“Thanks for the ride.” He held out his hand, and it took her a few seconds to realize what he wanted. She gave him his key fob and jumped out, Taco on her heels as she walked up the path to the house.
She assumed Gus was behind her, but when she reached the front door and turned around, she found herself alone. An owl hooted in the distance — a melancholy sound, and goosebumps broke out across her skin. With a shiver, she let herself inside and headed up the stairs. One minute later, she was standing in the middle of her apartment — in the dark, her body tired, her mind wired.
Taco made his way over to his bowls, and she topped up his food and water, then looked around this place she now called home. The furniture was solid. Mostly antique. And the appliances were new. There was an area rug in the living room that gave a splash of color, but other than that, there was nothing to make the space hers.
It was generic. Vanilla.
Maybe it was time to change that. Maybe it was time to stop running away from the remnants of her old life and build a new one. But as a server in a bar?
She’d had so many dreams once. So many things she’d wanted to accomplish, and now? Now, she was happy to be an anonymous face in a town so far from her old life no one would recognize her. It was safer. Or maybe she was just a coward.
Faith crossed the room and switched on a lamp. Taco nudged at her leg, and she glanced down at the dog. “Enough,” she whispered. She had to stop dwelling on the past.
Enough.
Chapter Six
A week later, on a Saturday morning, Faith sat on the back porch enjoying the quiet. It was early, barely past six a.m., and mist hung over the edge of the yard where the daylilies and aster kept guard. Honeysuckle climbed the fence to her left, and the sweet scent teased her nose as she sipped her coffee.
For the first time in recent memory, she was relaxed.
She sighed and sat back, smiling as Taco ran after something only he could see. The last week, she’d fallen into a routine of sorts, and she was kind of happy, she supposed. Her family hadn’t been in the news since Michael’s hospitalization, and no one had mentioned her name. There was always another scandal to grip the nation, and currently, the mantle had been given to a Hollywood couple making all the wrong moves.
Faith sighed. It was too beautiful this morning to think about negative stuff, and she didn’t want to waste it. She stretched and glanced around. The backyard of this house was large, very much on scale with the actual building. And while there were only five tenants in residence, including the owner, Candy, none of them seemed to come out here all that much. Liam, an older gentleman, tended to the garden and lived on the main level across from Candy. While Sage Jackson, an aspiring writer in her early thirties, had the entire third floor to herself. A pretty woman with long black hair and big blue eyes, she was friendly but spent a lot of time at the local coffee shop or holed up in her apartment writing.
Faith stared at the half-empty cup of coffee in her hands. Sage was more interested in Gus than she was in Faith. Not that Faith could blame her. The man was the kind of attractive that landed starring roles in action movies. Tall and handsome with an edge, he would be any woman’s idea of the perfect man, if she were looking.
Which she wasn’t.
She thought of another man and of a time when her world had been picture-perfect. But Declan had proved such a disappointment. And though she knew she was better off without him, she could still mourn a future that she’d at one time wanted. “Nothing is as it seems,” she whispered softly, hating the wave of sadness that rolled over her.
She was about to call Taco and head inside when movement caught her eyes, and she watched in silence as Gus appeared between the stand of trees off to the right. She knew there was a trail that led to the lake. She guessed he’d been out running. It wasn’t hard to make that assumption. The man was shirtless, his body coated in sweat. There was a tattoo on his neck — she’d seen that one the first night she’d encountered him. But this was the first time she’d seen more of him, and there was another intricate tattoo across his shoulders and down his back. It looked like vines with images hidden in them, but she was too far away to see it properly. There was another across his chest, but again she couldn’t see it all that well.
He stretched his arms over his head, and Faith inhaled sharply, hoping the shadows would keep her hidden. While Gus grabbed the T-shirt he’d tucked into the back of his shorts and pulled it over his head, she eyed the door and planned to escape before he noticed her. But then Taco ran up to him and barked excitedly, running in circles and making more noise than was appropriate on a Saturday morning.
Faith jumped to her feet and swore under her breath as she stepped off the porch and called her dog. Taco whirled around at the sound of her voice and took off like a rocket, running across the yard in seconds until he came to a stop at her feet. He sat and looked up at her, ears forward, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. She held her hand steady and felt a wave of love as Taco licked her palm.
“That dog is living life.”
She nodded and raised her head. Gus’s eyes were so dark, they appeared black, but as she studied him, the light changed, she thought she saw a hint of gold. It was hard to tell in the early morning light. She shouldn’t be wondering about his eyes and cleared her throat a bit, wanting to leave but also wanting to know more. She hadn’t seen much of him since her first week, other than a few quick hellos in the hallway or catching sight of him across the patio at The Dock. Not once had he tried to speak to her or asked how she’d been. And though she should wonder why it mattered, Faith decided to push the envelope and start a full-on conversation even though she knew it was the last thing he wanted.
Maybe because of that.
“How far did you run?” she asked lightly.
“Around the lake.”
“The whole lake?”
He nodded.
“But that’s . . .” She frowned. “At least . . .”
“Just over twenty miles.”
“How long did that take?”
“I took it slow today.” Gus dropped his gaze, and suddenly, she became aware that she wasn’t exactly dressed for conversation with a man who was practically a stranger. “You have a thing for Hello Kitty.” It wasn’t a question. And why would it be?
