And somehow managed to keep the nightmares at bay and give me the best night of sleep I’ve had in nine months.
“Really?” Her focus darts down to him, then back to me. “I’m surprised. He normally doesn’t like other people. Especially men.”
I raise a brow and shrug. “Well, he sure seemed to like me.”
Her lips purse slightly. “Apparently so.”
She sounds almost annoyed that her dog didn’t put up more of a fuss when I found him.
I fight a smirk. “What’s his name?”
The corners of her lips twitch, like she too is fighting the pull of humor. “Gizmo.”
“Gizmo?”
Her head bobs, sending her blue hair cascading over her shoulder. “Because he kind of reminded me of a gremlin when I got him from the pound. A little nuts, especially if you feed him after midnight. And you better not get him wet.”
My bark of laughter echoes around the diner, drawing the attention of a few people who have wandered in since we started our conversation, as well as Elaine, who gives me a look from her usual perch behind the counter. “Well, he didn’t cause me any trouble.”
If anything, he was exactly what I needed last night to distract me from the darkness that seems to settle around me as soon as the sun goes down. His warmth pressed along my side as I slept did something no amount of alcohol ever could. Something I didn’t know was possible.
His owner gives me a tight smile. “Good…”
An awkward silence falls between us, and I rub the back of my neck just for something to do with my hands. “Are you in town for the festival?”
She pulls her plump bottom lip between her teeth, chewing on it slightly as she shifts, drawing my attention down her over the straps of a backpack on her shoulders, the long-sleeve t-shirt that exposes one collar bone, ripped jeans that hug her thick hips, and finally to the worn Chuck Taylor’s on her feet. “Uh, yeah.”
That wasn’t very convincing.
Plus, I would have noticed a woman like her around town the past several days.
She’s impossible to miss, and not just because of her shocking hair color.
The woman standing in front of me somehow heats my blood despite the fact that she’s icing me out right now—and clearly lying about why she’s in McBride Mountain.
For the first time in a long time, she managed to get me to laugh and smile and really mean it.
I hold out my hand. “I’m Liam McBride.”
Her eyes flare slightly at the mention of my last name.
Shit.
People don’t typically have that reaction, but that’s because everyone here knows me and has my entire life. But this woman clearly doesn’t have any knowledge about our small town or the people in it—including how I got the McBride name or what it means.
She might be the only person in a hundred miles who doesn’t know every single detail of the sordid history I learned about my biological parents and the blood that flows through my veins.
After a few seconds of hesitation, she holds out her hand and slides her smaller palm against mine. A little zap of electricity shoots up my arm at the contact, spreading through me with a warmth I relish and want to cling to. And she seems to feel it too, jerking her hand away quickly as if she’s afraid to maintain any sort of physical connection between us.
“Lucky.”
“Your name is Lucky?”
She nods.
Well, how about that…
I grin. “Well, I think Gizmo was the lucky one, that I was the one out on the road last night. If it had been anyone else who wasn’t paying attention…”
