Slow Burn (Rabun County Book 1)

by Lisa Clark O'Neill

  “Ah…” So, the claws were coming out. And apparently, gossip really did travel around here. “That, too.” She smiled sweetly, because she’d had enough experience with jerks over the years to know that you should never give them the satisfaction of getting a rise.

  Because there was little left to say that wouldn’t make the situation more awkward, Adeline was debating whether to simply close the door when Sutton’s landline rang.

  “Gotta go. You have a nice day now.”

  Shutting the door with her foot, she sat the pastry box beside her laptop and then eyed the corded receiver before plucking it from the wall. She felt like she was in a rerun of some seventies’ TV sitcom.

  “Brady residence, Marcia speaking.”

  There was silence at the other end. “I’m looking for Adeline Walker?”

  “That’s me,” Adeline said, wincing when she realized it wasn’t Sutton. “Sorry about that. I thought you were… actually, it doesn’t matter. Can I help you?”

  “This is Jerry Marshall at Rabun Automotive. I just had a look at your car.”

  “Oh. Right.” She drew in a breath. She forgot that she’d left a message and given them this number. “How bad is it?”

  “Well, as I’m sure you’re aware, you have significant damage. The front isn’t as bad as I thought, but that passenger side is a doozy. But what I really wanted to ask at the moment is how long you’ve had the oil leak.”

  “Oil leak?”

  “You haven’t noticed any dark puddles or anything under your car where you park it?”

  “No.” Adeline didn’t know much about cars, but she was pretty sure she knew how to recognize that. “Is that what made my engine stall?”

  “I haven’t done a complete diagnostic yet, and I need to get things cleaned up a bit so that I can have a better look at the pan. But if you drive a car with the majority of its engine oil having leaked out of it, that does tend to be what happens.”

  “Wait.” Adeline lifted her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose. “Is that something that can just… occur really quickly, or are you suggesting it’s been leaking for a while and I didn’t realize it. Wouldn’t some sort of warning light come on or something? I mean, it did. My whole dashboard went haywire right before everything stopped working, but if it had been leaking a little at a time, shouldn’t there have been some indication?”

  “Well, to answer your last question first, indeed there should. You’re saying there were no warning lights – that little red symbol that’s shaped like an oil can – until right before your engine stalled?”

  “That’s what I’m saying.” She went over the past few days in her head, trying to remember if there’d been anything out of the ordinary in terms of driving. The weather hadn’t been great, so she’d mostly been staying at the cabin, except for the times she’d ventured into town to do some work.

  And she was sure there’d been no oil leak – not one that was significant, anyway – when she’d left Beckett’s office. She would have noticed it when she reached under the car to grab her pepper spray.

  At least, she was pretty certain she would have. It’d been raining, but not so hard that oily residue wouldn’t have been apparent.

  But then she remembered the crowded grocery store lot. “Wait. I hit a pothole when I was parking at Ingles, right before the accident. It really wasn’t that bad, I don’t think, but is it possible that it somehow damaged the oil pan?”

  “If it were a low-sitting vehicle, I’d be more inclined to say yes. But with an SUV, it’s less likely. Unless it was a heck of a pothole. Of course,” he added before she could comment further “if there was some minor damage that maybe wasn’t allowing for much oil to leak, and you hit a pretty significant pothole, I guess it’s possible that it would be a straw that broke the camel’s back type of deal.”

  Adeline’s head began to hurt. “Mister Marshall –”

  “Jerry.”

  “Jerry… are you trying to get to the bottom of this to satisfy your own curiosity, or because this will make a difference when it comes to insurance?”

  “Well, I can’t speak for your insurance company, and I know the sheriff’s office will be doing their accident investigation and all, but aside from my own professional need to identify what exactly went wrong, I do know that some insurance policies won’t cover what they see as neglect on the part of the car owner to maintain their vehicle.”

  “Such as having an oil leak that they ignore until the engine blows.”

