He touched the small of her back. “It’s nice seeing you. I’m glad you came back. It’s good to make peace.”
Summer didn’t answer. She wasn’t sure she had, not yet. She still resented her father. She still missed her brother with a heartache that overwhelmed her. She still wanted to know what had happened that night, and only one person could fill in those blanks.
“I’ll call you for coffee?” he asked after a moment.
“Sounds good.” She watched him walk away, until he was just a silhouette in the evening and she was left with questions and a longing she couldn’t explain.
Chapter Seventeen
Theo eased his battered car into the dirt parking lot. Bill’s read the sign above the door. The neon flickered in and out, making it look more like a strip joint in Vegas than the local watering hole it supposedly was. He smoothed both hands over his hair and took his time getting out.
He was close. He could feel it. Screw that private investigator he’d wasted too much money on. After seven hours of driving north from Baltimore, he’d found the junior college Damian had graduated from, and though the woman in Admissions wouldn’t give him any personal info, he had a good feeling the kid and his mother were still around. Tracing her cell phone had turned into a dead end, and the number wasn’t much good without a location.
Now he was stuck in this piss-ant Adirondack Mountain region trying to blend in and do a little sleuthing work without getting noticed. He already had a headache from trying to negotiate the winding roads that connected all these stupid blue-collar towns, and he couldn’t find a decent place to get a meal, let alone a beer. But he’d found himself a part-time contracting job yesterday, so he could blend in with the locals and do a little spying in the meantime.
Inside, six heads swiveled in unison as he pushed open the door. A ball game played on the television behind the bar. He lifted his chin in greeting and pulled up a stool.
“Evenin’,” said the bartender. His belly hung over his jeans, and arms thick as slabs of meat strained at a faded blue T-shirt.
“I’ll take a light draft.” Theo pointed to the tap closest to him. “Thanks.”
The rest of the bar patrons turned back to their game. In the corner, a couple sat holding hands and staring at each other in a way that made Theo want to gag. He trained his gaze on the television instead.
“You new in town, or passing through?” The bartender folded his arms and leaned in.
Should’ve known he couldn’t just blend in. People in small towns always had to ask questions. “Ah, I’m here part-time, doing some contracting work for a friend.” Theo downed half his beer and prayed the guy wouldn’t ask him which friend.
A toothpick shifted from one side of the bartender’s mouth to the other. “You working on that new development in Cedar Crest?”
Theo nodded. That, at least, was true.
“Them houses gonna be mansions. Don’t know who the hell can afford ’em.”
“Not me, that’s for sure.”
The bartender guffawed. “Damn straight.”
Theo finished his beer and pushed the mug back across the bar. “Another, thanks.”
No one spoke for a few minutes. Theo watched the Yankees score two runs against the Cleveland Indians before he got up the nerve to ask the question he really wanted to. “Hey, anyone know a guy around here named Damian Knight?”
The guy closest to him shifted on his stool. Red-eyed, he looked Theo up and down before answering. “Nope.” His head turned on a thick neck. “Johnny!”
A man in blue flannel and camo pants looked up from his pool game. “What?”
“Know a guy named Damian Knight?”
The man spit into a cup and shook his head. “Nope. He live in Cedar Crest?”
“Not sure,” Theo said carefully. Last thing he needed was to get anyone suspicious. “I worked with him a while back, thought he said something about moving up here. He graduated from Adirondack Community College a couple years ago.”
The bartender leaned over. “Might try Silver Valley or Whispering Pines, then. Them’s the next biggest towns around.”
“How far?”
“Silver Valley’s just over the mountain. Twenty miles or so. Whispering Pines’s between there and the Thruway. ’Bout an hour from here.” He scratched his belly and moved away.
Theo nodded without answering. Easy drive. Maybe he’d try it tomorrow or the next day, see what those towns looked like.
The guy beside him was still talking. “Not much to see that way.” He burped. “Saratoga Springs, farther up the highway, that’s a place worth checking out. Horses, if you’re a betting man, or...” He drifted off as the bartender turned up the volume on the TV. A player in pinstripes rounded the bases.
“Not really into the horses, but thanks.” Sweat beaded across Theo’s forehead. He grimaced and finished his second beer. “’Kay, thanks, ’night,” he murmured as he pushed back his stool. The bartender grunted in return. No one else even looked his way.
Outside, pitch black greeted him as soon as the door swung shut. Theo turned around, trying to get his bearings. He could barely make out the treetops and mountain ridges against the ink of the sky. A tiny sliver of moon hung above him, and he tripped finding his way back to the car. Wasn’t used to countryside like this, that was for sure. Not even a streetlight out here. He swore out loud as he tripped again. Fresh anger at his ex-wife mixed with desire to see her again. She’d deliberately picked a quiet, dark place in which to hide. Suburban Philadelphia wasn’t good enough, huh?
He wondered how Hannah would take to Baltimore, because she was coming back there with him. As soon as he found her, he was putting her and Dinah in his car and driving due south. They belonged together, no question about it. He frowned. But if she refused, he’d take Dinah and leave Hannah behind with her smart-ass son. Damian. Theo’s hands tightened into fists. Last time he’d tried to reason with Hannah, Damian had stepped between them and landed a few lucky punches. Theo would have to take them by surprise, or wait for a time when Damian wasn’t there at all. He cracked his knuckles. He still had to find Hannah, and he still had to work out a plan, but it was coming together.
