Page 9 of Hard To Fall
“Funny,” she says. “I find peace when people stop pretending things are fine.”
We stare at each other.
Levi clears his throat. “Wow. This feels…intimate. I should leave.”
“Go,” I tell him.
He grins at Lily. “Congrats on surviving your first Callahan confrontation.”
She smiles back. “Low bar, I’m guessing.”
“Oh, you have no idea,” he says as he walks off, still grinning, and I make a mental note to give him a black eye later. Silence settles between us, and it makes me itch.
“You don’t have to glare at me,” she says softly.
“I’m not glaring.”
She lifts a brow. “You’re scowling then.”
“Habit.”
“Try smiling.”
I snort. “Try leaving.”
She laughs quietly. “You’re not very welcoming.”
“I’m not a people person.”
She steps close to me, close enough that I can smell that citrus in her hair and dust on her neck.
“Then we’re both going to have a hard time,” she says. “I’m only trying to help, Colt.”
I look down at her, and she holds my stare, head-on. Before I even realize what I’m doing, I’m reaching out and brushing that stray curl from her face. The instant I realize, I yank my hand back, like she burned me.
And I remember…unwanted, uninvited.
She fits here.
No, the fuck she doesn’t.
“You’re not staying long,” I say.
She meets my eyes. “That depends.”
“On what?”
“On whether you keep fighting everything.”
I clench my fists. “That’s not your business.”
She shrugs like it's just another day in her sunshine world. “Everything here is my business now.”
That should piss me off more than it does, but for whatever reason, it seems to give me a little comfort. And a feeling of protectiveness comes over me. It has to be for my family, my brother, myself, and this place. Certainly not her.
I won’t admit there's any feeling there for her.
She steps back. “Good ride,” she says again, softer this time.
