Fifteen
L auren ran down the stairs when she heard the front door opening and closing and was greeted by two men.
Jake leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest staring at the one man she didn’t expect — but desperately hoped — to be standing at her front door.
“Scott’s here.”
She looked between Jake and Scott who were in a stare off. “I see. And why are you here?”
“I’m helping your dad clean out the gutters.”
Her father hadn’t said anything about Jake stopping by. Which meant Jake was there to run interference.
The three of them stood at the bottom of the stairs. No one said anything right away. She couldn’t read their minds, but she could read their expressions, and both looked upset to find the other at her house.
“I thought you said you were going to call.” Not the greatest of openers, but there was some weird man chest-thumping thing going on, and she never did well under pressure.
Scott pulled his gaze away from Jake and focused it on Lauren. A warmth ran through her, reminiscent of the feelings he used to cause when she was in high school and he paid attention to her. She thought she had outgrown it. Apparently, she hadn’t.
“I thought we could have lunch.” Scott held up a bag full of what she figured was food before he looked over at Jake and lifted an eyebrow, as if asking Jake for permission.
“Are you asking me or Jake?”
Jake pushed away from the wall and raised his hands in surrender. “Don’t mind me, I’ll just be outside cleaning the gutters.”
Lauren understood Jake’s coolness toward the man he thought of as a friend. Scott was leaving in another day. Jake would still be here. And despite her thinking she was over Scott, once he left, Jake would be stuck helping her pick up the pieces of a broken heart. For a second time.
“I enjoy Jake’s company and there’s enough here for both him and your dad to join us, but I’m asking you.”
The logical side of her brain told her to thank Scott, give him back his money, and close the door on his face. But she wasn’t going to listen to it. She didn’t when she was fifteen, and she wasn’t going to do it when she was twenty-nine. She was a fool. Or an idiot. Or maybe she was just living proof for the definition of insanity.
Then, to make things even more awkward, her father joined them.
“Scott, good to see you. Wish it was under better circumstances, but it’s good to see you.” Her dad was polite and friendly. Almost as though it hadn’t been as many years as it had been since he’d last seen Scott. “Let me know if you need any help with anything.”
“The lawyer is taking care of most everything. I just needed to come back to get the things I didn’t want sold and sign some papers.”
Scott’s words hit her hard even though he said the same thing to Jake yesterday. They were just another reminder he wasn’t here to stay and an obvious message she shouldn’t get her hopes up. But like when she was in high school and took whatever tidbit of attention, he was willing to give her, Lauren was willing to put her future pain aside for the morsel of joy he gave her at the moment. Nope, she wasn’t a fool or insane. She was an idiot.
Good lord, what was wrong with her?
“Should we head to the kitchen?” Scott turned away from her dad and looked at her with his bright blue eyes.
“What did you bring us for lunch?” Her dad rubbed his hands together and leaned forward, as though he might get a glimpse of what was inside the bag Scott was holding.
“Well, after learning your daughter wasn’t at the bakery, I spotted the marbled rye and thought a Reuben would be perfect.”
Her father bounced in excitement at the prospect of a Reuben. “Lauren doesn’t let me have them anymore.” He snatched the bag from Scott’s hand and led the way to the kitchen.
Lauren rolled her eyes. “Dad, you can and do still have Reubens. I just don’t think you need more than one every week or so.”
“Yes, but Reubens are always accompanied with a disapproving look.”
“That’s because you don’t just grill them. You deep fry them. You deep fry a Reuben.”
“I saw it on that YouTube. They did it at the state fair, and since we didn’t go, I wanted to try it at home.” Her dad announced his reason from the kitchen.
“We’ve never gone to the state fair, and everything is deep friend there. Everything.” Lauren grumbled to Scott and Jake, but more to herself. “Elizabeth would say your premise is faulty.”
“What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”
“Nothing.” Lauren shook her head in frustration. “Come on, let’s get to the kitchen before he pulls out the deep fryer just to make a point.”
Y ou got yourself into plenty of hot water. Don’t blame Jake.” Lauren’s dad teased Scott. “I still don’t know how you painted that trestle. It’s the one great mystery of Iron Creek.”
Scott looked over at Lauren with eyes opened wide in surprise. Like he just got caught with his hand int the cookie jar. “You didn’t tell him?”
She shook her head. “I wasn’t going to tell him then and the opportunity never came up later.”
“What?” Her dad looked between Jake, Scott, and Lauren. “What aren’t you telling me?”
They stayed silent for thirty seconds before Lauren caved. “I painted it.”
“You! How! Holy… Lauren!” The words all came out of her father’s mouth so fast they blended together. “Wait. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. It’s probably worse than my imagination.”
“If it makes you feel any better, Trent, Elizabeth, and Pete were all there too.”
“Elizabeth, the one who can’t teach her students the difference between metaphors and similes, and Pete, the one who drives around with a stuffed dog in his back seat? No, Lauren. That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
“We’re fairly positive her students are pranking her, and Pete is practicing. He doesn’t think the dog is real.” Jake made a valiant attempt at making the confession more palatable.
“Practicing for what?” Scott asked.
“He’s getting a K-9 unit. He likes to keep the stuffed animal in the back seat so he’s ready to go when they get back from training.” Lauren explained.
“He puts the air on for it when he makes a stop.” Her dad leveled his version of a disapproving look at Lauren.
“He doesn’t believe it’s real, I swear. He’s just trying to build a habit.” She wasn’t sure her explanation made the stuffed animal part of the story any better.
“Pete’s a police officer?”
Both Lauren and Jake nodded. Scott fit in so well with them, she’d forgotten he had missed so many years of Iron Creek happenings.
“I keep touch with your mom, you know?”
“You do?” Both Lauren and Scott spoke at the same time.
Her dad nodded but didn’t expand on his comment. Lauren filed away a note in her mind that she and her father were going to have a conversation about keeping secrets from one another.