Page 12 of The Moment He Saw Her

“Bob will fix your car. Now, you go to the Circle Left, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Okay?”

“Okay, and thank you?—”

“We’ve covered you’re grateful,” he said.

She nodded and then turned and hurried back to the large black SUV that Sawyer Duke was sitting in, scowling through the windshield at her. He climbed out and took her case, then put it in the back seat before getting back inside.

“Thank you,” she said, joining him. “For the ride when you don’t know me.”

“I know my brother, and if he says I should give you a ride, I will,” he said in a deep, growly voice.

Libby had met more people in the space of an hour who wanted to help her than in years in her old life. She touched the amethyst Meadow had given her. She could do with some harmony in her mind right about now.

Looking at the big hands on the steering wheel, she wondered why she’d gotten into a car with a complete stranger. Libby wasn’t usually someone who trusted so quickly.

“Don’t mess with him.”

“Pardon?” She shot the mountain man beside her a look.

“Ryder. Don’t mess him around.”

“I beg your pardon?” Libby said in her haughtiest voice.

“You got hearing issues?”

“Were you born rude?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I wasn’t,” she snapped. “Ryder offered me a job, and I will work hard for him, as I always do.”

“You don’t look or sound like the type to me who works in a cafe washing floors,” Sawyer said.

“I didn’t know there was a ‘type.’” Libby wondered how far this lodging house was. Surely the distance was not great in a town this size.

“I’ve lived in big cities, unlike my brother, and you have the look.”

“Who do you think washes floors in cafes in big cities?” she asked politely.

“Good point,” he conceded.

“Where is this place?” she said, desperate now to get there.

“I took the long way.”

“Why?”

“Because my brother is too trusting. I’m not.”

She shot him a look, but he was staring out the windshield.

“Look, Mr. Duke?—”

“Sawyer will do.”

“Your brother doesn’t appear to like me very much, either, which is mutual, but that will not stop me from working hard for him, and while your loyalty to him is admirable, he’s a big boy and can look after himself, I’m sure.”

“Ryder likes everyone,” he said.

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