Eight Second Angel: The Ballad of Lily Grace (Lonesome Point, Texas Book 7) (3 page)

It made him feel a little creepy to be walking into the donut shop with his arm around her shoulders. He’d just turned thirty, but years of riding hard and spending more than his fair share of time in the sun had aged him. He looked older than thirty, and so much harder than this pretty girl with her blond curls and baby face.

“Any donuts with that?” The sullen, freckle-faced teenager manning the cash register set their coffees down on the counter.

“One bear claw and two of the pink donuts with sprinkles on top,” Canyon said, sliding Grace’s coffee her way.

“Thanks.” She leaned in to take the cup, glancing down at his wallet as he pulled out a ten dollar bill. “Meriwether. Did I know that was your middle name?”

“No,” he said, flipping his wallet closed. “And you still don’t. That’s classified information.”

She hummed as she nodded. “Your secret is safe with me. I won’t tell anyone that you like pink donuts with sprinkles, either.”

He glanced down at her, surprised by the joke. “The donuts were for you, but if you prefer the bear claw that’s fine. I’m secure enough in my manhood to eat pink donuts.”

“Just not secure enough to let the world know you’re named after a fairy.”

Canyon stuffed his change in his pocket and collected the bag of sweets. “I’m not named after a fairy. It’s a family name. One of my mom’s ancestors who came over on the Mayflower. For someone who’s spent sixty years living in a trailer park, she’s awfully pretentious.”

“That’s what they all say,” Grace said, sliding into a booth near the window overlooking the exit ramp to the highway.

He smiled as he claimed the seat across from her. “Fine, you got me. I’m named after a fairy. Now you know my dark secret. What about you?”

Grace’s grin faltered. “I don’t know. I’ve got a secret here or there I guess. Nothing too dark.” She reached into the bag between them, pulling out the bear claw and sitting it on a napkin in front of her, proving she hadn’t been joking about sticking him with the pink donuts. “Though I guess that’s hard to believe, considering what you just saw.”

Canyon nodded slowly, feeling uncomfortable, but knowing waiting wasn’t going to make this conversation any easier. He needed to get to the heart of what was going on with Grace and figure out if it was safe to leave her alone or if he needed to take her somewhere to get help.

He knew there were places you could take kids in trouble. He might be able to find her a women’s shelter or something and avoid a trip to the psych ward. His buddy Ray had ended up in the psych ward after his third divorce and said it was one of the scariest, most depressing places he’d ever set foot in.

Obviously Grace didn’t need anything else to bring her down.

“I don’t presume to know your business,” he said gently, “but it was a shock. Seeing you up there. You always had such a pretty smile when you brought me supper at the diner. I assumed things must be going okay for you.”

“Customer service face,” Grace said with a wry twist of her lips. “You’ve got to have one. Otherwise, you’d stare daggers through the jerks when they get seated in your section.”

“Hope I’m not one of the jerks,” he said, feeling bad for not taking the time to really see the girl who’d waited on him for the past week. “Otherwise I must have made you pretty miserable, considering how often I ate at the truck stop.”

“No, you’re not one of the jerks.” Grace shook her head, her blond curls bobbing gently around her face, reminding him of how soft they’d felt beneath his hand. “You’re very nice and I’m grateful. For what you did. I didn’t…”

She took a breath and let it out through pursed lips. “I honestly don’t know what was going through my head. I think a lot of things just caught up with me all at once.”

“What kind of things?”

Her gaze dropped to her coffee cup. “I don’t know,” she said before adding in a softer voice, “Loneliness is the worst of it, I guess. I don’t have any family and went through a bad breakup not long ago. Since then I moved and I’ve been working so much I haven’t had time to make any friends. So I’ve been lonely. And sad. And wondering if I’ll ever not be lonely and sad.”

Canyon reached across the table, taking one of her hands. He’d never touched Grace before tonight, but it had felt right to hold her on the roof and it felt right to reach out to her now.

