Judging by Lily’s acceptance, he had guessed right.
The office attached to the garage bays was a mess. Worse than a mess. Besides the scattered toys and stuffed animals on the floor beside the desk, courtesy of Eden, who looked about as delighted as any child could despite obviously forgetting which toy Jason had sent her in there to find, the entire room was chaotic organization. And Jason only allowed himself to call it that because, in spite of the work orders and invoices piled high on his desk in towering piles and the whirlwind of random auto parts and leftover coffee cups and Post-it notes that clung to every surface, he knew where everything was, what was going on within the walls of his business, and where to turn if he needed answers about something.
He wished things were that easy when it came to Lily Brentwood. He had felt it the moment he pulled his pickup truck up behind her car the night before. Even on the side of the road in the middle of the night, Jason could sense the urgency thrumming through the woman’s veins, the vibrancy that lit a fire inside her and propelled her forward toward her goal. He felt just as strongly the disappointment she harbored that her plans weren’t working out as she had expected. Disappointment in the situation, and in herself. Maybe that’s why part of him wanted to help the woman and her daughter get through this fiasco, even when he knew he should stay out of it. Nothing good ever came from blaming oneself for things beyond their control.
Take your own advice, he silently chastised as he placed a new filter in the coffeemaker and set it up to brew. Just as quickly as the thought entered his mind, Jason pushed it away. This wasn’t about him. It was about a woman and her daughter getting where they needed to go, nothing more.
‘Do you want to tell me what’s in Chicago that you’re so eager to get to?’ Jason phrased the question carefully, giving Lily the opportunity to shut him down with a simple no. He was just as cautious in his tone, maintaining nonchalance. This didn’t need to sound like an interrogation, and he didn’t need to know the answer. Even if he was wholeheartedly curious.
Lily took a seat on one of the vinyl chairs near the door. They were rarely used, since customers usually called ahead to see if their vehicle was ready to go instead of waiting around for it, but they were the same battered chairs that had sat in this room when Forrester’s Auto was once Robinson’s Auto. When the Robinsons sold the business to him, he kept them in the same spot they had been when he was a kid. Both chairs were ripped and worn, but they were a reminder of days gone by. Jason hadn’t known he was a sucker for nostalgia until he had tried to replace them.
‘Not much, actually.’
The sardonic scoff that accompanied Lily’s words forced Jason to turn around. ‘What do you mean?’ Whatever he had expected her to say, it wasn’t that.
‘I made a mistake,’ she sighed. ‘I thought I was taking the bull by the horns and being spontaneous and …’ She shook her head. ‘Instead, all I was being was stupid and irresponsible.’
Jason listened to the coffeemaker sputter for a second, trying to catch up. ‘I’m not sure I follow, Lily. Start from the beginning, maybe?’
‘The beginning.’ She chuckled under her breath, but there was no humor in it. ‘I’m not even sure where that is.’
Defeat emanated from the woman in waves, floating across the room and twisting Jason’s insides. ‘You were headed to Chicago,’ he tried again. ‘From where?’
‘Sherman.’
Nodding, he mentally calculated that she had made approximately half the trip before her car decided to stop running. ‘That’s where you’re from, then.’
Lily shrugged as though there was no escaping that fact. ‘Born and raised.’
Jason didn’t wait for the coffee to be finished brewing. He pulled two mugs from the shelf underneath the wheeled cart that housed the makeshift coffee bar and filled them, adding a generous dollop of hazelnut creamer—his favorite—to both. It would be stronger than he usually made it, but he had a sinking suspicion he might need it.
‘So, you’re a small-town girl, too.’ He meant it as a compliment. Jason passed the mug to her and Lily inhaled the scent of it. She didn’t try to hide her scowl.
‘I guess I am.’
Adding the creamer had been an act of habit. ‘Not a fan of that fact, or is it the hazelnut creamer?’ He didn’t want to sound argumentative, but she wasn’t giving him much to go on. He needed to get beyond her one-word answers and find out something that wasn’t trivial.
