Chapter 39
She seemed like an absolute kid as they drove to town in her Jeep. Her arm out the window of the jeep, her auburn hair flying back from her face like silken streamers. A bracelet dangled on her sun-kissed arm.
“So why are they keeping him for observation, again?”
“Normally, I’d say it’s standard operating procedure. But Cheri did say there were a couple of things they were keeping an eye on.”
“So, there could be something a bit off?”
“She said the operation went perfect, and that he’s coming home tomorrow. I say let’s not borrow trouble.”
Nathan sighed. “I just want him well. I want to hear Talbot tell us that. None of this keeping an eye on things. Just your damn dog is so perfect, we’re nominating him for a Nobel Peace prize.”
She grinned at him. “A Nobel peace prize? For dogs?”
He eyed her with raised brows. “You’re saying Ryker couldn’t nail it?”
She smiled. “Hands down, he’d win.”
Prince stuck his long nose into the front seat, between them, earned himself a pat. Nathan crooned at the big dog. “And you’d be second, Prince. Yes, you would. Good boy. Good boy. Yes, you would!”
The dog didn’t move a muscle, just stared ahead, completely engrossed in the road ahead. “And now I’m being ignored by a dog.”
“Doc’s seeing us in a couple of hours so there’s time to swing by HQ.”
“HQ?”
She grinned. “I always call it that in my mind. My place. You can pick the patch of hard floor you’ll be sleeping on, and see the forced labor you’ll be doing. Plus, you can be ignored by a whole bunch of town people too.”
He scrutinized her bright face, the deadpan look she offered, but caught a flash of the vibrant fun, just underneath.
Jack’s Bay had never been this interesting before.
* * *
She slipped the Jeep into one of the diagonal parking spaces in front of the store across the street. Bert’s taxidermy. Soon they were crossing the street, and it started.
Quick glances at Amy, the odd hello or nod. When they moved to his face next, he saw the sudden query followed by the remembrance of who he was. And they all jolted, seeing him.
He heard the message, loud and clear.
He doesn’t belong here.
Abruptly, he was so uncomfortable in his skin he couldn’t stand it.
Suddenly, he felt warm fingers around his, the unexpected squeeze. “Eyes open, Hero! What are you thinking about?” Laughing, she pulled him to the curb just as a truck driven by a scowling, grizzled senior drove by. Notably, one scowling at him. “You want to get hit by that thing? Seriously. Pick a better one. Don’t you have any standards?”
“Sorry.”
But she was on to something else. “It’s just over here!”
She unlocked the door, practically quivering. And they entered.
He was greeted by an old hallway with a big showroom to the left. A thinly veiled darkness, the sun beating on the old paper tacked up inside the huge storefront window.
She hadn’t been kidding about the place.
The first thing that hit his nose was the mustiness. And not just your run-of-the-mill mustiness. An odd acridity to the scent. Was there mold in it?
He sure hoped for her sake there wasn’t.
She pressed forward, and he felt the pull in her spirit. She walked into the main room, then pirouetted in the middle of it, the floorboards creaking under her dance. “This is it!”
And could only watch, felt the edges of her happiness touch him.
“Pretty happy with yourself, aren’t you?”
By now, she’d stopped twirling, and was on to inspecting a bookcase that lay on the floor over a bit of rubble. “I know it seems silly, but it’s mine, Nathan. And the things I’m going to do with this place!”
“You do see all the work that needs doing, right?”
She stopped, stared at him, then shrugged her shoulders. “I’ve got a few friends that can come by and help a bit. And if not, you and I can do it, right? I’ve got work gloves and I know how to use ‘em.” She winked at him. “I’ve been wearing work gloves since I was three. Gramps and I worked on his boat, then Mom and I helped Dad with a reno. And dad and I—there wasn’t a weekend that went by that I didn’t wear them at some point in the day.” She grinned. “Usually there was ice-cream at the end of it too. Kawartha Black Raspberry Thunder.”
“The best.”
He caught a glimpse again of the bracelet, noted how the sun slivered in through a split in the yellowed paper, and aimed right at it. Hell. It was gold.
She could afford such a thing just for daily living. For knocking about in a dump.
What the hell was he doing here?
But now she’d fixed him with those big eyes. “You think we can do this, Nate?”
He shook his head to drive away the crazy, conflicting thoughts in his brain. This girl was a mystery, hands down, and her world was a bigger one. How could someone who could drive the car she did, live in a chateau-style woodland cabin, albeit tiny but hers, and have the family resources she had be thrilled almost beyond words about a space so old, so decrepit, that if anyone had sense they’d raze it to the ground and run, screaming for the hills?
He took another long look at her face, explored the way she watched him so intently, as if his opinion actually mattered to her.
And yeah. That didn’t make sense either.
Hell. He just went with it. “Yeah. I think we can.”