He nodded. “I was doing odd jobs for a while when we first got into New York. I still like it, but I figured manual labor was gonna kill me if I did it for the next thirty years. So I went part-time while Mom was figuring out where she wanted to put down some roots.” He smiled, but the expression didn’t reach his eyes. “Took me almost three years to finish. And that was three years ago.”
He reached over and brushed a strand of hair from her forehead. Summer’s skin sizzled. He left his hand resting against her cheek, and she wanted to lean into it, to feel the impression of his palm deep down, where she’d felt cold and empty for so long.
“You’re…” He didn’t finish the thought. Instead he leaned over and lifted her chin. Hungry lips met hers, and she wasn’t sure in the next instant whose hands moved first or whose voice rumbled low in the throat. All she knew was that she couldn’t get close enough to him.
Their legs tangled. His fingers entwined with hers. One thumb stroked the tender skin of her palm before reaching down to caress a soft spot at the small of her back. She ran a hand over his hair, over the soft ridges in his ear and the bulk of his shoulder. He murmured something into her skin, a humming that set her nerves on fire. She let her head fall back, let him move from her ear to her neck to her collarbone in steps so slow and sweet she thought she might die from anticipation. Pinks and blues danced behind her eyelids.
She didn’t want to open her eyes when he pulled back and let his hands rest on her waist. She wanted his mouth on hers again. Hell, she wanted his mouth in other places, and if it meant bare floor and sawdust and a sleeping bag, then so be it. But he didn’t move. When she finally gave in and peeked, she saw him staring at her.
“Sorry.” One dimple popped out. “That probably wasn’t what you had in mind when you asked me to stay for dinner.”
Summer traced the outline of Damian’s bottom lip and the stubble along his jaw. Her hand fell to his lap, to the evidence that he’d felt agonizing pleasure from their kiss. In that moment it took all his self-control not to carry her inside, peel off every layer of clothing and make her come in the moonlight.
“Summer.” He placed his hand on hers and, after a second, moved it to her own leg. “I didn’t come here for that.”
Her gaze dropped to the steps.
“Not that I don’t want to.”
“Then what is it?”
“I…ah, I just don’t know if we should start something up if you’re leaving soon.”
“Oh. Right.” She focused on the porch step between her flip-flops and reached out a fingernail to worry at a loose board. When her cell phone buzzed a moment later, she moved to the far side of the step and checked the message. The expression on her face changed.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Just a text from Gabe.”
“Roberts?”
She nodded.
Desire left him, just like that. “Your boyfriend back in school?”
“Well yeah, but now he’s just—wait, you heard that?”
“Small town. Stories and rumors, remember?” Damian laced his fingers behind his head and asked the question he didn’t want to know the answer to. “Something still there?”
She stared at him. “No. Not that it’s any of your business.”
“Hey, I was just asking.”
“And I’m just answering.” She stood and started carrying dishes inside.
He hurried to follow. “Summer, come on. I’m not a bad guy for wanting to know.”
“I guess.” She ran water in the sink and arranged pans to soak.
“Just heard a few people talking and wondered what was true.”
She turned around and leaned against the counter. Her guarded expression relaxed a little. “I don’t know. I haven’t heard what people are saying these days. But small towns stir up stuff that never existed. And they ignore what’s right in front of them.” Her shoulders lifted. “Yeah, there’s history there. What else do you want me to say?”
Did he really kill your brother? Was he so drunk when the cops cuffed him he could barely stay on his feet? Damian had heard varying reports about Gabe Roberts and his role in the car accident from Mac and Cat and a few guys at the local watering holes. But he didn’t dare put those questions into words. If half of it was true, he couldn’t believe Summer would give that guy the time of day.
He shook his head and turned away. He wasn’t sure he could risk getting involved with someone who had more ghosts than he did. “Maybe we should call it a night.”
