Chapter 9
NINE
austin
When we walked into Moe’s, Veronica was greeted like a celebrity.
Gus, my dad’s old friend, and grumpy Larry, who owned the barber shop, were on their way out, and we crossed paths just inside the door.
“Veronica!” Gus exclaimed with a grin on his face. “You’re back!”
“I’m back. Hi, Gus.” Then she smiled at the usually cantankerous barber. “Hi, Larry.”
The old curmudgeon actually blushed. “Hi, Veronica.”
“Hey!” Ari, who’d been pouring coffee for someone at the counter, set down her pot and came running over to envelop her in a hug, like they were long-lost friends. “You’re still here!”
“I’m still here,” Veronica said with a laugh. “For the moment.”
“I’m so glad it worked out with the job.” Ari smiled from me to the kids to Veronica again.
“Oh.” Veronica’s cheeks went pink. “Actually, I’m not staying in town.”
“We just came in for breakfast,” I said, feeling like an asshole again for not hiring her.
“But what about the job?” Gus persisted.
Veronica glanced at me. “It didn’t work out.”
“You didn’t hire her?” Larry turned to me, his face arranged in its usual get-off-my-lawn expression. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing.” I looked past him to Ari. “Can we get a table please?”
“Sure thing, Austin. Right this way.”
We followed her to the back of the diner and slid into opposite sides of an empty booth. Owen got in next to Veronica, and Adelaide pouted. “I want to sit by Veronica!”
Her brother shrugged. “I got here first.”
“Because you pushed me out of the way. Dad, Owen pushed me.”
“Enough.” I looked at my daughter. “Now sit down.”
“Fine.” Looking mad about it, Adelaide flopped into the booth and crossed her arms, like sitting next to me was a punishment.
“Maybe you could take turns,” Veronica suggested. “Owen can sit on this side while we wait, and then you can switch when the food comes? Like musical chairs.”
The twins looked at each other and nodded. “Okay,” Owen said. “Dad, can we have some money for the jukebox?”
“What was the point of the argument about where you’re sitting if you’re just getting up to leave?” I griped, but I reached into my jeans pocket and pulled out a handful of quarters. “And what do you want to eat?”
“Chocolate chip pancakes,” said Owen, sliding out of the booth.
“French toast.” Adelaide took the quarters from me and followed her brother to the corner of the diner where the jukebox sat.
“Now they’ll argue about which songs to play,” I said moodily. “And who gets to choose the first one.”
Veronica laughed. “I hope you gave them an even number of quarters.”
Ari approached with menus and a coffee pot. “Coffee, you two?”
“Yes, please.” Veronica turned over the plain white mug on the placemat in front of her.
“Can I have almond milk please?” I asked.
“Sure thing. Give me one sec.” Ari poured two cups of coffee and left the menus, but since I knew everything on it by heart—not much changed from year to year in Cherry Tree Harbor, and the menu at Moe’s was no exception—I covertly studied Veronica instead.
She licked her bottom lip as she read the menu.
She was so fucking pretty. Would it be so bad having her across the table from me all summer? The kids liked her. My brother and sister liked her. Even the town grump liked her.
And she was so down on her luck—I understood that. She needed a break. I could give her one, and she’d be helping me out too.
It would only be for eight weeks, since I’d taken the last two weeks of August off for vacation. I could resist temptation for eight weeks and do a good thing, couldn’t I?
Ari returned with the almond milk and took our orders, and when we were alone again, I leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Veronica, I’ve been thinking. Maybe—”
“Oh, no.” She was looking at her phone.
“What is it?”
“My phone. I think it’s been shut off.” She handed it to me, and sure enough, it was completely dead.
“You charged it last night?”
“Yes. Mabel left me an extra charger and it was plugged in all night. When we left your house, it was at one hundred percent. It’s Neil—he must have cut service to my number.”
“Seriously? He controlled your phone?”
She nodded tearfully. “He’s punishing me.”
I wanted to show up on this guy’s doorstep and fucking punch his rich-ass lights out. “Okay, that’s it. You’re hired.”
“Huh?”
“You’re not going back to Chicago or anywhere near that apartment he owns. You’re staying here.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Yes, you can. You are.” My jaw ticked. “It’s final.”
“I don’t need to be rescued, Austin.” She shook her head. “And I’m not trading one bully for another one.”
“Sorry.” I took the edge off my tone and eased up on the commands. “I didn’t mean to order you around. I just don’t like the idea of sending you alone back to Chicago to face him.”
“I’m not afraid of him.” Her blue eyes were bright and clear, her chin lifted.
“I believe you. But I’d still like you to stay.”
“What about clothes?”
