Page 2 of Hero Unbound

She took a sip of water and forced herself to spin around casually on her stool so she could get a better look around the bar. It was pretty busy for a Thursday night. Lots of couples and a few larger groups. There were even some people dancing on the floor over in the far corner, despite the music being kept at a pretty subdued level.

Some of the faces looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t be sure. She hadn’t been here in years. They’d all been kids.

This had been a mistake. The chances that she would recognize someone or someone would recognize her were slim to—

“Eva, is that you?”

Eva turned as a woman came toward her from the side—slender with blondish, wavy hair. But it was the glasses that caused her identity to click for Eva.

“Becky? Becky Mackay?”

“Oh my gosh. It is you!” Becky gave her a brief hug. “You look exactly the same as you did whenever I saw you last. I don’t even know when that was. It’s got to have been a dozen years or more.”

Eva’s smile became less forced. “Yeah, it’s been a while since I made it to Wyoming.”

Becky looked around. “Are you here with your folks? Sam?”

“No, just me. Mom and Dad are still in Colorado, and my brother is off doing some sort of hotshot firefighter stuff somewhere.”

She kept the statement deliberately vague. Mentioning that she hadn’t talked to her family in over two years would bring up way too many questions she didn’t want to answer.

Becky looked more like her dad, the infamous Zac Mackay, who had been one of the founders of Linear Tactical all those years ago and put the tiny town of Oak Creek on the map. But she’d always had the kindness of her mom, Annie. Both mother and daughter were gentle souls.

Becky would work perfectly for what Eva needed.

“Just you, huh?”

Eva ignored the clenching of her stomach and reached for a sip of her water. “Yeah, it’s just me.”

“Then why don’t you join me.” Becky offered such a sincere smile that Eva felt even worse. “They have great chicken pot pie here on Thursday. My treat, please.”

Eva wanted to laugh it off and say she’d try it on her own dime. But she couldn’t do that. She was down to her last twenty dollars’ worth of dimes, and eating a chicken pot pie, no matter how good, wasn’t how she was going to use that money.

Not with two pups out in the car who were going to need to be fed too. And no potential income on the horizon.

“That would be great. Thanks, Becky.”

Becky put in the order with Bear—who moaned about having to figure out the computer system—and Eva followed her over to her booth.

“So what are you doing in Oak Creek?”

Eva amped up her smile. She’d practiced this. “I’m taking some time to figure out exactly what I want to do. I’m sort of between jobs and relationships at the moment.”

Her smile slipped at that sentence.

Becky smiled gently. “I understand. Are you thinking of switching careers entirely?”

She didn’t have much choice. Working with animals was no longer an option for her. She had yet to figure out how to explain that to anyone without inviting more questions, so she planned to keep it vague.

“I’d like to stay in the same field, but I might have to try something else for a while.”

Becky took a sip of the beer in front of her. “Do you mind my asking what your field is?”

“Animals. I’m a veterina—”

Becky’s eyes grew wide as she cut Eva off. “You’re a vet? Oh my gosh. I am too. I cannot believe this!”

Shit. She hadn’t expected to be using these lines on someone who was an actual veterinarian and would know about the field.

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