She bursts into laughter, barely able to get it together when Bianca returns to pour the wine. After we order, Leah turns, our knees barely touching under the table. "I really appreciate you calling ahead to arrange such a great spot for me to park overnight."
I hesitate, then reach out to take her hand where it's resting on her knee. "I would have suggested you park at my house, but you don't know me yet. I truly need to know that you're safe. You should know that you're not completely alone. The staff here would help you if you needed anything."
Her lovely eyes go blank for a moment as her gaze drops to the silverware.
"I'm so sorry. Did I say something wrong?"
She shakes her head. "No. I’m just…surprised. Nobody's ever treated me this well before."
A strange, grumbling growl rises unbidden in my throat. How could the world not treat this woman like the beautiful angel she is? "Well, you're on my mountain now. I think you’ll find everything's a bit different around here."
Time seems to slow to a stop as we drink wine, nibble at breadsticks, and then enjoy the incredible pizza. Leah explains how she moved away with her father when she was eighteen, escaping the tiny town where she was born and traveling with him while doing a few semesters of college here and there. He passed away this spring, leaving her with the RV and a deeply ingrained wanderlust. She doesn’t mention her mother at all. I don’t feel I should ask.
Now she does freelance work proofreading automatic machine translations. It’s cheaper than hiring a translator, but safer because a native English speaker has gone through it checking for tone, phrasing, and such. She was an English major but also reads a bit of French and Spanish.
I share how I'm the fourth of five brothers, and joke that I hope she's not overwhelmed when she meets Kayden, Kingston, Kane, and Kellen – especially if it’s all of them at once.
"I love that you work together," she says, her eyes bright. "It always takes a while to get a new business off the ground, but I’m sure with five of you working on it, it'll do well."
Wow. She hasn't looked us up.
I love it. It’s like starting with a clean slate. She hasn’t heard a thing about me and my brothers. Doesn’t know that my family is kind of treated like royalty around here, and that people joke that I’m one of the princes of Wolfe Mountain.
It points out even more that Leah is the one for me. The feeling of her hand in my palm tells me everything I need to know.
I want her.
4
LEAH
Ifeel like there’s a magnet in my heart pulling my chest toward Kai. My entire body, actually…but that’s far too distracting to think about.
Two hours of conversation fly by in a snap. Light and deep, serious and hilarious. He’s so easy to talk to.
After we split a chocolate brownie covered in raspberries, Kai smiles as he reaches for my hand again. "Normally I would offer to drive you home, but since you live on the other side of the back wall, that seems a bit ridiculous."
We laugh together, and I notice yet another group of people coming in the front door and staring at us strangely. Kai mentioned that he's lived in this small town his whole life. Have they never seen him on a date?
Maybe you’re not the kind of girl they imagine him with, a nasty little voice inside me whispers. Not only am I a total stranger, I'm…well, the termcurvywould be the politest. I detestplump. Orplus-sized. Maybe I'll go withjust a little round here and there.
As we leave, Kai is staring at me with more hunger in his eyes than when the pizza arrived. I kind of want to invite him backinto my RV. But would that be too forward? I do want us to have some private time alone to see where this heat takes us.
"Feel like shaking down dinner by going for a little walk around town?" he asks.
"Sure."
We stroll around the downtown area. Kai points out the library, City Hall, the police station, and a small medic's office run by his cousin Josh. There's also Corina's Coffee, and a quaint department store from another era called Tidy’s.
It's getting a little dark, but I don't think these streets would be dangerous even if I was alone. Everyone we pass nods and greets Kai. I notice that he holds my hand, making it obvious that we’re kind of together.
"Do you know every single person in town?" I ask suddenly.
"Now that I know you, yes."
My goodness. His smile is completely disarming.
Kai turns to me just as we’re stopped in front of City Hall. "Now that a bunch of people have seen us together, they'll know you're with me. So they'll be looking out for you." He winks. "To be fair, everyone looks out for everyone around here anyway. It's survival as well as being friendly. But people will look out for you even more now."
