Willow tried not to look at all the deer heads staring at her, but she swore their black eyes followed her every move. Mixed in with the deer were some moose, coyote, and bear heads that were as unnerving. Stuffed birds and fish completed the assortment of dead things watching her.
And then there were the live things gathered around the bar, drinking beer, and staring at her and Declan. “You’d think they’ve never seen people before,” she muttered to Declan.
Standing stiffly beside her, he didn’t respond as a muscle in his jaw twitched, and a vein in his temple became more visible.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Then maybe you should act like it. You’re staring at them like they’re bugs you’re going to squish. It’s not exactly warming their hearts toward us, and they’re helping us.”
Declan didn’t know how to respond, mostly because it was true. A big part of him would happily see their blood splattering the walls as he tore them apart. He’d start with the young fisherman who stood on the other side of the bar in the center of the room but still had his attention focused on Willow.
“Honey, come on over here,” one of the older men said and gestured Willow over with a wave of his sun spotted hand.
Declan almost grabbed Willow back when she stepped away, but he kept himself from acting like a complete asshole in front of these people, and her. The man was in his eighties, had a cane at his side, and possessed the laugh lines of a life well-lived. He wasn’t a threat to Willow.
“Honey,” the old man said when Willow stepped beside him at the bar. “I know you don’t want the advice of an old man, but I’m going to give it to you anyway. You’re a beautiful girl, and you can do better than a man who gets you lost in the woods.”
Willow laughed as she rested her hand on the man’s arm and leaned closer to whisper conspiringly. “How do you know I didn’t get him lost in the woods?”
The man guffawed and placed his other hand over hers. “Oh, honey, I don’t think my heart can handle you.”
“I know it can’t,” she told him with a wink.
Some of Declan’s hostility eased while he watched the exchange. Willow had such an easy way about her when it came to humans. He’d always felt uncomfortable around them, but that was probably because he was fighting not to kill them whenever he was near them.
None of the men were overly inviting when they first walked in the door, but now they were all smiling and laughing while Willow charmed them. That didn’t mean he was going to get any closer to them, but he relaxed enough to settle into an overstuffed, brown leather chair.
To the right of him was a brick fireplace. No fire warmed the hearth, but he could see the charred remains of the last logs tossed in there, and the scent of smoke lingered. The table in front of him held a deck of cards. The scores of an ongoing rummy game marked the scrap of paper next to the cards.
The sun spilling through the windows did little to illuminate the dusty, dim interior. Probably because the dingy yellow curtains covering the windows looked like they hadn’t seen a washing machine since the seventies.
The man behind the bar set a mug of beer in front of Willow. She toasted the old man as Declan stretched his legs before him and folded his hands on his stomach. He wasn’t a big fan of the carcasses on the wall, but he found himself envying these men.
They lived such a simple life, something he’d never known. He was sure they all had their problems. Some were probably going through a divorce, others had sick loved ones, a few might be on the verge of losing their houses, but they knew nothing about the supernatural world and the evil lurking outside their door.
Hell, they had no idea about the evil sitting in their brown, leather chair, and neither did Willow. And if he had anything to say or do about it, none of them would ever know.
Willow took a sip of her beer and turned toward him. She lifted her drink as she smiled and gave a small wave. He smiled in return, and then the old man said something that drew her attention back to him.
Never in his life had he been content to sit and watch another, but he could spend hours, if not days, doing so with her. It took him a few minutes to realize when she smiled, he smiled with her.
That wasn’t normal, but nothing about the way he reacted to Willow was normal. He’d left the country to get away from her, he’d been ready to destroy everything in his way when he learned she was missing, and no woman aroused him as much as she did. He’d been so focused on finding her, making sure she survived, and trying not to give in to his desire for her, that he hadn’t stopped to think that there was something different about the way he reacted to her.
Declan leaned a little forward, but before he could delve too deeply into what it was about her, the father returned to stand in front of him. He’d learned the man’s name was Gus, and right now, Gus had no idea how close Declan was to ripping off his head so he could see Willow again.