He nodded, took his turn, and they both settled into their sleeping bags.
“This isn’t too bad,” Tory said after wriggling around a bit. “Good night, Liam.”
“Night.”
There was silence for a minute before she added, “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For giving me a way out. I don’t think I could have faced my mom again today.”
“Glad to help.” And to his surprise, he found he was.
“How about we get some coffee before I take you home,” Liam said the following morning. “Don’t know about you, but I can’t fully wake up until I’ve had some.”
Tory considered the proposition. Surprisingly, she’d fallen asleep within minutes of saying good-night to Liam and slept straight through, only waking when he’d crawled out of his sleeping bag and walked off to make use of the woods again.
The morning was sunny and clear, a blue sky arching overhead. Tory took a deep breath and regretted her haste in saying she’d head home this morning. Sleep hadn’t made her any more eager to reconnect with Enid. If anything, the opposite.
In addition, there was the question of Liam. He’d angered her last night with his comment about Steel, but Tory supposed he was as much a product of his family as she was of hers. Even after being away for so long, she remembered the easy way Coopers used the Turner name in vain. Sooner or later she’d slip a “sanctimonious Turner” into a sentence without even thinking. She couldn’t blame Liam for doing the same.
“Coffee sounds good,” she heard herself say. “But what if someone sees us?”
“We’ll stay in Silver Falls,” he assured her. “Doubt we’ll run into anyone here.”
He was probably right, Tory decided, but she knew she was taking a risk going into town with him. She might have shaken her family last night, but she’d never hear the end of it if people knew who she’d spent it with.
Fifteen minutes later they were pulling into a small café. Thoughtful Coffee was a tiny establishment, half coffee shop, half diner, with three booths lining one interior wall and three café tables spaced in front of the big bay window at the front of the shop. Liam chose the booth at the very back, near the short hall to the restrooms. Tory gazed at the sunny front tables longingly, but knew he’d made the smart choice.
A man in his late forties, in work pants and heavy boots, a dark scruff of a beard lining his jaw, looked up at them as they passed his booth and took the next one, his breakfast sandwich halfway to his mouth. Tory thought his eyes narrowed and his gazed hardened as he took in the pair of them, but it had to be her nerves. She’d never seen him before in her life, and Liam betrayed no recognition of the man, either.
They placed their order with the waitress, a slim young woman with a harried look, and settled in to drink the coffee she quickly brought them.
“Sure you won’t change your mind?” Liam gazed at her across the rim of his cup. “Can’t you play hooky for just one day? I could take you home later tonight.”
“I thought you wanted to be alone.”
“There’s alone, and then there’s alone. If I listen too much to my thoughts, I won’t like what I hear.”
Tory could understand that. “What would we do?”
“I know where there’s a canoe.” He flashed her a grin that made her heart stutter. How had she never noticed how handsome Liam was when she was young? Tory supposed that when she was thirteen, he’d been too old for her. And of course he was a Turner.
“I like canoeing.” She’d gone paddling several times in Seattle, when she’d allowed herself to take a break for a minute or two from work and studies.
“It’s a date. Or it’s not a date,” he said hurriedly. “It’s a day. Spent with a… an acquaintance.”
Tory had to laugh at his attempt to make it all seem so safe. “A day with an acquaintance.” She lifted her mug and saluted him with it.
“You’re a Cooper,” a loud voice came from behind her head. Tory twisted around to see it was the man with the dark scruffy beard who’d spoken. He was polishing off a plate of eggs and hash browns. She exchanged a glance with Liam, unsure how to react to the salvo.
“Ye-es,” she said slowly. “I’m a Cooper.”
“You have the look.” The man had a belligerent set to his jaw she didn’t like. Look? She’d never thought the Coopers had a look.
“Why don’t you leave us to our breakfast,” Liam said in the kind of tone men adopt when they mean to lay down a warning.
“Why don’t you leave Silver Falls to people who belong here?”
Tory had heard of Silver Falls’s reputation for clannishness, but she’d never expected to face it so baldly.
“We’re having a meal, that’s all,” she said.
“Don’t give him the satisfaction,” Liam told her. He raised his voice. “We have just as much right to be here as anyone else.”
The waitress arrived with a nervous look. “Everything okay here? Lisa wants to know if you’re making trouble, Rod.”
Rod snorted. “I’m not the troublemaker here, Tess.”
“I don’t know what your issue is, but—” Tory started.
Rod wiped his face with his napkin and dropped it on his plate. “My issue is you Coopers need to know your place—and it’s not in Silver Falls.”
Liam half stood, bracing his hands on the table. “Walk away,” he told Rod. “We’re just passing through, and it’s not like we’ll be back.”
“Good.”
Tory held her breath. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had stood up for her. She’d always had to stand up for herself. It was kind of… interesting. She was glad she wasn’t the one facing Liam down, but the stranger didn’t seem intimidated.
Rod picked up his hat off the table and lifted it to his head. Tipped it to Tess as he stood up and edged out of his booth. “You tell Lisa