  “That would be an example. Hypothetically speaking.”

  Adeline released a sigh. “I appreciate your honesty. I’m wondering if there’s any way to prove that it wasn’t leaking… the parking lot,” she said, mostly to herself. If there was a puddle of oil where she’d parked, then the damage must have occurred there, after she’d hit the pothole. “I know you just got started, but based on your experience, do you think it’s likely they’ll total the car?”

  “More than likely.”

  She’d expected it, but it still hurt. Her dad had always been the one to take her car shopping, and they’d picked out this one together less than five years ago. Another link severed.

  “Thank you, Jerry. You’ve been very helpful.”

  After she ended the call, Adeline second-guessed her certainty that the car hadn’t been leaking previously. She did tend to be somewhat oblivious, and the brain fog she’d been experiencing of late made it worse. Was it possible she’d missed it?

  Except, there hadn’t been a warning light. There was no getting around that fact. Plus, she remembered dropping her keys when she was leaving Beckett’s office. Surely, she would have noticed the leak when she’d crouched down on the pavement.

  The phone rang again, and she snatched it up, thinking that Jerry must have forgotten something. “Hello again.”

  There was a pause, and then a tentative “Adeline?”

  Adeline struggled to place the voice. “Last time I checked.”

  “It’s Bristol.”

  “Oh.” Feeling like a jerk for not recognizing her only biological relative, she overcompensated by feigning delight. “What a lovely surprise!”

  “Are you okay? Sally informed me that you’d had a car accident.”

  Adeline wasn’t sure why Sally had been talking to Bristol. They’d never particularly gotten along. “I’m fine,” she said. “Mostly. A little sore, but nothing serious.”

  “She said something about icy roads?”

  “Ah… no, those came afterward. I mean, the roads were wet, and the driving conditions weren’t the greatest, but it didn’t drop below freezing until later. My engine failed.”

  “Any idea why?”

  “I actually just got off the phone with the mechanic who is working on it, and he said I had a catastrophic oil leak. He’s trying to figure out how that happened. The current working theory is some sort of minor crack or hole in the whaddayacallit – the pan – exacerbated by me hitting a pothole.”

  “Do you need any help getting a car? Although I would assume your insurance company is providing a rental.”

  “They are, although I don’t have it yet. The roads were bad over the weekend, so I told them not to bother. I’m probably going to get one tomorrow.”

  He was quiet for a beat. “Sally said you’re staying in town.”

  “I am.” She didn’t provide any further details. It seemed awkward telling her uncle that she was essentially shacking up, even if it was temporary. And no actual shacking had happened.

  Yet.

  “Well. I’m sorry you’re having a rough go of it. Certainly not getting the best impression of Clayton, are you?”

  She thought of the sun hitting the multicolored hillsides, of the snow flurries falling past the streetlamp outside the window. Of Sutton. “It’s had its moments.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. I have to get going, but if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to call.”

  “Will do. Thanks for checki
ng up on me.”

  Adeline hung up the phone for the second time, catching the cord on the edge of her sling and almost pulling it back off the hook again. Growing irritated by the hindrance, she undid the buckle holding the strap and tossed it onto the stool. Giving her arm a tentative stretch, she realized that it really was beginning to feel better. She could admit that she probably should have been wearing one after her initial accident, but Sally wasn’t wrong in pointing out that mule-headedness seemed to be one of her defining character traits. Her grandma used to like to say that she inherited it honestly. Her grandfather had been a brick wall when he wanted to be.

  “Crap,” she said out loud. Thinking of her grandparents reminded her of the growth chart. She should have mentioned it to Bristol.

  Hearing a sound outside the door, Adeline was half-afraid that Shari-Shannon-Succubus had returned, but then she heard Sutton’s voice. She dashed – as much as it was possible – to the refrigerator, and yanked open the door. Then she reached across and grabbed the pie from the counter, sliding it inside and allowing the door to fall closed. She’d almost made it back to the barstool by the time Sutton opened the door.

