“It suits you.”
“It didn’t always,” she said wryly. “By the time I graduated high school, I was chomping at the bit to get out of town and find the real world.”
He smiled, interested. “So did you?”
“I went to UNLV. University of Las Vegas.”
He choked out a laugh. “About as different from here as you could get.”
“You could say so,” she agreed, and yet again wielded the pliers on poor Lucky. “I was a little out of my element.” Like a babe in the woods. Which had been the whole point.
“Is this the part where you tell me you made your tuition by becoming a stripper?” he asked hopefully.
“No,” she said on a laugh.
“A showgirl?”
“No!”
He looked her over. “I know. You became a phone sex operator.”
“Stop.” She rolled her shoulders, the smile fading because the truth was worse.
His expression turned serious. Reaching up, he stroked a loose strand of hair off her jaw. “Something happened to you.”
There was concern in his eyes, and a protectiveness that shouldn’t mean anything to her.
But it did. “No. Not like you’re thinking. It’s really just a very boring old story.”
“You’re in luck, then. I love boring old stories.”
“No you don’t,” she said on a laugh. “You hardly talk at all unless I’m bugging the hell out of you with questions.”
“True,” he said stroking poor Lucky to keep her calm. “But I like to listen to you.”
Her heart tumbled and she sighed, again moved by him when she shouldn’t be. She supposed she could tell him a little more. “I got accepted on a scholarship into the animal science program.”
“To become a vet?”
“I wasn’t sure. Mostly I just wanted out to see what I was missing. Nobody wanted me to go to Vegas. They all wanted me to go to Idaho State, so of course I did the opposite.”
“And hit the city of big lights.”
“Yeah, I followed the scholarship, I really had no choice-I needed the money.” She hadn’t been able to keep it, unfortunately. Among other things, her grandma had gotten sick, and she’d ended up coming back and forth too much. Her grades had slipped and she lost her scholarship.
Okay, so it hadn’t all been because of her grandma’s failing health, but that part of the story wasn’t in the short version, nor was it up to be shared. “Vegas was a culture shock,” she allowed, and smiled a little at herself, at the good memories she could summon. “But for a time, I loved it.” At least at first. “My roommate was a local girl, and she was determined to help me experience everything I’d missed by growing up in a small ranch town.”
Lilah had been extremely determined to get out and live. Never look back.
Well, okay she’d planned to look back a little. After all, there were her friends here, and her grandma, but in those years, she’d been an idealist, thinking her grandma-and everything else here-would remain the same, locked in time, safe in the capsule that was Sunshine.
Which hadn’t happened.
“I was going to make something of myself,” she said, adjusting the overhead light to the other side of Lucky’s nose and continued to work. “I was going to be the first Young in my entire family to get a college degree and do something with my life.”
Which she’d pretty much blown on all counts.
“So what happened?” he asked quietly when she stopped talking.
She shrugged.
Cocking his head, he studied her for a long moment. “You’re leaving out the juicy stuff.”
Yes. Yes, she was. On purpose, because she was pretty sure she couldn’t tell the story without losing it and she wasn’t ready for that. There were quills to remove. “Maybe it’s your turn to tell me juicy stuff. Why did you come to Sunshine?”
He didn’t say anything to that. Shock.
“Oh come on, that’s easy enough.”
“You already know why I came,” he said.
“Because Dell badgered you. Yeah, yeah. But you don’t seem like the kind of guy to be… badger-able.”
His eyes slid her way. “You think there’s some deep, dark reason?”
She didn’t know what she thought-he was an enigma. And also, sin on a stick. “You owe me a secret,” she reminded him.
That got her nothing but a little smile.
“Come on,” she said. “There’s got to be something you can tell me.”
Apparently not.
“You and the guys grew up rough,” she said. “I know that much. Then you went in the army, which was obviously a different kind of rough altogether, and now you roam at will because you never learned to settle down in one spot.”
Annoyance flickered across his features. “Adam and Dell can’t keep their mouths shut.”
“I think it’s more that they don’t see us as a good fit.”
“They’re right,” he said.
“They have no idea. And I’m not looking for a damn ring, Brady. Any more than you’re looking to give one.”
He studied her. “What are you looking for?”
She shrugged. “A fun and easy relationship with someone who gets me,” she said without hesitation.
He took the vinegar and poured it over the last quill.
She cut the quill close to the skin and pulled it out while he soothed Lucky, calming her with his quiet voice, assuring her that her trial was over and she’d been very brave. When the dog settled, Brady lifted his head. “I’m a short-term bet at best.”
“Maybe I wasn’t considering you for my fun, easy relationship. I mean, let’s face it, you’re not exactly easy.”
He laughed softly, wryly. “Yeah.” He met her gaze. “But we both know that there’s no one else here in town right for you.”
Her breath caught. He did want her. “No?”
“No.” He put Lucky down, where she immediately twisted into a pretzel to try to inspect the damage.
Lilah was resisting the urge to check for damage as well, within herself. That he’d so accurately read her was startling. “I am content,” she told him. “At least for the most part. I like my life, quiet and simple as it is. I like being anchored.” She met his gaze. “Maybe you can’t understand that because you’ve never done the anchor thing.”
“Sunshine is really your anchor?”
“The people in it, yes. My grandma. She raised me. She died two years ago after a cancer battle, but until then we were a unit.” Her voice had gone a little husky. That whole awful time in her life-losing her grandma, her college funding, and then Tyler-was still very hard to talk about. “Dell and Adam are my unit,” she said. “My friend and business partner, Cruz, is in that unit.”
“Everyone you know is in your unit.” He flashed a small smile. “It’s who you are. What happened to your parents?”
“My mom lives in France with her boyfriend.” Squatting low, she rubbed Lucky. “She didn’t take much to motherhood.”
“And your dad?”
“Not around.” She knew her voice was flat when it came to her father, but he deserved no less. He’d walked away before her mother had.
“So let me see if I get this right,” he said. “For the most part, people stay in your life until they leave or die?”
She stared up at him, not sure she liked the fact that he’d analyzed her so accurately. “Yes.” Was there any other way? And why did he make it sound like it was so unfathomable? “What about you?”
“Until coming here, I was the only one in my life.” He shrugged. “Easier that way.”
“Talk about safe.”
He choked out a laugh. “You think my life is safe?”
“Maybe not physically, no. But emotionally? Yes. Yes, I do.” She paused, watching him touch a finger to his own palm and wince. Rising, she took his hand between hers. “You got poked by a quill.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, but it will be.” With no idea what was coming over her, she pressed her lips to the rough calluses of his palm. Take that, too safe life.