He shrugged. ‘I don’t live in this nosy town.’
Kira frowned. ‘Then what are you doing here?’
‘Visiting.’
She didn’t like his tone. Or his face for that matter. It was too … too … handsome. But in like an obnoxiously conventional way. Too much symmetry. Too much perfect dark hair. It was annoying. And entirely uninteresting.
Too wholesome.
‘Well, whoever you’re visiting should have told you that I own this land now, so you can’t just traipse through here on your little hike or whatever you’re doing.’
The man’s obnoxiously straight smile grew. ‘Little hike or whatever?’
‘I don’t know! What’s with that vest? You look like you’re going on a hike.’
He looked down at his puffy vest and dark jeans and hiking boots and then let his gaze wander over Kira’s ensemble.
‘You’re wearing a blanket,’ he observed.
‘Yes.’
‘And you’re making fun of my vest?’
‘Yes.’ She crossed her arms over her chest, not that he could see that since they were tucked under her blanket, but still. Her stance was defiant. She was pretty sure that came across. She didn’t like this guy and his teasing smile. And his light eyes with dark lashes. Really? Ugh, could he be more basic?
Kira only went for men that had ‘bad idea’ tattooed across their forehead (sometimes literally) and this guy looked like the model for ‘the guy your mother wants you to bring home for the holidays to sip cocoa under the tree in your matching pajamas’. Highly undesirable. Downright unattractive in every way, really.
Except for maybe the way his thighs were filling out those jeans.
But that was neither here nor there.
‘Sorry again for the misunderstanding. We’ll get going.’
Oh, right. He was going to take the dogs with him. Shoot. She liked the dogs. She looked down at the three precious faces in front of her and she could swear she could hear their thoughts.
‘You might as well finish your walk,’ she blurted out, ignoring how his dark eyebrows rose in surprise. ‘I mean, you’re here now and the dogs need their exercise and I would never deprive them of that.’
‘You’re a big dog person, I take it.’
‘They’re better than people in every way.’
His laugh was low and deep and did absolutely nothing for her.
‘I agree.’
She gave him a curt nod, expecting him to go on his way, but he was still looking at her like he was working on a puzzle.
‘What?’ she snapped.
‘I just… Are you okay?’
Was she okay?! How dare he?! How dare he presume just because she was wandering around outside wearing bedding and waving her phone in the air like she thought it worked via witchcraft that she wasn’t okay?
She smoothed her blanket down with a hand as though it were an evening gown. ‘I’m fine, thank you.’
A small crease of worry formed between his obnoxiously perfect eyebrows and Kira wanted to throw something at him and see if she could hit it.
‘It’s just … you’re walking around with your phone over your head. I thought maybe you were having trouble with it. I work in tech, so I thought…’
A tech bro? Oh, just what she needed! Always trust your first instincts and her first instincts were right. She didn’t need some Silicon Valley, let’s go for a hike wherever we damn well please because we think we own the whole world, Clark Kent lookalike, to rescue her. Not today, buddy!
‘No thanks, Elon. I’m managing just fine.’
‘Elon?’ Now he looked highly offended. Hmm … that did something for her. ‘Wow, I was just trying to help.’
‘No one asked you to.’
He held up his hands. ‘Sorry. You’re right. I’ll … uh … get out of your hair.’
‘Thank you.’ She didn’t look at him as she said it. The hurt expression on his face had taken some of the fun out of the whole thing. Instead, she crouched one more time to say goodbye to her new friends.
‘Bye, sweet babies. Enjoy your walk.’ She gave them enough pets to last for a while and by the time she was standing again, the mystery man had already turned and was walking down the row of trees, whistling for his dogs to follow.
And unfortunately, they did.
Chapter Two
‘You can stay and sit with me for a few minutes, can’t you?’ his sister asked, already pulling out a chair at the closest table and gesturing to the one across from it. ‘While it’s quiet in here? I need a break, anyway.’
