Chapter One #3
“He still around? Are you in danger?” Chad asked, glancing around the lot, even though he wasn’t sure what the heck he was looking for. Someone hiding in the trees, waiting to jump out and attack?
“No. He left. We moved up to Maine together. Wanted a fresh start. At first things were okay. But he decided he wanted to go back to Georgia. I didn’t. So he left.”
Chad frowned. “Just like that?”
“Just like that,” she confirmed. “We hadn’t even found a place to live yet.
It was a lot harder than we thought it’d be when we moved here, and Cole wasn’t totally truthful about some things.
I also couldn’t afford to stay in the motel we were in any longer.
I haven’t found a job yet ... even though I’ve been trying really hard. ”
Now that was a lot of information, and suddenly Chad was having a hard time taking it all in. “How long were you two here before he decided to bail?”
“Two weeks.”
He blinked. “Two weeks? That’s it?”
“Well, he was here two weeks before he bailed, I’ve been here for three.
He didn’t like that he couldn’t get his Taco Bell when he wanted it.
Didn’t like how much it rains. Didn’t like how cold it is here, and he got frustrated because there aren’t apartment buildings like there are back in Atlanta.
Basically, he didn’t like anything about Maine. So ... he left.”
Three weeks. That meant they’d both gotten to the area around the same time. Although Chad was well aware that their circumstances couldn’t have been more different. And her boyfriend just left her? What an idiot. “Did he do any research about the state before he decided to move?” Chad asked.
Britt shrugged. “Well, yeah, of course. We both did. Before we made the decision to move up here, we checked out the economy, the average temperatures, job market, things to do, stuff like that. He said he was cool with everything. He also swore he already had a house lined up for us to rent ... but that was obviously a lie. Like just about everything else he told me.”
Chad bit back the question, “Like what?” that he really wanted to ask. But it was none of his business. And regardless, Britt was now obviously stuck in a shitty situation. “What about you?”
She frowned. “What about me, what?”
“You want to go back to Georgia too?”
“No,” she said without hesitation. “I love it here. I like that there aren’t fast-food restaurants on every corner.
I love the fresh air and all the trees. I don’t mind it being rural, and living by the water has always been one of my favorite things.
” She shrugged. “And generally, most people I’ve met have been very nice. Besides ...”
She hesitated, her cheeks suddenly coloring. Chad waited her out, saying nothing.
Finally, she sighed before continuing. “He took all the cash we’d saved together for the move when he left—the money we could’ve used for first, last, and security on a rental.
He didn’t care that half of it was mine.
And of course he didn’t pay for the motel before he took off in the middle of the night.
I had enough in my account to pay our motel bill for the two-week stay, but not enough to stay any longer.
Which is why I’ve been sleeping in my car .
.. and why I couldn’t go back to Georgia even if I wanted to. ”
Chad hesitated for a moment, then made a decision that felt right. “You hungry?”
Her head tilted at the question, and he could practically see her shields sliding back up. “Why?” She was on guard now, and he couldn’t blame her.
“It’ll take me ten seconds to reconnect your battery.
Assuming that’s the only thing wrong with your car, it should start, and you can be on your way.
I recently moved home, as I told you, and I’m helping my mom get our property prepped for the tourist season to start again.
She’s been lonely since my dad died, and if you don’t have plans, I’m sure she’d love to meet you.
Feed you. It’s what she does best. She’s constantly trying to fatten me up.
I’m sure in a few months, I’ll be a blimp. ”
Chad was talking fast, but the more he thought about it, the better he liked the idea.
His mom needed someone to talk to, and Britt needed a place to get back on her feet.
She could help out around the house and property, and his mom would have someone to take care of, the way she’d cared for her husband.
He could see Britt was interested. It had to be exhausting, living in her car.
She was probably constantly on edge, hoping the wrong person didn’t spot her in that dark parking lot at night.
Worried about where her next meal was going to come from and where she was going to live, how she was going to survive from one day to the next.
But she also wasn’t stupid. He was a stranger. It wouldn’t be smart to just go with a man because he offered her a meal.
“That’s very generous, but I don’t think—”
“Let me call my mom. Prove to you that I’m not luring you to my lair to have my wicked way with you,” Chad interrupted. “That I’m being honest. That I do have a mother, and she’d be more than happy to meet you and spend an afternoon getting to know you.”
She still looked skeptical, but she must’ve been more desperate than he knew, because she reluctantly nodded. And that made Chad all the more determined to help her.
