That remark took Liam by surprise. From past conversations, he knew that she was from a small town in the eastern part of the state. Why would she know anything about another small, mountain town? Having graduated from there himself in 2006, he was more than familiar with the campus and town. “How in this world do you know where Cullowhee is? Talk about on the other side of nowhere.”

“Why, I’ll have you know that I’m a Western Carolina Catamount. Class of 2010.” She held her right hand out and flashed a dainty class ring.

This presented Liam the perfect opportunity. He reached out, gently grabbed her outstretched hand, and then bent closer as if to inspect her ring. Skin, soft and smooth as a feather, warmed his palm, and without thinking, he ran his thumb over her fingers, puzzled by the calloused tips.

“Guitar.” Her whispered words drew Liam’s eyes up to hers. She gave a nod toward her fingers. “I play the guitar. That’s why my fingertips feel like leather. No matter how much salve I use, they never get any softer.”

He gave her hand a quick squeeze before turning it over and slipping his fingers between hers. “I like that, though. There’s nothing wrong with having a talent that gives you a callous or two. You’ll have to play for me sometime. I bet you’re good at it.”

Color rushed to her cheeks, turning them a beautiful pink as she cast her eyes to the floor of the porch. “Back home, my brother and I would play for hours, and I never once thought about who might be listening.” Her lips pressed tightly together, and her brow furrowed, as if the thought brought back unpleasant memories. With a small shake of her head, she redirected her thoughts. “But since he died, I mostly just play for myself. Who knows, maybe I’ll see if I can work up the nerve to play for you. It’s been a while since I’ve had more than an audience of one.”

Though tempted to see if her face was as warm as it appeared, Liam resisted touching her cheeks. The last thing he wanted to do was to embarrass her even more. Next to his broad shoulder and long leg, she looked tiny and delicate, almost as if she were made from spun glass.

“Well, you just think about it, and know that, while I’d love to hear you play, I won’t pressure you to do it if it makes you uncomfortable.” With a quick glance at his watch, Liam noticed that it was almost time for supper with Wrynn and the girls. “I hate to run, but there’s a trio of ragamuffin princesses at my sister’s house waiting for me to come play. Wrynn’s off work tonight, so I’ll get a chance to talk with her, too. It’s definitely a win-win for me. Is six o’clock too early to pick you up?”

“Six sounds great. I’ll meet you here, if that’s okay with you. I just live right over there.” She gracefully withdrew her hand from his, and pointed over his shoulder to a line of employee cabins. “It’s an easy two minute walk, and besides, I’m not sure if your big truck would make it down the narrow drive.”

“That sounds great.” He grabbed her hand once more, placed a small kiss on the back of it, and turned. He knew he needed to leave right this minute, so with one last glance over his shoulder, he said, “I’m looking forward to it. I’ll see you then.”

Liam rushed to his truck, bewildered by the emotions and reactions evoked by that one little gal. He’d had to fight the urge to grab her up in his arms when she blushed. Her shyness brought out such a strong instinct to protect her. The only problem was that he had no idea what he would be shielding her from, or if she even needed him to do that for her. Nerves could also be causing his imagination to run wild. That was definitely something that he would need to think about, and the sooner the better. Who was he kidding? She would consume his thoughts until he returned to this very spot this evening.

As he drove through town, he turned the radio on in an attempt to drown out everything else. “I Drive Your Truck” by Lee Brice blasted through the speakers, effectively drawing every thought in Liam’s brain to Tripp. He was, at that exact moment, driving his brother-in-law’s truck, and a lash of pain sliced through Liam’s heart. Tripp had been so much more than just the guy who had married Wrynn. He had been Liam’s closest friend and brother. As teenagers, their lives entwined around Wrynn, and only the Army and college could have separated them. And separate them, it did. Even though he had been gone two and a half years, not a day went by that Liam didn’t remember just how good a friend, brother, husband, and father Tripp had been. Those same memories made Liam ache for a wife and children of his own, and for the first time in a very long time, he felt the first trickle of hope for his future.