“Wait.” She took his hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean…it’s just—it’s so complicated, things with me and Gabe.” She paused. “He was there the night my brother died.”
“I know.”
“And I…there are things I still need to sort out about it.” She chewed her lower lip.
“That means seeing him.”
“Yeah.”
He cleared his throat. “Then maybe you should do that first and call me later.”
“You’re mad?”
“No. Just not willing to get in the middle of a messy past.” He had one of his own. He wasn’t sure he could take on anyone else’s.
She stared over his shoulder and he thought tears rose in her eyes. “Okay. I get it.”
Together they walked down the porch steps. Damian stopped at the bottom and stood below her, looking up. From here they met almost eye to eye. “Thanks for making dinner.” He paused. “If you get things worked out or change your mind, let me know.”
“Okay.” Her voice remained flat, with little emotion.
The sun sank another inch below the trees. He wanted to say something else, but everything he worked up inside his head sounded stupid. “’Night, Summer,” he finally said and headed for the path that led back to the farmhouse.
“Goodnight.”
Chapter Fifteen
Summer woke early, before the sun had touched the hills. The sleeping bag was twisted around her waist, her pillow tossed to the side. Mourning doves cooed outside her window, plaintive and heart-rending. She sat up. Perspiration dotted her forehead and her upper lip. Her back ached. She heard no sound of Damian or Mac. They aren’t here yet. Good.
She crossed her arms and closed her eyes again. She could still feel him. God, she could still smell him. Her desire hadn’t diminished at all, even twelve hours later. A breath of air escaped her lips and she let the night play behind her eyelids. Jitters sang along her skin. If she lay there any longer, she’d remember every last whisper he’d passed across her lips.
But then he walked away from me. Her eyes flew open. He hadn’t wanted to get involved. In fact, he’d as good as spun her in the direction of Gabe Roberts with his blessing. She bit her bottom lip. Fine.
The sun snuck its way over the horizon. Summer peeled off the sleeping bag and reached for her robe. She had to get out of here. She couldn’t be in the house when the guys came by to start work. She supposed Damian had a point. Why get involved with the crazy woman who lived in the past and was leaving in less than a week?
She fished some running clothes from her suitcase and skimmed her hair into a ponytail. She didn’t want to be angry with him. But she didn’t like saying goodbye in darkness. She didn’t like waking up alone and wanting something she had no business asking for. And because she wasn’t sure what she would say when she saw him, she thought she’d better just avoid him altogether.
She fastened her watch, double-knotted her laces and slipped out the back door. Mac had installed a new dead-bolt but she didn’t bother to secure it. Everyone in Pine Point knew the house was in the middle of renovations, and if anyone snuck in, there wasn’t much to steal anyway. She closed the door firmly and jogged through the backyard. She paused at the path that led to the farmhouse and then deliberately turned toward the sidewalk and shaded her eyes against the sun.
&n
bsp; No sound. No cars. Only her own thoughts chattering inside her head. Summer headed away from the house and started to run.
* * * * *
Damian left the farmhouse early to pick up nails and screws at the hardware store over in Silver Valley. He didn’t mind the drive, despite the fog that hung over the fields. He needed to clear his head, anyway. On the way back he stopped at the single gas station on the long stretch of road between the two towns. Inside, he managed to spill a stack of plastic cup lids, drop his change and slosh coffee onto the counter.
“You okay?” The cute brunette at the register pursed her lips and helped him pick coins off the floor.
“Yeah.” But he wasn’t. He hadn’t slept much, just stared at the ceiling above his bed, where Summer looked down at him with inky eyes and asked him to stay to dinner, over and over again. Did I make the right decision? Or just sound like an idiot with a twisted-up head?
Back at the worksite he sat behind the wheel for almost ten minutes. His coffee had cooled to lukewarm by the time he joined Mac in the foyer.
“You’re late.”
“Sorry.”
The heavyset man grunted. “’S okay.”
