Lonnie could see how much it hurt her to talk about it, so he tried to redirect her. “Tell me more about your sister,” he said. “Does she live in town?”
She shook her head. “No. I raised Alice after that. Pops was busy at the hardware store, so it was my responsibility to make sure Alice was raised right and she became a bright young woman. I did my best with her, I taught her everything I thought Mom would want me to.” She smiled; thinking of her sister clearly brought her joy, Lonnie could see that pretty clearly. “She married a handsome businessman called Chuck and they moved out to Nevada. She writes to me sometimes, tells me how well she’s doing, how happy she is. She’s two years younger than me and she’s got this whole life thing figured out and here I am…” she trailed off. “I’m sorry, you didn’t ask to hear me bellyaching.”
“No, you’re not bellyaching at all, you’re just telling me about your life,” he said. “And you stayed here to take care of your Pops?”
“Willard was here,” she said simply. “And because Willard was here, I was happy to stay and take care of Pops. I’d been doing it for a while, because he was slowly losing his senses, both Alice and I could see it. It wasn’t long before he couldn’t do much for himself at all. So, I cook and I clean and I take care of him and I keep the shop running. I do what I can to make him and my momma proud.”
Lonnie looked at her in amazement. This was a completely different woman to the one he’d met just a few days before. Sure, she was feisty and fiery, but she was also strong, determined, trying her best just to get by in a town full of people who wanted her to fail, who wanted somebody they could blame and ridicule. It burned Lonnie up that she was treated that way.
“What about you?” she asked. “What’s your story, hmm? You show up out of nowhere, wandering around with your new badge and your cute little sheriff hat…?”
“You think my hat is cute, do you?” Lonnie teased.
She shrugged. “Some might,” she said. “I think hats suit you, others might disagree.”
“Well, I’m glad you think so,” Lonnie replied. “Gosh, my story, hmm? Where to start.”
“How about the beginning?” she said, nudging him as they walked. The day had faded now, giving way to the balmy night. Lonnie could feel her close to him and he was having to suppress the urge to reach out and take hold of her, to let her know that he was there.
“The beginning was a long time ago,” he said. “But I came here because I wanted to help people. I’m from a long line of sheriffs, and when this town needed a hand, my first thought was to come and offer mine. It sounds dumb really.”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “If it’s your calling, then it’s your calling. And you must feel that for a reason. I like to think the world works like that sometimes.”
They rounded a corner and Evelyn stopped. She looked over at a cute little house with a big front porch, a swing hanging from the roof. “This is where I get off,” she said.
Lonnie silently cursed that the walk had ended so soon. She seemed to be letting her guard down a little, letting him in a little deeper than she had done before, and now it was over as quickly as it had begun. He’d not seen her this calm before, this at ease.
“Thank you for letting me walk you home,” he said. “It was nice talking to you.”
She smiled, a real genuine smile. She didn’t even try to hide it. “It was nice talking to you too,” she said. “And you’re welcome.”
“Goodnight, Evelyn.”
“Goodnight, Lonnie.”
He kept his eyes on her as she walked down the path to her house, watching her disappear inside and away from the world. It was only then that he turned on his heels and started to walk in the direction of his lodgings. He couldn’t stop the feeling of his heart fluttering in his chest, couldn’t help picturing her as he walked, how calm she’d been, how it was like he was seeing Evelyn, but more vulnerable.
He thought of her fair, pale skin that seemed to glow, of her long lashes, of how he could just stare into her eyes and lose himself in them. He took a breath, trying to calm himself, but couldn’t stop the butterflies flying around in his stomach.
This was so unlike him. He hadn’t felt anything like this before, not so quickly at least. But she intrigued him, and with that intrigue came a desire to get to know her better, and he had that strange feeling that he might be falling for her, and he wasn’t sure how to make it stop.
Chapter 10
Evelyn felt his eyes on her the whole way up the path. She was certain he was watching her every step of the way, like he needed to be a hundred percent sure that she was completely safe. But she refused to look back. She didn’t want to embarrass him. It was a feeling she wasn’t used to.
She had enjoyed their walk immensely. There was something about him that made her open up, that made her want to talk. Maybe it was the feeling that he was actually listening, rather than pretending or waiting for her to stop talking. There was a kindness in him that was so unlike the other men she’d known. So unlike Willard.
And then getting to hear a little bit about him was interesting too. He was passionate. He was driven. He knew what he wanted to do, he wanted to help people, he wanted to be a sheriff just like his father had before him. Once again, it was so unlike the other men she’d known. Willard had never shown so much passion toward something. Even in his stealing he didn’t seem to do well. If he was at least good at it, maybe he wouldn’t have been caught.