Sometimes there is nothing you can do but take someone’s hand and let them know you understand what they’re going through.

“I hear you,” he said. “I get lonely and sad, too.”

“What do you do to make it go away?” she asked, fingers curling around his.

“Go to the gym, take a run,” he said. “Or head down to the ring and find a practice bull to ride. Nothing like a few tons of bull bucking beneath you to push everything out of your head for a while.”

“So you ride bulls?” she asked, peering up at him through her lashes.

“I ride the circuit. That’s why I was in town this week. Just finished up with the San Antonio rodeo last night.”

Finished up with his career while he was at it, but no need for Grace to know about that. The less said about his situation, the better.

“But when I’m at home in Austin, I like to grab a yoga class whenever I can,” he continued. “That helps too. Really clears all the crap away and gets you back to just remembering how to breathe. You ever take yoga?”

Grace tilted her head to one side, considering him. “No, I haven’t. But I like that you have.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because it’s sweet,” she murmured. “A bull rider named Meriwether, who takes yoga, saves women in trouble, and eats pink donuts. Someone should write a song about you.”

“The name’s Canyon,” he said, flustered by the compliment.

“I know,” she said, bringing her fingers to wrap around his thumb, her hand so tiny all four of her fingers could line up in a row between his joint and the end of his thumb. “And I know you don’t have it as together as you would like me to believe, Canyon.”

His hand curled into a fist. “Is that right?”

“It is,” she said, strength in her voice he hadn’t heard before. “So why don’t you stop trying to save me and give it to me straight. What do you really do when the sad and the lonely refuses to go away?”

Canyon held her gaze, his chest tightening as the silence stretched between them. For the first time, he noticed the intelligence in her soft brown eyes and the core of steel beneath her pretty face. There was more to Grace than he’d imagined, more depth, more heart, and more pain. He could see that too, a pain as deep and wide as his, though she was still struggling to stay on top of it, fighting to stay on the surface instead of giving in and sinking like a stone.

He’d realized Grace was pretty the first time he’d laid eyes on her—she looked like an angel with those blond curls and big brown eyes set in skin as pale as porcelain—but he’d never been aware of her in the way a man is aware of a woman. He hadn’t been aware of many women that way since he and Reilly divorced, but those he had were much older and less innocent than the pretty young thing sitting across from him.

His misery loved company and he looked for women who wanted the same thing he did: release and an easy goodbye. He wasn’t interested in love or passion. Sex was a biological urge he satisfied when the need grew too great and hated himself for immediately after. He didn’t deserve pleasure, but there were nights when he couldn’t help reaching for something to ease the ache.

But he refused to reach for this girl. It didn’t matter that something inside of him was sitting up and taking notice of a woman in a way it hadn’t in years. He wouldn’t be good for Grace. She needed a friend, not a one-night stand, and he wasn’t in the position to offer a woman in his bed more than that.

He tried to pull his hand from hers, but she held tight.

“That’s what I thought,” she said. “So I have a proposition for you.”

“No,” he said, his voice rough.

“You haven’t heard what it is yet,” she said, undeterred. She leaned in, eyes shining. “I think we should get away from it all for a while. We could head north and find a cute little town to rest up in for a few days. I bet if we put our heads together we can figure out something better than yoga or bull-riding to take the sad away. Bet it would be good for both of us.”

“I don’t think so, Grace,” Canyon repeated, gently prying her fingers from his thumb. “You’re a beautiful girl, but I’m not in a place for a relationship or anything else.”

She laughed as she picked up her bear claw. “Who said anything about a relationship or
anything else
, Meriwether? That was a friendly proposition, not an X-rated one. You know men and women can be friends, right?”

Heat crept up his neck. “My apologies. Guess I misunderstood.”

“Darn right you did,” she said, taking a bite of her pastry. “I’m offended, but you can make it up to me on the road by giving me control of the radio. I’ve already quit my job so I’m ready to leave when you are.”

He shook his head, unable to keep the smile from his face. “Anyone ever tell you you’re trouble, Grace?”

