“Can I help you?” Lukas quirked a brow and was sporting a frown.
“Oh, sorry.” I held out my hand. “I’m Samuel Karis; Sam or Sammy is fine. I wanted to say hi. You’re new in town and all, so, yeah.”
He looked from my face to my hand and returned to my face again. “I’m sure you already know who I am.” He didn’t shake my hand and practically dismissed me when he went back to his ice cream.
“Yeah, true. Hard to keep secrets in a town this quaint.”
“Quaint,” he harrumphed.
“You don’t think it’s quaint?” It wasn’t lost on me that he hadn’t invited me to sit—hell, he hadn’t even shaken my hand. And I was nothing if not ambitious, so I sat across from him in the booth.
“Quaint isn’t the word I think you meant to use, and why are you sitting with me?”
“It’s a descriptor word for Brookridge, don’t you think? And I’m sitting here because it’s rude to hover.”
“I’m unsure you understand the English language, and you wouldn’t be hovering if you’d never come over.”
He was so rude, and yet I was intrigued. “True, but you should know people in the town you’re livin’.”
“I’m fine by myself.”
What a depressing answer.“You can’t be alone all the time. We all need human interaction.”
He pulled the spoon from his mouth and cocked his head. “I disagree with that.”
“Which part?”
“All of it.”
So, he was a loner, didn’t like people, and was rude. Natalie and Ben would tell me to wish him well and be on my way, but my heart hurt for him. He reminded me of an abused animal unable to trust, not wanting to risk it.
“That’s just because you’re probably alone a lot. You should try mingling.”
“I don’t mingle.” He wiped his mouth with the napkin and dropped it into the now-empty ice cream cup.
“I could show you around Brookridge, if you’d like?”
“Why would I like that?”
Okay, he was a tough nut to crack. “So you know all the places and faces.”
“Sounds agonizing.”
I chuckled—he was a little funny. “It can be.” I leaned in to whisper the rest. “There are some people in this town you should avoid.” I sat up straight. “I can show you who.”
“If I avoid everyone, I’ll never be at risk.”
Why did he have to have an answer for everything? “Well, uhhh…how about I give you my number, and if you change your mind?—”
“I won’t.” He stood, grabbed his garbage, and walked to the trash. He dumped it in and left the shop without another look or a goodbye.
Natalie rushed over. “What happened?”
“He’s rude.”
“Mmhmm…but hot, right?”
“So hot.”