She closed the door behind her and leaned on it, taking a deep breath, trying to make that fluttering go away, that fluttering she knew all too well as the feeling of liking him. She knew she liked him. Maybe she’d known for a little longer than she cared to admit, but she knew that she just couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t work out. It couldn’t. They were too different; he was too good and she was too bad. She had too much history, too much of a past that she couldn’t outrun no matter how hard she tried.
But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be able to enjoy his company. Maybe he could walk her home again tomorrow. It couldn’t hurt to have a friend in town. She was certainly lacking in social skills, and maybe being friends with the ranger might get some people off her back. That would be just fine.
The following day, Evelyn wandered into town to open her shop as she did every day, still glowing from her walk home with Lonnie. She found herself thinking about him a little more than she would’ve liked, and she kept getting distracted. On more than one occasion, customers had to call her name two or three times just to get her attention when they were looking for something in particular.
“Your head is in the clouds!” her father would have said to her. “You keep wandering around up there, you’ll fall.”
Not if I can help it, she thought to herself.
In the afternoon, Rose appeared at the cash desk. She had a sweet smile on her face, one that told Evelyn that she was up to something, more than she was about to let on, anyhow.
“Good afternoon, Evelyn,” Rose said, still smiling. “Are you having a good day?”
Evelyn shrugged. “It has been fine,” she said. “Plenty of customers, so plenty of money coming in. Nothing to complain about. What can I do for you?”
“I was just coming over to invite you to dinner,” Rose said. “Tonight, if you’re available.”
“I’m sorry, Rose, but you know I can’t,” Evelyn said.
“Why?”
“You know that I look after my father,” she said. “I couldn’t possibly leave him. I have to feed him, make sure he gets to bed, I can’t just—”
“Then how about you come after?”
“Rose—”
“What else would you be doing, Evelyn?” Rose asked, putting her hands on her hips. The girl really was stubborn. “You’d be sitting on that porch until the night becomes too dark, and then skulking off to bed.”
“Rose, I don’t think—”
“Come after you’ve tended to your father,” Rose said. “We’ll eat a
little late. It will be fun.”
Evelyn didn’t doubt that it would be fun. She liked Rose, and she liked the mayor, they were some of the few people who had been kind to her after everything that had happened with Willard. Evelyn took a deep breath.
It can’t hurt, she thought. To go for a couple of hours and have a nice meal. It would be nice to get out.
“You thinking about it then, Evelyn?” Rose asked. “Will you come?”
Evelyn sighed. “Fine,” she said. “You’re a persistent one, Rose Davies,” she added.
“It’s part of my charm,” Rose said with a wink. “I’ll see you tonight.”
The rest of Evelyn’s day passed by without much incident. She closed the shop and headed home, her mind once again plagued with thoughts of Lonnie and how her walk back home seemed strangely empty without him in it. She tried to shake that thought from her head, but it persisted.
When she made it home, she greeted her father, guiding him inside and preparing his dinner, a meat pie that she had made when she woke up that morning. She served it to him, the wonderful smell filling the little house, the smells of cooked pastry taking Evelyn back to a simpler time, a time when her mother and sister were still with them.
“I’m heading out for a couple of hours,” Evelyn said to her father. He looked at her, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. “Is that alright? Will you be okay by yourself?”
He nodded. She stepped back in amazement. Her hand flew to her chest. Of course, Evelyn couldn’t be sure that he had understood what she’d said, but a nod was something. Evelyn picked up one of the fruit pies she had made that morning and left the house with a smile on her face, heading to the mayor’s house just a little way from her own.
She knocked on the door, carrying on smiling, and was surprised at what she saw when the mayor’s wife opened the door. Standing a little way away from the door, his hat in his hand, was Lonnie talking to the mayor. Evelyn blinked, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her.
“Oh, is that for us, dear?” the mayor’s wife cooed, reaching toward Evelyn’s pie.
Evelyn nodded.
“How wonderful!” she said. “We can have it later for dessert. Your mother always made the most beautiful pies. You must have gotten that from her.”
Evelyn nodded once again, trying to be polite, trying not to focus on the fact that somehow Lonnie was here. Was there anywhere she could go to escape him, even for a moment? Wasn’t it enough that he was running around her head at all hours of the day, now he was showing up at her social engagements?
Lonnie turned toward the door and locked eyes with her, a grin spreading across his face. It lit him up in a way he hadn’t been before. Suddenly he seemed brighter. Even the mayor noticed, turning to face her too.
“Well, good evening Evelyn, so nice of you to stop by,” he said, offering her a smile and a handshake. “Rose told us you were going to be joining us. And Lonnie just happened to be coming along too, you know Lonnie, don’t you?”
“All too well,” she said. “Lovely to see you again, Mr. Steele.”
“And you, Miss Pierce,” he said, his voice a little gooey.
