I hung up the phone, setting it on the boat’s dashboard. “That was the body shop. Your car’s done.”
“Okay.” Londyn kept her gaze on the water. “Do we have to go get it now? Or can we stay out here for a while?”
“We can stay.”
We’d stay long enough for me to memorize how she looked today. Her hair was up, twisted in a knot, still wet from our swim. Sunglasses covered her eyes. The only thing she wore was a simple black bikini she’d bought at a local shop today when I’d invited her to spend the afternoon with me on the boat.
She was breathtaking. This was how I’d picture her in the years to come. I’d remember her sitting in that seat, soaking up the sun and stealing my heart with every passing second.
The week had gone by too fast.
That always seemed to be the case when the end drew near.
Mack had texted me earlier in the week, estimating he’d have Londyn’s car done by Friday. Well, Friday was here, and true to his word, it was done. She’d be gone soon, which made my decision to take the day off work even smarter.
I’d called Tony this morning and asked if he could cover the garage. Fridays were typically busy but he’d assured me he’d take care of all the oil changes that rolled in. Worst-case scenario, he’d turn folks away for Monday. One Friday away wasn’t going to sink my business. One missed day with Londyn would eat at me for years.
I’d gone over to her room first thing, before she disappeared on one of her walks around town, and asked her to spend the day with me. We’d gone to breakfast at the diner. We’d found her a swimming suit at Walmart. We’d loaded up on groceries for a picnic lunch. Then we’d headed for the water.
Much like the first time, I’d cruised us around the lake before coming to the middle to float. Then I’d stripped her out of that bikini and made love to her on the floor. We’d cooled off afterward with a swim. I’d just finished toweling off when my phone rang and Mack put a damper on my day.
She was leaving.
Fuck. Was I destined to be alone? Before Moira, there hadn’t been many girls. Just a few high-school flings, forgotten before they’d even begun. Once Moira and I had hooked up, she’d made it known around Summers High that I was off-limits.
Our marriage had been doomed from the start. Moira and I had been opposites in every sense of the word—that old adage was bullshit. Opposites didn’t attract. They annoyed.
After the divorce, after my failed attempts at dating, I’d decided I’d rather be single than with a woman more interested in my parents’ money than me and my simple garage. Sure, I had a nice house and a new boat. I’d earned those things. I’d paid for them by working my ass off.
I had Wyatt. I had my family. I didn’t feel alone.
Until Londyn.
She’d blown into town and made me realize the hole in my life. The hole in the exact shape of a five-foot-five blond woman with jade-green eyes.
Goddamn, I would miss her.
“It’s really beautiful here.” She smiled, casting her gaze at the trees that surrounded the lake. “I don’t know if I’ll ever find another lake as pretty as this one.”
My heart. Replace lake with woman and she’d voiced the thoughts in my mind.
She’d been making comments like that all week, reminding us both she was leaving. How could I forget? The minutes were ticking by too quickly. The nights I spent in her motel room weren’t enough. We still had the weekend, but I needed more.
I wouldn’t get more. I’d asked once.
I wouldn’t ask again.
One no from this woman was enough to crush my hopes for good.
Londyn was leaving. I had no choice but to accept it, appreciate it even.
The longer she stayed, the more I’d keep begging for another day. I’d push for a week, then a month, then a year.
I was hungry for her in a way I’d never be full.
“Want to cruise around?” I asked.
“No.” She turned away from the view and slid her sunglasses off her face. The emerald flecks in her eyes danced bright in the sunlight as she reached for the bikini tie behind her neck.
I grinned. Hungry.
We spent the rest of the afternoon on the lake, exploring the water in between breaks from exploring each other. By late afternoon, the lake was teaming with boats, people out on the water for a few hours before dark to kick off the weekend. Neither Londyn nor I felt like being one in a crowd, so we called it a day.
The boat was tied to the dock and we were in my truck, driving to the garage to check out her car. Mack had done me a favor and brought it over so I didn’t have to pick it up. Tony had texted that it was safely locked inside.
“Feel like dinner on the rock tonight?” Londyn asked.
“Or . . . we could eat at my place. With Wyatt.”
She looked over, her eyebrows rising above her large sunglasses. “You want me to meet your son?”
“Haven’t you already?”
“Well, yes. This is a bit different though, don’t you think?”
“Not really. It’s just you and me eating dinner with a kid who will probably be on his phone the whole time.”
She pushed her sunglasses into her hair and shifted to face me. “Is that smart? I’m leaving on Monday.”
“I know. But Wyatt knows about you. He knows you’re leaving. He’s my favorite person in the world. You’re quickly climbing that list. For once, I’ve got two favorites in the same place. I’m trying to capitalize while I can.”
She gave me a small smile. “I get that. How would you introduce me?”
“As a friend.” Or a girlfriend. My son was no idiot. He knew where I’d been going each night.
