Page 121 of True North

“We’ll figure this out. One way or another.”

I flick my gaze to her worried face.

That right there, that look, is what I never wanted to see.

The last thing I want to do is give Louisa May another reason to fret. I’m supposed to be providing her with a good life.

Dammit.

This is not the start for us I imagined. Already on the back foot and having to make hard choices.

I freeze up on the sidewalk. All thoughts of grabbing some lunch fade with the last of my stupid hope.

She’s wrapped around me a second later. I dip my head, my hat hiding us both away from the world. “We get through the next few weeks, do the best we can.”

Her words are small comfort when I’m tryin’ to build something that’ll make her stay. For good.

Something she can’t walk away from.

As if our relationship, my worth, is intricately tied to the life I can produce, the empire I can found. A scoff rattles up my throat.

The Rawlins Empire.

Hilarious.

One foot in the door on a run-down ranch and a half share of a tiny restaurant is no empire.

“...Harry?”

“Hey, yeah?” I snap my gaze from the distance, where I wasn’t even aware it drifted to. Louisa comes into focus, her face is close, warm hands cupping my jaw.

“Where did you go?” she says with a chuckle.

“Sorry, tryin’ to figure this all out.”

She tilts her head, as if reprimanding a small child. “Harry Rawlins, that is for the both of us to work out. You’re not in this alone anymore. Or have you forgotten that singular detail?”

Her eyebrows are raised as she waits for me to respond.

“No, ma’am,” is all I can manage.

I’ve gone from a one-man operation to the luckiest man on the planet in a matter of months. And I know she’s here. And things are new. But what about when things are hard? When life seems impossible. Will she sta?—

“Come on! Lunch, before I fade away to a shadow.”

What else can I do but follow? A beat later, Lou opens the door to Darla’s Diner. I hesitate, and she turns back. “You’re not hungry?”

“I am, but?—”

She smiles at me, the kind of smile to carry me through the worst of days just by remembering the warmth it brings to my chest. The noise of the busy diner filters through the half-open door.

“You sure, Lou?”

“Our money is good as any here. Besides, I don’t hold grudges.” She winks at me and disappears through the door. I tug it open and walk inside. Cynthia is chatting to Lou as she drops into the last booth on the left. My old spot.

I slide in opposite and remove my hat, tossing it to the seat. With a nod to Cynthia, I shift my eyes to Louisa’s. Despite the bank and the hard week, and the fact she is scraping by with the restaurant, she’s all sunshine.

We order and Darla brings out our food herself. She and Louisa have a short chat about menus and local gossip. It’s all I can do to watch Lou in her element. Food, eating, cooking, talking about it, teaching it. That’s her callin’. There’s no denying it.

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