by Isabel North
CHAPTER EIGHT
Derek was right. Jenny didn’t have business in town. As she was already there, and getting there in the first place had been quite the challenge, Jenny decided a triple chocolate muffin and a gallon of coffee were well-deserved. It wasn’t too far to walk to Megan’s coffee shop—the very same Megan who had stolen Jenny’s lunch on their first day of elementary school—and once she was at the coffee shop, she’d be halfway to Lila’s office.
Once she’d cooled down and re-energized, she’d enjoy marching right on into that office and giving Lila hell for sending Derek to rescue her, as if he was a modern-day knight, making Jenny the loser damsel.
Then she’d thank Lila for helping Kate get to school on time.
After the yelling.
Sweating under the hot sun and the extra fifteen pounds of weight she couldn’t seem to shift, although in all honesty she hadn’t ever tried very hard, Jenny trudged on through the pretty tree-lined streets of Emerson.
At the coffee shop she added a bottle of water to her order, engaged in some trash talk with a busy Megan, and sagged at a corner table under the ceiling fan.
The Rivas family had been running Emerson’s premier coffee shop since before coffee shops became cool, or so Megan claimed, and when her grandmother died, Megan had taken over.
Megan was not a sentimental woman. She had stripped the old shop down to its bones and renovated it from the ground up. It was light and airy with pale wooden floors and creamy yellow walls, smelled divinely of sugar and coffee, and Megan didn’t mind if you sat at your table for hours.
A good thing, because Jenny was exhausted. She was starting to think that maybe she’d skip the yelling-at-Lila part of her day, and sit under the fan until it was time to collect Kate.
She had almost finished her coffee when, as if by magic, a muffin appeared on the table before her.
Jenny blinked at it.
“And also,” she said, in case the universe wanted to continue making amends for her disastrous morning, “I would like Chris Evans on rye, and a million dollars.”
“Who wouldn’t?” Megan said, pulling out a chair opposite.
Jenny tutted as Megan sat, and looked at her phone. “Slacking off already? It’s only ten a.m.”
“You want the muffin?”
“I want the muffin.”
“Then how about a ceasefire?” Megan’s dark eyes twinkled.
“We keep calling ceasefire on our legendary enmity, Meg, people are going to start talking and get the wrong idea about us. Think we’re friends or something.” Jenny bit into the muffin, and moaned. “Holy crap this is good. What is it?”
“White chocolate and cranberry.”
Jenny despised white chocolate, and yet the muffin was still delicious. “You have a gift.”
“I know.” Megan lifted a hand to her barista and pointed first at Jenny and then at herself, with all the nonchalance of a Wild West saloon hostess ordering a round of shots. The barista nodded.
Jenny watched with suspicion. “Why are you feeding me free muffins and topping up my coffee?”
“I want gossip.”
“I don’t gossip.”
“Hence the bribery.” Megan thanked the barista when he scuttled over and set a coffee in front of both of them.
“I can’t be bought.”
“But it seems you can be tempted.”
“I don’t follow.”
Megan sat back and raised her eyebrows. “Derek Tate,” was all she said.
A crumb went down the wrong way and Jenny took a slug of coffee. Shit, that was hot. “Derek Tate? Hmm. Gossip about Derek? I hear he’s a great mechanic.”
“I hear he’s great at a lot of things. I’m interested in whether or not he can breach the Finley defenses. Lay siege to your citadel. Storm your castle.”
“What makes you think Derek is interested in breaching my defenses? What makes you think Derek is interested in breaching my anything?”
“Because he was in line behind Lila when she got your distress call, and I saw that man run out of here like his very fine ass was on fire. Finley, why are you still driving that piece of shit car?”
“Because up until today, it was a reliable piece of shit.”
“You had it in high school.”
And it had lived in her dad’s garage while she was off in the land of the oblivious with Dean, driving around in a flashy Mercedes she’d had no idea they couldn’t afford, and had the thrill of watching get loaded up on a flat-bed and taken away. Lucky for Jenny, the Honda had still been in her father’s garage when she and Elle had moved back home.
“I’m saving up for a truck,” she said to Megan.
“Right.” Megan wasn’t interested. “So. You and Tate.”
“No. There is no me and Tate.”
“This is not what I’ve heard. Five different conversations I’ve had already, all about how you and Derek took Kate to her first day of school together.”
“We didn’t do it together. Derek happened to be there. He gave us a ride.”
Megan looked skeptical. “Apparently the three of you make a nice little family. Very photogenic.”
“Ugh. Elle was the one who wanted photos. I told her it was dorky.”
“Photogenic as in you looked good together. You were taking photos? Dork.”
“Elle said everyone would be doing it!”
Megan shrugged. “Eh. That could be normal. What would I know? I’m not a mom, thank God. Not my scene.”
“I can assure you that despite whatever these misguided gossips are saying, there is no me and Derek. We are not a family. I’ve been there, done that, and I am not even approaching dumb enough to go for round two. I am crushing it as a single mother. I don’t need anything or anyone getting in my way. Especially Derek Tate.”
