by Niecey Roy
“Fuck, I don’t know.” He raked a hand through his hair and breathed out a sigh of frustration. “That’s the same thing I thought when she said she wanted to come fishing with us.”
“You better be careful.” Mia climbed the steps. “Don’t you dare let her talk you out of any more money, any more cars, any more anything. You’re already giving her more than you should in this divorce, and you’ll be no good to Micky if you’re broke.”
“I’m not giving her anything else.” At least, he hoped the judge didn’t make him liquidate his business to give her half. He couldn’t do that. Brooks Garage was something he’d dreamed about since he was a kid, working on cars with his old man in their tiny detached garage.
Mia stood inside the screened porch, holding the door open. “Well, I’m going inside to reassure Jaden that you haven’t taken your ex back. Not that she’ll admit she cares.”
The fact she did care, even if she wouldn’t admit it, gave him a spark of hope. “Tell her I’ll be by tomorrow to pick her up.”
Mia raised her brows. “Like on a date? She said she’d go on a date with you?”
Cole grinned. “Nope.”
“She told you no.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Yup. But, I told her I’d keep asking.” Grinning, he took a step back and raised his hands with a shrug. “Her silence seemed like an invitation to me.”
Chuckling, his sister turned around and let the screen door bang shut behind her.
He crossed the yard in long strides, a soft smile ghosting his lips. He stopped beside the picnic table and looked up to a baby blue sky. Puffy white clouds moved so slowly in the sky, they looked still. He closed his eyes, and the sun warmed his face while Micky’s laughter nearby warmed his heart.
“You forgot the sunscreen. You know Micky needs sunscreen or he’ll burn.”
Cole pinched his eyelids tighter together and puffed out his cheeks before blowing out a short breath. Opening his eyes, he crossed the yard to his pickup box. “I’ve got sunscreen. And Micky doesn’t burn. We come out here every weekend.”
“Every other weekend,” Kensie corrected, and he gnashed his teeth together. “And he does burn.”
Cole leaned over the open tailgate to reach for the tackle box. “It’s here.” He flipped the top open and grabbed the tube of sunscreen. Turning, he waved it at her.
“Oh. Good.” She seemed disappointed she didn’t have anything to nitpick him for.
“You’d think we were still married, the way you still nag at me,” he grumbled and handed her the tube.
She snatched it from him. “We are still married.”
“Not for long.” He left her beside the pickup and waved Micky over to the picnic table. “Come on, bud. We’ll get your pole ready.”
Micky bounded over, an action figure stuffed in each hand. “Hey, Daddy, can we catch a turtle?”
“We can try.” Cole set the tackle box on the table, then reached down to grasp Micky by the waist. Lifting Micky onto the table, he asked, “Why? You want turtle soup for dinner tonight?”
Micky sat cross-legged, then dropped the action figures in the space between his folded legs. He scrunched his nose up. “Ew, no.” Then he cocked his head and squinted his eyes. “What does a turtle taste like?”
Cole shrugged and propped the handle of the fishing pole up against his shoe to hold the end of the pole. Untwining the line, he said, “I’ve never had it, but I hear it tastes like chicken.”
“Like chicken nuggets?” Micky watched as he unclipped the weights from the line.
Cole chuckled as he dropped the last weight into the tackle box. “I suppose it probably does taste like chicken nuggets.”
Micky rummaged through the bobbers. “Daddy, did you go catfishing with Auntie?”
Cole lifted a foot onto the bench seat of the table. He rested his arm on his leg and set the pole against his knee as he tied a bobber to the fishing line. “Your aunt hates fishing. She gets all girly when she has to touch a fish.”
Micky looked up with serious eyes. “She’s not a man, Daddy.”
“No, she isn’t, bud.”
“Only men fish, Daddy.”
“Well, some women fish, too.”
Micky shrugged. “Oh.”
“You sure you can handle this pole?” Cole snipped the hook off with a pair of snips. He opened a plastic box filled with hooks, searching for the right size. “This pole is probably going to catch the biggest fish out here. I don’t want you falling in the water trying to reel it in.”
