Willow’s gaze cuts over to me, as does Lucky’s, but I honestly don’t know how to respond to Willow’s question.
Without knowing what’s going on with Lucky, none of the options sound particularly appealing. I would much rather bring her with me up the mountain, to keep her near me, but that is the last place in the world I want her to ever set foot.
I don’t want the evilness that permeates that whole area to taint anything about Lucky.
She’ll be better off here, at my place, with Gizmo to keep her company until Willow or I can get back and be with her. “I don’t think?—”
Lucky holds up her hand to stop me before I can fully voice my objection. “Yes. If you want me there, I’d love to come help at the shop.”
I bite back my instinct to intervene, to object on her behalf, but she gives me a pleading look not to say anything. She doesn’t want Willow to know what happened any more than we do. Instead, I force myself to take a few bites, even though I’m not hungry, because Willow is watching and she already suspects something is going on that we aren’t revealing to her.
Killian and Connor do the same while peeking at Lucky out of the corners of their eyes.
Lucky hasn’t attempted to put any food on her plate, but forcing the issue isn’t going to get me anywhere. After what she went through less than an hour ago, I can’t blame her for not having any appetite, but worry for her gnaws at my empty gut.
“Are you hungry?” She looks over at me and shakes her head, and I push back my chair. “Then why don’t I walk you around and show you the rest of the homestead before Willow is ready to leave?”
Willow’s brow furrows, and she gives me a questioning look, but I return one that tells her not to ask. She lets it go—for now—returning to eating while keeping one eye on us.
I reach out for Lucky’s hand, and she slides it into mine, rising from her seat. She’s still trembling, though the worst of it has subsided. If it hadn’t, I never would have brought her here with the family. But showing her that everything was fine, that Connor wasn’t angry and that things were normal, seemed like a good idea at the time.
Now, I’m not so sure.
Lucky lets me lead her out of the cabin and onto the front porch. I usher her forward as I close the door behind us with a click.
Before I can say anything, she releases a long, shaky breath. With her back to me, I can’t see her face, and she doesn’t turn toward me. “I’m so sorry.”
I step up behind her and wrap my arms around waist, pressing a kiss to the side of her neck. “Stop apologizing. I just want to make sure you’re okay. Do you really want to go to the shop today? There’s no reason you have to be there. You can stay at my place. I have to go up the far side of the mountain with Killian and Connor all day, otherwise I’d stay with you.”
She doesn’t say anything, just leans into me slightly, staring out at the sun rising over the mountain, sending long fingers of pinkish-orange light reaching across the clearing through the morning mist toward where the cabin stands.
It’s one of those perfect mountain mornings, the ones that draw tourists up here and make people stay forever.
I peek at Lucky’s face and see her chewing on her bottom lip again, her hands twisting in front of her nervously. Capturing them with mine, I press them against her stomach. “Lucky?”
She turns her head slightly toward me, peeking at me out of the corner of her eye. “I want to go. I need to do something, not sit around here. I’ll be okay there. With the paper on the windows, it’s closed off. There aren’t customers coming in or anything like that.” She offers a half-smile. “And being around Willow and Niall is nice.”
I grin at her. “Yeah, it is.” Something about seeing them, his innocence and her absolute joy around him is enough to make even the shittiest of days better. “Are you going to take Giz with you?”
She nods. “Willow said it was fine if I bring him.”
This morning was the first glimpse I’ve gotten of the Gizmo she warned me about—snarling and snapping at Connor when he thought she was in trouble. That dog will defend her as fiercely as Willow will. Which makes a little of my concern over the coming day dissipate.
But she’s already started the morning on an incredibly stressful note, and she needs time to fully come back down from that scare before I send her off to town again.
“Let me show you around the property.”
She nods, and I take her hand in mine and lead her off the porch and across the clearing to the main barn. The weather-worn building has stood for at least a hundred years, its main wooden structure still almost as solid as the day it was built thanks to the incredible skills of the men who erected it.
Lucky examines each of the stalls and meets some of the animals who aren’t out in the pasture or the pens, then gawks at one of Killian’s unfinished projects as we move into his workshop. “That’s incredible.”
I nod, staring at the half-carved mountain lion that appears to be climbing out of the massive log he’s being formed from. “I know. Killian is far more of an artist than I am.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t believe that.”
“Why? Because you saw a few shelves?”
Her shoulders rise and fall softly. “No. I can just tell. You have an artist’s soul.”