“Fine young man, this one,” the mayor said, clapping a chubby hand on Lonnie’s back. He nearly fell forward. “Looking out for every citizen, serving the town, doing his duty, keeping us all safe. He’s wonderful.”
Lonnie had gone bright red. Evelyn enjoyed seeing him a little embarrassed. “I certainly try, sir,” he said. “To look out for everybody, I mean, not to be wonderful.”
“The wonderful part just comes naturally, I think,” Rose said from the dining room.
Evelyn looked over at Rose, who had a broad grin on her face. Now Evelyn wasn’t one to point fingers or throw accusations at anybody, but if she didn’t know any better, she could have sworn that Rose had set this up. It all seemed a little too convenient.
“Help me serve dinner, won’t you, Rose?” the mayor’s wife called from the kitchen. Before Evelyn had a chance to stop her, Rose had scurried off to the kitchen and the mayor was guiding Lonnie and Evelyn to the table.
The mayor’s house was so unlike Evelyn’s, it was hard not to notice. While Evelyn and her father would sit at a small round table and cook on a small stove, the mayor had something more akin to a mansion. A large dining room was already set with nice china, sparkling cutlery and bottles of wine. Evelyn felt a little out of place coming in dressed in what she had worn all day at work. If she’d have known this was some kind of set up, she would have made a little more effort. This didn’t look like an average dinner, after all.
The mayor sat Evelyn opposite Lonnie, on either side of the table, the two of them locking eyes before quickly turning away, both desperate to look at something else, anything else. But what could be done? They had been put in each other’s eyeline, and no matter how much either one tried to hide it, they spent the rest of the night accidentally locking eyes, accidentally knocking their feet together under the table, the dining room suddenly feeling a little more claustrophobic than Evelyn would have liked.
At the end of the meal, Lonnie practically leaped to his feet to help clear the table. Rose moved to help, but Lonnie told her he was more than happy to do it. Evelyn had to resist the urge to call him a goody-goody.
“So?” Rose said with a smirk.
Evelyn turned to her. “So what?”
“He’s great, isn’t he?”
“Sure,” Evelyn said. “Do you think he’s great?”
“I think he’s a really nice addition to the town,” Rose said, noncommittal, still smiling at Evelyn. “He’d certainly make a great companion for somebody. He is well-loved, and he seems like a good man.”
“What are you getting at?”
“Just that he is an option worth considering,” Rose said. “You know he would treat you right.”
“Rose, let’s not do this, he’s only in the next room.”
“Exactly,” Rose said. “He’s only in the next room and he hasn’t stopped looking at you all night. If you asked him—”
“Please, Rose, don’t do this,” Evelyn said, her voice firm.
Rose’s eyes widened. “Evelyn—”
“I think I should go,” she said, standing up.
The mayor walked back into the dining room, looking a little surprised to see Evelyn on her feet. “Is something the matter, dear?”
“Not at all,” Evelyn said, forcing a smile onto her face. “I just think I might have left my father on his own for a little too long. I think I should be going.”
“Are you sure you can’t stay any longer?” the mayor asked. “We’ve not even had any of your pie yet.”
“Oh, that’s perfectly alright,” she said. “You enjoy it. And thank you so much for having me over, it’s been wonderful. Goodnight, y’all.”
Evelyn ignored the look of disappointment that crossed Lonnie’s face as she said goodnight, walking toward the door as quickly as she could, and heading out into the night. What Rose said had made her chest feel tight. She suddenly couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t her place to do things like that, she shouldn’t have sprung it on her like that.
She hurried home as quickly as she could, almost tripping over her own feet, trying to get away, trying to put the entire night behind her, if that was possible.
She walked inside her house and stopped dead. There was a man standing in her living room. Tall, blond hair, someone she recognized even from this distance.
“Billy?” she breathed.
He turned around sharply, fixing her with his piercing blue eyes. A smile spread across his face as he took her in. He looked happy to see her, deliriously so, his eyes filled with wonder, practically brimming with tears.
“Ev-ev-ev…” He stumbled over the words. “Evelyn, I-I-I-I-I–”
She hurried over to him and placed her hands on his shoulders, trying to ground him. He was all over the place, shaking even. What was the matter with him?
“Billy, take
a breath,” she said. “Talk to me.”
He shrugged her hands away and looked back to the wall, taking a deep breath that shuddered out of him.
“Billy, what is it?” she asked, starting to feel a little nervous now. He shouldn’t be here, that much she knew.
“Willard sent me,” he said bluntly, still not looking at her.
The words hit her square in the chest, knocking the breath right out of her.
“What?”
“He wants to see you,” Billy said, like she hadn’t said anything. “He said if you don’t see him, he’s going to do something stupid and crazy. He sent me to tell you that.”
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