“If you want me to.”
“I do.” The words came out quickly, then he seemed to realize how that sounded. “I mean, for the help. With the cus-customers. You’re good with them.”
Tressa padded over to me, pressing her warm body against my legs the same way she’d done with Hail yesterday. I reached down to scratch behind her ears, and she leaned into my touch like we’d known each other for years.
“See? She likes you,” Hail said.
“I like her too.” I smiled at the wolf. “She’s beautiful.”
“I found her as a pup. Her…pack had abandoned her, I think because of her coloring.” His voice softened. “But I think she’s perfect.”
The way he said it, with such simple devotion, made my heart flip over. Here was a male who saw beauty where others found flaws. Who rescued abandoned things and gave them a home.
“Hail…” I bit my tongue. I’d been about to ask if he really meant it about wanting my help, though something in his expression told me he did.
He crooked his head my way from where he was wiping down one of the workspaces. “What?”
“Nothing. I’ll see you tomorrow early. Is four am okay?”
“Oh, five will be fine.” His smile was prettier than a sunrise. “Thank you again.”
“You’re welcome.”
Leaving the barn, I stepped up onto the boardwalk and paused, suddenly aware of how visible I’d made myself today. A ton of tourists had seen me. Some had learned my name, or at least part of it. These people could describe me to anyone asking questions.
My belly spasmed as I scanned the busy street. Was I being stupid? Getting comfortable in this place, becoming known as Hail’s helper, putting down even the shallowest of roots went against every survival instinct I’d developed. The safest path was always invisibility. Instead, I’d put myself center stage in a room full of strangers with cameras in their pockets.
I forced myself to keep walking, to breathe normally despite the fear crawling up my spine. Maybe this far from New York, I was actually safe. Maybe no one would think to look for me in a tourist town full of orcs. Or maybe I was making the same mistake I’d made before, believing I could have a normal life when there was nothing normal about my situation.
I stepped up onto the boardwalk and wove around tourists peering into the general store or dining in front of the restaurant at cute little tables. Yesterday I’d asked Hail to call me Allieinstead of Allison, and today he’d introduced me to the tourists as his assistant.
This was what I could be here. Not Allison Wilson, whose father may have been a criminal and whose past was full of dangerous secrets.
Just Allie, a woman who helped with pottery classes and made people’s clay dogs turn out better.
Chapter 4
Hail
After Allie left, I stood in the barn for a while, staring at the empty doorway where she’d disappeared. The space felt different without her. Lonelier, which was odd since I was almost always alone.
I shook my head and got back to work. The tourist pieces needed to be properly spaced on the drying shelves, and I had to check the kiln to make sure it would be ready for the firing. Basic tasks I’d done hundreds of times, but tonight they felt different too. More purposeful, maybe, knowing that tomorrow Allie would be here to help me put them in the kiln and present the creations to those who’d made them.
I couldn’t believe I was going to hire someone I’d just met. But I supposed that was how it was for all bosses. They met the person once and decided on the spot.
If nothing else, I knew Allie would fit in here well. She’d shown that she not only knew how to make pottery, but that she was kind. Tressa adored her, which astonished me as well. My wolf friend usually took time to warm up to people.
Aunt Inla had been after me to hire someone, and I agreed I needed help, but I’d never been any better with new people thanTressa. Worse, actually. She would wag her tail and maybe let someone new pet her. I tended to pivot and run in the opposite direction if someone new came near.
Allie was different. I couldn’t pin down how.
Perhaps it was the way she’d moved through the crowd today, helping people with their clay problems, answering questions with confidence and kindness. She’d known exactly what to say to the woman with the collapsing mug and how to help the boy with his falling-apart dog. And when she’d looked at me across the barn, I’d felt less alone than I had in months. Ever, actually.
My stutter barely showed up when I talked to her. With tourists, my words tangled and twisted no matter how hard I tried to control them.
Tressa padded over and sat beside me, her amber eyes watching as I arranged the last pieces on the shelf.
“What do you think, sweet one?” I asked, scratching behind her ears. “Would it be a mistake to offer Allie a job?”
