Chapter 2
Two
Josh
I checked the time as I rolled out of bed.
Thirty minutes until I needed to wake Evie up.
Enough time to get dressed and have my first cup of coffee.
I needed it after spending half the night trying to figure out what was wrong with my damn dryer.
Crunchy jeans were a pain in the ass. Literally.
But thankfully it started working again late last night.
With any luck, whatever was wrong was just a fluke.
I pulled on my clothes for the day, stretching to soften the jeans I left out to air-dry overnight. My knees popped. I stretched one out and noticed movement outside the window.
It was early for my neighbor to be up. She didn’t seem like a morning person.
Nope. The woman outside was definitely not my neighbor. She was brunette instead of blonde like Ashlyn. Not how I wanted to start my day.
I stormed outside, heading straight for my dock. I was a nice enough guy that I let Ashlyn use it, but it wasn’t public fucking property. On the Bay, people respected that. But this woman definitely didn’t live here. And she didn’t belong on my property.
“Who are you?” I barked as I approached the brunette on the dock.
She startled, dropping her coffee and spinning to face me. Big brown eyes stared up at me.
I felt a little bad, but I would not let a pretty face and tempting curves make me forget the most important thing in my life. I crossed my arms over my chest, hoping I looked intimidating enough for her to get the hell off my property.
She didn’t say a thing.
“This is private property. You can’t be here. You need to leave.”
That got her attention. “Excuse me?”
I pointed to where she stood, hoping she’d finally take the damn hint. “That dock is not public. I own it, and you’re trespassing. I don’t know where you came from, but you don’t belong here.”
She scoffed at me. One hand went to a wide hip.
Fucking hell, I needed to get a damn grip. This woman was testing my resolve. My dick rose at the attitude she tossed out. And the curves. And every-damn-thing about her. I liked a woman with fire.
Too bad I’d been burned.
“Please get off my dock and go back to wherever you’re staying. Don’t come back here.”
She didn’t look dangerous, but I couldn’t trust a trespasser to stop at one minor crime. Evie was sleeping.
A cold sweat ran down my back as I realized this woman could have an accomplice. Evie was in the house alone. Sleeping. Someone could sneak in and hurt her. Someone could—
“Screw you,” the woman said. She bent to pick up her empty coffee cup, then brushed past me. She started up the hill.
“Where are you going?”
She spun on me, taking another step toward me and getting in my face.
As much as she could with the four inches of height between us.
“You said to leave, and now you want to know why I’m leaving?
What the hell is wrong with you? I’m going to my friend’s house.
I don’t know who the hell you are, but you don’t own this whole Bay. ”
I stared her down for a minute, watching the golden swirls in her brown eyes. The urge to kiss her was strong, but nope. Not going there. Whoever her friend was needed to tell her she couldn’t just wander onto private property.
She exhaled a disgusted huff, then spun on her heel and stomped her way up the hill.
To Ashlyn’s house.
“What the hell?”
She let herself inside, closing the slider and disappearing into the darkness of the house.
I glanced past the house to the driveway and spotted a red convertible next to Ashlyn’s SUV. Fuck. I didn’t notice she had company. And I went and scared the woman and acted like an asshole.
I dragged myself back to my house, my jeans rubbing against my thighs with each step. In my rush to confront the trespasser, I shoved my feet into slides, something I regretted as I made my way home and stepped on a twig. “Fuck,” I hissed.
Great fucking day.
I examined my foot, finding a scratch that was seeping blood onto my shoe. Nothing to do but keep going.
Evie was at the counter when I walked inside, staring at the stove like it was going to make breakfast for her.
“Morning, sweetheart,” I said, walking over to her and giving her a hug. I kissed the top of her head. “What do you want for breakfast?”
She shrugged.
“Last exam, then you’re officially a high school graduate. Are you excited?”
A hint of a smile accompanied that shrug.
“How about dinner tonight?”
She lifted green eyes to mine. “Can we go to Lakeside Bistro?”
I pressed my lips together to hide my smirk. I figured she’d want to go to the nicest restaurant in town. “Craving a steak?”
“Always,” she said without hesitation.
I chuckled. “Sure.”
“Yes!” She threw her hands up in victory. “Thanks, Dad. You’re the best.”
“You’re going to milk this all summer, aren’t you?”
She nodded. “Yep.”
