“So maybe he’s chosen his next owner.”
“I can’t have a dog. I move around too much.” Lani stepped around Buddy.
“Shame. He clearly likes you.”
She didn’t answer that; instead, she crossed the street with the dog on her heels. There was enough time left to sit on the bank and eat her breakfast before she went to work for her first day. Time to relax after yet another weird encounter in this town. She walked between buildings—one was the Lair, and a plaque told her that was the sheriff’s office.
“Another strange name, Buddy.” He made the wuffling sound that she knew was a coincidence, but it sure sounded like he was answering her. “We’re not a thing, you and me. You need to understand that.”
The dog pressed into her leg, so she scratched his head. “Oh, you’re good.”
It was a pretty town, but also so much more. Lani couldn’t put her finger on exactly what that more was yet. Heart, maybe? Community? Both of those things, she guessed. She could feel the sense of belonging in the people here. Not for her. Lani didn’t want to belong anywhere. She was a wanderer.
When she reached the lake, she kicked off her boots and pulled off her socks. Then rolled up the cuffs of her jeans. Wading into the shallows, she bit back the shriek as the hit of cold cleared her head. Fall was advancing, and that would bring Thanksgiving, a time where she wanted to be far away from a place like Lake Howling. A place that celebrated with friends and family.
The water was so clear and unpolluted, a huge, sprawling body before her. The mountains rose through clouds today, and the beauty around her was beyond spectacular. She almost wished she could paint it; however, the best she could do was stick figures.
“It’s a rite of passage for Howlers to climb one of those. We usually go for the smaller one.”
Lani tried not to stiffen, but failed as Noah’s voice reached her.
“Which one did you climb?”
“The largest one, with Jake, Buster, Cubby, and Newman. It wasn’t pretty. In fact, we damn near froze to death and ran out of food. But we did it. Idiots that we were.”
She couldn’t ignore him, so she turned to face him. One thing Lani had never done was avoid her mistakes—well, for those she could apologize for. And what she’d said to him last night had been wrong.
He held a kayak in one hand and paddle in the other. Long legs bare from the thighs down. He was in red shorts for swimming and a long-sleeved tight swim shirt. She felt her nerves climb again. He was intimidating in so many ways, and it annoyed her that he affected her when no one else had before him in quite the same way.
“I’m sorry.” She said the words quickly.
His smile was small. “About?”
Clearly he wasn’t going to make this easy on her.
“For the way I spoke last night. I overreacted… and I’m sorry.”
The man had so much sex appeal, it was ridiculous.
“Okay, I forgive you for overreacting, you crazy lady. Now we can move on and forget about the wild monkey sex, and everything between us will be cool, right? And FYI, I would never ask you to pay for a room with sex. I hope you understand that about me?”
“I do know that, and I’m not really crazy, just complicated and a bit unbalanced, but not in a bad way.”Shut up, you fool.
“There’s a good way?”
“Look. I’m just not very good with uncomfortable situations. I’m not natural at that anymore.”
“But you once were?”
“Maybe, but the point is I no longer am, and it makes me say the wrong things, so sorry, okay? Hot guys make me nervous.” Oh God, she was babbling now.
“Thanks.” His smile grew.
“For what?”
“Thinking I’m hot.”
“Not just you, any hot guy,” Lani felt the need to clarify. “I’m what you call socially awkward.”
