“I was always very aware of that growing up. That I’d been blessed.” She also brought her other hand to the table, and somehow, they ended up with both hands twined together.
“Ever since I can remember, I’ve been on a mission to help other kids like me. In any way I can. That’s how Preston and I made our agreement.”
He’d forgotten about Preston. Again. He tugged at his hands, but she held on tight.
“Through my work, but also through the charities and the people that I’ve known through the Fitzsimmons, I’ve seen people who looked like they were so in love, and I’ve seen that love die, those people split, their children crying and broken.” She stroked his hand with her thumb, and it was all he could do to not close his eyes and moan. It felt so good, so right, but he knew what she was going to tell him before she even finished. Still, he allowed her to talk.
“I decided love was a sham. It didn’t last. It never lasted. All that happened was whatever that feeling was that people called love, it made them make foolish decisions, act stupid, then rip their kids’ hearts out when they fell out of love with their spouse and fell in love with someone else. I made a vow that I wasn’t going to do that. I was going to marry someone I loved, but not in that passionate, can’t-see-things-straight way.”
Tough waited. He knew what she was saying was wrong. That love did last. The passionate kind of love. Not only had he loved her since the first grade, but he knew people could choose to continue to love. Just like he could choose to let her go. And since that had to be his choice, he couldn’t, and wasn’t going to, argue with her.
She lifted their clasped hands and ran his fingers against the soft skin of her jaw. He gritted his teeth.
“I understand that feelings come and go. But I’ve never felt anything this strong. I’m not even sure I understand.”
His heart beat painfully. She was killing him. Slowly. So slowly.
He slipped his hand free and turned it so he cupped her cheek, running his thumb over her skin and resting it at the corner of her mouth. So tempting.
“Closing time, you two.” A matronly woman in a ruffled pink apron walked by their table. “We’ve enjoyed watching you guys. You’re so in love.” She disappeared into the restroom.
Tough stroked his thumb lightly over the corner of her mouth. No. He wasn’t going there.
“Let’s go.” He dropped his hand and stood, legs cramping from being seated so long. He hadn’t even realized it’d been hours.
Kelly rose, a bit unsteady too. He put an arm around her, pulled her close, like she was really his, and walked out to his truck.
Chapter 16
Kelly couldn’t believe they’d talked to each other for hours. Especially since Tough wasn’t exactly a talker. But she had not monopolized the conversation; she was sure of it. Tough had talked. He’d been witty, funny even, with a dry sense of humor that she loved. Especially when he used that deep, rough tone that threw sparks all through her body.
She felt like she was walking on a cloud when they stepped out of the coffee shop. Reality didn’t even intrude when her door handle stuck.
Tough shrugged. “It does this sometimes. I have to take the door apart to fix it. You mind getting in my side?”
He walked her around and opened the driver’s door. She slid across the bench seat, working her legs around the gear shifter.
Tough slid in beside her, and she froze. Her whole body was pressed to his, shoulders, hips, and thighs. Her heart raced. She could stay here. Just sit beside him.
His arm slipped behind her, over the back of her seat. He threaded his left hand through the steering column to turn the key. “It’d be warmer if you stay there, since the heater isn’t working.”
“You don’t mind?” It seemed like the back of his teeth were grinding together.
“No. Can’t think of too many things I’d like more.”
She took one last look at his bunching jaw muscles and mentally shrugged.
“Need me to get your seatbelt?” he asked, his voice rough and low.
“The heater doesn’t work, but there’s a seatbelt?”
One side of his lips lifted. “It’s like I planned this.”
She laughed. “One thing I am one hundred percent sure of, you did not plan this.” Fumbling beside her, she finally found the belt, but no matter how she twisted, she couldn’t get it latched.
“Ugh. Are you sure this actually latches?”
“No. Never used it.” He brought his left hand around between them, brushing her hip.
His lips were pressed tight together, and he seemed to be concentrating hard. The belt went together with a metallic click.
“Thanks.” She gave a little laugh.
He shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal and pulled out.
Kelly was jerked out of her happy reverie when he stopped just a few blocks from the coffee shop.
“Be right back,” Tough said before he hopped out.
He didn’t lie; he was back in less than a minute, stuffing his phone into his pocket.
“What was that about?” she asked.
Staring straight ahead, he didn’t answer while he pulled back onto the main road through town, which was much busier than the area they’d just come from despite the late hour. He sighed.
“Are you doing that thing again where you don’t talk to me?” she asked, only half-joking.
“No. I’m doing the thing where I’m trying to figure out how not to tell you something.”
“Oh. What is it that you don’t want to tell me?”
“I got a phone number.”
“From the building?”
“Yeah.”
Oh, boy. The man could be infuriating. She supposed that if he didn’t want to tell her, she didn’t have the right to demand an answer. Pressing her lips together, she tried to look straight ahead and pretend she wasn’t a little hurt that there was something he knew that he wouldn’t tell her.
Ten minutes must have gone by before he spoke. “I noticed a ‘For Rent’ sign on the way there, and I stopped and got the number because...because I thought it might be a good place to have a garage.”
