“Lucky, are you sure you’re all right?”
Liam’s question draws my gaze back up to him, and I do my best to appear confused even if he clearly noticed my response to the neighbor’s preening. “What do you mean?”
He leans against the railing, his gaze intense while he tries to appear nonchalant. “What I mean is…shit.” Running his hands over his hair, he gives me a sheepish grin. Almost as if he’s embarrassed to even be bringing it up, maybe because he can sense my unease. “I just wanted to make sure you know that if you need anything, you can come to me or one of my brothers.”
Hell…
The incredibly sweet offer makes something unexpected ignite deep in my chest. My eyes burn, threatening to release something I refuse to let happen. I look down to Giz so Liam won’t notice how easily something so simple as what he said can bring me to tears.
And for a split-second, the truth sits on the tip of my tongue.
The thought of coming clean and telling him everything crosses my mind long enough to consider what that would look like, how he would react to learning what happened, what I did…
But looking up into his green eyes so filled with compassion and worry, I absolutely cannot throw my baggage on anyone else’s shoulders. Nor could I bear seeing the way his gaze would change. Knowing he would see me so differently would break me right now when I’m so close to that already.
I can’t.
“I’m good. Really.” I force a smile and push to my feet, keeping my focus on Giz instead of Liam, whose eyes remain locked on every movement I make. “Gizmo, go potty.” He darts off down the steps and out into the yard, then comes shooting right back up after he’s done doing his business. I can tell Liam is waiting for more. He’s expecting me to address his concern head-on, and the simple brush off I have offered it’s enough. “I have Gizmo here, and he’s the best guard dog I’ve ever met.”
He’s also my only true friend.
The only one I can rely on.
Something I think Liam knows as he offers me a tight smile, like he sees right through my attempt to reject his offer with a cute, wrinkled face. “You know, everyone may be up in everyone else’s business here”—he runs a hand through his coppery reddish hair—“but the flip side to that is that everyone has each other’s backs. Nothing goes down in this town without everyone knowing about it, and if somebody needs something, every single person who lives here will step up to give it to them. That includes you.”
“I don’t live in McBride Mountain.”
He gives me a grin that says far more than what he actually says. “You do now.”
The hope in his voice shatters my ability to remain unaffected. I can’t let Liam think this is anything or that I’ll be around long enough for it to become anything.
“I’m not staying, Liam.”
I try to say it with some sort of finality because I already feel like I’ve been here too long, like the net is closing in around me, strangling me and any chance I might have to put more distance between me and the mistakes of my past.
I’m looking over my shoulder more.
I’m jumpier.
And at some point, it’s going to give.
It’s going to break, or I am.
Sadness seeps into his evergreen gaze. “McBride Mountain’s a good place to disappear, too, you know.”
“You just told me everybody’s in everybody else’s business.”
“True, but”—he motions toward the mountain towering behind us in the distance—”we live up there.”
“You do?”
“My brother, Killian, lives in the old cabin on the property and Connor and I have each built one. We own the entire mountain.”
I gape at him. “The whole thing?”
He nods. “I told you we’ve been here a long time.”
They’re apparently billionaires, too, which I guess I could have guessed based on the fact that the town is named after them. But Liam certainly doesn’t come across as someone who was raised around that kind of wealth and privilege.