Londyn thought it over for a minute, then nodded. “All right. As a friend.”
Girlfriend.
“Pizza?” I steered us into the rear parking lot of the garage where Tony and I normally parked. “Wyatt should be done with football by now. I can text him to pick one up for us.”
“I never say no to pizza.”
I grinned. “Neither do I.”
This thing with us was good—damn good. If Londyn had moved to Summers, this might have become a real thing. She’d only been here for a couple of weeks and it was more real than anything I’d had in a decade.
I needed a woman like her, who loved pizza more than the number on her bathroom scale. A woman who spent time on my boat happy with long periods of time when not a word was spoken. A woman who preferred eating dinner on a rock to a fancy restaurant.
Londyn would be perfect if she weren’t so hell-bent on leaving.
Then again, maybe the reason we clicked so well was because there was a time limit.
Leaving that thought untouched, I got out of the truck, rounding the back to open Londyn’s door. Then I took her hand and walked her into the shop. I inserted my key into the lock, meeting no resistance as I turned.
Fuck. My stomach clenched. This door should have been locked, something Tony would have done before going home. I took a few steps back, glancing around the corner of the building to see if Tony’s truck was still here. Maybe he’d parked alongside the tow rig today, but that space was empty.
“What?” Londyn asked.
“The door’s unlocked.” I went back to the handle, turning it slowly as I poked my head inside. “Hello?”
The shop was pitch black. My voice bounced off the walls but otherwise, the garage was silent. I flicked on a row of lights, stepping inside.
Behind me, Londyn put a hand on my back, the pressure gentle as she followed me down the hallway and into the main room. I flipped on a row of lights, scanning the place.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until Londyn gasped.
“Wha—” I followed her gaze to the Cadillac’s tires.
They were slashed.
I rushed to the car, walking all around it as I inspected it from roof to wheel and bumper to fender. There wasn’t a thing wrong with it except all four tires had been cut, the rubber dangling from the rims.
“Fuck.” I raked a hand through my hair. I should have taken that key from Moira when I’d gone to her house. I’d been impatient to leave. I thought she’d done her worst and I could have Wyatt get it from her later. That mistake was on me.
“Was this—”
“Moira? Yeah,” I clipped. “I’m calling the cops.”
I dug my phone from my pocket, ready to dial the sheriff, but Londyn stopped me with a hand on my arm.
“What if it wasn’t her?”
“Who else could it be?”
She frowned. “My ex.”
“You think?”
“Well, the first time, I would have said no. But Thomas knows I’m here and he’s been trying for months to get me to listen to him. What he wants more than anything is for me to come back to Boston.”
“But wouldn’t we have seen him around town? He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who’d lurk in corners.” Thomas was an arrogant, rich asshole. He’d driven to Summers and found Londyn immediately. He was bold, not a coward who trashed a woman’s car in secret.
“Maybe that investigator he hired did it for him? I don’t know.” Her eyes dropped to the tires and she pressed her fingertips to her temples. “I can’t believe this.”
“Me neither.” I hung my head. “It’s just tires.”
“This is crazy. Totally insane. I feel . . . violated. This is my car. My beautiful car. It doesn’t deserve this.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” I pulled her into my side. “I can fix it. All I have to do is get the tires ordered. It’s past time for a Friday, but I can place the order and they’ll be here on Monday. You just might not be able to leave first thing in the morning.”
“That’s fine,” she muttered, her eyes still locked on the gashes in the rubber. “If your ex is so desperate to get rid of me, why do this? I don’t think it was her. If she had left them alone, I would have been gone already.”
My stomach tightened at the idea of having lost her a week ago. I hated the shit with her car, but I’d gotten time with Londyn we otherwise would have missed.
But it had to be her. This was so damn familiar, it made me sick. When the fuck would Moira grow up?
“She’s got to be worried that you might stay,” I said. “This is her way of trying to run you out of town.”
“Or it’s not her.” Londyn dug the phone from her purse, the one I’d given her. “This feels slimy and devious. A year ago, I wouldn’t have said that was Thomas, but it turns out I didn’t know my husband all that well. I’m going to make a call.”
“Okay.” I kissed her hair. “I’ll leave you alone and go order your tires.”
“Thanks.” Her shoulders fell as she dialed the number.
I disappeared into the office, collapsing into my chair. “Fuck.”
Why was this happening? I could hear Londyn talking, but I didn’t need to know what her ex was going to say. He hadn’t slashed her tires.
This had Moira written all over it.
Why couldn’t she just let me move on? I didn’t wish her to live a lonely life. She didn’t date but I wouldn’t stand in the way if she wanted to. I swiped up the handset of the phone on the desk and punched in her number.
She answered on the first ring. “Hey.”
“Why’d you do it?”
“Hello to you too.”
