“If you hadn’t keptsecretsfrom me, because I’m sofragile, I wouldn’t have broken up your meeting.”
“This is not my fault,” she muttered.
“All right.”
Her eyes narrowed to golden slits. “I don’t think you understand how stupid that was.”
“Following my wife when she’s putting herself in danger? Can’t say I’d do it any other way, love.”
Ice. It was hot as the devil’s ass crack, and that woman looked like snow wouldn’t melt in her mouth.
“You don’t have to protect me from every little thing, Brogan. You can’t.”
“All right.” I sat back. “The same goes for you. I’m not fragile.”
She scoffed.
“I’m no more fragile than any other living human man, and since I’ve died twice and am still right here—alive, if you’ll notice—I can confidently say I am a hell of a lot stronger than most human men.”
“Brogan.”
I ducked my head, trying to catch her gaze. “I might only be alive because Cupid likes me that way, but that is a god’s favor,Lula. Even Death himself barred me from crossing the river to the great beyond. That’stwogods’ favor. Not many humans can claim that kind of strength.”
She shook her head.
“My body might not be as strong as yours, but I’m not fragile. My soul isn’t fragile. Nor is my heart. Because my heart beats for you, Lula Gauge. Always will.”
“But that’s what I’m worried about,” she whispered. “Your heart.”
I pressed my palm against my chest. “It’s doing okay so far.”
She put her hands on the wheel. “It’s getting you into trouble is what it’s doing, Brogan. Foolish trouble. Just like it always has. I need you to think. To be smarter than that.”
“Loving you isn’t foolish.”
She didn’t shake her head, but she didn’t look at me either. She just eased the truck forward.
Dust blew into the cab, then back out, hot wind rubbing sandpaper across my fevered skin.
“I love you, Lula Gauge,” I said.
But there was too much wind in the cab, too much heat. If she heard me, she didn’t show it.
She just kept her icy gaze on the road ahead and her foot on the gas.
For the first time in nearly a hundred years, she didn’t say she loved me back.
CHAPTER SIX
Shamrock, Texas, went all out to show off its connection to Ireland. The bars were pubs, the local sport team was the Leprechauns, and every business had green clovers painted in the corners of the windows.
Only a couple thousand people lived in the town, which covered all of two miles.
The single-story, horseshoe-shaped motel where we stopped had Shamrock in its name but was painted in the red, white, and blue of the Texas flag. Huge, single stars were painted on the doors, each one facing the parking lot.
It might not have Irish in it, but it did have air-conditioning.
It also allowed pets.
