Page 170 of His Hungry Wolf

“Are they frozen over?” I replied.

“They are. You should go see them on your way out of town.”

Was he trying to get rid of us or being practical?

“Thanks for the tip. But that’s not what brought us here,” Quin volunteered.

“No? Then what did?”

“We were looking for someone. We thought he might have passed through here.”

“You were looking for someone. And you think they might have come here?”

“Yes. Is that strange?” Quin asked narrowing his eyes on the portly man.

“No. Not at all. We don’t get a lot of visitors but we get a few.”

“Because of the falls?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said offering us his first smile. “Who did you say you were looking for?”

“He’s about 5’10”. Red hair, red face. Maybe a little rough around the edges. It would have been about three weeks,” Quin explained.

“I can’t say that I’ve seen anyone like that around here. But, you know who might have? Sonya. She runs the bed and breakfast. It’s close by. You should stay the night and check out the falls in the morning. It’s also an interesting town with a bit of a history. It was established in the 1920s by a couple of moonshine runners.”

“Really?” I asked hiding my confusion by his sudden change of tone. Minutes earlier it felt like he was trying to get us to leave. Now he seemed to be trying to get us to stay.

“Yes, it’s all very interesting. But the person who could tell you more about it is Sonya. She’s also the town’s unofficial historian. My husband also knows quite a bit, but Sonya is the one who enjoys talking about it. Tom can be a bit of a grump sometimes. You two married?”

It was only then that I let go of Quin. I don’t know why I did. It wasn’t like the idea of marriage scared me. And, it wasn’t like I wouldn’t consider spending my life with Quin. I guess I wasn’t ready to be asked something like that considering Quin and I were still just figuring things out.

“No,” I volunteered so Quin wouldn’t have to. “Just friends.”

“Good friends,” Quin added making me feel tingly.

“How did you two meet?”

“We attend East Tennessee University. He was a brilliant tutor. I was the dumb jock,” I said with a chuckle.

“Yep, my Tom is the brilliant one between us. He’s a doctor. I think it’s important to find someone out of your league,” he said giving me a wink.

I laughed. “Well, Quin here is definitely out of my league.”

“That’s not true,” Quin objected. “You’re out of my league. The star quarterback?”

“Not anymore,” I told our new friend as I pointed at my cast.

“Oh!” He said looking down at it. “I think we also have some crutches around here somewhere. If you need to use them, I’ll get them for you. You can just return them before you leave.”

“Wow! Thanks. I guess it is starting to hurt a little.”

“I’ll go get them,” he said quickly heading to the back of the store.

“He’s so friendly,” I told Quin.

“He really is. Do you think we should stay over?”

“I thought you were saying that we should get back.”