Chapter 5 David
DAVID
David stood in the boutique across the street, his back pressed against the wall beside the display window, watching as Eve and Lila crossed to meet William and Julie.
It had been a long, long time since anyone had affected him as much as Eve had. The feel of her hand in his, solid and warm and real. The surprise in her eyes, the flush on her cheeks, the way she’d smiled at him like she was discovering something unexpected.
And Lila.
She reminded him so much of his daughter, it had been such a shock, it had almost taken his breath away.
The same brightness, the same curiosity, the same tilt of her head when she was interested in something.
And the color of her eyes… He’d forced the ache in his heart away, locked it down the way he had learned to do over nearly three decades of practice.
But it still hurt.
“David?” a voice called from deeper in the shop.
David turned away from the window, pulling himself back into the present.
Margaret Warren stood near the counter, her expression a mix of relief and apology. She was in her mid-sixties, with sharp eyes and capable hands, the kind of woman who had built her business from nothing and refused to let anything break it.
“Thank you so much for coming on such short notice,” Margaret said, moving toward him.
“You were right about having to get the pipes fixed properly, and I’ll put in a whole new system in the new year.
” She blew out a breath that made her bangs flutter.
“But this has been our busiest season in a long time. I can’t shut down now.
Please, can you fix them one last time? The pipes in the ladies’ room have burst again. ”
David smiled despite himself. Margaret had given him his first assignment when he’d moved back to St. Augustine two years ago.
She’d found him through a mutual acquaintance, someone who knew David preferred to work quietly and didn’t ask too many questions about why a man with his particular skills was doing plumbing work in a small coastal city.
He only had a few hand-picked clients that he helped. He didn’t need the business. Money wasn’t an issue, hadn’t been an issue for a very long time. It was more about keeping busy, about moving through the town without drawing attention to himself.
David didn’t like attention. He preferred to be left alone.
Plumbing was more of a hobby to him. He enjoyed fixing things.
He also did a bit of woodwork in his spare time, building furniture in the workshop behind his cabin.
It helped keep his mind and hands busy, kept the past from creeping in too often, and kept him from thinking too much about everything he’d given up and lost.
Margaret’s boutique was one of his favorite customers.
She sold women’s clothing, upscale but not ostentatious, with a small coffee shop tucked into the back corner where customers could sit and chat while they browsed.
There were changing rooms along the far wall and a customer bathroom that had been giving Margaret trouble for months.
“Show me,” David said, grabbing his toolbox from where he’d set it by the door.
Margaret led him through the shop, past racks of dresses and shelves of jewelry, toward the back hallway. The bathroom door was propped open, and David could already hear the water running.
He gave one last look toward the window, toward where Eve and Lila were walking away with William and Julie.
He glanced at his hand, still tingling from where it had met Eve’s.
A smile touched his lips. He was sure that he and Eve would run into each other again. St. Augustine and Anastasia Island weren’t that big after all.
Pushing thoughts of Eve and the remarkable resemblance Lila had to his daughter aside, David went to work.
The problem was obvious the moment he stepped into the bathroom. The main supply line had cracked again, and water was pooling across the tile floor and seeping under the baseboards. David shut off the water at the valve behind the toilet, then dropped to his knees to assess the damage.
Old pipes. Corroded connections. The kind of patchwork system that had been added to over decades without anyone bothering to replace the core infrastructure.
He could fix it. He could buy Margaret a few more months.
But she really did need to replace the whole system.
David pulled his wrench from the toolbox and got to work, his hands moving with the practiced efficiency of someone who’d done this hundreds of times before.
The noise of the shop faded. The chatter from the coffee area, the soft music playing overhead, and the occasional rustle of hangers as customers browsed.
It all became background noise.
This was what he liked about the work. The focus. The simplicity. A problem that had a clear solution. No hidden agendas. No lies. Just broken things that could be fixed.
Margaret appeared in the doorway about twenty minutes later with a cup of coffee. “You’re a lifesaver, David.”
He glanced up, wiping his hands on a rag. “It’ll hold for a while. But you really need to schedule that replacement soon. End of January at the latest.”