He immediately pulled out his cell phone and dialed his mom’s home number. He didn’t bother calling her cell—because she probably wouldn’t answer it, and it was probably dead anyway.
He didn’t know anyone else who still had a freaking landline, but he smiled thinking of the black phone hanging on the wall in the kitchen, just where it had been for years and years.
“Lobster Cove, can I help you?”
Chad smiled wider at hearing his mom’s “polite voice,” as he called it.
“Hey, Mom. It’s Chad.”
“Hi. Is everything all right?”
“Of course. I met someone. A woman. And I invited her back to the house to visit with you and have a meal, but she’s understandably nervous because I’m a stranger.”
“Give her the phone,” his mom ordered.
Chad was still smiling as he held his cell out to Britt.
“She’s kind of bossy,” he warned, knowing his mom could hear him, and not caring.
“And half the things she’ll tell you about me are lies .
.. especially if she tells the story about the time my brothers and I decided we wanted to sail to China and the Coast Guard had to rescue us when a storm came up. ”
He loved the small grin that appeared on Britt’s lips.
“I’m just going to go grab a wrench while you talk to my mom.” As soon as she took the phone from him, he turned. He heard Britt say “Hello?” as he walked away.
It took him a moment to find the correct-size wrench he needed from the toolbox in the back of the truck, and when he returned to her car, Britt still had his phone up to her ear and was nodding at whatever his mom was saying.
She didn’t say a lot herself as the conversation progressed, but Chad wasn’t surprised.
His mom could be a chatterbox, and he suspected she was even more eager than he’d guessed to have the company of another woman.
She had tons of friends in the area, but she’d always been surrounded by men at Lobster Cove.
His dad. Walt and Barry. Otis, who stopped by all the time to shoot the shit and work in the office at the auto shop.
And now, Chad and his brothers. There was a lot of testosterone in her life, and he had no doubt whatsoever that she’d open her arms without hesitation to a woman in need. Even if he hadn’t said as much, his mom was intuitive enough that she’d quickly realize Britt was definitely in need.
It didn’t take him long to fix the battery, but he continued to tinker under the hood, giving Britt all the time she needed to come to a decision as she talked to his mom.
Finally, she asked, “Do you want to talk to your son again?” She laughed lightly at whatever his mom said in reply, then added, “Okay. Yes. I’ll see you soon. Thanks. Bye.”
She clicked off the phone and held it out to him.
“So you’ll come?” Chad asked.
“Yeah. She’s . . . nice.”
“She is,” Chad agreed. “But she’s also sneaky. She has a way of getting you to agree to do things you had no intention of doing.” He smiled when he said it, so as not to freak her out. To his relief, she chuckled.
“Yeah, I can tell.”
He shut the hood of her car and nodded toward the driver’s seat. “You want to give her a crank? See if she’ll start?”
Britt moved to the door and sat behind the wheel. She turned the key and beamed at him when the engine turned over immediately. “It works!”
Chad couldn’t help but stare. The wide, surprised smile on her face made Britt shine. She still looked tired and stressed, but something about that smile had him transfixed.
“Chad?” she asked, the smile disappearing, only to be replaced by a frown.
He gave himself a mental shake. “Sorry. If I give you the address to Lobster Cove, will you be able to get there?”
“Um . . . Lobster Cove?”
“Sorry, that’s what we call our property. We’ve got Lobster Cove Rentals, Lobster Cove Auto Body, and Lobster Cove Boat Storage. It’s a whole thing. It’s a little cliché, but when in Maine ...” He let his words trail off.
He was rewarded by that smile again, the one that had him so mesmerized.
“I was thinking I’d send you straight there, but since you don’t seem sure about where it is ... would you mind waiting while I did some errands? I don’t have many. Then you can follow me home.”
“That works.”
Chad nodded. “I was going to grab some wood here, but I think I’ll go somewhere else.”
“Why?”
“Because that asshole was rude to you. And it was uncalled for. Think I’ll give my money to someone else.”
She stared at him for so long, Chad was worried he’d said something wrong. Finally, she simply nodded. “Okay.”
“Okay,” he agreed. “I should be able to get what I need at the hardware store, then I have to make a quick stop at the grocery store. That work?”
“Sure.”
Chad gave her a chin lift, then thumped the hood of her car and turned to head back for his truck before he did something stupid .
.. like invite her to ride with him. She trusted him enough to come to Lobster Cove, but he didn’t want to push his luck.
As he pulled out of the parking lot, he glanced in his rearview mirror and saw Britt was right on his tail.
A warm feeling spread through him. He wasn’t sure why. But he liked it. A lot.