“Damn straight,” he muttered, echoing the bartender. “Damn straight.”
Chapter Eighteen
“So I have this crazy idea.” Summer waved away the café’s teenage waitress and drank the last of her piña colada as she and Rachael ate lunch the following day. Despite the umbrella above them, the sun burned down onto the backs of their necks.
“Ooh, I love crazy. Tell me.” Rachael fished a French fry off her plate.
“I met with Sadie yesterday morning, and we decided to list the house with the rental as a contingency. That means the Knights will get to stay there. But I changed my return flight, so I’m staying a few more days too. I was thinking that maybe I’d stay in the house. If, I mean, the guys say it’s okay.”
“Seriously? That’s so cool.” Rachael clapped her hands, caught the corner of her straw, and sent frozen margarita flying across the table. “Oops. Sorry.”
Summer laughed. “I think you might be cut off. One margarita is your limit.”
Rachael made a face and finished what was left of her drink. “Whatever. You know you could stay at my place, right? We have an empty bedroom. My parents wouldn’t mind.”
“I know. And I thought about asking you.” Summer shrugged. “But I think I’d rather be at the house in case...I don’t know. In case Mac and Damian have questions about things. Or in case I do.” She wondered how obvious her little white lie was.
“What about the museum? You don’t have to rush back?”
“I have great assistants, thank goodness. And I haven’t taken a vacation in almost three years. Anyway, the bedroom on the first floor is almost finished, so I thought I’d ask Mac about it. I don’t want to keep paying for a motel room if I actually own a house.”
“Mm hmm.” Rachael lifted two fingers at the wait
ress and pointed to their empty glasses. She folded her arms on the table. “Now tell me the real reason you’re staying. And don’t tell me it’s because it’s going to take you another week to get all the paperwork settled. You can list a house in two days. And you don’t need to be here in town to sell it.”
The waitress delivered fresh drinks in frosted glasses, and Summer took a long, deliberate sip.
“Are you staying so you can get back together with Gabe?”
“What? No.”
Rachael narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure? I heard you had dinner with him last night.”
“Didn’t take the grapevine long, huh?”
“Of course not. You should know better.”
“No, I am not staying to get back together with Gabe.” She wouldn’t lie; something about seeing him again had felt warm and familiar, like an old robe she’d pulled on that still fit in all the right places. But ten years had passed. Things had changed. She had slices of time she couldn’t remember. He’d moved on, and so had she. Really, there was nothing left between them but a memory of a place where attraction used to be. The emotions he’d stirred up at dinner had more to do with sorting through her brother’s death than any chemistry left after all this time.
“I just—” She stopped and tried to think of how to explain. They’d never talked about the accident, she and Rachael. “Part of why I feel like I have to stay is because I’m trying to remember what happened the night Donny died. Since I’ve been back, I’ve been having these weird flashbacks. I see parts of the night, parts of the accident. But not the whole thing.”
“You’re kidding.”
“The therapist I saw in college told me I probably wouldn’t ever remember.” She took another sip of piña colada. “So it’s weird, now, that I am.”
“You have amnesia?”
“Something like that.”
“Holy crap. That’s crazy. Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“I don’t know. Does it make a difference?”
“I guess not.” But a funny expression crossed Rachael’s face. “I’m just surprised, that’s all. I never knew.”
Summer lifted her shoulders. “I had dinner with Gabe because I thought maybe he could fill in the blanks. He remembers, I think.”
Rachael’s funny expression returned. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure he does.”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Rachael chewed one corner of her lips. “You don’t know what happened to Gabe? After the accident?”
“No. I mean, he told me he was a little banged up, but nothing too bad.” Doubt seized her. “Wait, did he lie? Was he really hurt and no one told me?”
“I don’t think he was. I didn’t see him much afterwards, though.” Rachael opened and closed her mouth like she was about to say something else, but then her cell phone rang, and she grabbed it. “Oops, sorry, gotta get this.” Her cheeks colored, and Summer wondered what her friend hadn’t told her.
“Sorry,” Rachael said when she hung up a few minutes later.
“No problem. What’s this guy’s name? Seth?”
“Sean. He’s a nice guy, owns a shoe store over in Silver Valley.”
“How long have you been seeing him?”
“Three weeks.”
“Almost a record, huh?”
“Don’t see a ring on your finger either.”
“Touché.”
They both laughed.
“Speaking of nice guys, what about Damian?” Rachael asked.
“What about him?” Summer still felt lousy about the way their last conversation had ended. More than once in the last two days, her thoughts had turned to him. His body, hard with muscle. His eyes, a bottomless blue. She could still taste him inside her mouth, could still feel his hands against the curve of her waist. She wanted to kiss him again. She wanted more than that, actually, and that want surprised her.