Lily took a sip of her coffee, savored it, then continued. ‘The creamer is perfect, thank you. And I never said I wasn’t a fan of my hometown. I just … it was time for a change.’
‘And Chicago was that change.’ He realized his mistake as soon as he said it. ‘Is that change.’
‘That was the plan.’
Jason cast a glance through the open door into the garage bays, but Branch didn’t seem to be paying them any mind. Jason knew him better than that, though. They had been best friends since they were kids. Just because it seemed like Branch Sterling wasn’t paying attention, that didn’t mean he wasn’t hanging on their every word.
Eden didn’t seem to be paying much mind to their conversation, either—she beamed at Lily a few times, showing off a plastic fire truck or a furry elephant toy before diving back into the tote to unearth more treasures—so Jason took the plunge and continued.
‘Mind if I ask what the plan was?’
Everything about the woman tightened immediately. Her features seemed to draw in on themselves, her shoulders tensing as her spine grew rigid as a fencepost. Watching her steel herself against his intrusion of privacy, Jason didn’t think she would answer. After a long, deeply silent pause, she surprised him.
‘We’re starting over, me and Eden.’ Lily’s throat moved, and she looked anywhere but at him directly. ‘Enough was enough, so we were getting out of Sherman. I saved up as much as I could, packed up what we needed, and got rid of what we didn’t. Then, we left. I had a job waiting for me on Monday.’ She winced. ‘Have a job waiting for me.’
Jason nodded, though it created more questions than answers. ‘Why Chicago?’
‘Because I applied for a handful of jobs there that I wanted, took a job for now that I needed, and was hoping to live in a place that allowed for more room to grow—to live—than my hometown did.’
He was pretty sure it was the most honest thing she had said to him yet. However, Jason was also confident that her ideas of how quickly and easily she was going to start over in the big city were a little on the idealistic side. Or, more accurately, the naïve side. ‘So, you have an apartment you’re waiting to get into?’
‘Not exactly.’ She offered him a fleeting glance. ‘I booked a cheap hotel for two weeks to give myself time to find one. There were lots available to rent in the newspaper and online, and I’ve spoken to a realtor about some showings, but I didn’t want to commit to one until I’d seen it firsthand.’
‘You really meant it when you said you were getting out of Sherman, huh?’
He heard her words echo in his mind. Enough was enough. There was more to it, he was sure of it.
‘I wanted out,’ she said simply. ‘So much so that I made a slightly impulsive decision for the first time in my life, and it led me here.’
‘Well, that part ain’t so bad, is it?’ Jason ducked his head to meet her gaze, hoping for a ghost of a smile. ‘There are worse things than being stuck in Port Landon.’
‘I’m broke and homeless,’ she stated, staring at him as though she couldn’t understand through which lens he was looking at her situation. ‘My car died, and it’s going to be days until I can get my money back from the hotel, if they refund me at all. I’ve got a job that I’m supposed to be starting on Monday, and a daycare spot that Eden’s supposed to be attending. I’m not seeing the upside to all this, Jason.’
‘You made an impulsive decision—your words, not mine.’ He held up his hands in mock surrender. ‘And didn’t plan for all the curveballs the uni
verse could throw at you. There’s no shame in that. You’re not the first person to act on impulse and have it not work out as planned, and you certainly won’t be the last. The upside is that your car broke down here, in a town where folks know what it’s like to make mistakes. We won’t hold it against you.’ He flashed her a grin, hoping to lighten the mood. ‘Not to mention, I just happen to know how to fix your car, and Nancy just happens to be good friends with my mother. She’s not going to kick you out, Lily.’
‘I don’t expect anybody to help me out for free.’
‘Good, because that’s not what anybody’s doing,’ he reasoned. ‘Around here, people like to help other people out of the goodness of their own hearts, but I’ve got a funny feeling you don’t expect that, either.’