“All the time,” she said. “But I’m not. I’m just bossy and bad at taking no for an answer. So don’t say no, say yes, and let’s go have some fun. Bare minimum, we won’t be lonely for a few days, and it doesn’t seem like either of us has much but loneliness to lose.”

Canyon took a bite of his pink donut, surprised to find the icing was strawberry flavored and a lot tastier than he’d thought it would be. If he’d known how tasty, in fact, he would have ordered it instead of the bear claw. He had no idea what was best when it came to donuts. Maybe he suffered from the same lack of vision when it came to sad, beautiful girls.

And Grace was certainly right: he had nothing left to lose. As long as she had no expectations of him aside from friendship and conversation, why shouldn’t she tag along on his trip?

“All right, you can come with me,” he said, holding up a hand to stop her when she opened her mouth. “As long as you’re okay with camping. I’ve already got a reservation for a spot at Big Bend for the next week.”

“Big Bend,” she said, excitement clear in her voice. “That’s perfect! And I love camping.”

“I’ve only got one tent,” he said. “But it’s a big one. Should be plenty of room for your sleeping bag on one side and mine on the other.”

“I can sleep on the ground,” she said, waving a hand through the air. “I don’t need a sleeping bag.”

“Yes, you do, and I’m happy to buy you one and supply food and firewood and anything else we need. But I need you to promise me one thing before we hit the road.”

She crossed her arms on top of the table. “I’m listening.”

“Come next Saturday morning, you let me put you on a bus back to San Antonio,” he said. “I’ve got business to take care of next weekend and I’ll need to be on my own by then.”

Her smile faded as she nodded so seriously he would have thought she knew what he had planned for Sunday afternoon.

But, of course, she didn’t. He hadn’t told a soul because he didn’t want to be stopped. He didn’t want anything anymore except to make things as right as he could and then quietly turn out the lights. He probably didn’t deserve an end to his suffering, but he couldn’t live another year in the shadow of what he’d done.

Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to. His business was almost finished. There were only a few things left to take care of. Helping another person find a reason to live hadn’t been on his agenda, but he would try to help Grace before he checked out.

Ensuring one sweet girl stayed in the world might, in some small way, help make up for the sweet boy he’d taken out of it.

“All right,” Grace said softly. “If you put me on the bus Saturday morning, I’ll stay on it. I promise.”

“Then let’s get going,” he said, rising to his feet. “If we leave now, we’ll be there by breakfast time.”

CHAPTER THREE

Lily Grace

While Canyon filled his truck with gas, Lily hurried around the corner of the gas station toting the bathroom key, a sticky piece of metal attached to a socket wrench big enough to inflict bodily harm if anyone surprised her in the john.

She didn’t think Canyon would ditch her, but she was going to be quick, just in case. She couldn’t afford to lose him. Not only was he the reason she’d been sent back to earth, he was her ride to Big Bend National Park, located barely an hour’s drive south of Lonesome Point.

What were the chances that she’d end up in Texas, let alone on a trip with her lost soul that would take her within easy reach of her kids? It felt like something more than coincidence. It felt like a sign that the universe approved of her desire to say a proper goodbye to the people who mattered most.

Pressing her lips together to stem a sudden wave of emotion, she locked herself into the relatively clean—for a gas station—unisex bathroom and turned, catching a glimpse of her new reflection in the mirror.

What she saw shocked her. Grace hadn’t been just a pretty young woman; she’d been stunning.

Lily stepped closer to the mirror, running her fingers through the shoulder-length blond curls framing her face before pressing her palms gently into her new cheeks. With her big brown eyes, small, straight nose that rounded up gently at the tip, and plush mouth, Grace had the kind of face that sold soft drinks and launched country music careers. She could have been a model except for the fact that she was such a tiny thing. Lily couldn’t imagine that she stood more than five feet one or two and was miniature all over, from her delicate facial bones to her narrow shoulders to her hands so small they had looked childlike in Canyon’s.