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"I know. I appreciate you," I assured him, giving him a quick smile. "I'm just distracted today."

"Not to pry, but is something going on at home? I noticed you didn't bring Rom today." He glanced at the big bed where my dog usually slept while I worked.

"I… I think there was a fox or something snooping around last night. I left Rom on guard duty in case it comes back around while I'm gone. I don't want it to get to the chickens."

I don't know why I was lying to my only friend. I knew I could trust Lain. He knew almost everything that'd happened between me and Aaron, and he'd been there for me when everything fell apart, cementing his place as my best friend. He'd literally saved my life. If I told him not to tell anyone about whatever was at my house, he'd carry the secret to his grave.

Maybe I was just being selfish. As unsettling and downright strange as it'd been, it had also been special. Different. A change in the unchanging monotony I'd turned my life into. I wasn't ready to share it with anyone yet, not even my best friend.

"That makes sense," Lain nodded, unaware of my inner turmoil. "One of the weirdest things to get used to when I moved here was how casually you all talk about wild animals being so close. You know it's not normal to see bears out your back window, right?"

"It is here. One of the best things about living in a small town like this is that you're surrounded by nature."

"I thought the best thing about small-town living was the gossip. Everyone knows everything about everyone."

"That's the biggest downside for me." I shuddered at the thought of everyone knowing my business. It'd taken a real effort on Aaron's part to keep everything that had happened with my relationship out of the gossip circles. I'm sure some rumors had made the rounds, but not enough to feed the morbid curiosity of the town.

"It's fun as long as we're not the ones at the center of the rumors," Lain said with a little laugh. "Mrs. Sharper may have a hellhound disguised as a toy poodle for a pet, but she has all the best stories. When she picked up Piddles the other day, she was telling me that there've been some strangers seen around town."

"Was that in between her complaining and making you try to trim her dog's face closer?" I'd left before Lain that day like I usually did, since he preferred to work later, so I'd missed the interaction.

"Yeah, she tried to hold him so I could trim his muzzle, but finally admitted defeat after he bit her, too." There was a bit of vindictive triumph in Lain's grin when he said it. "But the point is, how else would I know about stuff like that if it weren't for the gossip?"

"Stuff like what?" I trimmed the last stray hairs on Winston's ears, spritzed him with cologne, then put him down to play while I texted his mom, my mind already across town at the tree line of my house.

"About the strangers in town!" Lain huffed. "She said her best friend's husband saw four men in one car come to town late last week. Rumor has it they rented out two rooms at the Castaway Motel."

"They'd have to get rooms there if they're visiting or something. It's the only hotel in town," I reminded him, and he huffed again.

"That's not the point, Quinn."

"What's the point, then?"

"You don't think it's weird that four guys no one has ever seen before are staying in town and no one knows them? Who comes to Lowery's Crossing without knowing anyone in town?"

I raised an eyebrow, finally looking up from my phone. "You did."

"Yes, but I'm always the exception to every rule." He flashed me a cocky grin, brandishing his brush like it was a hand fan and he was performing on a stage.

"You're certainly something."

Lain stuck his tongue out at me, like the mature, responsible adult he claimed to be.

With Winston's owner notified, I immediately got to work on sanitizing my equipment and cleaning up. I usually took my time at the end of the day, but today I was eager to get home.

"Quinn, come on. You're not even a little bit curious?"

I couldn't admit to him that I'd already completely forgotten we were talking about the four strangers. My mind focused solely on one specific stranger.

"No. Really," I added when he gave me a skeptical look. "More likely than not, they're just tourists heading to the mountains or passing by on the way to the coast who stopped to take a break from driving."

"A break that lasts four days and counting?"

I shrugged. "The Crossing is a nice little town. Maybe they tried Camille's brownies and decided to stay a little longer."

"You are the least fun person ever to gossip with," he sighed in defeat.

"To me, they're just four more people I don't want to talk to. You could always join Mrs. Sharper's euchre club and get the gossip directly from them." Not only was she the worst gossip in town, but she'd rounded up a few of her friends to ostensibly play cards once a week, but really they just traded information. They were notorious around town and rather proud of it.