“You bet. I know that you get all stiff when you don’t want to talk about something, and you know that I’m a little stubborn…”
“A little?”
“…we’re practically friends already.”
“Friends?”
“Nothing wrong with that, is there?” she asked and came to a stop as the song ended and a new one, one with a raw, savage beat, started up. “You have so many friends you can’t use another one?”
No, he didn’t have friends. Purposely. That need had been satisfied then discarded ten years ago. Now his life was streamlined. Just the way he wanted it.
Nathan let her go gratefully, though he couldn’t help but notice just how empty his arms felt without her in them. A warning flag if he’d ever seen one. Keeping a few feet of space between them seemed like the smart move, here. And he’d always been smart enough to protect himself.
“We’re not friends, Keira. Friends don’t use extortion to get their way.”
“Really?” she asked, tipping her head to one side so that her hair fell in a reddish-blond wave to the side of her head, “isn’t that what your friend Hunter Palmer did?”
He felt himself stiffen again and couldn’t seem to stop it. “Excuse me?”
“Well,” she said, linking her arm through his and leading him farther away from the pulsing beat of the song and the jostling crowd on the dance floor, “you clearly don’t want to be here, but you’re going to stay the month because your old friend asked you to in his will. So, isn’t that extortion?”
He supposed it was and hadn’t he been thinking pretty much along the same lines earlier today? “You can be extremely annoying.”
“I’ve heard that before.”
“Again, not surprising.”
“Come on, Nathan,” she said, tugging at his arm, “I think it’s time I fed you. Maybe your attitude will improve once you’ve tasted Clearwater’s lasagna.”
He didn’t want to spend more time with her. She had a way of getting into his head that he wasn’t entirely comfortable with. So he stopped dead, and Keira jolted back into him.
“Hey, a little warning before a sudden stop might be a good thing.”
“Sorry. But I think I’ve seen enough,” he said. “I came to the potluck and now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go back to the house.”
“You haven’t eaten yet,” she said.
“Not hungry.”
“Liar.”
He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and gave her a look that had been known to send hotel managers scurrying for cover. “Are you going to take me back or not?”
“You bet. As soon as we eat.”
“Damn it, Keira—”
“You have to eat, Nathan. You might as well do it here.”
When he didn’t budge, she prodded. “You’re not scared of us, are you?”
“Us?”
“The town.” She spread her arms wide as if encompassing everyone there in a hug. “Hunter’s Landing. You a little worried that if you stick around for a while, you just might get to like us?”
“Don’t you get it?” he asked, suddenly feeling that, if he wasn’t rude, she’d never listen to him. “I’m not here to make friends. I’m here because I have to be. I owe it—” He stopped himself before he gave her more information than he wanted to. “I’m not interested in liking or disliking your town. I just want to put in my time and get back to my life.”
“Wow.” She blinked up at him. “You did it again.”
Nathan sighed and asked the question he knew he shouldn’t. “What?”
“Turned on the rude,” she said. “It’s pretty impressive, really, just how easy it is for you to get all crabby and nasty.”
“You don’t listen to me otherwise.”
“Oh,” she said, smiling again like nothing was wrong, “I listen, I just don’t pay attention. There’s a difference. And whether you want to admit it or not Nathan Barrister, you’re hungry. You may not want to be here, but since you are here, you might as well eat. Right?”
How was a man supposed to argue with that kind of twisted logic? She grabbed his arm and tugged him toward a long line of tables piled high with what looked like every kind of food imaginable.
Nathan felt like a petulant child and he didn’t like it. No point in being stubborn about this, though. There was no way out. He couldn’t walk back up the mountain. And he wasn’t going to ask someone else to drive him up. So he’d wait. He’d eat. And once he got back up the mountain, he’d call his damn pilot and tell him to fire up the engines.
No way was he going to stay for the whole month. A couple of days in Keira Sanders’s company was enough to convince him to leave while he still could.
For the next hour, Keira watched him with some amusement.
Nathan probably wouldn’t be happy to hear it, but she found it pretty entertaining watching him try to dodge the town’s gratitude. Every time someone stepped up to say thank you, Nathan turned into a stone statue. He would nod politely, close down his features and then turn away, only to be met by yet another grateful citizen.
What was it about this man that was so intriguing? She couldn’t quite figure it out. But seeing him squirm uncomfortably around her friends and neighbors was just captivating enough that she wanted to know him better. To slip under the walls he’d erected around himself. To get past the arrogant stance and condescending tone to the man who lived within.
Or was she just fooling herself?
Maybe there was no inner Nathan to meet. Maybe he was just who he appeared to be. Rich, aloof, disinterested. But she didn’t believe that. She’d seen the quick flash of humor in his eyes before he deliberately stamped it out, and she was willing to put in the time to see if she could reach past his barriers.
Why?
She hadn’t figured that out yet.
Oh, sure. She was working double-time to make sure he didn’t leave town before his month was up. But this was more personal than insuring a bequest to the town she loved. This was getting to be…interesting.
When her cell phone rang, Keira glanced at the screen, noted the number and got up to walk farther away from Nathan and the crowd to answer it. She threw him a finger-wave as she moved off and smiled to herself at the panic that zipped across his face.
Couldn’t really blame him for the panic as Sallye and Margie, the town’s two most talkative women, took up position on either side of him. Keira left him to his own devices as she stepped into the doorway of the flower shop and flipped her phone open.