I studied him. The tension in his shoulders, the way his fingers drummed against the counter.
“You really blame yourself… For Hudson getting to me at the inn.”
“There was a gap between us looking after you. Minutes.” His jaw worked. “Twelve minutes, and he almost…” He stopped. “It won’t happen again.”
My chest hammered. This ridiculous, tattooed, pancake-making man was beating himself up over twelve minutes.
“Percy. I’ve been running from Hudson for months. He tracked me across three states. You couldn’t have-”
“I could have stayed.” His intense hazel eyes met mine. “I should have. So now I am.”
I couldn’t find an answer to that.
The easy grin slid back into place. “Anyway. Do you want to have a movie marathon? You pick. I have opinions about everything, but I’ll keep them to myself for at least twenty minutes.”
“Generous, I see.”
“I am.” He stood, stretching, and his shirt rode up again. I looked away before I could get distracted by more tattooed skin. “I’ll set up in the living room. Take your time.”
A few moments later, I finished my breakfast. Then I heard Percy curse at what sounded like a complicated remote control situation in the other room.
The domesticity of it was surreal. Twenty-four hours ago, I’d been fighting off my ex. Now I was doing dishes while a man I barely knew set up a movie marathon.
“I’m just going to look around while you fix that,” I called out. “If that’s okay.”
“Mi casa es su casa.Just don’t open the basement door. That’s where we keep the bodies.”
I snorted despite myself.
The living room was bigger than my entire apartment. Percy was sprawled on the couch, fiddling with remotes, and he waved vaguely as I passed.
But it was the books that stopped me.
Shelves lined three walls, floor to ceiling. My fingers itched to touch them.
I pulled one at random. The title was in a language I didn’t recognize. Inside, illustrations of creatures that are some sort of wolves. I put it back but a crest caught my eye above the fireplace. A wolf with three stars above its head, carved into a wooden plaque.
I crossed the room without deciding to.
“What’s this?” I asked, but Percy had his back to me, still wrestling with the entertainment system.
“Hmm? Family thing. Old.”
My fingers traced the carved lines. The wolf’s muzzle, the curve of its ears. A tug pulled in my chest, visceral and unfamiliar, and then my vision went white.
String lights. Hundreds of them, strung across the town square. Warm cider in my hand, my third or maybe fourth, the taste of cinnamon on my tongue and a pleasant buzz softening the edges of everything. A crowd moved around me, laughing, dancing, and at the edge of it all…
Three men. Watching me.
I knew those faces. I didn’t know how, but I knew them.
I recognized Percy right away.
“Dance with me?” He held out his hand, that easy grin already in place.
I took it before I could stop myself. His fingers closed around mine and my chest clicked in place, a key turning in a lock I hadn’t known existed.
“Do I know you?”
