This is the kind of place where strangers become friends, friends become family, and family becomes your life.
Willow raises her brows, watching me expectantly. “So, what do you think?”
I scan the restaurant where I’ve spent most of my time since I arrived in McBride Mountain. “I can’t just abandon Elaine.”
She gave me a job, a place to stay, and unwavering support when I’ve likely done more harm to her business than actually helped it. But she is busy enough that having an extra set of hands—clumsy or not—seems to free her up to work behind the counter, handle the register, and help Matt in the kitchen. Leaving her doesn’t feel right.
Nor does taking another job when I still plan on leaving very soon.
I’ve made decent money here at the diner, and a few hundred dollars more will give me enough of a cushion to hopefully get me far enough away that my past won’t ever find me.
Willow bites her bottom lip and nods. “True. Let me take care of that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just give me five minutes.”
She pushes up from her seat, adjusting her hold on the baby in the carrier, then walks straight back into the kitchen as if she owns the place.
“Umm…” I glance at Raven, who looks unconcerned. “Should she be going back there?”
Raven laughs, shaking her head. “Willow kind of does whatever she wants. But to be fair, so do I. You should really take her up on her offer. I know Elaine, and she will definitely be able to find someone else to help her if she needs it. She’ll want you to help Willow and do something that you might enjoy better.”
The offer is enticing.
But the thought of working with Liam’s sister-in-law also tightens my gut.
It means I might run into him more, and that’s the last thing I need when I’m trying to get out of this town, not get sucked deeper into it.
7
LIAM
The new sign above the old McBride Mountain Newspaper office hangs proudly in the afternoon summer sun.
Mind Your Own Beeswax
A grin pulls at my lips, just as it does every time I’ve seen it since Killian had it hung a few days ago.
Only Willow would choose a name like that for her new business, but it couldn’t be more perfect. Because I think she’s as sick as I am of everyone giving her the pitying looks and asking about her ordeal. It’s incessant—everyone in town buzzing around like…bees. Waiting for a chance to sneak in and sting with a question they seem to have no idea is only going to aggravate wounds she wants to let heal.
God knows she has them.
The trauma I suffered is all mental—a massive mindfuck that crumpled the world I was so comfortable living in—but hers was so much worse. On top of the horrific psychological torture she endured, she suffered physically, too, leaving very visible scars that rival the invisible ones.
It’s taken a lot for her to claw her way back to some semblance of a normal life. Finally settling down with Killian and Niall helped—being a wife and mother—but once this place is open and operating, she’ll finally have something that’s hers.
All that joy she’s always found out in her tiny workshop on the homestead making her candles can be spread to everyone in McBride Mountain on a level I don’t think any of us would have anticipated before she disappeared almost two years ago.
And I’ll do whatever I can to help make her dream come true.
So will Killian.
The majestic carving he did of a bee that now stands right outside the front door of the shop leaves no question about how much he worships the woman inside and how desperately he will work to ensure she gets whatever she wants or needs for the rest of their lives.
Even though I’ve seen it hundreds of times, my eyes still roam over it in appreciation as I tug open shop door. I glance up, expecting bells to jingle above it that would alert my arrival like they do in almost every shop along Main Street, but apparently, the newspaper office never had one.
Which I guess makes sense since either Old Man Murray or Raven were almost always here, seated at the desks that once occupied the space, typing away at whatever articles they were working on.