“Well, that’s boring. Hardly worth the bribe. You should pay for the muffin.”
Jenny crammed the last of it in with one enormous bite. “Nope.”
Megan headed back to her kitchen, leaving Jenny to finish her coffee and ponder her next move.
The tender skin at the back of her heels had started to throb in a threatening manner, suggesting that she’d developed blisters during her trek from the elementary school. Wasn’t she supposed to be crushing it as a single mother? Hard to believe in that statement if she began her day being rescued by Derek, and by lunchtime she was blistered and limping into the doctor’s clinic where Elle worked, to borrow her big sister’s car and once again make her problems Elle’s.
That reminded her. Photos. Jenny picked up her phone, navigated to the pictures she’d taken earlier, selected the best ones and sent them over to Elle.
She shot a guilty look around to check no one was paying attention, then sat back and gazed at the last photo she’d snapped.
She had no idea why she’d taken it. It hadn’t even been deliberate.
The photo was of Derek and Kate. Her daughter had surprised him, but Derek hadn’t been uncomfortable with her show of affection.
Of course he hadn’t. Derek was one of the most easily affectionate people Jenny knew. It was one of the things about him that drove her nuts. He was so at ease in his own skin, so laid-back, that he could hug people and express himself like it was no big deal.
Kate was the same. She had her skinny noodle arms around Derek’s waist, her head tipped back, smiling big. Derek’s head was tipped down, he was smiling equally big, and they looked like they were modeling in a catalog or lifestyle magazine for some sort of father-daughter—
Realizing what had just passed through her mind, Jenny poked at the screen.
Delete photo? the phone asked.
She hit OK before she could change her mind, and the moment disappeared for ever.
Blowing out a short breath, she navigated to her contact list and called a cab.
By the time Frank picked her up from where she was loitering outside Megan’s, Jenny had a solid plan.
Because she didn’t know h
ow much her car repairs would cost, fifty dollars or five hundred, she couldn’t risk splurging on a rental to tide her over.
If the job was quick and cheap, she’d be left paying for a car she didn’t need.
If it was slow and expensive, she’d need to be careful with money, and swanning around town in a rental would be living beyond her means.
Instead, she decided to hope it was a simple job, and went ahead and booked Frank for the mornings and afternoons to get Kate to school and Jenny to work for the rest of the week. After some haggling, Frank agreed to a frequent flyer discount.
Problem solved.
Except she’d soon have to face Derek, and have that uncomfortable conversation about Gabe and the impending Sterling baby. But that was another problem, and she’d successfully put it off until the end of the week at the earliest.
She’d take a win wherever she could find one.
CHAPTER NINE
“Derek!”
“What?”
“Phone!”
Derek wheeled out from under Jenny’s car and sat up, wiping his hands on a grease rag. “Who is it?”
Burke leaned his upper body through the office doorway. “Harry’s kid.”
Sighing, Derek pushed to his feet. He didn’t exactly like Harry’s son, Marshall, but since the man owned the premises Derek ran his business from, he was obliged to take the call.
“Thanks,” he said, accepting the phone from Burke. “Get the door?”
Burke ambled out of the office, shutting the door with a soft click behind him.
Derek perched a hip on the edge of the desk and lifted the phone. “Marshall. What can I do for you?”
“Hello, Derek. How’s things?”
“Good. You?”
“Yes. Uh. Listen, there’s something we need to talk about.”
Derek had started working for Harry Rawlings straight out of high school, and when the old man retired a few years later, he’d given Derek the option to buy him out.
Harry was a good man. He’d known that a twenty-two-year-old Derek couldn’t put together enough money, and they’d made a deal.
All Harry had wanted was enough income to keep living his life his way, and he didn’t need a lump sum for that. Derek had bought the business in installments while renting the premises, leaving Harry free to jump on his beloved Harley and ride off into the sunset.
For Harry, the sun had set six months later when his heart ran out of juice in a small town in Montana.
Harry had been an old-school mechanic, seeing to Emerson’s basic automotive maintenance needs and barely changing the prices since he’d started the garage back in the late sixties. Derek took over, shook things up, and the business boomed. He was proud as hell of what he’d built.
Marshall’s voice recalled him to the present. “Thing is, Derek, I’m retiring in a couple of months.”
Derek blinked. Harry had been old as dirt when he’d died, but Derek hadn’t realized that Marshall was close to retirement age. “Good for you.”
“Yeah. Wife and I are moving south.”
“Florida?”
“Texas. Wife’s from there, never much liked the northern climate. Anyway, I’m starting to wrap things up before the move.”
Derek’s shoulders tightened. “Uh-huh,” he said, and even he could hear the growl of impatience.
“I’m selling the house, and the…the garage. Listen, I thought about it, and it doesn’t make sense to hang on to the place.”
Marshall was some sort of salesman, mattresses or furniture or whatever, and had never had any interest in Harry’s work. He lived in Emerson but had never once come to visit his dad. Derek hadn’t even met the guy until Harry’s funeral.