I thought for a moment. “Can you get along with what you have for a few weeks? Once the kids are out in California, I could take you to Chicago to get what you want.”
Her eyes widened. “You’d do that?”
“Yeah. I’m making a table for a couple in Saugatuck that will be ready by then. I’ll deliver it on the way.”
“You make furniture?”
I shrugged. “Here and there. So what do you say? The job includes room and board, and I’ll pay you weekly on top of that. You’d have to commit through the middle of August. You’d have time off when the kids visit their mom next month.”
She appeared to think about it, knotting her hands together on the tabletop. “Okay.”
“So you’ll take the position?”
“I’ll take it.”
“Good.” Our eyes met, and my body hummed—a warning. “But I think we should probably . . .” I glanced over at the kids. “Set some boundaries.”
She sat up taller. “Definitely.”
I lowered my voice. “What happened last night can’t happen again.”
“I agree completely.”
“It was just . . .” I grappled for what it was. The full moon? A moment of weakness? A fear deep in my gut that my brother was right and I was indeed a fucking idiot?
“I don’t think it was any one thing,” Veronica said.
“Whatever it was, it stays between us.”
She mimed zipping her lips, then smiled at me, her eyes twinkling.
Great, now we had a secret. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a secret with someone. It made me feel closer to her, which was precisely the opposite of how I wanted to feel.
Maybe that’s why I said what I said next.
“It never should have happened in the first place.”
She looked a little taken aback. “Probably not, but—”
“It was my fault,” I interrupted. “Completely.”
“I don’t think we need to assign blame, Austin.”
“You were lonely and vulnerable and confused. It affected me.”
“Okay, wait just one minute.” She held up one hand. “Maybe I was lonely, but I wasn’t vulnerable and confused. I knew what I wanted.” Those eyes pinned me with an icy stare. “And you did too.”
“Not really.” I picked up my coffee cup and took a sip without tasting it.
“You’re saying you didn’t want to kiss me?”
“I’m saying it was late, it was dark—”
“Dark?” Her eyebrows shot up. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Lower your voice, please.” I set the mug down, frantically trying to think of a way to extricate myself from the mess I’d just made. What the fuck was my problem? “All I’m saying is that I got carried away. I felt sorry for you, and I acted totally out of character.”
“You felt sorry for me?” She leaned forward. Her gaze traveled downward—toward my lap. “Is that what that was against my stomach?”
My face burned. “Look, I don’t even know what we’re arguing about. Bottom line, while you’re working for me, we’ll have to keep our distance.”
“It won’t be a problem, because I have no intention of working for you.” With that, she dropped her dead phone back in her purse and left the booth.
When I heard the bell over the door jingle, I closed my eyes.
You’re better off, said the rational voice in my head. Having her around would have been a disaster. You heard her—she doesn’t need to be rescued. You’re too attracted to her, and she gets under your skin too easily. You’d be on edge all the fucking time.
But where the hell was she going to go?
“Dad, can we have some more quarters?”
I opened my eyes to see the twins standing at the side of the booth. “No. That’s all I brought.”
“Where’s Veronica?” Adelaide asked, looking at the empty side of the booth.
“She left.”
Owen glanced behind me, toward the door. “Where’d she go?”
“I don’t know,” I said irritably.
“What about her suitcase? It’s in our car,” Adelaide reminded me.
“Fuck.” I pinched the bridge of my nose.
The twins looked at each other and gasped.
“Yes, I said a bad word,” I barked. “Get over it.”
“Why are you so mad?” Owen asked as Ari arrived with the food.
“I don’t know, I just am! Now sit down.” I pointed at the seat Veronica had vacated. “Both of you over there.”
Adelaide looked concerned, glancing toward the door. “But what if Veronica comes back?”
I was more worried about her not coming back. “Let’s just eat.”
But I wasn’t hungry.
While the kids gobbled up their breakfasts, I drank coffee and brooded over Veronica’s abrupt departure. Every time I heard the bell over the door ring, I turned around and hoped to see her walking toward our booth.
The twins kept badgering me. Where had she gone? Why had she left without saying goodbye? What were we going to do with her suitcase? Would we ever see her again?
“Stop with the questions already.” I put my empty mug down. My hand was shaking, I’d had so much caffeine. “We’ll find her.”
“But why would she run away like that?” Adelaide persisted.
“She ran away because I hurt her feelings,” I finally said, signaling to Ari to bring the bill.
“What did you say?”
“It doesn’t matter. But listen, you two.” I leaned my elbows on the table. “What do you think of having her as your nanny this summer?”
“Yes!” Owen said, stuffing a forkful of pancake in his mouth. “I like her. She’s fun.”