A chill slithered down his spine. She might have jumped. He narrowed his eyes and studied her. “Since when?”
She shrugged. “I had a hotel room, um, Saturday night. Dozed some in my car.”
“I won’t scold,” Boone said. “Been there, done that, have the good ol’ T-shirt. Tell me why you came to Lover’s Leap?”
She slipped her hand out from beneath his and began tossing pebbles like he’d done moments before. “Your tourist map. Like I said, I had to be somewhere today. There was a detour on the main highway due to a rockslide last night, and I ended up here just as the sun came up.”
He put this together with what she’d told him earlier and said, “So you drove through the night? And the night before that?”
“Running away from myself.” She shrugged. “Like I said, I catnapped. I did make use of my membership privileges at a national chain of fitness clubs to shower and change clothes when I went through Colorado Springs. I may be crazy, but at least I’m clean.”
“And exhausted.” When her only response was a weary smile, he added, “I have a suggestion. I haven’t had breakfast. How about you join me for a meal? I happen to know a place right on the lake that serves awesome omelets. It’s quiet and peaceful. If after breakfast, you wanted to sit in the sunshine and nap, no one would bother you.”
“Boone, thank you. That’s very nice, but I couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
She opened her mouth, then shut it.
Halfway there, he decided. “Look, you’ll be doing me a favor.”
“How so?”
“It’s difficult to explain, and it may sound a little strange because you haven’t met our Celeste. Are you a spiritual person, Hannah?”
“I believe in hell,” she said flatly.
The DON’T GO THERE signs flashed so brightly that they all but blinded him. Even hard-charging men knew when to slow down, so Boone proceeded carefully. “I do too. I also believe in kismet, UFOs, and guardian angels.”
“UFOs?”
“I believe there’s a lot going on in the universe that is beyond humankind’s knowledge or understanding. I’m okay with that. I also believe that there’s a reason you and I crossed paths today, and I’m not going to ignore it. Today is a dark day for you. I can be your light and help you to see your way through it. I need to be a light for you today.”
“If this is a pickup line, I give you points for originality.”
“No pickup. A lift-up. A friendly hand to hold when you need to feel not so alone.” Boone rose to his feet and extended his hand toward her. “You are safe with me, Hannah. Let me be your safe space today.”
Chapter Four
Hannah was exhausted. It was easier to go along with Boone McBride than to try to resist him. When he asked for her car keys, she handed them over. Honestly, if she’d read him wrong and the man actually was a Ted Bundy wannabe, well, she’d been thinking about making the Lover’s Leap splat, hadn’t she?
He chatted about his friends and neighbors on the drive down the mountain into town, though she only partially listened to what he was saying. Hannah felt numb, and she was content in her numbness.
“Heavenscents is the handcrafted soap shop owned by Savannah Turner,” Boone said, pointing out a shop as they passed. “Whimsies Gift Shop is a great place to find some wonderfully unique items made in Colorado. If you’re into art, we have Vistas Art Gallery, and the famous glass artist Cicero has a studio here too.”
Art. Hannah almost laughed. What need does a woman who lives out of her car have for art?
Her interest did pick up when their route took them to the shore of the lake. Hummingbird Lake was a deep sapphire blue and, at the moment, a little choppy from the breeze sweeping through the valley from the north. Half a dozen sailboats with bright-colored sails zipped across the surface of the water. A flotilla of canoes filled with children wearing orange life jackets over yellow T-shirts paddled their way along the lake’s shoreline.
Hannah leaned forward, her heart reaching out toward the lake. It was so beautiful. She’d been headed here this morning before the road closure changed her route. “Is swimming allowed in the lake?”
“It’s allowed, but most people in town claim you have to be a little crazy to do it, even in the middle of summer. The water is icy.”
She pulled her gaze away from the water long enough to give him a sidelong glance. “Something tells me you go swimming in Hummingbird Lake.”
He gave a charming, crooked smile. “Most summer mornings, yes, I do. I’m trying to cut back on caffeine. Diving into Hummingbird Lake will sure wake a fella up.”
“Hmm…” she murmured, turning her attention back to the lake. She spied half a dozen boat docks, twice that number of fishing piers. Most of the shoreline remained undeveloped. She wondered if any of it was public land. She remembered seeing a national forest listed on the tourist map, but she didn’t recall where. Not that the map had been anything close to scale.
“Here we are.”
Boone turned into a driveway that led to a sprawling, two-story wood-and-stone house built in the traditional mountain-log-cabin style. It was obviously a private home. “This isn’t a restaurant.”
“I promised you awesome omelets on the lake. I happen to have a wicked way with eggs and a fully stocked fridge because I have family showing up here beginning tomorrow for that wedding I mentioned.”
Another time, she might have protested or argued with him. Right now, she didn’t have either the energy or the desire to do more than ride along. In fact, she wasn’t sure she had the power to get out of the car.
“I’ll have you know that you are my first official guest. I moved into the house last week.” He kept up a constant patter about design choices and his contractor and his cousins and his mother. “I know you’re probably wondering why a single guy built a house this big. You have to understand that we’re wall-to-wall Texans from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Our motels and inns and bed-and-breakfasts are booked with waiting lists months in advance. I can’t tell you how many times friends or relatives call from the front porch of hell to tell me they’ve had a sudden hankering to see me.”
“The front porch of hell?”
“Texas in the summertime.”
She smiled. She actually smiled!
“We designed the house to sleep a lot of people, but still be functional for me to live in during the off season. Which, to be honest, gets shorter every year. Eternity Springs has been discovered. The length of our tourist season has just about doubled in the five years since I’ve been living here.”
He stopped the car at the center of a circular drive. Before Hannah had quite managed to stir herself to move, he’d walked around to the passenger door and opened it like an old-fashioned mannerly man. When was the last time a man had opened a car door for her? High school, maybe? Andrew never did that.
Although maybe the rules had changed, and men weren’t supposed to open doors for women any longer. Female empowerment and all. That was sort of a gray area to Hannah these days.
But then everything was a gray area, wasn’t it? Gray or black, anyway.