Hope could be such a fragile thing, but he felt confident that his time had come, and he was determined to embrace that hope, and make the absolute best of it. Heck, he might even work up the nerve to talk to Wrynn about it if time allowed. The last thing he wanted to do was get her hopes up, or even worse, his mom’s hopes. And Lord knows, as soon as he said something, Wrynn would be on the phone with their mom.

When he got home, he headed toward his ‘front’ door. The short trip around Wrynn’s house to his humble abode in her basement never failed to show him just how lonely his life was. At times, the walls closed in to remind him that, while he was a piece of someone else’s puzzle, he had yet to be blessed with a puzzle of his own.

After entering the back door, Liam stopped as the memories washed over him – happy days when this was Papa and Nana’s house, he and Tripp drawing racetracks in the dirt floor of the basement, homemade ice cream and lemonade under the trees in the back yard, tire swings hanging from the tall oak trees – Family.

Long before Liam and his dad converted the old, dirt floored cellar into a luxury apartment, love, family, and happiness filled the space. If those walls could talk, they would tell the story of triumph over fear and laughter after heartbreak.

The pitter-patter of little feet scurrying across the floor above his head brought a smile to his face and his thoughts back to the present. The warm oak floors and wainscoting created a homey feel, and masculine touches definitely proclaimed bachelor. The whole picture screamed for the need of a woman’s touch. Sure, Maggie’s muddy handprints right inside the door added a certain flair, and colorful drawings covered every inch of his fridge, but borrowing his sister’s children only bore proof of the emptiness of his own life.

The longer Liam went without meeting that certain someone, the more difficult it became to fight the loneliness. Despair edged the colors of his life, and threatened to take over a little more each day. A whispered prayer, a mumbled plea, at times it all seemed futile.

Then the image of Elizabeth’s radiant smile intruded on his morose thoughts. Could she be the one? While hesitant to hope, he couldn’t deny the way she made his heart lighter with just a simple glance from her, the way his pulse sped up at her nearness. The simple touch of her hand made him want to pull her close.

When she’d spoken of playing guitar, her eyes had grown shuttered, and the mention of her brother brought pain to her voice. Like Liam, her past intruded on her present, but that only drew out his protective nature. His mother and sister were quite used to his somewhat caveman nature, but he knew better than coming on too strong with Elizabeth. He didn’t want to scare her off during their first date.

A quick glance at the clock let Liam know that he needed to go see Wrynn and the girls now or he might be late picking Elizabeth up. After grabbing an extra jacket and a clean blanket, Liam headed back around to Wrynn’s front door. He rarely, if ever, used the inside stairs. After all, if he didn’t respect his sister’s privacy, he sure couldn’t expect her to honor his.

As he stood on his sister’s front porch, giggles, love, and warmth escaped through the door and seeped into the deepest recesses of his heart. When he heard Wrynn’s telephone ring, Liam turned the knob, and found it unlocked. As he opened the door, he heard giggling down the hall, and watched in amusement as Wrynn tiptoed backwards toward the kitchen. Since it was obvious that she was deliberately being quiet, he decided to announce his presence as he walked into the house so that he wouldn’t startle Wrynn and make her scream.

“Knock, knock.”

Liam wanted to go check and see what the munchkins were up to, but when he walked further into the house, a familiar voice drew him toward the kitchen.

“Hi, Wrynn. This is Lara. It was so good to see you again today. I hope we can get together again real soon. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Anyway, we’re not going to be able to make it for supper tonight. I’m really sorry, but some things have come up. Talk to you soon. BEEP, MESSAGE HAS ENDED.”

Liam felt as if someone punched him in the stomach. After a decade, her voice was not one that he wanted to hear. Though unanswered questions plagued him at times, he was content with his life and excited about moving forward. He hadn’t seen or heard a word from her since their freshman year in college, and he classified her as a most definite part of his past, and not his future. He hoped that Elizabeth would be a part of that future, and now this?

Wrynn spoke to him, but his thoughts consumed him and drowned out her words. When the girls came into the kitchen, and Wrynn rushed them right back out, the only thing that crossed his mind was leaving, getting away from that voice, so he fled. He ran right out the front door, down the front walk, and straight to the truck without even looking back, but when he grabbed the truck door, Elizabeth’s face floated in his mind.