Page 18 of Ghost

“Protection,” I say with exaggerated air quotes. “Which is funny, because the only thing they looked capable of protecting was a bad haircut.”

That actually gets a quiet breath of laughter out of him.

Score one for me.

He leans back slightly on the stool, studying me again with that calm, assessing look. “You weren’t scared.”

I snort. “Of those guys? Please.”

He raises an eyebrow. “You followed a fight into a dark parking lot.”

“Curiosity,” I say again, taking another sip of my drink.

Then I gesture loosely at him. “And also I wanted to see if the quiet guy in the corner was actually as scary as he looked.”

“And?”

I grin. “Still deciding.”

That earns me another one of those almost-smiles. Then he tilts his head slightly, like he’s shifting the conversation. “You live around here?”

“Outside town,” I say. “Little farmhouse. Technically falling apart, but it’s mine.”

“Just you?”

I shake my head. “God no.”

His brow furrows slightly.

I take a sip of my beer. “Animals,” I explain. “A lot of them.”

“How many is a lot?”

I grin. “Well… if we’re counting the goats, three dogs, two cats, a one-eyed donkey, and a rooster that thinks he’s the mayor…” I shrug. “Enough that my grocery bill is offensive.”

He studies me for a second like he’s trying to decide if I’m serious. “You run a farm.”

“I run a rescue zoo with bad management skills.”

Cole stares at me for a second like he’s waiting for the punchline. When it doesn’t come, his eyebrows lift slightly.

“That’s a fuckload of animals.”

I grin immediately because the way he says it is so serious it almost sounds like he’s assessing a military situation.

“First of all,” I say, holding up a finger, “language. Some of those animals are very sensitive.”

His mouth twitches again, that almost-smile he keeps trying to hide.

“And second,” I add, leaning forward on the bar a little, “they’re rescues. Most of them showed up half starved or dumped on the side of the road. I just… kept them.”

“You kept them,” he repeats slowly.

“Yeah.”

He glances down at his beer for a second before looking back up at me again, like he’s replaying that sentence in his head.

“You know most people would stop after the first three.”