Chapter Seven #3
Nick was measuring a fresh board for a third time when his phone, which he’d tossed on a makeshift worktable nearby, started ringing, and he swore under his breath. It was no wonder he cut the board wrong.
Since the three people he generally answered calls from 24/7 were in the building with him, and he’d spoken to the overly anxious homeowner less than an hour ago, he was tempted to ignore it. But the possibility it might be Lucy made him put down the level and pick up the phone.
When he glanced at the screen, though, he saw his insurance agent’s name flashing at him. Dreading a new problem to solve, he answered the call.
Ten minutes later, Nick parked his truck as close to Barnett Insurance as he could find a spot and started walking. The redhead in his favorite hoodie sitting in the center of the sidewalk wasn’t hard to spot.
When he reached her and stopped, she looked up at him and smiled as if sitting on the sidewalk with a cat in her lap was a totally typical thing to do in the middle of a workday.
“What’s going on?” he asked when she didn’t say anything.
Lucy shrugged. “I’m doing an errand.”
“According to Keith Barnett, who owns the insurance company behind you and called me because he’s worried about you, your errand has consisted of sitting in the middle of the sidewalk for over half an hour.”
“Dolly wanted to say hi, so I bent over to pet her, but she wanted more and more pets. My back started to hurt, so I sat down to pet her, and then she crawled into my lap and went to sleep.” She shrugged. “You can’t move if a cat’s sleeping on you. It’s the rules.”
Nick arched an eyebrow at the cat, who was side-eyeing him without moving her head. “She’s not asleep.”
“Probably because some guy came and blocked out her sun and woke her up with his deep, grumpy voice.”
“If my voice is grumpy—and I don’t think it is—maybe it’s because I had to leave the jobsite early because Keith was worried about you, but you’re just here being a cat bed.”
“If Keith was so worried, why didn’t he come out himself and just ask me if I’m okay?”
“We mind our own business around here.”
“Oh, clearly.” She snorted out a laugh, earning an annoyed glance from Dolly.
Lucy had a valid point, of course. But what she didn’t seem to understand—and what Nick didn’t want to explain to her—was that Keith had probably watched her long enough to determine she wasn’t ill or injured.
No, she’d clearly been going through something that wasn’t Keith’s business. But out of concern, he’d called Nick.
Because everybody in Wayward Harbor knew that Lucy was staying with Nick. That she was his responsibility.
Sighing, he extended a hand to help her up. When she grimaced and didn’t take it, he folded his arms and waited.
“So, my foot fell asleep a while ago,” she admitted. “And I’m afraid when I try to get up, I’m going to fall over and, one, that would be embarrassing. And two, it might actually hurt.”
“Do you think that would be more or less embarrassing than being the woman who was sitting in the middle of the sidewalk with a cat in her lap for more than half an hour?”
“I don’t believe for a second I’m the first person to ever sit and visit with Dolly for a while.”
“I’ll give you that,” he said as the cat stepped out of Lucy’s lap, stretched in a way Nick envied, and then sauntered away. “Though most people sit on one of the park benches so pedestrians don’t trip over them.”
This time, when Nick extended his hand, she took it. He hauled her to her feet, and after a few seconds, he thought she was steady, so he released her hand.
Then her leg caved—maybe it was her feet not having feeling back or maybe it was the heel on her boot twisting—but suddenly he had an armful of Lucy.
Her entire body was pressed to his, and his arms wrapped around her, holding her close. Heat shot through him, and he knew he should let her go and step back, but he was afraid she’d fall.
Everything around him faded away until all that remained was Lucy in his arms. The warmth of her body. The red curls tickling the side of his face. Her fingers clutching his arms.
When she started shaking, he got scared for a second, but then he realized she was laughing. She pulled away enough so he could see her face, though she was still clutching his sweatshirt. Her face was flushed, her eyes sparkling with humor, and she’d never looked more beautiful to him.
“I told you it would be embarrassing,” she said breathlessly.
He couldn’t say any of the things he wanted to say to her in that moment, so he just shook his head. “Why are you wearing heels?”
“These? They’re not even high heels.” After a few test stomps of her feet, she backed away, and every muscle in his body mourned the loss of contact. “And I wanted to look nice today.”
“Where did you park? I’ll walk you back to your car.”
“I’m parked over by Cricket, but I’ll be fine. You probably have to go back to work.”
He shrugged. “It’s a nice day.”
“It’s actually pretty cold.”
“Come on. I’d hate for you to fall down again and get hyperthermia. People might leave you there because you’ve established a reputation for randomly plopping down on the sidewalks.”
“A reputation?” She laughed and slapped his arm. “It was one time.”
“That’s all it takes sometimes.”
They walked in comfortable silence for a few minutes before she glanced over at him. “Speaking of reputations, you know all the stories in Wayward Harbor, right?”
“I don’t know a fraction of the stories in Wayward Harbor, but I do know a few, yes.”
“Do you know why some old guy I saw at the Uneven Keel would be called Bones?”
“Yup.” He nodded. “But first off, if you want to blend in at all, the locals just call it the Keel.”
“So noted, though I don’t think it’s possible for me to blend in. But back to Bones—did he find a skeleton in a cave? Pull up a skull on his fishing line? Does he have a weird hobby building things out of fish bones?”
“He choked on a chicken bone in third grade.”
“Oh.”
“Also, he’s only, like, fifty-five.”
“Oh. No. Really?”
“Yeah. He went to school with my dad—same class—so he’s roughly the same age my dad would have been today.”
“I’m sorry. Does it bother you to talk about him?”
“Not really. It used to, in the beginning. But now, I guess it hurts less to remember him than it would to forget him.” It was true, but he didn’t want to go too deep into it. “What about your dad?”
She shrugged. “Unknown.”
“You don’t know where he is?”
“I don’t even know who he is.” Her easy smile and shrug let him know it was something that didn’t bother her. “His name is unknown on my birth certificate.”
Old rumors about Iris ran through his mind, but he was not going there, so his brain circled back in the conversation, and he glanced at her again. “Why were you at the Keel?”
“Oh, I got a job there.”
“Of course you did. Tell me, did you actually meet Billy?”
“I did.” In his peripheral vision, he saw her turn and give him a brilliant grin. “It’ll be fine. I have a way with grumpy dudes.”
But Nick, still off-kilter from the feel of Lucy in his arms, imagined coming home after work to an empty cottage because she was working, and he didn’t even crack a smile.