“She’s leaving, Moira. She’s not a threat. But this whole if I can’t have you, no one can attitude is getting old. Leave her alone. Leave her car alone.”
Silence. One moment later, I got the dial tone.
It wasn’t the first time Moira had hung up on me and it wouldn’t be the last. I set the handset in the cradle and sighed.
Londyn’s voice drifted into the office from the shop, and though I knew I shouldn’t listen in, I did anyway.
“I’m sorry, Thomas.”
That caught my attention. Why was she apologizing? For calling? I sat motionless, my ears searching for more.
“Goodbye.” Londyn let out a groan, then her footsteps shuffled toward the office.
“Not him?” I asked as she leaned against the doorframe.
“Nope. He’s in Boston with Secretary . . . his girlfriend. Or mistress. Whatever she is. Her name is Raylene.”
“He cheated on you?”
She nodded. “With the woman who sat across from my desk. Raylene was his other assistant.”
That hadn’t come up in all our conversations. If I hadn’t asked her earlier this week about being a rebound, I might have doubted her motivation for being with me had I known Thomas was a cheat. But I believed Londyn. Nothing about this felt shallow or distant. She was in this, all in this, just like me.
“Damn.” Now I was really curious why she’d apologized to the asshole.
“She’s pregnant.”
“What?” My jaw fell open. So this guy had cheated on her and gotten her coworker pregnant? I should have hit him when I’d had the chance. “Wow.”
“Pretty much.” She closed her eyes. “Well, she was pregnant. She had a miscarriage. When I called, he was at the hospital with her.”
“Shit.” I leaned my elbows on my knees. “That’s awful.”
“I feel horrible. I don’t like either of them, but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.” She came into the office and sank into the guest chair. “I guess we know that Thomas didn’t have anything to do with my tires. I doubt he would have lied to me, not today.”
“I get why you called to ask, but Londyn, it’s Moira. I called her when I got in here and she didn’t even deny it.”
“Maybe dinner with Wyatt isn’t a good idea.” She gave me a sad smile. “You eat with him tonight. Spend time with your son. Come over to the motel if you want later. And by Monday, Moira will have nothing to be worried about.”
Yeah, she was leaving, but she wasn’t gone yet.
“She doesn’t get to win.” I stood and waved her out of the office. I hadn’t ordered her tires, but I’d call them in later. We were going to eat pizza with my son and hang out at my house. Her motel room was just another reminder that she was leaving, and I’d be damned if I spent another night there when I had a perfectly good bed at my own place. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” she asked as I turned off the light behind her. “Brooks, we don’t need to make this a thing with your ex. She’s crazy. You’re pissed. I’m pissed. But they’re only tires.”
“Tires are expensive. What she did isn’t okay.” I took Londyn’s hand, trapping it in my grip as we walked through the shop to the back door.
She tugged on my arm, slowing my pace. “Normally, I’d say go after her. But not today. I’m leaving Monday and I don’t want this to be a thing. She gets away with it this time.”
I frowned. “I’m calling the cops.”
“And what will they do? Arrest her? Fine her? While we stand here for hours getting questioned for a report? I don’t want to spend my last days in Summers with the cops.”
I didn’t either. But I was done with shit from Moira. She didn’t get to act like a brat and cost me time and money. If she wouldn’t listen to me, maybe the sheriff would have more influence.
“Let’s call it a day.” Londyn squeezed my hand.
No fucking way. “What kind of pizza do you like?”
“Uh . . . I’m not picky but—”
“Wyatt likes pepperoni, sausage, bacon and ham.”
“That’s a lot of meat.”
“He’s a growing boy.” I looked down at her. “You good with that or do you need some veggies on there too?”
“I wouldn’t say no to onion, green pepper and olives. But I don’t need them if he’s picky.”
I was glad to see she was done objecting, not that I was taking no for an answer. “Wyatt will eat anything with cheese and meat on it.”
I pushed through the door, holding it open for Londyn. Then I locked it up, not that it mattered now. Moira had done her damage.
The tires sucked. But I’d deal, like always. I’d make it right. And for tonight, I wasn’t going to let it take away from my time with Londyn. She seemed to be letting it go too. Either she was the most easy-going woman in the world, or she was cherishing this time together too.
We climbed in my truck and I called Wyatt with instructions for pizza. He agreed to pick it up on his way home.
“Should we get something for dessert?” Londyn asked as we pulled away from the shop.
“I’ll make brownies.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You can make brownies? I feel like I’ve been cheated this past week.”
I chuckled. “I’ll make it up to you in my bedroom.”
“Your bedroom? I’m spending the night?”
“Let’s give the motel a rest. What do you say?”
“Is that appropriate if Wyatt is at home?”
I liked that she cared about my son. “He’s sixteen. He knows what I’ve been doing every night this week.”
“Me. You’ve been doing me.”
“That’s right.” I grinned. “Every chance I get.”