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She started to help me with clearing snow off the vehicle, darting only one look in my direction.
“That’ll do it,” I told her, immediately opening the back door, giving Sam a look.
My buddy hopped in the back, which I thought was going to annoy him since he usually rode shotgun, but he’d lost a part of his heart to the feisty redhead. I hated to break the news to him that we’d likely never see her again.
As I climbed in, I couldn’t help but notice her intention was to look out the passenger window and nothing else. Christ. I roared the engine to life, throwing it into gear.
“You might want to wait until tomorrow to head out, I mean if you’re going back home,” I told her.
“How do you know Missoula isn’t my home?”
“Cause you wouldn’t be staying in a fleabag motel if it was.”
“Oh,” she said. “You’re right.”
She didn’t tell me where home was, and I didn’t ask. All I knew was that she had pennies to her name, which was the reason she’d picked the Yellowstone. There was no other logical reason for it.
“Look, it’s none of my business, but if you’re looking for a job to earn some quick cash, there’s a place in Missoula called Raunchy Ride. It’s owned by a guy I know.”
“I don’t want any handouts.”
I had to laugh. “I assure you that you’d be working your ass off.” As I threw a glance in her direction, I could tell she was contemplating it.
“What kind of place is it?”
I wanted to say, ‘The kind that could eat you alive, but you can handle it,’ but scaring her any more than she seemed wasn’t the best idea. “ThinkRoadhousemixed with even more cowboys, top notch bands, and some damn good barbeque food and that’s Raunchy Ride. Plus, my buddy is a stand-up man who won’t allow his employees to take a second’s worth of shit from anyone.”
“Sounds like you.”
“Yeah, well, Scorpion is a decent man.”
“Scorpion? That’s really his name?”
“It is now. It’s a military thing.”
“Oh, and you’re not a decent guy?” she asked genuinely.
I shrugged, still hating the fact I had no idea what to say to her. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to you, Lily. If that’s what you mean. You’re scared of something and that bothers me. Call me old-fashioned. Call me some asshole getting in your business, but of all the bad things I’ve done in my life, I followed one of my mama’s rules.”
“Which is?” Now she was looking at me.
“Never to treat a woman, a kid, or an animal badly.”
I was rewarded with a smile. “Your mother sounds like an amazing woman.”
“She was.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. She’s out of pain.”
“Pain is debilitating.”
She said the words quietly, but I heard them. “Yeah, cancer ate her up. At least I have Sam.” Maybe I was purposely being vague hoping she’d continued talking. I’d never wanted to get this personal with anyone before. Why her?
“He’s a beautiful dog.” She leaned her head against the window of the glass.
“I rescued him from a high kill shelter.”