“Oh, that’s great. You’re going to expand? That’s exciting!” She turned smiling eyes on him, but he kept his gaze on the road, one hand on the wheel, the other still resting on the seat behind her. He hadn’t touched her, not to put his hand on her shoulder or to pull her closer, and she had to admit she was glad but disappointed as well. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she felt him playing with a few strands of her hair. It shifted every so often.
He took the turn for the main highway and never did answer her.
“OH, MY GOSH, OH, MY gosh.” Harris rushed into the warehouse where Kelly and Tough were working early Monday morning, waving her phone in the air.
She saw Tough and froze. Her hand, which had been waving her phone in the air, came down and slid around her back. A flush rose up her cheeks until they matched the color of her hair. “Oh,” she said. Kelly almost felt sorry for her. She cleared her throat and lowered her voice an octave, the very picture of a sedate librarian. “Good morning, Tough.”
Tough’s brows furrowed. He blinked slowly then looked from Kelly back to Harris. He opened his mouth, closed it, then started down the ladder from where he had been installing light fixtures on the ceiling. “I need to, um, to...do something in the shop. I’ll just go do...something, now.” He turned and, despite the hesitation in his words, strode confidently out of the shop. Kelly watched him go.
“Keeeellllyyyy,” Harris hissed.
“You don’t have to whisper. He’s gone.” Kelly laughed.
Instantly Harris’s eyes lit back up, and she hopped up and down. Her phone came out from around her back, and she grinned like a child at Christmas. “She answered you! Dr. T has your letter in her column today!”
“No way!” Kelly threw down the window squeegee she had been using and looked frantically around. Where had she laid her phone? She groa
ned. When she’d come in this morning, she’d walked into Tough’s shop and through his office. Since the door always stuck, she’d set her phone on his desk to use two hands to open it and never picked it back up.
“My phone’s in Tough’s office. What did she say?” Kelly jogged over to Harris and tried to peek over her shoulder at her phone.
“I don’t know. As soon as I realized it was your letter, I tried to call you, but you didn’t answer. Since you said you’d been working early and late here, I ran over because I just couldn’t wait!” Her voice squealed at the end, and she handed her phone to Kelly. “Read it aloud, please.”
Kelly put a hand up, refusing to take the phone. “No, you read it.”
Harris waved it in her face. “It’s your letter.”
“But I want her to tell me that...”
“Yeah? You’ve decided what you want without Dr. T? What did you decide?”
“No. I haven’t. I don’t know. Read it please.”
“Okay, fine.” Harris lifted her phone up and cleared her throat dramatically. “Ready?”
Kelly nodded, her stomach tightening into a small ball that seemed to bounce around her chest cavity.
“‘Dear Kelly in Brickly Springs—’” Harris looked up. “I still can’t believe you used your real name.”
Kelly looked at the unfinished ceiling. “I know. That was dumb. Go on.”
“‘I disagree with you about the staying power of love, but that’s not really the issue. I personally put a lot of stock in integrity and character, but that’s not really the issue either. You’re afraid. Can’t blame you. But that’s the issue. That, and you’re right—fights about money cause about half of the divorces in this country. I have a hunch the poor guy is hiding something. If you can’t figure out what, pick the affluent man. That’s the safe choice. -Dr. T.’”
Harris allowed her hand to fall slowly to her side. “He’s right. I never thought of that. Tough must have a gambling addiction.”
Kelly came out of her stupor long enough to snort. “Oh, please. Where in the world did that idea come from?”
“You don’t think so?” Harris asked with wide eyes.
“No,” Kelly said with conviction, knowing her friend must be joking. But, really, how did she know? Tough didn’t spend a lot of time away from the shop, but gambling, especially on the lottery, didn’t take much time and... “His shop is busy all the time. He even talked on Saturday night about opening another one.”
“Really? Another shop? Where? Across town? That’s a great idea.”
“No, actually he was looking at a building an hour from here.”
“Oh.” Harris shrugged. “That seems like stretching it pretty thin. Does he have someone lined up to run one of them?”
Why hadn’t she thought about that? “Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Honestly, Kelly, I think Dr. T has a great point,” Harris said thoughtfully. “Tough does work hard. His shop is busy. But he doesn’t have a house and drives an old truck around...my mechanic has always cost me big bucks, and his house, which is just a little ways up from his shop, is pretty nice.”
“Maybe his wife works?”
“True. Tough only has himself. But he only has to support himself too. And he doesn’t spend his money on clothes or vehicles or toys, that’s for sure.”
Kelly crossed her arms and tapped her nose, trying to figure out if Dr. T had a valid point. Was Tough hiding something? Like a hidden addiction? She could hardly believe it. He had more self-control than she did. “I don’t think Dr. T was saying to choose money... I think he was saying ‘make sure you know the guy.’”
Harris nodded. “I definitely think there was a hidden meaning in there. It’s almost like he knows Tough, because Tough is quiet, but I think there’s a lot going on in that brain of his.”
Kelly knew that to be true, without a doubt. Preston was nice, but he often tried to make himself look better than he was. Tough was...the opposite.
“I can’t stay. I need to get across town to the library.”
