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“Not search for runaway children.”

Deflection. Wit. Now I was curious. His dry answer sparked my curiosity. I was up for the challenge. As the go-to person in the office for challenging teens, I could play this game. He certainly wasn’t a teen, but difficult. Ding. Ding. Ding. We had a winner. I changed tactics.

“What’s in the backpack?” I nudged it with my foot. “And don’t tell me this is the part where you reveal that’s your kill bag.”

He let out a sound something between a laugh and a scoff.

“A kill bag?” He quirked a brow at me again.

“Yeah, ya know, like a bag with killer-y things.” His eyes crinkled slightly.

“It’s not a bag with killer-y things.”

He spoke the word similar to how someone would pinch the corner of a stinky diaper, holding it far away from them as they disposed of it.

“It’s a first aid kit. Emergency supplies.” He supplied as if bored.

“Ahhh, Mr. Prepared! Boy Scout?”

He smirked—or at least it could have been a smirk if his mouth moved at all, other than being in a flat line.

“No.” He wasn’t going to give me much to work with.

We continued driving but there was no sign of Connor anywhere. The hills stretched out endlessly ahead of us. It truly was one of the most magnificent places I had ever seen. The wind tugged a piece of my hair free and I tucked it behind my ear.

“This is a beautiful place,” I remarked.

He nodded. “I’ve always thought so.”

“You must enjoy living out here.”

“Yeah.” He paused and added in a somber tone, “When I was a teen, I hated it, but now I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.”

I had never had a home anywhere as awe-inspiring as where he lived. I couldn’t imagine ever wanting to leave. Places like this always screamed “family” at the top of its lungs, and it was a call I had always wanted to answer, but as I grew older, I accepted the reality that a family wasn’t in the cards for me. Although, that didn’t stop the longing, even if it was similar to attempting to capture fog in my hands. Everyone who had been in my life always slipped through my fingers.

“What made you change your mind?” I asked, wanting to know more than anything, because I couldn’t understand why someone would feel that way.

He paused, his gaze fixed straight ahead.

“Time. Distance. Priority changes.” The air was thick with a heaviness at those four words.

“What changed your priorities?”

As soon as I had asked, I knew I had pushed too far, but I wanted to understand how his life wasn’t a dream, because that’s what it echoed to me.

“Do you always ask so many questions?” he grumbled.

I felt gutsy and reminded myself that I had mace, though I highly doubted I’d need it. I continued, “Do you always deflect when asked a question?”

His head snapped toward me as if he didn’t expect any pushback, and he studied my face briefly before turning toward the horizon, his expression unidentifiable. Maybe if I knew him better, I could gauge the micro expressions of his face, but he had been a mystery from the moment I met him. He had an unsettling nature that felt both safe and exposing.

“I realized there was more to life than women and whiskey. I decided life had more purpose than only existing.”

I softly gasped. It was the first real thing he’d said to me, and those two sentences carried the burden of a lifetime. His eyes bounced between mine.

I reached out to place a hand on his coat-covered forearm, but I stopped myself before making contact. He examined me as though I was a puzzle, and he was searching for a missing piece. I gazed out over the pasture knowing that the time for questions was over. Maybe we had grown up in different worlds, but at that moment, I knew there was something deeper to Soren than met the eye. Maybe he was more than a grump after all.

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