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Sawyer shook his head.
“Give me the invoice.” She held out a hand.
“It’s in the truck.”
“Leave it under the farmhouse door. I’ll make sure it’s paid.”
“I know you will.” There was something in her expression he couldn’t read. “Tell me what’s going on,” Sawyer said.
“It’s none of your damn business is what it is. We’re not friends. We’re not anything. Now leave and don’t ask again and do not speak about it with anyone.” She looked angry.
“Yeah, because, let’s face it, I’m a real gossip,” he said, surprised at her tone and attitude. Little Miss Sunshine was never angry or rude. “Talk to me, Birdie. I’m a friend.”
“No, you’re not. Your siblings are my friends. Go away, Sawyer.”
He wasn’t sure why that cut deep. Maybe it was the look of desperation in her eyes. Or maybe it was because she was right. He’d made no effort over the years to be anything but cool and distant with her. Which, in his defense, he was with everyone.
“Go home, Sawyer. This is my house, and what happens in it is my business.”
“Birdie, if you need help—”
“I don’t need any help,” she cut him off. “And if I did, I wouldn’t go to you.” The last was whispered. “Please, just leave, Sawyer.”
He wanted to press her for an answer, but she was right. They weren’t friends. Birdie had plenty of those and people in her corner. He wasn’t one of them and usually happy to keep things that way. Sawyer didn’t get close to people. It was easier.
“Get someone to look at that cut,” he said before walking out the way he’d entered and away from Birdie McAllister. The girl that he’d always thought was exactly what she seemed until suddenly, she wasn’t.
Chapter2
Sawyer went back to his pickup and unloaded the timber close to the house. He then put the bill under the door, like Birdie had asked.
He hadn’t set foot on McAllister land in years and was surprised the place looked run-down. Weatherboards chipped and in need of paint. Shutters missing louvers. A crack in a window. Sawyer wondered what was going on and why they’d let it get to this state.
After climbing into his pickup when he was done, he backed around the turning circle and headed down the drive. Shooting Birdie’s cottage a final glance, he pulled out onto the road.
What the hell just happened? He’d gotten out of bed this morning thinking the day would mirror the last one, with a few minor changes. He’d then walked in on Birdie talking dirty with strangers. Why? Did she need money that badly?
Sawyer had seen the look in her eyes when he’d told her about her dad’s timber order. Something was off. Were the McAllisters struggling?
Birdie was correct that she wasn’t his friend. Sawyer had plenty of family and a couple of friends who took up his quota of giving a shit. He didn’t have time for people who weren’t important to him.
He headed for home so he could have a beer on his deck and some solitude. Sawyer needed his own space. After years in LA, he’d come back here to escape and heal.
Lyntacky was a small town in Colorado with a big attitude. Driving down the main street as dark settled around him, he found a few lights still on in stores. People getting a jump on the next day. His uncle’s cruiser was parked outside the police station, and seeing as he was the sheriff that was normal.
Every available space in this town had something in it. Statues of people who’d founded it, seats, and trees. Then there was Lyntacky’s fixation with square dancing. Signs of that were everywhere. Places named things like the Do Si Do Diner, which was where he found his brother Ryder’s Bronco parked outside.
With four siblings, odds were you’d find one of them in town most nights. Pulling into a space beside him before he thought better of it, Sawyer climbed out.
Ryder knew Birdie, and while Sawyer may tell himself he didn’t want to know what her deal was, he clearly did because here he was walking into one of the biggest gossip factories in town.
“Well, roll away to a half sashay, if it isn’t Sawyer Duke,” Linda the owner said.
While other people said things like “I’ll be damned,” Lyntacks, as the locals were called, occasionally thumbtacks from grumpy outsiders, used square dancing terms to express how they were feeling.
The Duke brothers had thought about inventing a time machine and going back to that day when Lyntacky embraced the dance, care of the then mayor’s daughter, and having a serious talk to her about the effects her obsession would have on the population of her hometown.
“Hi, Linda, is Ryder here?”
