President. At his flanks sat Show, Isaac’s VP and a former President himself, and Len, Isaac’s SAA.
     
    That had been the case since Isaac and Len had been released from prison the summer before last.
     
    Before then, Showdown had held the gavel, and Badge had been his VP, with Tommy at SAA. The leadership now was young—Badge was only thirty-five, and Nolan, at twenty-six, was the youngest SAA in club history—but it was the right leadership for the club as it stood. Nolan thought maybe Isaac, Show, and Len had been through too much, had seen too much darkness, to shepherd a club that worked in the light.
     
    Often, Nolan wondered if he, too, had seen too much to be effective in his role. His tendency was to see the most nefarious possible cause to any problem. But he had learned patience, he practiced it as if it were a kind of religion, so he mainly kept that dark tendency to himself.
     
    Most of the meeting was usual business, with some extra focus for end-of-year information. The Horde owned several Signal Bend businesses: Signal Bend Construction, where many of the members worked; Valhalla Vin, which Nolan’s mother managed; Signal Bend Health and Wellness Center, which Len’s wife, Tasha, a doctor, ran; and they were part-owner in several other business in and around town. On this final day of the year, a lot of the meeting was taken over by Double A, going over figures. Nolan paid enough attention to understand that they’d had a good year. The past few years had all been good—not extravagantly great, but comfortably in the black. Where they wanted to be.
     
    When the topic moved to forecasting for next year, Nolan tuned out. He didn’t much care about the plans. It was all the same to him, as long as there was somebody to tell him where to swing a hammer. There was some discussion of the next year’s town events, and he turned his ear to that a little, since he’d be in charge of security, but once he heard it was all the same as usual, he let his mind wander again.
     
    Where his mind wanted to wander was toward Iris. He hadn’t seen her since early in the week, at Marie’s, but Kellen had started talking around the clubhouse—quietly, to the younger members, not to Show—about her. Especially her tits. He had been appreciative more than disrespectful, so Nolan had no grounds to bash his face in, but he wanted to. He kept hoping Show would overhear