  “Oh!” She jumped, spreading her hand over her heart. “You startled me.” Which was true enough.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, putting his phone in his pocket as he closed the door behind him. “I forgot about…” he tapped his left ear. “I should have texted you to let you know I was on my way.”

  “Oh. No. Please do not feel like you have to make any special sort of accommodation. Please,” she emphasized, when it looked like he wanted to debate. She’d learned to adapt pretty well, and she did have a hearing aid for situations where it was imperative that she not miss anything, but she didn’t like to feel like anyone was catering to her disability. It was stubborn of her, but she didn’t much care. She might be a grown woman, but that defiant, angry seven-year-old still lurked somewhere inside her.

  “How was your meeting?” she asked, to change the subject.

  “Good. Really good. Helena has a ton of experience in the business end of things – which I am sorely lacking – and I think we’re going to be a good fit. Um, I’m sorry, but I just have to…”

  Striding toward her, he slid his hand into her hair and kissed her with feeling. Her head began to swim, the taste of him flooding her bloodstream like a potent hallucinogenic. When he lifted his mouth away from hers, Adeline had to brace her hand against his chest in order to keep her balance.

  “It’s the sweatshirt,” he said. “Something about seeing you in my clothes is a huge turn-on.”

  When she was sure she wasn’t going to fall over, she glanced down. “I look like I’m wearing a tent.”

  “You look edible.”

  “Well, then.” Since she was there, she took the opportunity to run her hand over his chest. Despite the thick thermal he wore she could feel the delicious solidity of muscle. She’d been admiring that muscle up close and personal for two whole days now, and it was becoming more and more difficult not to simply jump him and have her way with all his manly parts. “Maybe we should just forget about picking up my stuff, and test out that theory.”

  Sutton made a noise that sounded like he was being strangled. “Not until I’m not afraid of breaking you.”

  “I’m fine,” she insisted. “See?”

  She brought her sling-less arm up between them, albeit with caution, and slid her fingers beneath the unbuttoned V on his shirt. The hair there was surprisingly soft, and she delighted herself by playing with it.

  “Damn you.” He kissed her again, before pointedly stepping backward. “We need to go get your things before the sun goes down and the temperature drops again. The roads are okay now, but they’re going to refreeze. I want to be back here before that happens.” His gaze drifted down, and then back up. “And if you really are feeling better, I want to be able to take my time.”

  Every hormone she had ignited into a giant ball of burning lust.

  “Well, now we have to go,” she said, amazed that the words hadn’t emerged like a stream of flame “because I need a new pair of panties.”

  Grabbing her purse from the back of the stool, she breezed past him and toward the door. “Are you coming?”

  “Almost,” he shot back, and Adeline couldn’t help but laugh. That deep-down woman that she was uncovering was going to be a hell of a lot of fun.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  THE drive leading down to the fish camp was bumpier than normal, the heavy rains they’d had the other night having washed away more gravel. Adeline leaned toward the window, frowning at the road.

  “That’s the problem with sloped, unpaved driveways,” Sutton said. “My parents finally bit the bullet and paved theirs right around the time Ethan started driving, but I remember feeling like we were bouncing down a conveyer belt every time we had a storm.”

  “Did it ever damage their cars?”

  “I don’t know, actually. I’m afraid I didn’t pay that much attention to that sort of thing as a kid. I remember Dad bitching about the suspension sometimes, but I don’t know if it was because there was damage or because he was afraid there would be.” He looked over. “Any particular reason you’re wondering?”

  She sat back in her seat. “Jerry from the automotive repair place called, and he’s started assessing the damage to my car. He said there was a leak – a pretty catastrophic one, I guess – in my oil pan, and he asked how long I’ve had it.” She bit her lip. “I told him I would have noticed something like that, and blamed it on the pothole I hit in the Ingles parking lot. But now I’m wondering if maybe I actually did the damage here earlier and just wasn’t aware.”

