Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64527 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64527 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 323(@200wpm)___ 258(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
“Sorry.”
“You’re fine,” I said. “I’ve just gotta get going.”
She nodded, not meeting my eyes, and I saw that her movements had suddenly taken on a much twitchier, jerkier quality than they had since she’d started checking me out.
I paid and mumbled a thank-you before pushing my cart out, trailed by Bucky. I thought over how her hands had tightened so hard at the sound of the crash.
I’d known a lot of women like her when I’d been in Nashville, doing my best to serve and protect. Once you started seeing the signs of abuse, they became pretty hard to miss. And as much as I hadn’t been a cop in years, I couldn’t help the rising instinct in me to protect this woman.
I pushed it down, lecturing myself for being an idiot. She’s not your responsibility, I thought as I pulled out of the parking lot. Just a new girl in a small town. And you’re not a cop anymore. Let it go.
2
MACY
The strange guy with the black hair and the dog had left me feeling, as some of my teenage clients had liked to say back in Los Angeles, shook. I hadn’t been in Singer’s Ridge for more than three months, but I already felt like I already knew everyone. That was how tiny this town was.
That man, though… I’d never seen him before.
I turned toward Alison, who’d been showing me the ropes around the store and, honestly, around town, since I’d gotten there and asked, “What’s up with the guy who just left?”
Alison turned and looked out the door after the tall man, who was loading up a black pickup truck in the parking lot. “Oh, that’s just Dillon.”
“Huh.” I paused, looking after him. “Does Dillon have a last name?”
“Why, you thinking of becoming Mrs. Dillon?” Alison gave me a crooked smile. “I wouldn’t blame you if you were. He is one fine specimen of a man.”
I blushed and looked back down at my till, not saying anything. I wasn’t blind to how attractive he was, but it wasn’t why I’d asked.
“His name is Dillon Ford,” Alison said, finishing her sentence and finally taking pity on me. “Don’t worry, you’re not the first person to get all hot and bothered by him.”
“Why hasn’t he been in before?” I asked. “I feel like everyone in town’s been in this damn shop at some point since I started.”
She laughed. “You might be right about that, but Dillon’s a bit of a recluse. Lives on the mountain in a cabin, just him and that dog.”
“Oh,” I said, interested. “What does he do?”
“Not sure,” she said, looking out the door. “He used to live in Nashville, and he was a cop out there, but then he came back here when he quit the force.”
“Did he grow up here or something?” I asked, feeling like it was a pretty random place to move to if you didn’t have any connections here.
Then again, I’d picked this place by putting my finger down on a map, so I definitely shouldn’t be talking.
“He did, yeah. His uncle left him the cabin when he passed a couple years back,” she said. She came over and bumped my hip with hers. “You know, maybe this could be the start of something for you here.”
I snorted, walking around to rearrange the magazines for something to do. “Come on, Ally. I was just asking.”
“What?” she said. “I’m stuck at home with Jessie and Jordan all the time. Can’t a girl have some vicarious fun?”
I couldn’t fault her for that. Working with all the children of single parents that I had in the past, I knew the impact it had on kids when parents focused all of their energy on their children and forgot to take care of themselves. Thankfully, Ally seemed to be the type of mother who knew where to put her energy and priorities so that she could be the best mom possible to her twins.
That being said, she couldn’t have known the effect that her words would have on me and how I would feel being presented with the prospect of a man. Any man, no matter their history.
And there had seemed to be something about Dillon that had led him to pick up on my tension as soon as he mentioned that I was good with his dog. Every muscle in my body had locked up when I felt his eyes on me. It hadn’t taken me a long time to become aware of my body’s tendencies toward panic, but body awareness and trigger elimination were two very different things.
“Well, it doesn’t really matter,” I said as I turned back around, brushing my hands off on my vest. “Nothing’s gonna happen, anyway.”
“It definitely won’t with that attitude,” Ally said, crossing her arms over her chest.
I looked up at her with her raised eyebrow and sighed. I knew she was curious about me; she’d invited me out a couple of times when I first moved to town, telling me that it would be fun to get out with her and her friends, but I’d always turned her down, telling her I felt claustrophobic in bars. Sort of true, but also sort of a lie. But I hadn’t said no when she’d asked me to come over and babysit, insisting that I didn’t mind. It was true. I didn’t mind, and the kids were easygoing, fun company. I really liked hanging out with them. It made me feel like I was at home, still doing the work that I’d put all of my heart and soul into becoming qualified for.