“What?”
Those perfect lips of hers curve up, but even in the relative darkness of Main Street in downtown McBride Mountain this time of night, I can still see the pain flash across her eyes. “I was a foster kid. Moved around to a bunch of different houses when I was younger, so…”
“Ahh.”
For some reason, knowing that one thing about her past explains so much about her.
The way she keeps to herself.
Not wanting to accept help.
Not wanting to open up.
I can understand why she’d be like that, growing up without a family and getting bounced around a lot. Making connections would only have led to pain when she had to leave.
The McBrides might not be blood, but one thing we always were was a family. We looked out for each other, cared for each other, and Connie loved Connor and me as if we were her own and never treated us any differently than she did Killian. And now that she’s gone, Killian has held us together and ensured we didn’t drift apart.
Until my blood drove a wedge between us.
And learning something so important about Lucky only makes me need to know more. I need to know everything about this mysterious woman who showed up with the adorable dog and the wild blue hair and has somehow broken through the shroud of fog I’ve been lost in.
The more I know, the easier it will be to figure out how to get her to let down her walls.
What she just told me cracked a door I plan on pushing open. “So, where did you grow up?”
She fiddles with the strap on her purse and continues to stare straight ahead while we walk down the sidewalk toward Elaine’s. A car passes by, and her back stiffens as she watches it until it turns and heads off to the west. “Kind of all over. Mostly in Savannah, but a few other places.”
“Always the city, though?”
Her head bobs, the messy bun she has her hair pulled back in shifting as if it desperately wants to be freed. “Yeah, the way people are around here is…different.”
That’s one way to put it.
And I don’t think she means it as a bad thing.
I grin. “It can make a small town like this feel a little strange.”
Her laugh fills the night air, settling over me like a warm blanket. “A lot strange.”
“That’s fair.” I can’t help but smile at her because seeing her like this—relaxed, almost carefree, happy—is so different from how I’ve seen her over the past week. “You feel like you’re doing okay, though, staying at Elaine’s and working at the diner?”
She considers my question for a minute, long enough that I know she actually needs the time to determine her answer. “I like it here. It seems like the type of place where you can catch your breath.”
Why does she need to catch her breath?
That choice of words seems very deliberate. Something tells me Lucky isn’t a woman who says anything without considering it very carefully first.
So, what’s she running from?
Whatever it is…I don’t like the fact that she ever felt like she couldn’t breathe. That’s a feeling I know all too well and wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
Her saying McBride Mountain helps with that gives me hope. “Do you think you’ll stay?”
Because though I want it for her, I also want it selfishly for me.
I’m drawn to her like a moth to a flame, and even though she’s the type of woman who will probably burn me in the end, I just keep circling the light, hoping to feel the heat.
She shrugs. “I don’t know. I don’t stay anywhere very long, and I’ve already stayed far more than the few days I had planned.”