Lily worried her bottom lip, obviously weighing her response carefully. ‘I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, I just don’t want to put anyone out. I don’t need anyone’s charity—’
‘It’s not charity,’ he interjected. ‘You said you’d pay me for the tow call and Nancy for the room. Maybe once you appeal the hotel’s refund policy and deal with the things that are waiting for you in Chicago, things won’t seem as bad as you think they are. That said, you’ve got no one else you want to call.’ He phrased it that way because her current fighting arguments were making him think there might be someone she could call, but no one she would. ‘So, the best I can do for you is fix your car whenever you’re ready for me to do it, and make sure you guys have a place to stay while I do it. If you’ve got a better idea, I’m all ears.’
Lily opened her mouth, no doubt to maintain her independence once more, but she was cut off by a shrill cheer from the other side of the desk.
‘Found it!’ Eden scrambled to her feet and raced toward Jason, a metal diecast car clutched in her hands. She had finally remembered her original task. ‘The car!’
Setting his coffee down beside the coffeemaker, Jason crouched down to meet the little girl eye to eye. Gone was her initial shyness, replaced by an exuberance that simmered at the surface, reminding him of a pot about to reaching its boiling point. ‘That’s the one! Does it look familiar?’
Eden stood before him, her face contorted in confusion and thought. He had to raise a hand to cover the amusement on his face. She was so expressive, so alive with wonder. It was what he loved most about Carlie at this age, too. Eden shook her head vehemently. ‘No, it’s yours!’
Jason reached out and let his fingertips trail along the top of the classic car model. It wasn’t meant to be a child’s toy per se, but Carlie got a kick out of it, so he had let her keep it in the toy bin. He expected Eden would find some joy in it, too, once she realized what it was. So would Lily.
‘How about we show your mama? See if she recognizes it.’
Eden scurried across the floor to her mother, arms outstretched to show off her prize. ‘See it?’
Lily smiled at her daughter, holding the squirming child at bay as Eden held the car up in front of her eyes.
‘I see it,’ she assured her, ‘But I’m not sure I understand why Jason had you go get it, baby.’ Her gaze flicked to him in silent askance.
‘Because I want you to hold on to it for me for a bit.’
‘Why?’ She didn’t take the car from Eden, and Jason doubted the little girl would let go of it if she tried. But she stared at it, searching for whatever made it so important.
Jason pointed casually at the toy. ‘That is a replica of a 1974 Panther de Ville Saloon,’ he replied. ‘Cruella’s car in the cartoon movie, 101 Dalmatians. My daughter adores that movie.’
Now, Lily was staring at the car intently, as though it might do tricks at any moment. ‘Then why do you want me to hold on to it for you?’ she asked, bemused.
Jason shrugged. ‘I want to trade my Cruella for yours.’ He was enjoying this, seeing the realization dawn on her face that it was an awfully intriguing coincidence that she broke down there and ended up on his proverbial doorstep, quite possibly the only place in the world where someone else harbored a beloved car named Cruella, albeit for different reasons. ‘Temporarily,’ he added. ‘While I fix yours, while you stay at Nancy’s, and while we wait to see what happens with your hotel refund. Can we at least agree on that much?’
He could see how much it pained her to have to consider his offer. Jason respected her independence, and her will to stand on her own two feet. Hell, he admired it. But even the strongest folks needed a little help sometimes, and what made them stronger was knowing when to ask for it. He didn’t know much about her, and his gut told him she had been let down enough in life that she found it hard to know when to accept generosity.
But Jason knew himself better than anyone. No matter what, he was a man of his word. He could at least show her that not everyone was an impending disappointment to be avoided, before she went on her merry way toward the city.
Lily gingerly touched the front fender of the model car. ‘Agreed,’ she said. ‘Temporarily. But I’ve got to ask. Why do you have a toy from 101 Dalmatians? It doesn’t look like something a preschooler would choose.’
Jason held her gaze, thinking. Debating. ‘I’ve got to get back to work, but let me show you something first.’ And he did need to get back to the countless repairs that weren’t going to fix themselves. But after that miniscule victory, Lily’s leap of faith, he decided to take a leap of his own. Mostly because he didn’t think his mind was going to get back to work nearly as fast as his hands, even if he knew it should.