His son’s eyes flashed with excitement. “The biggest fish?”
“If you can handle it.” He tied the hook onto the line then hooked it to a metal guide on the pole.
“I can,” Micky insisted.
“Okay, then.” Cole smiled. The cabin’s screen door banged shut, and Cole looked up. Jaden paused on the bottom step, her hand resting on the rail.
“Who’s that, Daddy?” Micky watched Jaden cross the yard toward them.
“She’s a friend of your aunt’s.” Cole couldn’t take his eyes off of her. The summer breeze made the little blue dress she wore hug her legs.
She captured her long hair and lay it over her right shoulder, and Cole sucked in a breath. He remembered twining his fingers into her hair last night before he leaned down to kiss her.
“She’s pretty.”
Cole glanced down to his five-year-old, and tousled his dark hair. “Very.”
“Hey there.” Jaden smiled down to Micky and stopped beside the table.
Micky gave her a big smile, one he reserved for begging for extra cookies. The kid was wise beyond his years. “I’m Micky.”
She offered her hand. “I’m Jaden.”
He placed his little hand inside hers and gave it a big shake. “You know my Auntie.” He tugged his hand from Jaden’s to wave at Mia, who loaded a tote into the back of her vehicle.
Mia waved and started over, but stopped short. She pulled her cellphone from her pocket. Her brows knitted together as she read the message on her display. When she finished, she turned and headed back to the cabin.
“I do.” Jaden sat down on the bench beside Micky, who swung his legs from the edge of the table. “Your aunt and I have been best friends since we were kids.”
His eyes flickered to Cole’s, then back to Jaden. “Are you Daddy’s friend?”
“I am, yes.” Jaden’s gaze caught Cole’s for a long, hot moment, and he knew where her mind had gone—it’s where his had been all morning.
Micky’s little brows furrowed and his head tilted as he stared up at her. “You can be my friend too.”
“I would love that.” She stood and swept her hands over the skirt of her dress, settling it into place. “It was really nice to meet you, Micky. Maybe I’ll see you again before I leave town.”
“Okay.” He scooted down from the picnic table. “Daddy, I want crackers.”
“Okay, bud.” Micky ran across the lawn to Kensie, who sat under the shade of an elm tree. Her withering stare was directed at Jaden. This was the first time the three of them had been this close since Mia’s wedding, and he wondered if the memory made Jaden as uncomfortable as it made him.
He set the fishing pole on the picnic table and ignored Kensie’s heated gaze on his back. “How do you feel this morning?”
Pressing fingertips to her temple, she smiled. “Better than I thought I would. I’m not much of a drinker.”
“I remember.” He grinned. “Mia used to call you Pukey.”
She wrinkled up her nose with a grimace. “Well deserved, too.”
“Me, I’m partial to Jelly Bean,” he teased, and her eyes danced with her smile.
“I hated that nickname.” Her glare was playful and cute as hell. “I mostly wanted to hurt you when you called me that.”
“And now?”
She tugged her bottom lip into her mouth, and he wanted to kiss her. “I guess I grew out of my teenage rage.”
La
ughing, he edged closer. His fingers ached to touch her. “I didn’t sense any of that rage last night.”
Her eyes widened with surprise. “That was the alcohol talking.”
“Or something else.” Memories of the way she wrapped her legs around him, kissing him with everything she had, would haunt him until she gave him more.
She chose to ignore his comment and gestured to Micky, who now sat on the dock surrounded by action figures. “He looks so much like you.”
Cole’s smile softened. “He does. Kid loves cars, too.”
When Jaden’s hand touched his, he glanced at her, surprised.
He didn’t have her figured out yet. Last night proved that under her tough resolve to keep her distance, there was still something there between them. Even if it was only her body responding, he didn’t care. That was better than nothing, and he wanted—no, he needed—something.
“I’m sure your dad is smiling right now.” She gave his hand a soft squeeze, then let go and took a step back. “See you around, Cole.”
