Page 37 of The Moment He Couldn’t Walk Away

“Hey, just because my life imploded doesn’t mean I’m not there for you. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Nothing. I’m good. It just gets a bit much sometimes. It’s not until you’re deep in the middle of it that you realize maybe you are a small-town boy at heart, you know?” Lynx said.

“By ‘it,’ I guess you mean playing on stage with thousands of adoring fans all wanting a piece of you—literally?”

“Sounds like hell, doesn’t it?” Lynx shot him a smile. “Sometimes I just get a bit burned out, but I’m okay, bro, really.”

“I need you to tell me if you’re not, Lynx. Promise me.”

“Promise,” Lynx said. Then, changing the subject, he asked, “How are you feeling after working on the coffee hut extension?”

“Okay. It feels good to be doing something, even if I could do without the advice.”

Lynx laughed.

Then Finch told his brother about what he’d thought he’d seen at Nina’s house.

“Do you think you imagined it, Finch?”

“I don’t know, and with what’s been going on in my head since the accident, it’s possible.”

“Are you okay?”

Finch shot his brother a look. “I’m sitting here wearing clothes I haven’t worn in forever. Don’t I look okay?”

“Hard to say because you haven’t been okay for a while.”

“I’m doing all right, Lynx. I promise. But I do have one concern.”

“What?” Lynx started drumming his hands on the dash like he’d done since he was a kid. The man was constantly humming or tapping out a tune.

“Red did me a favor, and now I have to work girls’ night at the Rollaway.”

His brother was still laughing as Finch pulled into the Circle Left parking lot.

“Really? That’s brilliant, and now I have to find a way to get in there and see you. Are you going to tell Dan or his uncle what you thought you saw at Nina’s?” Lynx asked before getting out of the pickup.

“I should. After all, she had those break-ins.”

“True, and I agree. Now brace yourself because most of the town will be here,” Lynx said as Finch joined him.

“I’m bracing,” he said, looking at the building. “I guess Nina’s mom left her the money to buy this place,” Finch added. “I think she’ll do well here. She’s a people person and a local.”

“Yeah. It’ll be an adjustment not having Nancy and Hank around, but you’re right, at least she’s a local. Did you know Nina’s mother well?” Lynx asked.

“Not really. She came around a few times when we were younger, when Nina was on a playdate with Birdie or Blue, but I’ve been out of town so long, I saw little of her in the past few years.”

Lynx nodded.

“Mom said she had to go into a home a few years ago now,” Finch added.

“That had to be hard on her only child.”

“And then some.”

They went inside then and joined the other guests, who were all dressed in subdued colors and here for Nina and her late mother.

People greeted the McAllister brothers with smiles and questions about what Lynx was up to now and how Finch was feeling.