  “Did your oil light come on?” he asked as he pulled up in front of the cabin.

  “No. And that’s the thing. Jerry said I could have had a minor leak, though, that could have gotten worse when I hit the pothole? I didn’t think it was that bad honestly, but something obviously happened, or my engine wouldn’t have stalled like it did. I was thinking about going back to the lot to see if there was like a big pool of oil where I was parked. I wouldn’t care that much except for the fact that it might affect my insurance if they claim I neglected to maintain my car.”

  “We can stop by there on the way back and have a look. I wonder if there was a short in the wire that controls the warning light.”

  “That could be true, too. I guess he’d be able to tell that?” She shrugged. “I know next to nothing about cars, but at least Jerry seemed like he was on my side.”

  “That makes two of us. Being on your side, that is.”

  She leaned over the center console to kiss his cheek before opening her door.

  “It’s supposed to warm back up tomorrow,” Sutton said as they were climbing the stairs to the porch. “If you’re feeling up to it, we can go get you a new phone and see about the loaner car. I know you have to be getting anxious.”

  “I hate that you have to keep spending all this time helping me, when I know you’ve got a clinic you’re trying to get open.”

  “You’re just as important to me as the clinic.”

  Keys dangling in the open front door, Adeline turned around. “That’s your career, Sutton.”

  “It’s a new career, albeit the one I originally planned on. I went into epidemiology after… after Eliza, because I wanted to honor her memory. I had this thought toward figuring ways to prevent future zoonotic outbreaks in the animals she loved. Just like by volunteering as a firefighter, I hoped to help prevent others from experiencing the pain I went through. But time does change things,” he said. “I realized that I had to start living to make myself happy, rather than trying to atone for things that were out of my hands. And you’re the first woman I’ve felt this way about since I lost her.”

  For an awful moment, he thought she might cry.

  “Oh,” she finally said, stretching up to kiss him with great enthusiasm. “You are so getting lucky tonight.”

  Sutt
on smiled as he kissed her back, sliding from tenderness to amusement to lust in the blink of an eye. Being involved with Adeline was sort of like being caught in a pinball machine. He hadn’t yet figured out how to predict which way she would bounce from one minute to the next, but the uncertainty of it was part of the fun. It kept him from being too rigid.

  Or maybe not, he considered, realizing that if he didn’t stop touching her, his rigidity might make an appearance right there in the open doorway. Restraining his baser urges, Sutton braced his hands on her hips, and forced himself to step backwards.

  “Oh my God,” Adeline said, her breath emerging in a cloud. “I’d forgotten how freaking cold it is in here when the wood stove isn’t going.”

  Sutton started to comment on her thin Florida blood, when he realized it really was freezing. Maybe literally. “Is the heat even on?”

  “I cranked it, but it does absolutely no good.” She began walking toward the wall unit, which resembled the sort of thing you’d see in a motel. “I think there’s something wrong with it. I was going to call the caretaker or property manager or whatever you call him the other day, but… well, you know what happened.” She frowned, and pressed her fingers against the left side of her head as she looked around. “Is my ear being wonky, or do you hear a weird noise?”

  Sutton had been in the process of closing the door behind them and hadn’t noticed until that moment. He frowned. “Sounds like a busted pipe.”

  Striding toward the kitchen, he looked for signs of water leakage around the sink. Not finding any, he pushed open the door to the bathroom. As it was an addition, it sat a little lower than the rest of the cabin. It was also standing with water.

  Adeline gasped as she came up beside him. “Oh… shit.” She covered her mouth with her hands, staring at the room in disbelief.

  “Any idea where the main water shutoff valve might be?”

  “I don’t even know what that is.”

  “I’ll go look.”

  Assuming that it was either under the kitchen sink or by the hot water heater, he went with his first thought since he knew where that was located. Luckily, he guessed correctly. He turned the valve, and after a few moments the hissing sound began to slow.