There was a finality to her words, as if she didn’t plan to see him anywhere. As if she spent the night talking herself out of a replay of their kiss.
He searched her gaze and decided he wouldn’t let her off the hook so easily after last night. “Not around,” he corrected with a grin. “Soon.”
Her lips curled into an alluring smile. “We’ll see.”
He watched her walk away, the gentle sway of her hips, her long tan legs carrying her with a graceful confidence. Did she know he was watching? He hoped so. It was best if they were both on the same page. He wanted her, she wanted him, and he wouldn’t give up until he had her naked and beneath him, moaning his name.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“That’s your rental car? What a dump.”
Jaden stopped jiggling the key in the rental car’s keyhole to glance up at the girl leaning against the side of Joe’s Garage. She’d been so engrossed in mumbling curses under her breath that she hadn’t noticed her approach. The stupid key fob wasn’t working and neither was the lock on the passenger side door. She’d left a magazine and the rental receipt inside and the company was sending someone that afternoon with a replacement. Finally.
The girl wasn’t old enough to smoke, but she raised a cigarette to her lips and lit up. She kept a defiant eye on Jaden, as if daring her to say something about it.
“I agree.” Jaden shoved the key fob into her shorts pocket. At least her luggage arrived. When she woke up this morning, her bag was sitting on the front porch. “This thing is a pile of crap.”
“I wouldn’t have driven that thing if it was the last car on the lot.” She took a quick puff of the cigarette—Jaden doubted the girl inhaled.
“If you needed a car badly enough, you might,” Jaden mused. She nodded to the cigarette. “Those things’ll kill you, you know.”
The girl shifted her weight from one foot to the other, getting comfortable against the wall. “My mom smokes and she’s not dead,” she said without warmth.
“So does my mom. She’s not dead, but she looks twice her age.” Jaden leaned against the car door. “You work here?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah. It sucks.”
“What’s your name?”
“Tatem.” She blew out gray smoke. “You must be that hotshot television person everyone’s talking about.”
“What?”
“I was at the diner this morning with Uncle Joe. Some ladies were talking about you.” She gave a sarcastic sniff. “You’re going to save the town, don’t you know?”
Jaden blew out a sigh. Mia had done a real great job of keeping a lid on things.
She didn’t like the idea of becoming the town’s savior. Her blog posts wouldn’t miraculously infuse thousands of dollars into the treasury to compensate for what had been embezzled.
“You’re from River Bend?” Tatem sized Jaden up with the skepticism of a teenager. “You don’t look like a hillbilly.”
Jaden chuckled. “I don’t think everyone in this town is a hillbilly.”
“Pretty much, yeah.” Tatem narrowed her gaze and cocked her head. “Why’d you leave? Seems like everyone stays in this town forever.”
There was a harsh resignation in the girl’s eyes. She couldn’t have been more than sixteen, maybe seventeen; what had turned her into a cynic at such a young age?
“I wanted to see what else was out there.” Needing to get away was a point Jaden left unspoken.
“Must be nice to travel all over the place.” Her eyes were riveted on a camper across the highway, a For Sale sign tacked to the dingy yellow siding. Stretching out behind it was a field of beans and hilled pasture land. “This place sucks.”
Jaden didn’t answer—she’d thought the same thing at her age. In those days, graduation couldn’t come fast enough.
“This town’s not that bad,” Cole said.
Jaden and Tatem both swung their gazes to Cole, who had stepped from around the front of the gas station. Jaden’s insides warmed and her lady parts sighed—this is getting a tad ridiculous. She definitely wasn’t caught off guard by her reaction to the sight of him—she was resigned to it now—but she hadn’t expected to see him every day on this vacation.
“Says the old guy,” Tatem tossed back, and Jaden laughed,
Cole plucked the cigarette out of Tatem’s hand. Tossing it to the ground, he said, “There. That’s better.”
“Hey!” Tatem propped her hands on her hips while he stomped out the cigarette. “What the hell?”
