Seventeen
S cott woke up early Sunday morning. Like how early Lauren had to get up and get to the bakery to make her cookies and bread for the day. He showered, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, and got in his car to drive to Beans & Buns so he could implement the delayed part of his plan.
He was going to kidnap Lauren and give her a true day off.
They hadn’t talked about having any plans for the day, but when Scott left with a kiss to her cheek, he promised he’d see her tomorrow. He just hadn’t given her specifics.
Only the kitchen light of the bakery was on when he arrived. He assumed the high schooler he convinced to come in and work hadn’t arrived yet. Instead of parking in the front or on the street, he drove around to the small parking lot in the back of the building.
He tried the back door first, and it was locked, which made him oddly happy to think Lauren was keeping herself safe. Circling around to the front of the house, he tried the front door, and it too was locked. That left scaring the hell out of her by knocking on the window or waiting around until someone showed up or she opened the door.
Scott didn’t want to wait.
Making sure he wasn’t hidden by any shadows, he stepped over the small hedge, stood in front of the window, and knocked on the glass.
Despite not wanting to spook Lauren, she jumped at the sound and brandished a large wooden spoon as though it had been imbued with special powers to keep her alive and safe. Seeing Scott in the window, she pressed her hand against her chest and closed her eyes for a few seconds before pointing in the general direction of the door with her spoon.
Scott smiled back at her pantomime and stepped back over the hedge to meet her at the front door.
“What are you doing here?” She said as she pushed the door open for him.
“I came to because there was a second part to my plans with you yesterday that got postponed.”
She narrowed her eyes at him while locking the door and leading him back into the kitchen. While she washed her hands, then returned to making her cookies, Scott leaned back against the counter and watched.
“It’s nice of you to stop by, Scott, but I work on Sundays. I’m only open until two though.”
“Not today you aren’t.”
“I’m not open until 2:00 today?” She scooped the last of the cookie dough onto the tray and slid it into the oven then pulled out a tray with the baked cookies and put it on the rack along with the other trays.
“You aren’t working today.”
“Scott…”
“I took care of it.” Scott circled around the baking table and took the large bowl from her and set it in the sink. “Trust me.”
They cleaned up the kitchen in companionable silence. Although Scott didn’t know if the silence was more because they didn’t know what to say or because they had nothing to say. When the last spoon was clean and all the batches of cookies were baked and cooling on the rolling baker’s rack, a voice came from the back of the bakery.
“Hello?”
“Makenna, what are you doing here?” Lauren stepped out from the kitchen and met her Saturday employee by the counter.
“Umm…” Makenna looked over Lauren’s shoulder at Scott.
“I told you to trust me, Lauren.” He reached for her hand and tugged her down the hallway to the back door. “Come on, let’s go.”
“Wait. Go where?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“Scott, come on, where are we going?”
“I told you. It’s a surprise.”
“I’m not dressed to go anywhere.” She slowed them down by dragging her feet. Enough for him to stop and look at her. Jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. Perfect for his plans and perfect on her. Since leaving Iron Creek he had never seen another woman look as good in jeans and a t-shirt than Lauren. “You’re perfect. And if you get cold, you can wear my sweatshirt.”
Scott held the door open, and she walked through it and out to the parking lot. Once she was clear of the door, he raced ahead of her and opened the door to his car. If he was going to do this with Lauren, he was going to do it right. She climbed in and he closed the door for her before hurrying around to the driver’s side.
As soon as he slid in behind the steering wheel, he looked over at her and grinned. “I got the abridged version of what’s been happening in Iron Creek from Jake, but I’ve been gone for a while.”
Lauren looked out the window as they drove away, avoiding his gaze. “Yep, fifteen years is a long time, Scott.”
“Not yet fifteen years. I’m still in the fourteen-year range. How long have you owned your bakery?”
“It will be four years this summer.”
“That long? That’s great.” He wasn’t sure what to say next. Lauren didn’t deserve him filling up the silence with small-talk, but small-talk was the only way he was going to get to know her all over again.
“What about you?” She rescued him from making a mistake by asking a question of her own.
“What about me?” Scott glanced over at her before turning his gaze back on the road as they drove away from the center of town.
“Your dad never gave any specifics about what you were doing after you and your mom left.”
He inhaled through his nose while considering how to best respond to her words. Instead of giving her an answer that would have only come from years of therapy, he took the easy way out.
“I thought everyone knew I’m a sports agent. My focus is on professional football players and all their business endeavors.”
“We know all that. You got your law degree, worked at an agency, and when the owner and founder retired, you took over. I want to know what you do for those players.”
“Oh.” Scott couldn’t remember anyone asking for details of his work before. Everyone just assumed they knew what an agent did.
“Oh?”
“I work for professional football players. Some are more demanding than others. They don’t pay me to be their friend, they pay me to represent them twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. My goal is to get them the best deals, but that also means I sometimes have to tell them they aren’t worth what they think they’re worth.”
She leaned back in the seat and the corners of her lips lifted into a small smile. “Growing up, you always had lots of friends. I can’t remember when you weren’t surrounded by people who wanted to spend time with you. From what you’re saying though, it sounds like you spend more time alone. What else do you do, besides not be their friend?”
Scott smirked. She’d always been observant. Even as a little girl. “I work with the teams to prevent problems before they become a problem, I tell the players no, even when they don’t want to hear it, and I hide the secrets they don’t want shared.”
