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“I don’t really know,” he finished, looking up at her through his dark lashes. “Peace? Maybe I have been just… running.”

There were two types of people. Those who turned to close friendships in a storm and those who isolated themselves until it passed. He was type two, she suspected, and while she understood it, she hated that for him, and for Ella and Luke. But it was yet another thing she couldn’t fix.

“What was her name? Your wife?”

“Lissa,” he said, and his eyes got a faraway look.

She was somehow relieved to know her name. “Tell me about her.”

A line formed between his brows. “I don’t think I should—”

“I have a feeling I would have liked her.”

“Yeah. I think you would have.” He took a few sips of his wine. “She was a lot like you. Loved kids. Felt deeply. She was strong, like you, too.”

That caught her off guard. “You think I’m strong?”

“You are. Look at you. Everything you take on.”

“That’s just because I can’t say no.”

“No,” he said. “I think that’s because you always say yes. And that’s different than being unable to say no. You say yes because you love it.”

Maybe that was more right than wrong. “I do like the chaos. I like people and noise and all the mess. Growing up a Hardesty will do that to you. Does that make me weird?”

“In the best way.” He lifted his wineglass to hers and they clinked them together.

Leaning back in her chair, she studied him. “You’re… interesting, Gus Claymore.”

“I hope when you say interesting what you mean isfascinating.Intriguing. Charming.Not boring as hell.”

She laughed. “Anything but boring. You are all of those things and you’re a bit of a puzzle. And maybe I’ll figure you out eventually. I don’t know. What are the odds?”

He thought about that. “Fifty-fifty. Maybe sixty-forty?”

“Is that sixty on my side or yours?”

“Yours.” He grinned at her. “Because… well, you’re a woman. And women are better at… pretty much everything.”

“Oooh.Good answer! Except maybe calf-pulling.”

“Brawn counts for something, I suppose,” he said.

She laughed. His brawn was very, very appealing, but there was so much more about him that she found attractive, not the least of which was his humbleness, despite being the best vet people in these parts had ever seen. And then, there were his eyes. And that little cleft in his chin…

The waiter interrupted her thoughts, delivering a plate of fresh artisan bread and dipping oil and they both dug in, avoiding going any deeper than they already had.

“Any luck on the search for Lolly’s mother?” he asked finally, breaking the awkward silence.

“Not really. Dead ends mostly.” She caught him up on the Simons and the older boy Tara had been involved with. “All I know is that his name was Joey and that he was twenty-five while she was seeing him.”

“Sounds like a jailbait situation to me.”

She sighed. “Definitely and who knows how involved he was or still is in the whole thing. I don’t know. Maybe this whole search is for nothing. She could be long gone, out of the state by now. I may never find her.”

“She’d have to have transportation. A car? But she must have been in dire straits to have left Lolly as she did. How would a young girl, fresh out of foster care, with little to no money get herself out of Marietta?”

“I doubt she had a car. Bus? There is a bus station here.”