Chapter 13

13

N eeding at least one moment of peace before starting her day, Elsie tiptoed into the kitchen, brewed a single cup of coffee, and stepped onto the back deck. Most mornings were too hectic to allow her the time to sit and soak up some quiet before tackling her day.

But not today. Today she had nowhere to be. No child to help get ready. No store to open.

Despair threatened to grab hold of her and suck her into its ugly vortex, but she fought against it. There was plenty of time to dwell on the negative. She’d take a few seconds to sip her hot coffee and watch the sunrise over the mountains.

“Good morning.”

She jumped at the sound of Dean’s husky voice, sloshing coffee over the side of her mug. “Sorry. I didn’t know you were awake.”

He sat at the two-person table tucked at the back of the deck. His laptop was closed in front of him with a blue mug beside it. “I’m an early riser. I like to start my day out here with Boo. Get my head on straight.”

“I can go back inside if you’d like to be alone.” Not as if she wanted to but she felt an obligation to make the offer. She was already intruding enough on his space.

Then there were all the feelings he’d stirred up inside her. Their little game night was supposed to distract her from all her troubles but ended up placing even more on her mind. Mainly Dean and the ex-wife he left in California. His willingness to open up had shocked her, but something didn’t sit right about using a game to make him talk.

“No, sit,” he said. “I’m not used to being out here by myself to watch the sunrise. Makes me miss my dog.”

Crossing the worn wooden planks to sit across from him, she wrinkled her nose. “We can pick him up if you’d like. It was nice of you to let Boo stay with Jimmy, but I’m sure he’s dying to come home.”

Dean snorted. “Doubt it. When he senses someone’s turmoil, he sticks to them like glue. That’s why he hasn’t left my side much this past year.”

“Well, I know Jimmy’s enjoying having him around.”

“Have you spoken with him this morning?”

She shook her head and took a sip of coffee. The bitter, black liquid scalded her tongue before sliding down her throat. “Not yet. Since my mom is keeping him home from school, he’ll want to sleep in a little. Not like it’ll be that late, 8:00 am max, if he was able to sleep at all.”

“I’m sure your parents kept him pretty busy yesterday. Probably tuckered the little man out.”

“I hope so, although not much would make him forget he hasn’t spoken to his mom, and nobody knows where she is.” A familiar stab of pain echoed inside her. She didn’t want to dwell on all the negative possibilities of where Mila was, only on how to bring her home. “I had fun last night. I can’t think of anything else that would have distracted me as much as grilling you over a friendly game of UNO.”

“You took it easy on me,” he said with a grin.

Lifting her shoulder, she leaned back in her chair and kept her gaze on the glow of the sun hovering around the mountain peaks. Birds chirped and the colorful explosion of leaves in the woods around them shimmered in the early morning air.

She considered playing coy but didn’t want to. Didn’t want to pretend like Dean meant nothing to her. Didn’t want to sit here and act like she didn’t want to strip him down and know the real him. “I want you to tell me things because you want to, not because you feel obligated—even if by a game. These last couple of days have been absolute hell but spending time with you has been a bright light. I want to get to know you outside of this craziness. When we can take time to be two normal people, opening up to someone we care about. Someone we want to know, because it feels right.”

He stared at her with wide eyes, mouth slightly agape.

Shit .

She should have kept her mouth shut. Now she’d gone and made everything awkward as hell. Humiliation scorched the back of her neck and crept around to her face, probably shining like a beacon.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything. Just forget it.” She shot to her feet and took a step toward the door when a warm hand stopped her in her tacks. She turned and was so close to Dean, the scent of sandalwood and citrus wafted over her. She stared up at him and swallowed hard at the fire in his eyes.

“I don’t want to forget it, don’t want to ignore whatever’s happening between us. I won’t lie, the idea of getting close to you has scared me for a while. I’ve tried to keep my distance. Tried to tell myself we’re only friends.” Erasing the space between them, he smoothed his palm against her jawline. “But honestly, I don’t want to be just friends.”

Her throat went dry. Before she could talk herself out of acting on her feelings, before logic and sense stormed back to take center stage in her brain, she lifted onto her toes and pressed her lips to his. Electricity shot through her veins and stole her breath. Stars burst behind her closed eyelids. Her core tingled, and she pressed her body closer to his.

His arm went around her waist, and his tongue pressed into her mouth. His lips moved in a steady rhythm with hers.

She moaned, her entire being wanting more of him. More of his touch, his taste, his tongue. In this moment, she wanted to escape the fear and worry and growing doubt that her friend was still alive.

She simply wanted Dean.

The sound of the doorbell broke them apart.

Dean rested his forehead on hers and pulled in a long breath. “Whoever that is has the worst timing ever.”

She chuckled and found his hand with hers. “Come on. Let’s see who it is. If it’s nothing important, we’ll ask them to leave and continue this somewhere a little more comfortable.”

A low growl hummed from his throat before he led her inside and marched for the front door. He yanked open the door and his body went rigid. “Gina? What the hell are you doing here?”

Dean’s entire world tilted on its axis. Cold hard anger settled like a rock in the pit of his stomach. He hadn’t laid eyes on his ex-wife since she’d thrown his clothes on the lawn and told him their marriage was over.

And now she was here. In his house. With the same smile on her face that he fell in love with so many years ago.

Gina’s gaze landed on his and Elsie’s joined hands and her smile faltered for an instant. “Hi, Dean. I hoped to find you home, but I didn’t mean to…interrupt.”

