Page 11 of Finding Forever in Cedarwood

“Not exactly.”

“Remember. Don’t form any ties beyond friendship. You leave in less than six months,” Patricia said.

“I know.” He didn’t care. He had to make a move. He had to know he was alive and wanted to be happy for a change. Liam closed the car window and left his vehicle. He locked the SUV and made his way over to Stone’s truck. “Hi.”

Stone froze, then glanced over his shoulder. Confusion shimmered on his face, then morphed into a smile. “Hi.”

“I thought you were a mirage.” He joined Stone at the truck. “I visited the gyro truck and you weren’t there.”

“It was a special treat for Amy.” Stone loaded dog food into the back of his truck. “How are you?”

“I’m good.” He hesitated. He could be smooth if someone else wrote his words. Being himself wasn’t his strong point. “I never got your number. I wanted to call you.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Stone’s smile broadened. “I should’ve given you my card.” He whipped a business card from his wallet. “Call me anytime.”

“Are you busy right now?” He hoped Stone was free.

“I can be.” He finished loading the dog food into his truck bed. “What do you have in mind?” He pushed the cart to the nearby rack. “I have a meeting at the community center at five.”

“I’m looking at getting a membership there for the weight room. I’d love a tour.” Christ, he was trying so hard to get a date. He’d never had to work like this in California.

“I can do that. They’ve got great equipment, and if you get the platinum membership, it grants you use of the community center plus the Metroparks. That means the trails, the pools and gyms at both places.” Stone fiddled with his keys. “I need to take the dog food home. Cedarwood might be a small town, but there’s still some theft. I’ll help anyone out if they need it, but I’m not wild about stealing. Why don’t I take this home and you can follow?”

“I drove, but I locked the SUV. Why don’t I ride along with you and you can bring me back here? The community center is just across the parking lot, right?”

“Sounds like a plan and yes, that’s the community center,” Stone said. “Hop in. You can meet the dogs.”

“I’d love to.” He rounded the truck and joined Stone on the bench seat. “You’ve got a lot of dog food. How many dogs do you have?”

“Six right now.” Stone joined him in the cab. “I run the shelter. Sometimes we get calls about animals and they can’t be placed. If they can’t, but they’re perfectly good animals, I take them.” He drove across town to the outskirts. “I know. I sound like I’m being overrun by dogs. I’ve got seven cats and a donkey, too. Good thing I live on a farm.”

“It is.” He admired Stone’s dedication. “A donkey?”

“She was abused. The poor girl kicked everyone who came close. We rescued her and brought her to the farm. Once she had space to run and play, she was fine. She’s not mean, but the farmer had her penned up all the time and wasn’t feeding her well.” Stone glanced over at him. “I’m not making excuses, but some people don’t understand how to take care of animals.”

“It’s still terrible.” Not that he had a whole lot of room to talk. He couldn’t handle a houseplant.

“It happens. I hate it, so I do my best to help. We took Daisy and she’s happy. Turned out the farmer was losing money and barely feeding himself, let alone the donkey and his cats. We helped get him a few high school kids to work for free experience and they make sure the cats are fed. Amy, my assistant, makes sure the farmer has food, too. She sort of adopted him.”

He watched Stone, fascinated. He could listen to him talk for hours. He’d never done a damn nice thing in his life and all Stone did was charitable stuff. “Very cool.” He’d have to model Ned after Stone.

“Cool?”

Shit.He’d proved he hadn’t been listening. “Bad because he did what he did, but cool there’s a positive outcome.”

“Yeah.” Stone crinkled his brows. “Anyway, that’s how I got Daisy.”

“You’ve got a big heart.” Bigger than his.

“I love critters.” Stone turned onto a gravel road. “So what brings you to Cedarwood?”

Double shit.He needed to answer, but he had to be vague. “Work.”

“Oh? What do you do?”

What did the character do? He was a farmer. Like he could say he was a damn farmer. Stone would see through that lie right away. He didn’t want to be thrown from the truck. “I write.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. He journaled and tried to journal while in character.

“What do you write?” Stone asked. “I’ve always wanted to write, but I don’t have the time. I’d love to pen a book about my rescues. Maybe turn it into a fundraiser for the shelter.”

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