Chapter 2 #2
“I also didn’t want you to wake up alone in a place you’ve never been. That’s happened to me too many times, and I do not recommend it.” I grab the coffee cups and hold both out to her. “Cream and sugar, or black?”
Lindsay hesitates, but when she licks her lips, I know she’s about to cave. “Cream and sugar, please.”
I pull out a chair for her at the table and take the one opposite her. We settle into a companionable silence as she nibbles on a pastry. I sip my black coffee and decline the bagel she offers me, encouraging her to eat that too.
It’s incredibly difficult to pull my gaze from her mouth as she eats.
Those lips create a flurry of filthy images in my mind.
I can still remember the way they moved against mine all those years ago, and I envision the ways she could use them all over my body.
A shiver rips through me at the thought.
“What are you thinking about?” she asks, pulling me from my indecent thoughts.
Shit. Be cool. Think of something that won’t freak her out.
“Uh, I wanted to apologize for this morning. The way you woke up. If there’d been a better way to go about it, believe me, I would’ve done it. It must’ve been terrifying. For all intense purposes, I’m a stranger to you, and here I am sitting a foot away while you’re passed out cold.”
Her lips quirk as she studies me. “Do you mean, for all intents and purposes?”
I shake my head. It’s a common mistake, so I understand why she needed to clarify. “Nah. I mean intense purposes. As in, this was an intense situation.”
She opens her mouth to say something, then closes it. Eventually, I notice the barest hint of a smile as she takes a sip of coffee. “Right.”
After she finishes eating, we head outside to my truck. When I reach the passenger side, she steps back, looking confused. I open her door, and the tension seems to leave her shoulders.
My forearm prickles with electricity when she brushes past me and her skin meets mine. It was brief, just the back of her hand, but I felt it down to my toes.
“Oh,” she mutters through a sigh. “Thank you.”
Her phone rings as soon as she buckles her seatbelt, and I make a weak attempt to avoid listening in.
“Hey, Isla. Is Jules okay?” Lindsay asks. She giggles at something, then says, “Yeah, I’m heading back now. I’ll pick her up around lunchtime. That okay?”
The call ends, and I see her turn to me out of the corner of my eye.
“My daughter stayed at my sister’s place last night.”
“Right,” I reply. “Jules. Thirteen. Loves Sabrina Carpenter.”
She jerks back in her seat. “How did you––”
“You told me last night.”
She presses her palm to her forehead. “Shit. Yeah, I remember very little after that second martini you made me.”
“That’s okay. You were mostly giggling, dancing in your seat, and telling me how incredible your daughter is.”
Her smile is wide as she nods. “She’s the best.”
The rest of the drive back to the bar is quiet, so I turn up the radio when Alanis Morrisette’s “You Learn” comes on and hum along with it. Normally, I’d sing, but I’m no Grammy winner, and I’m sure Lindsay’s head hurts as it is. No reason to add to her pain.
“I love this song,” she says quietly, her head leaning against the window.
“They don’t make `em like Alanis anymore,” I reply in agreement.
“Oh yeah? Is she one of your favorites?”
I scoff. “Of course. Along with many of her peers from the nineties.”
She chuckles. “Yeah, same. That particular period of rock seems to get better with time.”
“That’s for damn sure.”
I feel her eyes linger on me for several moments before returning to the passing trees, their remaining leaves desperately clinging to the branches.
The chill in the air is getting sharper, indicating fall has one foot out the door and winter is moments from blasting onto the scene.
My mind immediately ponders when the first snow will arrive, how many storms we’ll get this season, and how that’ll impact Lindsay’s ability to come visit. If she even wants to.
She lives in Boston, a two-hour drive from Mapletown without traffic. Her best friend lives here, but how often would she want to escape her everyday life in the dead of winter to come see her? I swallow the hard lump forming in my throat.
Is this the last time I’ll see her?
No.
It can’t be.
There are too many things I still want to say. So much I don’t know about her life from the day we kissed up to now. She doesn’t know we’ve met before. Will I get the chance to tell her?
As I pull onto the gravel of Fast Glass Tavern’s parking lot, I spot Lindsay’s phone resting on the console between our knees. Before I stop myself, I swerve hard to the right before pulling into the spot closest to the door.
“Whoopsie daisy,” I say with an innocent grin, as her phone slides off the console and lands next to my ankle.
Lindsay’s eyes are wide as she brushes the long, silky strands of hair off her face.
“Keep forgetting to fill that pothole.”
“It’s fine.” She grabs her purse and opens the passenger door, giving me just enough time to do what I should’ve done while she was asleep.
I walk her to her car, nerves pumping through my blood as I figure out how the hell I’m supposed to let her drive away without knowing when I’ll see her again, when the squeaky brakes of an old sedan fill the brisk morning air.
It’s Camilla, and I can see her daughter’s wild curls flying around her head in the passenger seat. Why would she be here more than two hours before we open? Camilla stops next to where we’re standing and rolls down the passenger window.
“Hi, Dom, I’m so sorry to do this, but would you mind watching Rocío and Hugo for an hour?” Camilla asks with a panicked frown tugging at her lips. “I have a coven meeting and Morty got called into work at the hospital.”
“Yeah, of course,” I tell her, silently going through the tasks I need to finish before we open.
I’ve watched the kids before, and they mostly keep to themselves as they sit at the bar, especially Hugo.
I feed them as much soda and pretzels as they want, begging them to downplay the quantity to their mother.
“I have a delivery coming in an hour, but otherwise, I’ll just be doing prep. ”
“That’s okay. Ro has homework to finish, and Hugo has his sensory bin, and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
I wave dismissively. “Bah, take your time. Me and the kiddos will be just fine.”
“You are an angel, Dominic!” She smiles widely and waves at Lindsay before pulling away to park a few spots down.
An angel. I almost want to laugh at the absurd comparison. If only she knew me…before.
When I turn to Lindsay, I find her staring at me, looking…the best way to describe it is baffled.
“What?”
“You babysit the children of Mapletown often while at work?”
I shrug, not understanding her level of shock. “Not that often, but when people ask, I usually say yes.” Unless we’re slammed, I couldn’t imagine denying such a request. I love being around kids. They’re brutally honest and curious in a way more adults should be.
Lindsay mutters something under her breath, and I only catch, “selfless and hot,” before she opens her car door and tosses her purse onto the passenger seat.
“Well, thank you for letting me drink for free and not using my inebriated state as a chance to chop me up in little pieces and scatter my remains on the side of the road.”
“Jesus, is the bar really that low?” I chuckle.
Her lips form a stern line. “Statistically, yes.”
I take her phone from my back pocket and hold it out for her. “It was my pleasure, Lindsay Abbadelli.”
A twinkle in her eye makes my heart thump so hard inside my chest I place a hand over it to keep it from bursting through my skin. And the freckles that dot her nose and cheeks––damn, they’re pretty.
“See you around, Dominic…”
“Jennings,” I tell her. “Dominic Jennings.”
She starts her car, and I loathe the sound of her soon exit. My lips part, but I swallow a desperate plea for her to stay before it escapes.
“Take care,” she says, rolling up her window.
I watch her pull out of the lot and turn onto Mountain View Road, my feet unable to move until I can no longer hear the soft rumble of the engine, knowing that this breathtaking woman from my past will occupy my every waking thought until I can get lost in her eyes again.