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She walked closer without even knowing she was doing it, and those lonely eyes fell on her. Blue. They were deep blue. So blue she could see that vivid color even in this low lighting. His lips curved up in a fake smile of greeting, and she forced hers to do the same. But the smile didn’t reach his eyes. They still looked as sad as the eyes of a motherless pup, and they latched on to hers as if she was his last hope.
“Can I help you with something?” she asked him at last.
He shrugged. “Can I get a beer?” he asked.
“Well now, thisisa saloon.” She took his arm for some reason. Kind of the way you’d take hold of a stranger lost in a storm, to lead him home. “Mister, your shirt’s wet through.”
“That’s because it’s raining outside.”
“Yes, but when it’s raining outside, most people stay inside.” She took him to a table near the fireplace. It was in the area where the line dancing lessons would be starting up in a little while, but the man was chilled to the bone. He had to be.
He took the seat she showed him and looked at her sheepishly. “I had a flat on my pickup. Had to change the tire in the rain.”
“I’d have let it sit there until it let up.”
“I hear it hasn’t let up in days.”
“You have a point. Our weather’s been nothing short of freakish this year.” She signaled Selene, who came right over. “Hot cocoa. Bring a whole pot.”
“Um, I asked for a beer.”
“It’s your call, of course. But beer will make you even colder. You want to catch your death?”
He blinked up at her, then shrugged in surrender.
“And see if you can find a dry shirt kicking around, will you, Selene?” Maya called.
Selene nodded, tilting her head as she examined the stranger. Of them all, she was the most strikingly different. Her hair was long, lustrous, perfectly straight and silvery blond. Her eyes were palest blue, so they, too, often seemed silver. They seemed silver now, as she narrowed them on the man.
“You new in town?” Selene asked him.
“Just passing through,” he told her.
Selene’s gaze slid from his face, to her sister’s. “That’s odd. I got the feeling you were here to stay.” She shrugged, tipping her head sideways, and said, “Oh, well,” as she turned to hurry away.
The stranger sent Maya a questioning glance.
“This month she’s convinced she has ESP,” she explained. “Last month she was exploring her past lives in Atlantis.”
He grinned widely. “Your sister?” he asked.
“How’d you guess?”
“There’s a resemblance.”
Maya smiled back at him, feeling warm all over just from the light of his smile. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You were meant to.”
There was something in his eyes that made her heart quiver. She cleared her throat, searched for something to say, and came up with the lamest line ever uttered in any bar in any town, ever. “So, where are you from?”
His smile died. All at once, just like that. He lowered his eyes, cleared his throat “Umm…a long ways from here. You wouldn’t know it.”
“Try me.” She wasn’t sure why she said it. Curiosity, she supposed. She wanted to know his story. What had hurt him. What had sent him out into the dark rainy night to a strange town, a strange bar, a strange woman….
He looked up again. Seemed about to say something. Then seemed to change his mind. “Tulsa. I’m from Tulsa.”
“Well, now, Tulsa’s not that far away. And I’m pretty sure everyone in this room has heard of it.” She smiled gently at the way his eyes widened and he looked around. “Hey, don’t look so nervous. I’m not gonna tell anyone where you’re from if you don’t want me to.”