“I know, I know.” She set the coffee on the counter beside the sink. “We can talk after the New Year.”
David nodded and went back to tightening the connection.
Margaret lingered in the doorway, and David could feel her watching him with that knowing smile she got sometimes.
“So,” she said, her voice light and teasing. “I saw you bump into that lovely woman on the street earlier.”
David’s ears burned, but he kept his focus on the pipe. “It was an accident.”
“Mm-hmm.” Margaret’s smile widened. “Looked like a very nice accident from where I was standing.”
David didn’t answer, just reached for the sealant tape.
Margaret laughed, the sound warm and full of affection. “It’s okay to notice someone, David. You’re allowed to be human.”
He looked up at her then, meeting her eyes.
Margaret had never pushed. She’d never asked about his past or why a man who clearly had more education than most plumbers ended up fixing pipes in a boutique.
She just accepted him as he was. But Margaret, like some of his other customers and two closest friends, was always subtly trying to set him up on dates.
“Thanks for the coffee,” David said quietly.
Margaret’s expression softened. “Anytime.”
She left him to finish the work.
Two hours later, David had replaced the cracked section, reinforced the connections, and cleaned up the water damage as best he could.
Margaret insisted on paying him more than he’d quoted, and David didn’t argue.
She ran a good business, treated her employees well, and had been nothing but kind to him since the day they’d met.
He packed up his tools, said goodbye, and headed out to his truck.
The drive home took thirty minutes, the roads emptying as he left the historic district behind and wound his way toward the outskirts of town.
Trees thickened on either side of the road, houses spreading farther and farther apart until there was nothing but forest and the occasional dirt driveway leading to cabins tucked back in the woods.
His place sat at the end of a gravel road, a simple one-story cabin with a wraparound porch and a small workshop beside it.
The wood was weathered but well-maintained, the roof solid, the windows clean.
He’d built most of the furniture inside himself.
The porch swing. The dining table. The bookshelves in the living room.
It wasn’t much, but it was his.
David pulled into the driveway and cut the engine, taking a moment to just sit and breathe.
This was home now. Quiet. Isolated. Safe.
He climbed out of the truck and grabbed his toolbox from the bed just as the front door of the cabin next to his opened.
Dan Jones stepped out onto his porch, arms crossed, a sly look on his face.
David smiled despite himself. Dan’s cabin sat a good distance from his own, far enough that they weren’t on top of each other but close enough that they kept an eye out. Dan was tall and broad, with a broody expression that suggested ex-military without ever saying it outright.
“How was St. Augustine?” Dan called across the space between their houses. “Anything interesting happen?”
David set his toolbox on the porch steps. “The job went fine. Margaret’s pipes are holding for now.”
Dan’s grin widened. “That’s not what I meant.”
David sighed. “Are you hacking into street cameras again to spy on me?”
“Nope,” Dan said, shaking his head.
The door behind Dan opened, and his wife, Milly, stepped out with two beers in her hand. She crossed the porch and handed one to Dan before walking over to David with the second.
“Margaret told me about the stunning woman you ran over in the street,” Milly admitted, her eyes dancing with amusement. “She said you were all doe-eyed staring out at her when you came into the shop.”
David took the beer and shook his head. “Good grief. I’m moving back to China. At least there, everyone minds their own business.”
“I thought you hated it there,” Dan pointed out.
“And there are a LOT of cameras there,” Milly added with a laugh.
David opened the beer and took a long drink, knowing he wasn’t going to win this one. “Everyone is always watching.”
“So,” Dan said, settling onto David’s porch railing. “Who is she?”
“A tourist,” David told them.
Loud barking erupted from behind Dan’s cabin, and David turned just in time to see Chaos hurtling toward him, all legs and muscle and unbridled enthusiasm.
“Hey, boy,” David said, bracing himself as the eleven-month-old Belgian Malinois launched himself at his chest.
The dog’s paws hit David’s shoulders, and he staggered back a step, laughing as his dog, Chaos, slathered his face with kisses.
“Have you been good for Milly today?” David asked, scratching behind the dog’s ears.
“Aw,” Milly said, reaching over to scratch Chaos’s head. “He’s the best, and his training is really coming along.”