“C’mon. He’s single, smart, built like a Mack truck, and the sweetest guy in the world when it comes to his mom and sister.” Rachael sipped her drink. “If there’s nothing going on between you and Gabe, then I don’t know what you’re waiting for. I would have been living on the bare floor of that house days ago, sawdust and all, just to get a look at Damian first thing in the morning.”
Summer laughed. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous, maybe, but with very good taste.” Rachael stuck her sunglasses on top of her head and waved for the bill. “So when do we get you moved in?”
Chapter Nineteen
Damian’s Camaro was the first thing Summer saw when she arrived at the house later that afternoon. She glanced at the rubber-banded stack of papers on the seat beside her.
“Didn’t know there was so much to selling a house,” she’d said to Sadie that morning.
“It’s easier keeping one than selling one,” Sadie had chuckled.
Summer finished the bottle of water beside her. The last buzz of pina colada had faded, but she still felt overheated and on edge.
She picked up the bag of oatmeal raisin cookies she’d bought and brushed through the hedges. She wasn’t keeping the house, no matter what Sadie or Joe or anyone else said. That was about the only thing she knew for certain. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t take advantage of owning it for a few days. Steeling her nerves, she detoured around a pile of paving stones. Talking to Rachael had convinced her, and now she wanted to move in as soon as she could. If she could. She just hoped Mac wouldn’t laugh when she brought up her idea.
“Hello?” She circled the house and looked up. Scaffolding stood against the back balcony and fresh sawdust covered the lawn, but she saw no one. Had they left for a late lunch? She found her way through the kitchen and into the foyer. Faint banging and grunts sounded somewhere beneath her feet. A minute later the grunts grew louder, combined with heavy footsteps, and two dust-coated figures emerged from a door behind her.
“Hey, Summer.” Mac raised a hand in greeting. He sneezed and sprayed a cloud of white into the air. Damian coughed behind him.
“Where were you guys?”
“Basement. It’s supposed to rain later. We wanted to get most of the wood and the sheetrock indoors.”
Summer eyed the door. “That goes to the basement?”
Mac grinned. “Yup. Wouldn’t go down there, though. No working lights and plenty of dirt. Probably some rats, too.”
Damian elbowed his boss. “Don’t listen to him.” Dust and dirt covered his face and neck, but something in her stomach stirred upon seeing him again, and Rachael’s words rang in her ears. I would have been living on the bare floor of that house days ago, sawdust and all, just to get a look at Damian first thing in the morning.
“Listen, I wanted you to know that I decided to sell the house with a contingency.” She said it quickly, before she lost her nerve. “Whoever buys it will have to let you stay on and rent the farmhouse for as long as you want.”
His eyes widened. She smiled, and in his gaze she saw herself reflected in the light that illuminated his eyes.
“You did that?”
“Seemed like the right thing to do.”
His cheeks colored and his voice turned gruff. “Thanks. ’Preciate it.”
She cleared her throat and held out the white paper bag she’d carried from the car. “I stopped at Lanie’s and got a fresh batch of cookies, right out of the oven.”
Mac had his hands on it before she finished the sentence. “Awesome! Thanks.” He reached in and stuffed two into his mouth. Crumbs fell onto his pant legs. Summer laughed. Damian took a couple, then Mac took another and offered her a crumbled one from the bottom, and before she knew it, the bag was empty.
“We’re about done here for today,” Mac said. “I’ve got to run over to Silver Valley, pick up a shipment.”
“Before you go, I wanted to ask you...do you think I can move in here?”
He frowned. “What do you mean? Into the house?”
“I can’t really afford to stay
at the motel for another week.”
He folded his beefy arms and considered. “Well, not legally. You’re supposed to have a CO.”
“A what?”
“Certificate of Occupancy. Piece of paper that means it’s safe to live here.”
Summer’s hopes fell.
“But the building inspector lives in Silver Valley. He doesn’t make it over here too often.” He winked. “I don’t think it would be a problem, ’specially if it’s just for a few days. I won’t say anything.”
“Really?”
“Sure. We’ll get you set up. I suppose we can find you a bed someplace, maybe a dresser or somethin’ too, if you need one. All the doors are secure enough now, so you shouldn’t have to worry about that.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Thanks.” She stole a gaze at Damian, but she couldn’t read his face. Mac’s mention of a bed had turned her cheeks scarlet, and she thought her best move was to back away until she got herself under control. “Okay, well...” She tucked her purse over her shoulder and turned to leave.
“You don’t have to go.” Damian said. “I mean, I could use the company, if you want to stick around and check out the first floor rooms.”
Want pooled in her belly. “Okay. Guess I can see what I’m getting myself into.” Mac left, and she followed Damian through the foyer and into the bedroom.
Clouds scudded across the sky. In a matter of seconds the sun vanished and thunder grumbled. He flipped on a work light near the door and examined the trim along the baseboard.
“This room’s great. Huge, too.” He hammered and measured as he spoke. When he knelt, the muscles in his calves flexed. Strong arms. Strong legs.
“Everything you guys have done...” Summer tried to look away from him and couldn’t. “...it looks great.”
He stopped and glanced up, knuckling his tape measure. “I really appreciate you letting us stay in the farmhouse.”
Second Chance Summer Page 10