A furtive glance at Summer’s bedroom door revealed nothing. “She here?”
“Nope. Saw her jogging down by the school ’bout twenty minutes ago with Roberts. Looked like she had about a thousand things on her mind.”
Jogging with Gabe Roberts? Damian strapped on his tool belt and tried to ignore the jealousy that stirred in his stomach. “Is all that shit really true?”
“All what shit?”
“About him killing Summer’s brother.”
Mac looked at him with an odd expression. “Happened a long time ago, man. No good comes from digging up stories.”
“But it is, right?”
Mac shrugged. “He was DWI, word is, and didn’t slow at the flashing yellow. Didn’t even try to fight the sobriety test the cop gave him. But the other driver was drunk too, the guy who died later at the hospital. Tough to prove it was all Gabe’s fault. And he had a good lawyer.” He hefted a box onto his shoulder. “Sure, some people are still pissed about it. They think he should’ve at least moved someplace else, ’stead of coming back to Pine Point. They don’t want to see him walking around alive and well while Donnie’s lying in the ground.”
Damian shook his head. “Jesus.” No wonder Summer had stayed away for so long. No wonder she carried around sadness half the time. He still didn’t get why she’d be burning to spend time with her ex-boyfriend considering all that had happened, but he might as well give up guessing. Loss and forgiveness came in all kinds of packages.
He just wished he could get her out of his head instead of dwelling on the shape of her mouth or the taste of her skin or the way he wanted to be with her despite every rational thought that told him to run in the opposite direction.
* * * * *
Theo cradled his bleeding hand close to his chest and jerked the borrowed pickup into a space in front of the Adirondack Region Medical Clinic. This place was a little farther out than he’d originally thought, closer to Pine Point than Silver Valley, but apparently it was the closest thing to a walk-in urgent care center this area had.
“What a hick town.” He spat out the open window and hoped it didn’t take half the day to get his hand looked at. He suspected these backcountry places had a couple of nurses and one doc who drove in from Albany once or twice a week. The parking lot was almost empty, but a cop stood talking to some old lady in a Cadillac a few spots down. Theo took his time driving to a spot at the other end. He pulled in as the cop waved goodbye to Grandma and pointed his cruiser in the opposite direction. Good. The last thing he needed was some local boy nosing around his business.
He peeled the blood-soaked rag away from his left hand. “Damn.” Less than a week on the job, and he’d managed to fall off a scaffolding and take a stray piece of metal through his hand. Wrenched his back something good too. He cursed his stupidity. If he didn’t watch it, people would start paying more attention to him than he liked. With most injuries, he could pop a few aspirin, swig some bourbon and sleep it off. Not this one.
He elbowed open the door and limped through the clinic’s lobby. A lady with her kid, a dirty brat with tear-stained cheeks, sat in two of the vinyl chairs. Balancing a clipboard on her knee, she filled out a form while the boy whined and rubbed his nose. One hand looked as if it had been badly burned.
Theo propped one elbow on the desk at the reception area. His back screamed with fresh pain. Perspiration trickled down his temples. Behind a glass window sat two women, one with white hair who looked like she was about to kick the bucket, and the other a good-looking girl in her early twenties. Neither looked up at him. After a minute, he rapped his knuckles on the glass. “Hey.”
Grandma glanced up through glasses an inch thick, nodded and returned to her paperwork. The blonde spoke into the telephone receiver and held up one manicured finger in his direction. Behind him, the brat began to cry full-scale. Blood leaked through his makeshift bandage and dripped onto the counter.
“Hey!” This time he used his fist to pound. It worked. Blondie hung up the phone, saw the blood and jumped from her chair. Despite the pain clouding his head, Theo admired her firm, full breasts and the creamy skin that flushed as she handed him a towel. She grabbed a clipboard from the stack behind her.
“Nature of the injury?”
“Fell off a scaffolding,” he said, gritting his teeth. “Landed on some metal, put a piece through my hand.” Just give me some Vicodin and I’ll be fine.