Dean released Elsie’s hand and wiped his palm on the soft material of his gym shorts. “You didn’t answer my question. Why are you here?”

Gina ran her hands through her thick, black hair—a nervous habit she’d never been able to break. Her blue eyes were wide, her tall, slim frame showcased in a fitted long-sleeved shirt and leggings. “Can we talk?”

Elsie shifted at his side then wrapped her arms around her middle. “I have some things to take care of. I’ll just step out on the back deck.”

“You don’t have to go,” he said, kicking himself for not being more considerate of her. “Gina, this is my friend Elsie.”

Gina tucked in her lips and gave Elsie a little nod. “Nice to meet you.”

“You, too.” She lifted her gaze to Dean’s. “I’ll give you some privacy.”

The flash of hurt in Elsie’s eyes cut him at the knees. He wanted to reach for her, to tell her to stay, to tuck her hand back in his, but shock paralyzed him. Before he could respond, she lifted her hand in a hip-high wave and hurried out the back door.

“She’s here awfully early in the morning.” The tight clip of Gina’s words snapped him back to reality.

“What concern of yours is that? You threw me out, left me for someone else, remember?” Squeezing the back of his neck, he stormed into the kitchen, leaving her in the foyer. He didn’t care if it was rude, he needed to move. He couldn’t just stand there like an idiot in front of the woman who’d broken his heart.

Timid footsteps followed after him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have reacted like that. You’re right. It’s not my business who you have in your home at any time of day. I just wasn’t expecting to find anyone here with you.”

Needing to do something with his hands, he opened the refrigerator door then shut it when he couldn’t find anything of interest. He faced her, hating the way she could send him into a tailspin after all this time. “What did you expect?”

She shrugged, her confidence never wavering. “I told you. I wanted to talk.”

“About what?”

“Us.” Rounding the island, she took a step toward him.

“There is no us. Hasn’t been since you slept with another man while we were married then divorced me.” He scrubbed a palm over his face.

“I made a mistake.” Her smile finally fell. Tears hovered over her dark lashes, making the blue of her eyes the color of the sea. “I was lonely and stupid. I thought your job was the problem and if you would have just quit—would have just chosen me—then everything would be okay. But I didn’t understand I was part of the problem.”

He snorted. “Did you think screwing someone else might have been another part of that problem?”

She winced, red clashing against her tanned cheeks. “I deserve that.”

He tilted his head to the side, studying her. She’d wanted out of this town more than she’d wanted her next breath, never returning with him on visits home. He’d been her ticket out of Tennessee, and once she’d escaped, she’d moved on to someone else.

Someone who could give her what he couldn’t.

“Where’s Andy?” The other man’s name on his tongue churned his stomach.

She straightened and looked him dead in the eye. “It didn’t work out. I made a mistake.”

His body tensed. He’d wanted to hear those words for so damn long, but now that Gina had finally said them, they meant nothing. “That’s not my problem anymore.”

She sucked in a sharp breath and took another step. “Listen, I know we can work past what happened. We both made rash decisions, made choices that pushed the other away.”

“Are you kidding me?” He couldn’t stand there and listen to more of her bullshit. “You think me not wanting to quit my job is the same as you cheating on me? Leaving me? Kicking me out of the home we made? You have some gall coming back here and making such a ridiculous claim.”

“Well, if you didn’t leave me waiting up all night, praying for you to come home safely, maybe I wouldn’t have had to look outside our marriage.”

The familiar argument came back to him in a flash. He laughed a humorless laugh. How had he ended up right back in this place with Gina? Fighting over the same shit after so much time, after so much had happened.

“Listen, I’m sorry that things aren’t working out the way you’d hoped. I want you to be happy, I really do. But you won’t find that happiness with me. Not anymore. We’ve been over for a long time. There’s no going back to what we once were.”

Her bottom lip trembled, and she sniffled back tears. She moved quickly across the kitchen tiles, as if panic pushed her forward. “Please. Dean, you know what we had was real. That you once loved me with your whole being. If you really try, I know we can get that back. I want that back. More than anything.”

Before he could respond, she fisted the neck of his t-shirt and yanked him toward her, capturing his mouth with hers. She moved closer, wrapping her free arm around the back of his neck.

He broke away from Gina seconds before a throat cleared behind him.

Elsie stood in the doorway, the crisp morning breeze filtering inside. Her mouth was pressed in a pissed-off pinch and her eyes narrowed. “Sorry to interrupt, but Calvin called. He found Malcom Miller’s house and thought we’d want to know.”

She turned her back on him and slammed the door closed behind her.

Gina’s dark brow arched high. “Is that something you need to handle now, or we can we keep talking?”

“I told you. We have nothing left to discuss. Now please leave.”

Gina flicked her glance outside where Elsie’s back was visible as she stood staring out at the mountains, a phone pressed to her ear. “Fine. I’ll go, but I’m not leaving town. I won’t give up on us.”

“There is no us. Not anymore.”

He stayed rooted to the spot until Gina left then hurried to explain everything to Elsie. He stepped outside, and Elsie whirled around.

She handed him his phone. “I’ll get ready then we need to meet Calvin,” she said, moving past him.

He reached for her, but she yanked her arm away from his grasp. “Elsie. I—please.”

She held up a palm and squeezed her eyes shut for a quick second. When she opened them again, pain sparked the green of her irises. “You don’t have to explain. It doesn’t matter. Just be ready to go in ten minutes.”

She rushed back inside, leaving his heart shattered. Once again, Gina had found a way to screw up his life.