“What the hell’s right. You’re on probation and you’re underage.” He ignored her glare and turned to Jaden. “They haven’t gotten you a new rental yet?”
She shook her head. “Not yet, but someone’s coming today with a trailer to pick this one up and bring me something else. Thought it would be easier if they just dropped it off here. Joe said he’d call me when they get here.” She nudged the front tire with her flip-flop. “I have to sign a form swearing I didn’t intentionally cause damage to the car.”
His head cocked with amusement. “What, do they think you dumped sugar in the gas tank?”
“Does that work?” Tatem asked, sounding much too interested.
“No,” Jaden and Cole said in unison, and then exchanged smiles.
Tatem raised her brows. “Gross. Old people love.”
Jaden averted her gaze from Cole’s. “Not even close.”
“I'd love to stick around and listen to your lame conversation with the cigarette Nazi, but my uncle will be pissed if I don’t get inside soon.” She strolled off at a lazy pace.
“No more cancer sticks,” Cole called after her.
“Yeah, whatever, old guy.” She disappeared around the corner.
“I like her. She’s spunky.” Jaden smiled after her. “And she seems to have your number.”
“Old guy?”
“Yeah. You’ve got to be what, pushing thirty?”
“Twenty-nine. And I love that you’re keeping track.” He flashed a smile that made his lips into pillows, inviting her in. “She’s giving Joe indigestion.”
“What’s her story?”
Cole shoved his hands into the front of his jeans pocket. “Her mom ran off with a boyfriend and Joe brought her here. She’s had a hard time adjusting.”
Frowning, she shoved the key back into the passenger door lock. No wonder the girl rebelled against authority, against anything—she’d been betrayed by the one person who should have cared for and loved her. Story of Jaden’s life.
“Mother of the year award.” She wiggled the key more aggressively, and it finally turned. “Let me guess, booze and drugs?”
“That’s the story.”
She tugged the door open and leaned inside to the console between the seats. “I hate that story.”
“Yeah,” he said on a sober note. “Me too.”
She pulled the receipt from the console and the magazine off the passenger seat, then slammed the door shut. From the
way he avoided her gaze, she could tell that Ellie had crossed his mind too.
Made sense he’d think of Jaden’s mother. The whole town knew about Ellie’s parenting skills. She hadn’t been quiet about screaming at Jaden when coming down off whatever high she’d been on. Those were the worst. When she was popping pills and drinking anything she could afford, she was happy, if not mentally absent. Careless and indifferent, but at least her high hadn’t made her mean. Well, as long as she didn’t mix too many pills, or drink whiskey straight. Those were the times she’d always been the nastiest, cutting Jaden down like a weed with her barbed comments.
“You need a ride?” Cole lifted the ball cap from his head to run his hand through his hair. He replaced the hat.
She almost declined, but then realized that was childish. It wasn’t his fault that she’d gotten caught up in the moment and jumped him in the lake. He was being polite, that’s all.
Rolling the magazine up, she said, “That would be great, thanks.”
“Where to, Ms. Daisy?” His smile was inviting, pulling her toward his warmth.
She took a step back and shoved the magazine in the back pocket of her jeans. Smiling, she said, “Can you take me to Angie’s? Hills told her I was in town and she threatened to hunt me down if I didn’t visit the ceramic shop before I leave.”
His gaze dropped to the camera bag slung across her chest. “Taking pictures too?”
“Thought I’d take a few while I’m roaming around today.” She patted the camera bag with a grimace. “I’m saving the town, haven’t you heard?”
His lips curved with amusement. “I may have heard something about that around.”
“So much for Mia keeping my presence here on the down-low.”
His brows quirked. “We’re talking about the same woman, right?” He held his hand up, measuring just under his chin. “Short little firecracker who kind of marches to her own band?”
Jaden laughed with a shake of her head. “Right?”
They walked together to the front of the gas station. “Where’s Mia?”
“She had to run over to David’s parents. I guess his mom baked his favorite cookies.” She glanced over to him with lifted brows. “He’s not even home from his trip yet.”