It’s a familiar question.
He’s asked me so many times over the last several days if I really wanted to come, if I wanted to be here, somewhere so public, with all of McBride Mountain coming and going through that door.
Somewhere so exposed.
After revealing the truth to him, I can understand why he would think I wouldn’t want to be here. Why I wouldn’t want to put myself out somewhere so visible. Why staying up at the homestead like I have been would be the safest place for me and where I would want to be like I have been for weeks.
But I just couldn’t do it.
Not to her.
I shake my head and turn it toward him, brushing a kiss over his lips gently as I rest my hands on his chest to feel the grounding, steady beat of his heart under my palm. “I’m positive. I want to be here for her. It’s her big day.”
One I could not miss.
Over the last several weeks, Willow has become the closest thing I’ve ever had to a best friend. When she learned the truth, when she understood what the McBrides would be facing if I stayed, she didn’t hesitate for a moment to throw her arms around me and tell me how sorry she was. To assure me that they would do everything in their power to protect me and to solve the problem. To make sure that everything would be all right.
Even when she had no idea how we would get there, she never wavered in her belief that there is an end in sight that doesn’t involve me returning to the road alone or worse.
I wish I had the kind of faith she does. That faith Liam seems to share that though we don’t have the answer now, we’ll find it.
But I don’t.
Which is why I watch that door carefully.
Which is why Liam, Killian, and Connor are all here, spread out across the shop, looking more like security guards than members of the family celebrating with Willow.
Because even though they keep insisting we’ll figure this out, they also know the danger I’ve brought here, to this place, to them, and they won’t let down their guard.
Willow keeps admonishing them to stop scaring away prospective customers, but the people of McBride Mountain know the brothers well enough to understand who and what they are.
After reading the backlog of Raven’s posts—on what is absolutely a gossip site, whether she admits it or not—I also understand them so much better now.
Weeks secluded on the McBride homestead have taught me even more.
The important things.
They’re good people.
They’re good men.
They’re just…a little rough around the edges.
And Liam truly is different—like Willow said.
He’s their conscience. The one who always seems to be arguing in the role of the calm one while Killian and Connor want to fly off the handle, their baser instincts taking over their rational thought.
They would’ve been standing here with shotguns and axes, waiting for any signs of trouble, but Liam insisted that we don’t go that far. That there’s no reason to worry people in town when we don’t have any reason to believe anyone knows I’m here.
It’s been a month now, and the only familiar faces are the ones I learned working at the diner. None from my past, despite constantly looking for them.
And the McBride brothers’ presences don’t seem to be deterring any sales.
Candles are flying off the shelves Liam so expertly hung, and the register keeps dinging open as money flows into it with Raven behind the counter—actually helping, for once.
The entire community is here to support Willow, to help her rebuild her life after what happened to her, and it makes the promises Liam has made to me seem like something tangible instead of only placating words.
Now they echo in my head as I look around.
