Chapter 8 #2
Lucky has nowhere to go. No one to take her in. Nowhere she can settle and have any sort of support system at all.
“How long have you been moving like this?”
“Since I was fifteen.”
“What?”
A tiny sob slips from her throat, but she tries to swallow it back. “I mean, basically my whole life. Moving constantly in foster care, and then I left when I was fifteen. I’ve been on my own ever since. Almost seven years.”
Despite feeling like my heart is being ripped out of my chest at the possible reasons why, I have to ask. I have to know. “Why did you leave?”
Her only response is a flinch.
And I can’t stay away anymore.
I eat up the space between us again with a few determined steps and capture her face between my palms. “You know what? You don’t have to tell me that if you don’t want to.
I just…I need you to understand that there’s nothing you could say to me, nothing you could admit or tell me, that would change what I’m asking you right now, which is for you to stay. ”
* * *
LUCKY
I have never wanted to say “yes” so badly in my life as I do at this moment. As I stare into his green eyes filled with so much hope and longing, so much compassion, so much determination, I know that if I did, he would do everything in his power to try to save me.
Liam would try to make everything right, no matter the cost.
And that’s why I can’t tell him.
I have to protect this incredible man from what I’ve done. Keeping him in the dark means keeping him safe.
It means keeping everyone safe.
I shake my head, the feeling of his calloused palms rubbing against my cheeks almost too much to bear. “I-I can’t.”
My voice cracks, giving away just how fucking hard this is when I never expected it to be. This was only supposed to be a few days, a few hundred dollars in my pocket, and then I would have been on my way, leaving this small town behind me the same way I have dozens of others.
It should have been easy to leave. It was supposed to be.
“Why not, Lucky?” Liam prevents me from dipping my head and looking away like I so badly want to.
He holds me firm, forcing me to stare into those mossy green eyes that so closely match the color of the trees on McBride Mountain that it almost feels like I can see the leaves and boughs blowing in the wind when I stare into them. “Tell me.”
Those eyes plead. For me to talk. For me to open up. For me to trust him.
Good God…I want to…
Every fiber of my being says that I can trust him. That he might be the only person on this planet who potentially could help me.
It might have been enough if I didn’t already care about what happens to him. If I didn’t already feel that horrific sense of dread tightening my gut when I think about what could happen if my past catches up with me here.
“It’s just…safer if I go, Liam.”
“There’s that word again.” His voice deepens, his eyes hardening with his determination and frustration.
“Safer. And the more you mention it, the more I understand that whatever it is you’re running from isn’t something you should be facing alone, so here’s the deal.
” His coppery brows rise. “You listening?”
I nod.
I’m listening because he’s making me.
He’s holding me in place with his strong grip and the intensity of his gaze and words.
Even though I know I should pull away and run right out that door to save this man from my mistakes, I can’t bring myself to do it. Not when he focuses on me so intently, holds me so tightly, and seems so determined to make me listen, as if what he’s about to say could change everything.
“You’re going to stay in McBride Mountain.
” His hands tremble against my face. “And when you’re ready, you’re going to tell me exactly what’s going on.
But I’m not going to force you to do it right now because I’ve been in your shoes—hell, I still am—and I know what it’s like to not want to talk about something that’s traumatic.
So, I’m not going to pressure you.” He shakes his head.
“I’m just going to pray that eventually you’ll understand that this place is safe.
That I’m safe. That you can trust me. That we can protect you here, and whatever the problem is, we can face it together. ”
My heart lodges in my throat, and I struggle to swallow through it while his piney, spicy scent invades my breath. “Why would you want to do that for me?”
It’s the second time I’ve asked that question, but it’s the one that won’t stop running through my head endlessly.
No one in my life has ever done anything even remotely so kind for me.
No one has ever seemed so intent on helping me when it doesn’t benefit them in any way.
No one has ever cared.
Just like before, the look he gives me answers it before he opens his mouth.
“Because I need you to stay. Selfishly.” He grins. “Because I’m in love with your fuckin’ dog.”
Gizmo barks as if he heard what was said about him and not only completely understood it but agrees with the sentiment. Given the way he smothers the man, I’m sure he appreciates the declaration as much as I do.
Giz tries to climb up Liam’s leg, but his hands stay locked on my face.
I fight the quiver in my lip that matches the unsteady beat of my heart right now. “My dog, huh?”
