Unending Devotion (Michigan Brides #1)(13)
Connell shook his head. “You’re just asking for trouble.”
“I’m not afraid of trouble.”
“I can see that.” He liked her spunk and her bravery. “However, while you’re here in Harrison, I suggest that you use more discretion and caution.”
She searched his face, apparently testing the sincerity of his statement. And he hoped she’d see it there. No matter their differences of opinion, she was a nice enough girl. He wouldn’t want to see any harm come to her.
“Connell’s right.” Stuart perched on the edge of his desk. “Harrison isn’t called ‘Hell’s Waiting Room’ for no reason.”
Lily stared at Stuart as if taking in the seriousness of his words.
“As I said before, I can help you too,” Stuart continued, his thin face tight with earnestness. “Anytime you want to search, you just come on by. It’ll give me an excuse to do some investigating of my own on the jail fire.”
“If you’re sure I won’t be a bother.”
“You won’t be a bother at all,” Stuart said too eagerly. “In fact, I’d count it a pleasure to go anywhere with you.”
Connell almost groaned. His friend had fallen fast and hard for Lily. He didn’t blame him. After all, there weren’t many eligible women of decent character in these parts. He figured the ratio had to be at least two hundred men for every one upstanding woman, if not higher.
He supposed that’s why he couldn’t help his own fascination with her. Alone all winter with mostly men for company, he was letting the first pretty woman who came along turn him into a blushing schoolboy.
But the truth was, he wasn’t a blushing schoolboy anymore. He’d learned his lesson the hard way two years ago. He’d gotten starry-eyed over a girl, had let her sweep him off his feet, and had floated on the clouds for a while. But eventually, reality had yanked him and he’d come crashing down, smashing the ground with a force that still ached in the deepest marrow of his bones.
He didn’t need to make the same mistake twice in his twenty-six years of life.
“I suppose I’d better get back to work.” He pushed away from the doorframe. It didn’t sound like Lily wanted help. But if she did, Stuart was more than willing to give it.
“Work?” Stuart grinned at him. “Since when do you actually do any work, you lazybones?”
Connell forced a smile. “That’s true. I can’t work today, not after inhaling all of the deadly sock fumes last night. I’m still recovering.”
The reserve fell away from Lily’s face, and a smile crept up her lips. “I would have thought breathing in the odor of dirty socks was like smelling roses to a shanty boy like you.”
He stopped. Did she think he was just a regular shanty boy? Surely she could tell he wasn’t an ordinary man. After all, he was boarding in town instead of living at one of the camps.
Stuart’s expression grew playful. “Yeah. Why don’t you put on your smelly socks and get out there and cut some trees, you tough old shanty boy?”
For a quarter of a second Connell was tempted to explain who he was. He wouldn’t mind watching her eyes widen in awe when she learned that he was the boss man of three of the area’s largest lumber camps, the oldest son of Kean McCormick, one of the wealthiest lumber barons in central Michigan.
Instead, he merely tossed her a grin before turning to leave. As much as he’d enjoy impressing Lily Young, he wouldn’t do it that way—not by boasting of his importance and wealth.
If he was going to win her favor, he’d do it like a man.
But of course he didn’t care about winning her favor.
Not in the least.
Chapter
4
Lily had to admit, she liked the way Connell McCormick peeked at her over the rims of his spectacles. From his corner spot of the deserted dining room, behind his stacks of books, he pretended to work. But she could feel his gaze upon her, tickling her, making her insides flutter.
There was something about his intense green eyes and his attempts to hide his obvious fascination with her that warmed her and made her feel womanly in a way she hadn’t experienced before.
At the last note of Mr. Heller’s lively harmonica tune, Lily clapped, giving the hotel proprietor her biggest smile. “Your music makes me want to get up and dance with you.”
The husky man ducked his head. In some ways, he was like a simple-minded child in a grown man’s body. He kept mostly to himself in the stable, caring for the animals. Vera hadn’t wanted to talk about the logging accident that had taken her husband’s wits from him, and Lily figured it wasn’t her place to pry.
The strains of Mr. Heller’s tune drifted away, leaving in its place the harsh plunking of the saloon piano across the street, drunken shouts, distant raucous laughter, and even a slamming door or two. There had already been one enormous fistfight in the middle of the street, and Lily had no doubt there would be many more before the end of the night.
All of the drinking and carousing served to remind her that she’d made so little progress over the past three days.
As if sensing the shift in her mood, Vera reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “It’s like this every Saturday night. The boys coming into town from all the camps. All their fighting and wild activities would have their poor mamas in tears if they could see them.”