“Any other injuries?”
“Yeah, my back don’t feel too great right about now.”
She added that to her form.
“Insurance?”
“Don’t have any. But don’t worry, I’ve got cash to cover it,” he added when he saw her pretty features frown.
“Well, we’ll take care of that after the doctor sees you.”
A nurse came into the waiting room and led away the lady with her screaming kid. Finally. Theo closed his eyes and let out a breath. Silence—much better. The pain in his back receded a fraction.
“Sir, are you okay? Would you like some water?”
Theo nodded. “That’d be good.”
She led him to a chair, then patted him on the shoulder and took her clipboard and her fine ass back behind the desk. A minute later, she reappeared with a paper cup of water. Theo drained it in one gulp.
“It’ll just be a few minutes,” she promised.
“Miss?”
She turned.
“What’s your name?”
She smiled. “Joyce. Let me know if you need anything else.”
Theo nodded and closed his eyes. Might as well catch a nap. A waiting room was as good a place as any.
“How’d you make out?” Joyce asked as he left the curtained treatment area two hours later.
Theo held up his bandaged left hand in response.
“How’s your back?”
“They x-rayed it. Nothin’ broken.”
“Well, that’s good.” She tapped the keyboard and studied the computer screen in front of her.
“Say, can I ask you somethin’?” Theo leaned closer and dropped his voice, though the old lady behind the desk had disappeared and no one else sat in the waiting room.
“Sure.”
“Any chance you know someone named Hannah Knight?”
Joyce stopped typing and wrinkled her pretty features in concentration. “Well, I live over in Pine Point. But I don’t think I’ve heard that name before.”
“Got a phone book?”
She fussed under the counter and came up with a slim yellow book. “Here you are.”
It took him less than a minute to see that the only Knight number listed in Silver Valley belonged t
o a Mamie and Herb.
“I do know a Damian Knight,” Joyce offered as she took back the phone book. She pinked with the confession, and Theo wondered if Damian had spent a night or two in the blonde’s bed. Wouldn’t be surprised.
“Oh, yeah?” He kept his voice as calm as he could. “He live in Pine Point or Silver Valley?”
She glanced down, and he knew he’d pushed too far. “I don’t really, well…” She clammed up.
He’d come on too eager, he knew in an instant. She typed something and stared at the computer screen, and he knew wouldn’t get anymore out of her. Didn’t matter. She’d as good as spilled the fact that Damian lived in Pine Point, and Theo would put money on the fact that Hannah and Dinah weren’t far away. “Hey, you know, don’t worry about it. I got Hannah’s cell number somewhere.”
Joyce printed something out and slid the paper across the desk to him. Her smile seemed a little less warm than before. “That’s the total. You can pay it all now, or we can set up a monthly billing system if you’d prefer.”
He straightened, though his back still felt like it was about to cramp up. “Nah, I told you I got the cash.” He dug into his back pocket, pulled out his wallet and separated some wrinkled hundred-dollar bills. “Here.”
She counted them carefully and handed him a few singles in change. “There you are.”
“Thanks.”
“Mm hmm.” Eyes cast down, Joyce returned to her filing without another word.
Theo laid rubber leaving the parking lot. The effects of the pain medication started to kick in and he grinned. A few more hours on the job this afternoon, and then he could lose himself in a bottle of Jack Daniels. Might take a drive over to Pine Point later on and see what that shitty little town looked like. And maybe tomorrow or the day after he’d stop in the local diner, ask around and find out where exactly Hannah was calling home. Or where Damian was working. At this point he’d take either one. Fact was, he almost welcomed the chance to stand face-to-face with Damian and remind him which one of them was in charge.
Theo gunned the truck through a red light and flipped off a woman in a minivan who beeped her horn at him. Patience, he told himself. That’s all I need.
Summer's Song: Pine Point, Book 1 Page 13