Free If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense by Shiloh Walker Page A

you.” She smiled, her lashes low to shield her eyes. “Your own town and you don’t go out there to show your support.”
    “I show my support by coming into town on Mondays and drinking beer, buying hot wings. It’s good for the local merchants.” He grinned and gestured to the menu chalked up over the bar. “Hard to believe, but Leon’s got some of the best wings around here.”
    She wrinkled her nose. “That’s not hard to believe. The only places I’ve seen serving wings are chain joints. Those aren’t good wings.”
    “This being your first night in town, how about I buy you dinner?” He wondered if she had any idea how damned nervous he was, just saying those words. Law didn’t do nervous. Granted, he also hadn’t asked a woman out on a date in … shit. A couple of years? Even then, he didn’t think he’d been
this
nervous. And this wasn’t even a date. He was just being neighborly, right?
    “Dinner.” The faint smirk on her mouth curled into an all-out smile and she glanced down at herself. “I’m not sure if I’m up to dinner at such a classy place. But what the hell. I think I should buy, though. It’s the least I can do.”
    Law opened his mouth to argue. Then he snapped it shut. Hell, she was sitting there next to him. That was what he wanted, right?
    Sitting there … and waiting for him to take offense. “How about this, you get this one … and let me take you out sometime? Assuming you’ll be in town.”
    “I’m not going anywhere,” Nia said.
    For some reason, he wasn’t surprised to hear that.

CHAPTER
SIX
     
    S HE SHOULDN ’ T BE SITTING THERE .
    Nia knew that.
    Not because she wasn’t worried about Law Reilly. She actually worried about Law Reilly a lot, and in a lot of ways.
    She should worry about Law Reilly. She also knew that. Law Reilly was bad for her state of mind—and her hormones. Law Reilly was just plain bad for her. And maybe, later, when she was back in her room and her hormones had cooled off, and her brain had settled and she had a chance to get herself back on course, maybe then she would convince herself that she needed to worry about Law Reilly.
    Worry about things like staying away from him.
    But just then, all she wanted was one night where she didn’t think. Didn’t think about
anything
.
    What was so wrong with that?
    She hadn’t enjoyed a night with a guy in months. Eight months. Not since her cousin died. Hell, longer than that. Before Joely had died, Nia had been so fucking focused on her job, she hadn’t been thinking about anything
but
the job. The few nights she’d had with her lastboyfriend, it had been more about scratching an itch than anything else.
    Empty—her life had been empty and she hadn’t even realized it. Empty, except for her cousin, and now it was too late to tell Joely how much she’d meant to her. Now, with Joely gone, all she wanted was her cousin back. A chance to spend time with her again. To live, to think about things other than a job.
    A chance to watch Joely walk down the aisle. Throw a bachelorette party for her. Take her to the store and watch her do all that goofy bridal shit. Things Nia had dreaded. Now she wanted them more than anything and she couldn’t have them.
    But she could have a nice night with a good-looking guy. She could do something about the raw, empty ache of loneliness in her heart. Nothing was stopping her. Except herself, and she wasn’t going to let that happen either.
    Glancing at Law, she found herself thinking about the girl … Hope. Hope Carson—timid, quiet, that petite, delicate type—the kind a guy would want to rescue. Nia hadn’t ever needed rescuing.
    But she supposed guys might find it appealing—the damsel in distress thing. Law had said she wasn’t his girlfriend. She wanted to ask more about that, but just then, she didn’t care. Well, not true. She did care, but she didn’t want the truth to ruin things. Didn’t want the truth to mess up her night.
    She