“Well, you’re the one who did it, so my thanks are going to you.” She couldn’t help looking him up and down again. Wow, he was a tall, cool glass of water. “Do you have a name?”
“Grey,” he said. “Grey Landin. You?”
She opened her mouth to say
Ali
, like she’d introduced herself a thousand times before, but for some reason what slipped out instead was, “Alethia. Alethia Parker.”
“Alethia,” he repeated.
In his husky voice, it didn’t sound weird or stupid or old-fashioned, like she usually thought. It sounded exotic and beautiful.
“Are you okay, Alethia?” he was asking. She made herself pay attention. It wasn’t hard. His voice seemed to curl up next to her ears, somehow drowning out the crowd without being loud at all. “Did he do anything to you?”
She shook her head. It was tempting to mention Ted feeling her up earlier, just to see what Grey Landin would do to a man like that.
But just the sight and sound of Grey pushed Ted—and Molly, and Paul, and Scraggly, and even Matt—out of her mind. She didn’t want to bring any of that up with him. “I’m okay. I got his foot with my heel before he did anything.”
Grey’s eyes flickered downward, and he smiled faintly. “Always wondered why women wore those things. Now I understand.”
“We’re never without a weapon.” She held up her hand, showing her long nails. They were sparkly rose-pink this week. “These too.”
“Those, I already guessed about. I’ve seen a woman use ’em a time or two. Works a treat.” He took her hand in one of his. His hands were big and warm, with long, graceful fingers, and when he touched her, a wave of desire ran through her body. “That’s a pretty color.”
She felt herself blush. When was the last time a man had noticed her
nails
? Let alone complimented her on them. “Thanks.” She looked down, suddenly uncertain. This guy was too nice and way too attractive. Surely he had a wife or a girlfriend somewhere.
But his hand was still holding hers, and it didn’t have a ring on it.
As if the same thought had flashed through his head, he looked around the bar. “Are you here with somebody? Can I find them for you?”
“I came with my friend.” She almost stopped there, but honesty compelled her to continue. Ted was coming back to haunt the evening after all. “On a double date with a guy and his brother. But I told my asshole date to get lost when he wouldn’t listen to me tell him ‘no.’”
Grey’s eyes darkened. “The offer stands. I’d be happy to find him for you.”
And teach him a lesson
was clearly implied.
Ali shook her head. “No,” she said. “I don’t care about him.”
Anymore
.
“Do you have a way to get home, then?” he persisted. He looked concerned.
She hadn’t thought about that yet. “My friend drove.” She’d been imagining that she’d drive everyone home at the end of the night, because she hadn’t been planning to drink. But she didn’t want to drive Ted home. Plus, she wanted to go
now
. “I can’t leave until everyone else does.”
“Do you want a ride? I was about to leave myself.” He was still holding her hand, which she’d held up high so he could see her nails. It felt like they were about to dance or something.
“That would be great,” Ali said faintly. “Let me just find my friend and tell her.”
He nodded. “I can wait for you just outside. Or—”
The little hesitation made it clear that he wanted to come with her. But he probably didn’t want to imply that she needed someone to hold her hand just to walk through a bar.
Ali decided that she didn’t care. “Come on.” She tightened her grip on his hand and turned to fight her way back through the crowd to find Denise.
Denise, it turned out, was watching Mac get his ass kicked at pool. Ted was nowhere in sight, thank God.
“Denise!” Ali shouted in her ear.
Denise turned around. “
There
you are! Ted said you just decided you weren’t speaking to him for no reason! Ali, come on, you know how important tonight is for me.”
“
Ted
tried to feel me up and wouldn’t listen when I said no,” Ali snapped. “I don’t care what Ted wants. I’m heading out.”
Denise’s eyes followed Ali’s hand back to Grey’s tall form behind her, visibly sizing him up. Ali was afraid to look over her shoulder and see what he thought of all of this.
“Well,” said Denise finally. “If Ted was a jerk to you,”
And if you’re scoring
this
guy instead
, her eyes communicated, “I get it. Have a good time.”
“Thanks, Denise.”
When they turned around, their positions were reversed so that it was Grey who led Ali toward the door. His grip on her hand was firm, and he strode through the crowd without seeming to worry about finding a path. It just appeared in front of him.
They stepped outside into the crisp early-spring air, and Ali inhaled gratefully. The open night around them was so much better than the crowded bar had been.
Maybe I should just become a hermit
. The thought floated up unbidden, and Ali couldn’t help but think that it sounded absolutely wonderful. She’d love to live out in the great outdoors somewhere, deep in the forest where no one could get to her.
Be realistic
. She couldn’t hack it alone in the wilderness. She had no survival skills at all. She’d been much more interested in clothes and makeup than outdoor camp and scouts when she was younger.
And she
did
still like clothes and makeup, to be fair. She was just…tired of people. Tired of having to defend herself to everyone she knew, of dealing with come-ons and insults and deep-rooted expectations. She wanted to get
away
.
She’d been lost in thought for a good five minutes, she realized, and shook herself out of it, trying to think up some kind of conversation to make up for having been awkwardly silent for so long.
But Grey was looking up toward the black shape of the mountains with an expression on his face that suggested he was thinking along the same lines as she had been.
Or maybe Ali was just projecting.
Then he blinked and focused back on her, that faint smile appearing on his face again. “My truck’s just this way.”
She followed him to his pickup, and accepted his boost up onto the high seat. He was a total gentleman about it, didn’t even try to grope her or anything, which was absolutely 100% unique in her experience of men helping her into high trucks.
He got in the other side and said, “Where to?”
