Of course, I’ve seen it as he’s worked in the hot summer sun around the homestead the last few weeks, but I never asked him about it.
Truth be told, the other McBride brothers unnerve me.
Not because they haven’t been anything but welcoming to me in their home, but because of the intensity with which they do everything.
Especially Killian.
“He’ll never leave.”
Liam shakes his head. “No, he won’t.”
“What about Connor?”
He sighs slightly and leans back on his hands. “I don’t think he will, either.”
“I know Killian has Willow and Niall, and the lumber yard and now Willow’s shop, but what keeps Connor here? He doesn’t seem particularly friendly with anyone in town.”
Liam issues a low chuckle. “Have you been reading Raven’s articles?”
I duck my head slightly, embarrassed at being called out for reading the McBride Mountain gossip. “Yes, but my own personal observation, too. He hasn’t said very much to me…”
Scooching closer, Liam offers me a sympathetic look. “He isn’t mad, you know? About what happened. That’s just how he is. He’s more quiet. More reclusive. Even more so than Killian.”
“And what does he do?”
“What do you mean?”
I shrug, staring at the art, thinking about both Killian and Liam’s workshops on the homestead. “Well, Killian has his family and his carvings. You have your chairs?—”
“And you and Giz.”
Giz climbs into my lap and settles, sufficiently done with his exploration as the sound of the rain increases above us, now pouring down so hard it’s difficult to imagine how we’ll get back to the truck without being soaked unless it lets up soon.
Liam’s words make my throat tighten, the ease with which he says them and the intensity and surety in them.
“But what does Connor have?” It’s something I’ve asked myself multiple times over the last few weeks, when I’ve seen his dark eyes get a faraway look. “It just seems like he’s missing something in his life.”
“I agree with you.” His coppery-red head bobs slightly. “And believe me, we’ve had conversations with him about it over the years, tried to get him to open up more, but he just prefers to be alone. Spends most of his time in his cabin doing whatever it is he does.”
“Has he ever had a girlfriend?”
Liam shakes his head. “Not that I know of.”
“That sounds…lonely.”
He nods. “It is.”
Only he isn’t talking about Connor anymore; he’s talking about himself. About what his life was like before I came to McBride Mountain. And he’s worried about what it will become if I have to leave.
If we have to leave.
What he said the day of the opening has been weighing heavily on my shoulders ever since, his promise to leave with me, to start over somewhere new if we have to.
He would do that for me.
And that meeting with the lawyer this morning rattled me.
While Snow assured me that he thinks he can speak with the FBI agent in charge of investigating the bank robbery, to come up with some sort of proffer agreement that would permit me to give information in exchange for their guarantee that I won’t face any charges, we all know it won’t be so simple.