“You deserve it. I know you’ve worked hard to do well. And we only have two months until orientation, so we need to pack in as much as we can.”
“Mom said the same thing.”
I bit back a scowl at the mention of my ex-wife. Hannah was a pain in my ass, but she was a good mother. I never spoke poorly of her in front of my daughter, no matter how many times Hannah manipulated our lives to get what she wanted.
“You didn’t make coffee,” she said, sliding off the stool.
“Sorry. I’ll do it in a second.” I remembered my bleeding foot. It wasn’t bad, but it needed to be cleaned up. “Let me take care of this quickly.”
Evie nodded and preceded me down the hallway to her room.
She closed her door, and I crossed through my bedroom to my bathroom.
I made quick work of the cut, hoping I wouldn’t need to ask Christy to check it out.
My best friend and neighbor was a nurse in the emergency department.
She would complain, as she always did when Oscar and I asked for her services, but she always helped us out.
Oscar, Christy, and I grew up together. The two of them were the closest thing I had to family besides my seventeen-year-old daughter.
Ten minutes later, my foot was fine, coffee was brewed, and French toast was on the stovetop.
“Did you make French toast?” Evie asked as she walked back into the kitchen, dressed for her last exam in shorts that made me cringe and a top that could not possibly be within the dress code.
I nodded, not commenting on her clothes since the school didn’t have air-conditioning and it was going to be in the nineties by lunch. And far too soon, she was going to college, and I wouldn’t know what she was wearing, let alone be able to say anything about it.
“You’re my favorite dad ever.”
I snorted. “You say that to all your dads.”
“Nope, just you.”
I grinned. Her stepfather was a bit of a dick. He let Hannah spend money on Evie, so I never said anything bad about him either, but he was definitely not a father-figure for my kid. Good thing, too, because that would have been a problem.
Evie ate her breakfast and drank her coffee in silence. I didn’t allow phones at the table, but she wasn’t awake enough yet for conversation.
I couldn’t help but try, though. “What else do you want to do this summer before you go to school?”
“I don’t know. Working at the hospital with Aunt Christy is going to take up a lot of my time. I want to spend time with Maddie and Katie, too. There are a lot of graduation parties.”
The time was slipping away faster than I could hold on to it. Eighteen years went by in a flash. And the next few weeks were going to go by even faster. “Make sure you save a little time for your old man, too.”
She chuckled and slid off the stool she’d sat in since she was old enough to climb up onto it. She lifted onto her toes and kissed my cheek. “I will, Dad. I gotta go. Love you!”
“Love you!” I called after her.
She grabbed her backpack and headed out the door. Seconds later, the car her mother bought her started up, then she drove away.
Which meant I needed to move it, or I’d be late for work.
My knuckles were bruised, but nothing was broken. My hand slipped as I tightened a nut, smashing into the side of the cabinet where I was working. It fucking hurt, but it would heal.
I stepped off the ferry and smiled. My job as a ferry mechanic wasn’t glamorous or fancy, but I loved it.
It was my dream to work on the ferry from the first time I stepped foot on the boat that carried passengers from New York to Vermont.
I didn’t really care what I did, as long as I got to call the ferry my office.
Being a mechanic came easily to me. I always loved working with my hands, a skill my father cultivated in me as soon as I was old enough to bring him tools.
He and my mother made sure I knew how to maintain things around the house.
As an only child, I spent time with both my dad in the workshop and my mom in the kitchen.
Skills that came in handy when I married Hannah.
I washed my hands in the employee restroom before heading to my truck. I could make a fist. My hand would be fine. Probably. I drove home with my left hand, just in case.
Evie’s car was in the driveway when I got home. I wasn’t sure if she’d come here after her exam or go to her mom’s, but I was happy to see her car.
“Josh!” I heard as I started toward my door.
I spun and saw Ashlyn approaching. When she moved in next door, I wasn’t sure about her as a neighbor.
Her family had a camp in the area when she was younger, and she moved here years ago.
I was sure she’d be gone after the first winter, like most campers.
They bought houses to spend summers on Lake Champlain, but those houses were closed up by late fall and no one stepped in them until spring.
But Ashlyn didn’t shy away from the bitter-cold winters or the quietness of living in Amethyst Bay year-round.
“Hey, Ashlyn.”
“I’m sorry Reegan was on the dock this morning. I told her yesterday she could go down there, but I never thought to call you and let you know she was here.”