Page 28 of Whiskey Lullaby
“Oh.” I shifted on the bed of the truck, leaning back and bracing myself with myhands.
“Yep. Good thing Grandma thought I was worth a shit, Iguess.”
“I’m sorry.” What else could I havesaid?
“Don’t be. I’m a fucking TinMan.”
“A TinMan?”
“Yeah, that guy was my hero growing up because he learned to live without aheart.”
God. That hurt a little. It was as though his words, that empty place I saw in his eyes, dug at something deep inside me. The things most people took for granted—he didn’t even know what they were like. He thought he didn’t have a heart, but I saw the way he looked at his grandma in the hospital. “But the Tin Man always had a heart…” Iwhispered.
“God, you’re adorable.” His eyes narrowed, and he reached for my face, his hand lingering on my jaw as he swept a piece of hair behind my ear. My eyes closed. That touch was soft even though his fingertips were callused from the strings of his guitar. Everything about that man was a contradiction, and it made my heart beat a little too fast. When I opened my eyes, he was looking at me with a promise of tenderness that could easily break me. Before I could react, he’d pulled his hand away and went back to staring at thestars.
“So,” he inhaled. “Did your friend warn you aboutme?”
“Meg? No,” Ilied.
He chuckled. “Good, I don’t want to scare you off, countrygirl.”
And I laid back next to him. Close enough to feel the heat of his body but far enough away that we didn’t touch. The next song came on, one I didn’t know, and Noah sang along, his fingertips every so often trailed over my arm in a feather-lighttouch.
I closed my eyes to the sound of his voice and forgot the things that worried me, remembering when I had nothing more important to do than lie back and watch the stars. Just for that night, I pretended there were no such things as goodbyes, and I fellasleep.
The loud flutterof wings and loud crowing of a rooster woke me with a start. I opened my eyes to find a mangled-looking rooster perched on the bedrail, staring down at me. He stretched out his wings before letting out another wake-up call. The sky had taken on the soft pink hue of a pending sunrise, and the muggy morning heat was already sticking to myskin.
As innocent as last night was, there was an awkward feeling that churned my stomach. I didn’t go home. What if Momma had a bad night? What if they were worried about Bo?Crap.I slowly climbed to my feet, grabbed onto the side of the truck, and hopped to the ground. That rooster crowed again when I was halfway to Noah’s Grandma’s front door. “And just where do you think you’re going,huh?”
I turned around, shoving my hands in my pockets and smiling. “Um,well…”
“First of all, your dad’s truck is still stuck.” He sat up, shooing the rooster away before he ran his fingers through his messy hair. “And then, your little brother’s still passed out in my grandma’shouse.”
“Right…”
He swiped a hand over his face before stretching his arms over his head. The sun caught on his skin and, before I realized it, I was gnawing on my bottom lip. He stood up and jumped off the truck, strutting past me and smiling when he trailed his fingers over my cheek. “Don’t go and chew a hole in that pretty lip ofyours.”
I let go of my lip and a wave of heat washed from my head to mytoes.
“Come on, little lady,” he called over his shoulder before he yanked the screen door open and steppedinside.
I exhaled. I was in so much trouble. So muchtrouble…
13
Noah
Damn. She was cute as hell chewing on her lip like that. The way the rising sun shined through her hair while the fog crept behind her through the field—it looked like a picture. She may have only been a stranger passing through my life, but I wanted this to be a moment I’d remember forever, because if I could remember her just like this, I’d remember that, at one point, there was an innocent, pretty girl who looked at me like I may just give her the world. And money couldn’t buy shit likethat.
“Come on, little lady.” I stepped onto the porch and opened the screen door, stopping to hold it open forher.
Her cheeks were pink when she ducked beneath my arm. It took very little to make that girl blush, and I reveled in it. My eyes were glued to her ass when she walked into the living room, I guess that’s why I didn’t see Grandma over in the recliner. Hannah stopped midstride when the creak of the footrest snapping into placesounded
“Well,” Grandma said. “Making house calls, I see?” Her lips laid flat across her face when she glanced over Hannah’s shoulder at me. I know she was probably saying a prayer for God to save the preacher’s daughter’s soul. I didn’t have the best trackrecord.
I stepped around Hannah, trying to hide her from Grandma’s judging eyes. “Her brother ended up down at The Grounds with a bunch of teenagers, and seeing as how he’s my boss’ son, I couldn’t exactly call the cops on ‘em.” I walked over to her recliner, leaned down, and kissed hercheek.
“I hope we didn’t wake you,” Hannahsaid.