“Could we just go for a drive?” Ali asked impulsively. “Would that be okay? I mean, not if you have to be somewhere.”
“Sure.” He put the truck in gear. “I don’t have to be anywhere. I was just going to go home and have a quiet night.”
“Do you live in Ryder’s Lodge?”
He shook his head. “Out in the woods. I bought a cabin when I moved here. Tiny little thing, but it’s well-put-together. And it’s far away from any neighbors.”
“That sounds nice.” Ali could hear the wistful tone in her own voice.
Grey pulled onto a road heading out of town. “The scenery’s beautiful up there. Too dark for you to see any of it now, but it’s something.”
“I love the scenery around here.” Growing up in the mountains was like waking up to a beautiful painting every day. It was the one thing Ali really loved about her hometown.
“You local?”
“I live in Prescott.” She tried to keep her voice neutral, but it wavered a little. “With my brother and sister-in-law. They have a little house in town.”
“You like it?”
That was the heart of the issue, wasn’t it? She glanced over and he was looking at her, while they idled at Ryder’s Lodge’s only stoplight.
She shook her head.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” The light turned green and they started up, and pretty soon they were leaving the buildings behind and heading into the forest.
“I don’t like it here much, either,” he said suddenly, as the lights receded behind them and they were surrounded by forest. “Scenery excepted.”
She looked over in surprise. “You don’t?”
“I used to work as a park ranger. There was a lot of time out on my own, learning the land, making sure it was clean and that no one was in trouble. I liked that.”
She thought about that. “That doesn’t sound anything like logging.” Logging, from what she understood, was the definition of dirty and troublesome.
“It isn’t. I’m hoping to get another ranger job soon. Working with these guys—” He paused. “I’m a bit of a loner, that’s all. I’m not great at making friends.”
That made sense. He seemed quiet, a thinker rather than a talker. She could picture how the rowdy crowd at the bar dealt with someone who wasn’t one of the guys, with all the dumb macho stuff that that implied.
“Believe me,” she said, heartfelt, “I understand that.” She didn’t have many friends either. Denise was pretty much it, and she was just a holdover from high school. They never talked about anything serious.
He slid a look over at her. “Have you thought about moving out somewhere on your own?”
He hadn’t said,
I bet a girl like you has
lots
of friends,
or
You’re way too pretty to be a loner
.
He was
listening
to her. Men hardly ever listened to her when she talked. She’d gotten so used to it that it was a shock to meet one who did.
“I’ve thought about it. But I’d need to get a job. Part-time waitressing doesn’t make enough to throw it all away and start over new somewhere else.” She smiled a little. “If I win the lottery, that’s another story.”
She knew she was painting herself as a real catch. Lives with her brother, works a dead-end part-time job, doesn’t like her hometown much, and can’t do anything about any of it. But it was the truth. She wasn’t going to lie about her life.
Her mother used to say,
“Alethia means ‘truth.’ Doesn’t matter if you tell the truth or not, the truth is in you—so you might as well let it out.”
Letting it out hadn’t served her well so far, but it was how she was, and of all the things she wanted to change, that wasn’t one of them.
“I get it,” Grey was saying. “If I had a million dollars, you can bet I wouldn’t be logging for a living. I’d be living out somewhere far away from civilization, where no one was logging and nothing was around for miles but nature.”
Ali sighed at the thought. “If you get a million dollars from somewhere, take me with you?”
There was a pause that felt like it lasted a year. Of course. She’d broken rule number one: don’t make it sound like you were fishing for something permanent. Anything that smacked of commitment would drive men to the hills as fast as they could run.
But after that long, long minute, Grey gave a low, husky laugh and said, “It’s a deal.”
Ali savored the warm, happy feeling rising in her chest. It was just a fantasy, obviously, but the thought that she could share the fantasy with this man right here—it seemed to fill some emptiness inside of her.
They were both quiet for a while after that, watching the forest roll by in the truck’s headlights. Ali caught a glimpse of an owl at one point, and wondered how many other animals were out of sight in the trees lining the road.
***
Grey kept stealing glances at the woman in the passenger seat of his truck.
She didn’t notice, because she was watching the forest, rapt with focused attention. When she noticed something, her lips would part and she’d lean forward a little, the seatbelt pressing against her breasts in a way that showed how generous they were.
Alethia Parker was possibly the most attractive woman Grey had ever met.
He couldn’t stop looking at her, which might turn out to be a problem if they kept driving through dark, unlit forest roads like this. But there was no way to stop. He was captivated by the way her dark hair fell softly around her shoulders, the way her eyes sparkled when she felt strongly about something, the way her curves teased the eye and led him to think about what they might look like without so much clothing in the way…
But not tonight. He’d met her when she was literally running away from an asshole. She probably didn’t want any man making advances right now. And he wasn’t going to lay a finger on her unless she wanted it. He wouldn’t even suggest that laying a finger might be a good idea, unless she thought it was too.
Even though he longed to touch her, he was fine if nothing but talk happened tonight. He wanted to get to know Alethia as a person. She was sassy and smart. He could tell that she wasn’t afraid to tell anyone off if she thought they deserved it. But she had this quiet side to her, too. He’d already talked more to her about his own life than he’d intended to, because she’d listened to everything he’d said with a thoughtfulness he’d rarely encountered.
And he wanted to
keep
talking to her, which hardly ever happened. Grey’d always had problems talking to anyone, but especially women, where he tended to trip over his tongue or dry up entirely, not sure what they wanted him to say. Compliments were a fair bet, but women could tell when you were doing it on purpose.