“He’s the handyman. He can fix anything. Cars, plumbing, heaters. He can do it all, and I can fix him a martini afterward,” Van said with a grin. “Now tell me about Ty because I do know him and I don’t think he considers himself your brother.”
Ty worked at the resort during the tourist season. He was a certified EMT and was used to providing backup to the nurse on site. During the summers when he wasn’t on call with Bliss’s only ambulance, he guided nature tours with River’s company. He’d been her friend since that first day their moms had put them on a bus to kindergarten. It had been the three of them. River and Ty and Lucy. They’d stuck together because they’d always been those weird kids. “Cousin, then. The three of us all grew up together. Technically we’re from Creede, which is north of here, but we didn’t live in town. We were all on larger tracts of land. Well, River and Ty were. My dad inherited his dad’s whole two acres, and we lived there in a couple of trailers. River’s house was nicer. Ty’s was the nicest though because Ty’s mom loved to cook, and she never thought twice about feeding the grubby kids who came home with her son.”
“That’s cool, but you have to know that dude is totally into you.”
Everyone got confused by that. She and Ty hung out a lot, but there had never been anything between them. Oh, there had been that time in high school that she’d asked him out and made a complete idiot of herself because she’d thought it was a date and he hadn’t liked her that way. But he’d been super nice about it. He’d gone away to college, and she’d found a boyfriend. That had been a truly heartbreaking relationship, and Ty and River had helped her through it. “Like I said, we were childhood friends, and now we’ve been around each other so long, we can’t imagine life without the other. That’s why we’re so happy to have River coming home. It was a rough year. I worried about her.”
Van’s raised brows told her he didn’t buy what she was selling. “Okay. Maybe I’m reading that all wrong. I’m still getting the lay of the land down here in town. So is it the crazy mountain guy you’re into?”
“He’s not crazy.” She hated it when people said Michael was crazy.
“He lives in a cabin without indoor plumbing and he’s got the cra…uhm, he has a strange look to his eyes that can make one think he’s perhaps attempting to intimidate those around him.” Van proved he could be tactful. Sort of.
Michael didn’t have crazy eyes. He had perfectly lovely eyes, and the fact that they’d seen some pain didn’t mean they were a reflection of insanity. “He’s been through a lot. I’m not sure how much you know, but it’s a long story.”
“His fiancée tried to kill the person they were supposed to protect. She drugged him and Holly Lang shot her in the parking lot of the Movie Motel,” Van surmised.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t such a long story. “Yes, and that traumatized him.”
“I could be really fucking traumatized and still want a functional toilet.”
She frowned his way. She wasn’t about to let the man know she actually agreed with him. Michael had seemingly gotten something from living in that ramshackle cabin on the mountain. “He’s getting better. Earlier this year, he did that job taking care of Nell and he didn’t even shoot anyone.”
Van held up his hands, obviously ceding the fight. “I’m sure that means he’s all healed and ready to date.”
Lucy sighed. “No. He’s not. At least he’s not ready to date me. A while back he spent time with me at the Fall Festival and I asked him if he wanted to go to the town hall meeting with me and he said no.”
“You asked the man on a date to the town hall meeting?” Van asked.
“Oh, yes. It’s actually a very popular date night activity here in Bliss,” Lucy explained. “He would have had fun if he’d gone with me. That particular town hall featured a debate between Nell and Mel on who is more at fault for climate change—humans or aliens. It included Nell’s interpretive dance and Mel’s PowerPoint presentation on alien mating seasons coinciding with increased methane production.”
Van grinned. “Oh, I will definitely be attending the next one. So you couldn’t tempt that guy to go?”
She’d wanted to shut herself away after he’d turned her down. “No. He doesn’t do a lot of town activities. He’s shown up a couple of times here at Trio.”
“I heard Zane talking about how he’s been here most nights when you work but he doesn’t drink much. He eats dinner and waits until close and then walks you to your car.”