“Yeah. I know. Thanks so much for coming over with the news. She took so long to answer that I quit looking.”
“You mean you spent the weekend with Tough and didn’t think about anything else?” Harris laughed as she fixed her purse strap and walked to the door. “Call me later.”
“Sure,” Kelly said.
Kelly took a moment to admire how close the work was to being completed. She might even be able to open up next week. Possibly. If she had enough volunteer staff to start out with.
She turned and walked back down the short hall to the door between her side and Tough’s. Better get her phone before she started washing windows again. Otherwise she’d end up working too long and being late for her real job.
Shoving the door, she was able to get it open the first time, and she stepped through into Tough’s office. Actually, she really had to hold herself back, because if Tough gambled or had some other major issue, a quick look at his books would surely show it. But if someone were to go into her home and root through her stuff...if Tough were to go into her home and root, it would upset her. She would wonder why didn’t he just ask.
That’s what she’d do. She’d simply ask Tough if he had a gambling problem. Even as she thought it, she knew it wasn’t true. There was no way.
Her phone lay on the corner of his desk beside his mouse pad. She grabbed it, bumping his mouse in the process. The screensaver blinked and disappeared. Kelly stared at his screen. A mostly clear desktop with an accounting software icon and an icon for the internet. That was it.
Holding her phone tightly, she moved through to the shop. Her car was parked on the other side, and it was almost time for her to go.
Tough bought groceries for that lady and donated his time at the truck pull. Maybe he gave most of his money away? No. She couldn’t believe that. People donated, she’d seen it with her own eyes, but never at the expense of a house or nice car for themselves.
She shook her head. That didn’t make sense either. Honestly, it seemed to her that Dr. T had been telling her, in a roundabout way, but still telling her, that she should pick Preston. Dr. T probably knew what he was talking about. It’s why she wrote to him.
Tough leaned against the hood of an old, golden brown car while a little old lady clutched her hands like she was driving a car and seemed to be telling him there was something wrong with the steering. Tough nodded and listened intently. But his eyes jerked up as Kelly walked in front of him toward the door.
The lady stopped talking.
Kelly smiled at the lady before facing Tough. “I’ll be back after work. Thanks for your help.”
His eyes lit, and he nodded, watching until she turned and continued to walk to the door. She waved to Al and Mr. Sigel before she walked out.
Chapter 17
Two weeks later.
Kelly waited in the airport terminal. Anxious. Eager. Afraid. All those emotions churned in her stomach like cement in a mixer. She’d never said anything to Preston. Partly because service was so spotty and their times were all mixed up. Plus, it wasn’t like they were constantly calling and talking to each other at a normal time. If nothing else, this trip really made her see that what she felt for Preston was not nearly as powerful as her feelings for Tough.
She rubbed her purse strap. There really was more. Whatever the feeling could be. She didn’t feel for Preston what she felt for Tough. Didn’t long to talk to him all the time, didn’t long to touch him, to see him, even to just catch a whiff of his scent. Nothing like that at all.
The board flashed. His flight was docked and unloading. She looked around, trying to push thoughts of Tough out of her head. She needed to focus on dealing with Preston first.
Lifting her phone, she checked for a text. When she looked up, he was walking toward her, his sandy hair falling over his forehead, looking pressed and fresh despite the long flight. He pulled a large suitcase beside him, and his leather shoulder bag wa
s slung over his shoulder.
“Hey!” Kelly stood and walked over to meet him.
He smiled at her. A friendly smile. His green eyes didn’t hesitate to meet hers. There were no secrets in them. They didn’t compel her to move toward him, or to touch him, or...
“Hey! So nice of you to pick me up.” He reached her, grabbing her shoulders and kissing her cheek. The same greeting he gave her whether they’d been across the room from each other for an evening charity gala or, apparently, separated for two weeks with an ocean between them. But that wasn’t a fair assessment, since her heart and soul was not longing for him. The friendly peck on the cheek was more than enough.
He stepped back. “Want to grab a bite to eat? I’m fried, but I’m hungry, too. I’d love some good food.”
“I’d love to. I know just the place.” The same little mom-and-pop store and restaurant that Tough had taken her to. “Can you wait thirty minutes?”
“I can. But no more.”
His phone dinged, and she glanced at it as he took it out of his pocket. He tilted it away from her, almost like he didn’t want her to see it. Odd. She looked up at his face. He read the text without expression.
Maybe the light was glaring on his phone.
They walked to the car and loaded his stuff. He was content to sit in the passenger seat and talk about his trip.
She listened, commenting, realizing this was the same kind of thing they’d always talked about. They’d fallen into the easy business-like relationship she’d grown used to. It didn’t bother her at all except to wonder was this what she wanted for her marriage? Did she want a casual peck on the cheek? Was he attracted to her just a little? She’d thought they loved each other. Maybe he really did love her. Wouldn’t he want to kiss her, at least?
Luckily there was a spot along the street in front of Pop’s, and she grabbed it.
“Really, Kelly?” Preston looked at the dinky store, and she saw it from his eyes. Dirty. Small. Cheap.
“The food is so amazing. I really wanted you to try it.”
Tough Talk Page 15
