I ground my back teeth together. “If we have time.”
“Pleeeeeeease,” Lyla begged. “I want to catch a fish.”
Justin appeared next to Mason. “Yeah, it would be fun. Can’t we go?”
“How about Sunday? I’ll even provide the lunch,” Mason offered.
I heard a soft laugh coming from Kennedy’s direction. I studiously ignored it and did my best not to bite Mason’s head off for offering this outing to Justin and Lyla without running it by me first. “Sure. That would be nice. Just tell me what I need to bring, and what time to be there.”
“You don’t need to bring a thing. And how about eleven?”
“Sure, just text me your address.” All of the shelter volunteers had my phone number in case they ever needed to change shifts or ran into an emergency. But having Mason text me for personal reasons made me twitchy.
“See you then.” He gave Justin a knuckle bump and Lyla a high-five and then headed for the parking lot.
Justin gave me a pleading look. “Can I have a snack?”
My eyes bugged. “Are you about to have a growth spurt? I swear you need to be fed every hour.”
He grinned. “Mom says I’m definitely going to be over six feet.”
He was already well on his way. I waved them inside. “Come on. Can’t have you wasting away on my watch.”
The kids ran ahead, and Kennedy fell into step beside me, bumping her shoulder against mine. “I see what you mean. He’s scary-friendly. Definite serial killer vibes.”
“Shut up.”
She wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “Love you, Anna. But at some point, you’re going to have to realize that there are good people out there. Ones who simply want to help or make a difference.”
I knew she was right. I’d seen it in the group of friends I’d started to build here. In the way the town supported our work at the shelter and the community center. But I couldn’t simply turn off the little voice inside me that told me to be on guard. And if I felt chemistry with someone? That alert was on in full force.
2
Mason
“How was everything at the center?”Cain asked as I slid into a chair opposite his desk.
“Good. Sorry I’m late getting back. I got caught up.”
“You never have to apologize about that.” He leaned back in his chair. “Anna tear you a new one this time?”
The corner of my mouth kicked up as I pictured Anna’s annoyed expression. “I’ve never known a woman who got so frustrated by me trying to be helpful.”
“What’s even more interesting is why you find that so compelling.”
He had a point. I had no idea why Anna was so fascinating to me, but she had been from the first day I started volunteering at the shelter. And the pricklier she was with me, the more I wanted to know what lay beneath that spiny exterior. “I admire her.”
That much was true. She ran Hope House with a mixture of drill-sergeant exactness and empathetic kindness. I’d seen her put a burly man three times her size in his place and hold a young mother as she cried after leaving an abusive marriage. It was a heady combination.
Cain arched a brow. “Admire her? Attraction has nothing to do with it?”
Heat crept up the back of my neck. The fact that I could imagine just how well Anna’s petite, curvy form would fit against me might have a little to do with it. “Can we get back to the business at hand?”
Cain chuckled. “All the answer I need.” He sobered. “Just tread carefully there. I don’t know her whole story, but I don’t think it’s an easy one.”
I swallowed against the burn in my throat. I’d gotten the same feeling. Anna hadn’t shared anything about her past around me. Not even where she’d grown up. All I knew was that she’d been a shelter resident for years before taking on a managerial role. Justin and Lyla had let a few things slip, but it wasn’t anything that helped me put together the pieces of who Anna really was.
“I’m just trying to get her to see I’m not an ax murderer.”