“We all have secrets we don’t want shared.” Lauren looked over at him and this time the smile was genuine. One that reached her eyes.
She didn’t know how true her words were.
“Do you like it?”
He shrugged. “It’s not a bad job. But there are times when I question what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.”
“Well, why are you?”
“Why did you open a bakery?” Scott turned off the main road and drove his rental car along one of the county roads leading to the boat landing.
“Because I enjoy baking. I like making cakes and other pastries. I like experimenting with recipes and reinventing the treats we grew up with.”
“I didn’t know you liked to bake.” He pulled the car into the parking lot at the landing. A few of the spaces held empty trailers hitched to trucks, and he navigated around them to the shorter spaces not intended for trailers.
“You don’t remember the summer I made everyone mud pies?” She looked around the boat landing. “Are we going out on the lake?”
Scott wasn’t going to admit he kept her mud pie or that it was safely packed away in his backpack in his hotel suite. “Nope. I have something else planned.”
Before arriving at the bakery, Scott debated where he would take her fishing. There were lots of little spots the locals knew and fished at, but the boat landing was not one of them. Except none of the spots he remembered held the same nostalgia as the boat landing.
It wouldn’t matter if they caught any fish. The landing was the last place Scott saw Lauren before he left.
They both got out of the car and Scott opened the back hatch. He pulled out two fishing poles and a cardboard container full of night crawlers. Holding the fishing supplies in one hand, he reached for her hand with the other and wove his fingers through hers. Her hand fit perfectly within his, like it was meant to be there.
“Fishing?”
“There’s no one to fish with in Chicago.” He pulled her closer, wanting her as near to him as she was willing to be. Her shoulder brushed against his arm, and he stopped himself from wrapping his arm around her waist. Not because he didn’t want to, but because he didn’t want to spook her. “Come on, we can fish off the dock.”
Ever since he could remember, Lauren loved to fish. She was always telling him about the fish she caught when she went out with her dad and Scott thought she would appreciate fishing more than anything else he could have done with her.
She looked over at the dock, then at him, then back to the dock. When she looked over at him again, her bottom lip was pressed between her teeth, and it was all he could do not to bend over and kiss her.
“Come on, Captain Quint. Let’s go fishing and catch some lunch.”
They walked to the end of the dock where Lauren toed off her shoes and socks before sitting down. She dangled her toes in the water while baiting the hook and had already cast her line by the time Scott realized he should be doing the same. Except he didn’t want to stop watching her. He wasn’t sure if he even could stop watching her.
By the time he had his shoes and socks off and was sitting next to her, he wasn’t thinking about fishing.
“This is a first.” She handed over the carton of worms.
“Fishing?” He picked through the rich dirt until he found a fat worm, plump enough to tempt most of the fish living near the boat landing.
“Taking time to go fishing. I don’t even have a license.”
Scott closed his eyes and groaned. Of course, he forgot to get them licenses. “Neither do I.”
“Well, I have faith you’ll be able to charm the DNR agent if one stops by.”
“I thought you enjoyed fishing.” Scoot looked up from baiting his hook so he could watch her body language. She’d never been able to hide her feelings well. What couldn’t be read from her facial expressions, could be read from her gestures and movements.
She turned away from him and cast her line out into the bay near the small pile of rocks that routinely shredded boat propellers. “I do.”
She waited too long before answering and wouldn’t look at him. She might as well have shouted it out from every rooftop that the last place she wanted to be at that moment was fishing.
“Lauren.” He set the rod down and slipped behind her, wrapping his arm around her waist. It was as if the years he’d been gone melted away and they were back in school. She leaned against him, and he bent his head to breathe in the scent of her shampoo. The spicy smell that invaded his nostrils surprised him. He expected a feminine floral scent and not a masculine one.
“I like fishing, Scott.”
“Don’t lie to me, Lauren. Not me.” His arm tightened around her waist, stopping her from pulling away.
“I liked fishing with my dad.” She whispered the words as though someone might hear them. “But after mom got sick, he stopped fishing. Then when she died, he just never went out again. Friends asked, but he always said no.
Lauren didn’t need to say anything else. God, how could he have been so stupid? Jake gave him enough clues that things weren’t all that wonderful, but he ignored them. Just like he ignored all the signs that his dad was up to something.
He reached around her with his other hand and took the fishing rod from her hands. “We don’t have to fish.”
She pressed back against him, and he had to slide back from her unless he wanted her to feel what her proximity did to him.
“No, I want to fish.” Her hand tightened around the fishing rod.
Scott couldn’t help himself. He pressed his lips to the top of her head and gave her a squeeze before maneuvering away from her and back to his spot sitting next to her. He didn’t want to leave her. No, he wanted to pull her back against him and never let her go. But it wasn’t the right time.
She resumed fishing, like she hadn’t just shared that bit of sadness with him.
He slid closer to her. As close as he could be without interrupting her casting. As he cast his line, he settled into the quiet around them and let himself get lost in the thoughts running through his mind. He wasn’t sure why he was so intent on winning Lauren over. He had already decided to leave Iron Creek as soon as possible. And if he continued spending time with her, Jake would have every right to hate him.
But Scott had no self-control when it came to Lauren. The moment he walked into Beans & Buns and saw her, he realized he wanted her in his life. And now, sitting next to her, he realized he would do whatever he had to in order to convince her she wanted him as much as he wanted her.