Her expression turned rueful. “I feel a little like Princess Leia.” When he only frowned, she quoted, “‘Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.’” Her rueful expression turned sour. “I hatebeing thrust into the role of damsel in distress. I hate that I can’t be the one to solve this thing and save my own ass. And Ireallyhatethat I dragged you and your friends into this. If I’d known—”
“I don’t hate it,” he cut her off. “If you hadn’t dragged me into this, we wouldn’t be here now, sitting across from each other while you tell me more about Asheville.”
Her delightful mouth pursed into a perfect oval. “Suave. Very suave how you got us back on topic.”
“I’m more than just a pretty face.”
“True.” She lifted a finger and he imagined her running it down the center of his back the same way she’d run it over the spines of his books. “Although, if I’m being honest, your pretty face was one of the first things I liked about you.”
“And here I thought it was my effervescent personality and my introducing you to my gem of a cousin, Chuck.”
That made her laugh. For whatever reason, maybe because he’d never been accused of being a comedian, he felt unreasonably pleased with himself.
“How is Chuck by the way?” She lifted an eyebrow.
“Plotting to overthrow the government. But what else is new?”
All the humor died in her eyes. “Maybe our governmentneedsto be overthrown. Or parts of it, at least.”
He hated the worry he saw on her face. Hated more that it was accompanied by fear.
Since there was nothing he could do to assuage either, the next best weapon he had in his arsenal was distraction.
“So…Asheville?” he encouraged.
Her expression relaxed. “It’s this old hippy town. Tons of music festivals, farmer’s markets, and colorful murals painted on the sides of the buildings. It ranks as one of the most LGBTQIA-friendly cities in the US. Which means you can walk around downtown feeling accepted and loved and included no matter who you are or who you love or what you look like. It wasn’t until I moved away for college that I realized the whole world isn’t like that.”
The way she talked about her birthplace made it seem magical. Hunter couldn’t imagine loving the place you’re from. From the time he’d been old enough to realize leaving was an option, he’d counted down the seconds until he could put Benton Heights in his rearview mirror.
“In the springtime, we would load up the station wagon and leave the bustling metropolis behind for the high country.” The look on her face told him Asheville was a far cry from a bustling metropolis. “That’s where my daddy was raised and where my grandmother lived until the day she died. Granny Pearl always had cornbread in the oven and a hound on her front porch. She taught us kids how to color Easter eggs with dye made from berries and how to cook collard greens so we didn’t poison ourselves.”
Her childhood sounded better than any books he’d read or any movies he’d watched. True happiness really existed for the lucky few. And that made the work he did, the struggle to make the world a better place, feel like it was worth it.
“What about your brothers and sister?” he prompted when she fell silent.
Her expression turned a little peevish, but there was humor in her eyes. “My oldest brother, Merit, is the family comedian. Or so he thinks. Really he just lovespractical jokes. He once filled the mayonnaise jar with Greek yogurt, and you’ve never seen a house full of madder Southerners. He’s lucky he survived. My momma spent thirty minutes chasing him around with a wooden spoon.”
“Did she catch him?”
She nodded. “Merit was fast, but Momma had stamina. Eventually she wore him down. By that point, though, she’d run all the mad out of herself. Instead of giving him a good wallop, all she did was hand him the spoon and tell him he had to finish the entire mayonnaise jar full of yogurt before he could have anything else to eat.” Her grin turned evil. “It took him two days, and hestillturns green at the sight of Greek yogurt.”
“Your accent gets thicker when you talk about them.” His ears hummed with the roundness of her vowels and the softness of her consonants.
“Lord, you don’t know the half of it.” She chuckled. “You should hear how country I get when I’m back there. It’s like the instant I step off the plane and breathe in that moist mountain air, the singsong sounds of Appalachia take over.”
“It hits the ear like a lullaby,” he told her.
She regarded him curiously. “You know, you might not talk much. But when you do, you really have a way with words.”
He wasn’t sure he agreed, so all he did was shrug. “And your other siblings?” he prompted. “What are they like?”
“Noble is only a year younger than Merit, but they couldn’t be more different. He’s quiet and reserved.” She slid him a considering look. “Reminds me of someone else I know. My daddy always says Noble took the wordsgive every man thy ear, but few thy voiceto heart. And I think since Noble hasn’t spent his life flapping his lips, he’s been able to concentrate on the why and the how of things. He has a rare gift for seeing the big picture. It’s what makes him such a good detective. And what makes him such a good father too, I reckon.”
She patted her hips as if looking for something in a pocket. And then made a rueful face. “If I had my phone, I’d show you pictures of Jessie and Jemma.” She let out a sad little sigh for her lost device. “Noble was the first of us to have kids. Which means he holds a special place in Momma’s heart. I’m pretty sure her goal in life has always been to become a grandma.”
The first of us to have kids…
It was such a casual remark, but it revealed so much.
