Wanda stared at the girl across from her with something akin to confusion and delusion. Brent's jaw hung open in shock at the sight of the girl's hands latched onto Hank's arms.
"Well?" Hank asked, taking his cap off of his head and grinning broadly.
"I- What?" Wanda's head snapped to Hank. "How?"
The girl, or rather woman just stuck one of her hands out to shake Brent's hand. Her face was soft and kind, brown eyes crinkling up around the corners, while her auburn hair fell softly across her shoulders. "Hi," she said brightly. "I'm Lyn."
Brent shook her hand in an absent-minded way. Meanwhile Wanda just looked back at Lyn and screwed her face up, echoing her words. "How?"
Lyn giggled lightly and shrugged. No one from Dog River, especially Wanda, expected Hank to get a girlfriend anytime soon. Definitely not after the Heather thing either. But by some miracle, or maybe curse, it had happened.
And when Lacey walked over to Hank and Lyn, a strained smile on her face, shoulders raising slightly. "Hi, Hank." Lacey's voice came out fight pitched, laced with something between pity and worry.
Hank sniffed lightly and swiped his right hand under his nose as he turned to Lacey. "Oh hey, Lace. Have you met Lyn yet?"
Lacey turned to Lyn, the smile becoming warm at that moment, she stopped dead in her tracks. What was she seeing? It couldn't be possible. She put on a smile and tentatively became less terse. She stuck out her hand and glanced quickly up at Brent who was keeping Wanda from attacking Hank across the counter. "Hi, I'm Lacey."
Lyn shook her hand and clapped her hands together after the greeting. She rocked back on her heels a bit and tilted her head. "I'm Lyn."
"I haven't seen you around before, are you new?"
Lyn chewed on her bottom lip before nodding. "Yeah..." she drawled out. "I just came from Alberta."
Lacey's lips twisted into another tense smile while Brent's mouth formed an 'o' shape. Suddenly it all made sense. An Alberta girl. She could keep up with Hank, deal with him, and probably shared things in common with him. After all, Albertans were generally country folk, right?
Lacey opened her mouth to say something but Brent cut her off. "What drew you to Dog River?"
Lyn scratched the back of her neck a bit and looked up at the ceiling. Should she tell the whole truth or just parts of it? She took a deep breath and gave a nervous laugh. "My best friend moved out here after we graduated and the last time I was out in Saskatchewan, I met this guy named Davis at a retreat I was dragged too by my friend. We became quick friends and he told me to come to Dog River the next time I was out here. Of course, before I could get a chance to really plan anything I met Hank and well, you can guess what happened from there."
"You know Davis?"
"Yeah. Do you?" The group nodded and Lyn smiled. "That's great!" Lyn then looked over at Hank before moving her gaze to the door behind him. She turned back to Lacey, Brent and Wanda and waved. "It was nice meeting you all, but I have to go meet my friend."
As she left, the last thing she heard was Wanda yell "Hank?"