Liam nods, trailing his fingertips across my cheek reverently. “Yep.” His gaze dips to my mouth before coming back up again. “And I really like you, too.”
Hell…
If I hadn’t already started falling for Liam McBride, I would have taken that dive just now.
At this exact moment. Because staring into his eyes after he said those words feels like I’m cartwheeling down the mountain all the way from its highest peak.
Spinning out of control but in an exhilarating way, not a scary one.
But I should be scared.
I should be terrified.
Everything in me, all those learned behaviors and self-protective instincts, scream at me to move, to grab my bag and keep running, to do what I’ve always done and keep going, to find a new place and people I won’t care about.
Somewhere I can disappear and live quietly with Gi without handsome mountain men complicating things.
It would be the easier decision. It would be the one I would have made had I met Liam under any other circumstances. I would have chosen to run.
But I can’t force myself to move away from him.
I can’t make my legs go.
And I can’t back away as he leans in and presses his lips to mine again.
This kiss is softer, sweeter, more reserved than the one we shared at the shop. More like a promise that everything he just told me is absolutely true. Not that I didn’t believe it then, but the way he kisses me ensures it. It seals his resolve and my inability to walk away.
I’m safe with Liam McBride.
I’m safe wrapped in his arms and in his town.
As long as the past doesn’t catch up with me.
Right now, that’s all I can hope for—that these nightmares I have when I manage to doze off sitting in that chair at night don’t come true. That my mistakes don’t come back to hurt this man or anyone else in this town I’ve come to care about.
He deepens the kiss, his mouth moving over mine with an insistence and urgency I feel all the way to my core.
I groan and press my body to his, needing to feel his hard strength, needing to know that he’s right here and he’s not going anywhere; exactly what he just promised me.
When he pulls away and presses his forehead to mine, both of our breaths labored, a little rumble of appreciation floats from his chest to mine.
“It’ll be okay, Lucky. Whatever it is, I promise you, we’ll figure it out.”
God, I wish it were as simple as he’s making it sound.
I wish my mistakes were minor ones that could be washed away as easily as what I spill on the floor at the diner, but my life has never been easy.
Absolutely nothing about it has been.
And what brought me to McBride Mountain, what sent me walking down that highway that night, will eventually find me.
It’s only a matter of time.
Some things can’t be outrun. Some mistakes follow you forever. Some decisions haunt you for the rest of your life.
This is one of them.
But I’m so tired.
Of running. Of hiding. Of constantly looking over my shoulder. Of being alone…
He brushes his thumb across my cheek, wiping away the single tear I’ve let escape. “You’re going to stay.”
I nod.
“As long as I can” goes unspoken because if I said those words to him right now, it would break the spell.
He would say it’s not enough.
He would make me promise to never leave.
And that’s something I can’t promise because if it comes down to it, if it comes to him, or Willow, or Raven, or Elaine, or anyone else being put into danger because of me, I will hightail it out of McBride Mountain so fast they will wonder if I was ever here.
But for a moment, in this tiny, quiet North Carolina mountain town, I’m going to take a moment to just breathe. To breathe in his pine and spice scent, the fresh air, and the ease with which people have accepted me here.
Because after so many years walking, so much time searching for something, anything, to ground me, somehow the man in front of me managed to do it in the span of a week with his easy smiles, his gentle nature, his kind words, and the way I saw him interact with everyone that came into the diner.
Liam McBride is the real deal.
Nothing about him is an act.
That makes everything about this even more terrifying.
I collapse in his arms, burying my face in his neck, and he pulls me against him, holding me steady. Keeping me from completely coming apart like I want to right now.
Seeing the sheriff up close and personal shook me far worse than I imagined it could, and relishing in the warmth and comfort this man provides for a few moments will be my new guilty pleasure.
One I could definitely get used to.
I don’t know how long we stand like this, wrapped around each other, silently saying so many things we never could verbally, but eventually, Gizmo clambers up and starts pawing at my legs. His insistence makes me drag my head back and glance down at him.
Liam releases me, then bends down and scoops up the dog, scratching behind his ears. “I think he’s happy that you’re staying.”
“I’m sure he is.” I watch Giz lick Liam’s face. “You’ve become his new favorite person.”
He raises a reddish brow at me. “Just his?”
I can’t help the smile that pulls at my lips because apparently I’ve been doing a shitty job of hiding my reaction to the man standing in front of me.
Liam McBride is going to be a problem for me.
But maybe, for the first time in my life, it’ll be a good one.