And that made him wonder if convincing Lily to stay in Port Landon was really miniscule at all.
Chapter 5
Lily
Lily disliked how correct Jason’s summation was. She didn’t have any other options. It hurt to know she brought this on herself, but somehow, it didn’t sting as much when the offer of help was coming from someone whose kind eyes sparkled the way his did.
She scolded herself for the thought. The guy’s being nice about it, but he wants the profit from his efforts, nothing more, no matter how glittery his eyes might seem.
Besides, she sure as heck didn’t want anything more, either. There was no denying Jason was attractive, in a rugged kind of way, but Lily didn’t need another man with alluring eyes and all the right words to make her believe things that weren’t real. She had done that once and all it had left her with was a shattered heart and more debt racked up than she knew how to deal with.
Jason had a daughter, anyway. He didn’t wear a wedding ring, but that didn’t mean anything. Maybe he didn’t wear one because of his job; lots of people did that. The man was probably happily married and living in some quaint little cul-de-sac with two point five kids and a puppy.
Goodness, what has gotten into you? She did not need to be thinking about this. About him. Lily had sworn off men at the same time she swore off her hometown of Sherman, and that was that. It might have been a man who broke her heart, but it was the town that had reminded her of it everywhere she turned.
She had effectively gotten away from both. Now, if she could escape the painful memories as easily, she would be well on her way to freedom.
Except, she wasn’t on her way to anywhere. She was in Port Landon for the foreseeable future. And even if the kindness she had experienced thus far wasn’t completely genuine, she reluctantly agreed with Jason—the town didn’t seem like the worst place to be stranded.
Time would tell, though.
‘Where are we going?’ Lily had let Eden keep the model car in her hand as they followed Jason out the office door and behind the building. To her surprise, another detached two-door garage stood behind the business. It didn’t match the steel siding of the building in front of it. It was newer, resembling a garage that would be in someone’s backyard or attached to a residence instead of hidden behind a repair shop.
She was starting to question her serial killer theory from the night before. ‘Should I be concerned that there’s no one around to hear us scream for help?’ Lily was jo
king … mostly. Still, she glanced around and mentally calculated the distance to the office door.
‘I think I’m the one who should be concerned that you still think I’m a criminal.’ He chuckled. ‘I’m obviously doing something wrong.’ Jason pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked the door at the side of the garage. Cheekily, he stepped back and waved a theatric hand, gesturing her and Eden inside. ‘Ladies first.’
There was no mistaking the mischievous smirk he wore. ‘You think you’re so funny,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘Not a chance. Convicts go first.’
Laughing, Jason disappeared into the dark garage. A second later, the overhead fluorescent lights blazed brightly. ‘How about now?’
She stepped inside. Immediately, Eden lurched forward, placing her small hands on the black fabric cover that hid a car from view.
‘What’s this?’ Eden exclaimed just as Lily heard the toy in her hand bang against the covered car.
‘Oh gosh, Eden, be careful!’ One hand around her daughter’s middle, she hauled the little girl away from the vehicle. For all she knew, there was a multimillion-dollar supercar underneath the thin material, just waiting for its fancy paint job to be scratched by the innocent movements of a five-year-old.
A line of lights blinked on at the back of the room, and Jason stepped forward. ‘It’s okay, Lily. She can’t hurt it any more than it already is.’
‘Sounds like a challenge to me,’ she quipped. A challenge she wasn’t prepared to pay for. ‘What are we doing in here?’
The garage was one huge room, harshly lit and so spotless that she wondered if Jason ever came in here. The back wall was lined with multiple red toolboxes that were the same height she was. The floor was concrete, just as it was inside the repair shop, but rubber matting stretched across the surface, muffling her footsteps as she wandered around the covered vehicle that took up most of the left side of the garage.
‘You asked me why I had Cruella de Ville’s car,’ Jason replied. ‘I figured rather than tell you, I could show you.’
A Wildflower Summer Page 5