Page 5 of Sheltering Lawson
“No, but, oh, gosh it’s beautiful.”
“If you think it’s beautiful from the road, you should see it up close and personal. I work at a bait and tackle shop and we charter out boats. If you ever want to see the expanse of the bayou, I could give you a tour.”
Her lashes were thick as they fluttered over her eyes. Her face carefully arranged into a non-expression, she said, her tone artificially bright, “That would be really nice.”
“I wasn’t hitting on you,” I murmured and her head came up, her gaze riveted on my face, her eyes wide. Then she looked down again her movement jerky.
She lifted her chin, and gave me a cool look. “Are you kidding me?”
I smiled, then leaned forward, braced my elbows on the table and laced my hands together. I studied her, not liking the awful tension I sensed in her. I wanted to stop playing the guessing game, but I realized that she had some formidable armor. “I’m offering because you look like you could use some fun in your life. If you don’t want to go, you can say so. I won’t be offended.”
She went very still again, and I caught a glimmer of alarm in her eyes. Satisfied I had gotten her full attention, I continued. “Could you use some fun?”
For an instant, just an instant, she stared at me and her eyes grew moist, but she blinked rapidly. Her voice barely above a whisper, she said, “Yes, I could, even if it’s temporary.”
“Life is what you make it, sugar. But that’s good enough for now.”
She managed a smile. Pushing up from the table, she cleared her dishes. She went to turn away, then turned back. “Thank you for being so kind. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful.”
“You don’t.” Just scared as hell, and I wanted to find out exactly what this pretty little fairy princess was running from. Hopefully before she got enough cash to run again.
Chapter 3
Lawson
Ethan Fairchild could be a problem. He was much too…observant. I wondered the rest of that afternoon and into the dinner hour who he was. Wanted to know more about him. His offer to take me into the bayou wasn’t anything but that, an offer. Just a way to be neighborly. But my suspicion wasn’t just ingrained because I was running from the one man in my life who should care about me, I was used to the indifference of the city and the people who populated it. They minded their own business.
Apparently small town people didn’t sit on propriety. They opened up their hearts and their wallets to complete strangers. I didn’t know that someone like Braxton Outlaw and Ethan Fairchild existed. I was thankful, so grateful that they had been so kind because I had been running on empty this morning. Now I’d had three square meals, and there was some gas in my tank. I also felt guilty that I was withholding from them, but really, this was a stopgap. Someplace for me to recover from the past year of being always on the go. I was tired, and I wanted to rest, if for just a little while.
The minute Ethan got anywhere near me, I swear I could feel his heat, the fine hair on my skin stirring as if his aura brushed over mine. “You almost done?” he asked.
I turned from the table I was straightening. “I think so. I’m not exactly sure of the process.”
“We turn the chairs over and then sweep up. Brax is already gone, so I usually handle that for him. He has a family to go home to, a wife and triplet sons. I do as much as I can so he can tuck those little guys in bed.
Was this guy for real? “No family for you?” I asked, realizing how personal a question that was and cringing because when you got personal with someone, they got personal with you.
He froze for a minute then said, his voice subdued, “No, no wife or kids, not even a girlfriend. I guess I haven’t met the right person.”
Were all the women in this town blind? He was so well put together, and his generosity only added to that appeal.
“How about you?”
“Huh?” I asked, soaking him in and getting a little lost.
“Family? Significant other?”
There it was, another question I needed to dodge, but maybe it was the constant loneliness, or the deflecting I was getting sick of because, irrationally, I wanted to tell him the truth. But that wasn’t possible and made Ethan seem even more dangerous.
“Nope, same as you.” That wasn’t technically true, but I couldn’t go into details with him about my past. It would lead to more questions with the answers I didn’t want to give. My pursuers would stop at nothing to find me, not even short of hurting my best friend. She had the bruises to prove it, and she’d been too afraid for me to press charges. There was no one I could trust because there was no one, usually an innocent one who wouldn’t be affected by the violence that followed me.
He nudged me with his shoulder to get me going and that one light touch sent a hot-and-cold sensation shooting through me, making my pulse trip. For an instant, it felt as if my lungs had collapsed. Closing my eyes and clamping my teeth together, I forced myself to inhale, a new rush of heat sizzling through me. Lord, I must be out of my mind, letting him get this close. I knew he’d been there, and I should have moved further away. Why hadn’t I?
He turned over a chair and gave me a sidelong glance, his tone dry. “You going to give me a hand, Tinkerbell?”
“Tinkerbell?”
“Yeah, you look like a fairy princess.”