“I don’t know about that, Marshall. It’s a good investment. Solid. Money you can count on coming in.”
“I know, I know. But like I said, I thought about it. I’m sixty-eight and I don’t plan on moving again once we’re settled in Texas. I’m looking to buy the best house I can. Getting a nice lump sum from selling the garage makes sense.”
“This is not good news for me, Marshall.” Derek’s fingers tightened on the phone.
“I get that. It’s why I called. I wanted to give you a heads-up, and see if you’re interested.”
“In buying the building?” Derek made good money, but not that good.
“Yeah.”
“I don’t think—”
Marshall talked over him. “Thing is, I can’t guarantee that the buyer is going to want to buy as a rental.”
“What?”
“That’s how I’m going to list it, of course, but I want this done nice and quick. If it doesn’t attract anyone who wants to buy to rent it out, then I’ll be forced to sell it to anyone interested.”
“Gonna make it real hard for me to keep running my business, Marshall, if you sell the building out from under me.”
“I know. Shoot. I know. But my hands are tied.”
“Are they?” He didn’t know the man’s life, maybe they were, but…fuck.
“Don’t worry, it won’t be for a few months. We haven’t even found anywhere in Texas yet. But it’s happening, and I hoped you’d buy the garage. Dad loved that place. It’d be kinda nice, you know, that even with Dad gone and me and Julie moving, Rawlings’ Auto Repairs will still be here in Emerson. Family legacy, and all.”
For the life of him Derek couldn’t think of a reply that didn’t begin with fuck you and your family legacy. He glared at the floor and kept quiet.
“Anyway, I wanted to call and tell you myself. I really hope you’ll consider buying it.”
He had to at least run the numbers whether he liked it or not, didn’t he?
Derek ended the call and sat staring at the calendar on the wall opposite. The calendar was stuck on the wrong month, April, and had a picture of a kitten sitting under a tiny umbrella. Disturbingly, despite being under the umbrella, the kitten was wet.
It was Burke’s choice. The guy was a bear of a man who looked like he’d lean more toward a calendar that had Miss April as a statuesque woman in a tiny bikini—or no bikini—rather than a bedraggled kitten, but Burke had a whimsical side that he didn’t even try to hide, so.
Kittens.
Derek rubbed his hands over his face. The day had been going so well, too.
Apart from two key moments.
The first was when he’d been at Megan’s, standing in line behind Lila when she’d answered her phone and said, “Jenny, what’s wrong?” That had gotten his attention. Then she’d told Jenny to calm down, and that had really gotten his attention.
He’d leaned over Lila’s shoulder, bumping her right into the counter. Scowling like she was going to shank him with the plastic stirrer clenched in her fist, Lila had turned on him with an angry, “Hey!” When she’d seen he was the one who’d bumped her, she smiled.
With teeth.
The worry that had gripped Derek when Lila told Jenny to calm down—why, what did she have to calm down about, what was wrong, was she okay, what?—faded at Lila’s smile. She wouldn’t have been smiling if it was anything serious.
Which wasn’t to say he’d stopped worrying entirely.
Anyone who knew Lila knew to worry when she smiled with teeth.
He’d impassively returned her gaze while she finished her conversation and then informed him that Jenny and Kate were sobbing on the side of the road somewhere between Emerson and Jenny’s house. Did he want to do anything about it, or—
Derek didn’t know what the alternative option was. He’d hurried out as soon as he’d heard the word, sobbing.
Of course, they hadn’t been sobbing at all. Although for a second, when she had spotted him, Jenny had looked like she was considering it. After the obvious relief, that was.
And the flattering, and intriguing, flash of yearning.
The relief that they were safe and unhurt had lasted up until Kate dropped the bombshell about Sterling.
Fucking Gabe Sterling.
Derek used to like the man. He’d like him still, if not for the fact Sterling was running around on the sly with Jenny. He was Alex Zacharov’s best friend, and seemed to come and go as he pleased. Derek supposed a billionaire was free to do pretty much whatever he wanted, when and wherever he wanted to do it. He wasn’t envious of Sterling’s billionaire status.
He was envious of his sleeping-with-Jenny-Finley status.
And, briefly, of his impregnating-Jenny-Finley status.
Call him a Neanderthal, but that was an honor that Derek had been planning on claiming since before Sterling had ever set foot in Emerson.
Although, he probably shouldn’t phrase it like that.
Even to himself.
Derek’s whole world had stopped when Kate mentioned the baby. When Jenny had said the baby was due in a few months, that stopped world had iced over.
And then everything had heated and started right back up when she’d smacked him, telling him she was fat, not pregnant.
The fat comment was bullshit, but thank God, thank God she wasn’t pregnant.
For three whole hours, the future that Derek wanted with a fierce, unquenchable desire, had looked like it was within his reach.
Then came key moment two: Marshall Rawlings wanted to sell Derek’s garage, putting his livelihood at risk.
As he’d said to Rawlings, this was not good news. But he’d find a way.
Derek stared at the calendar. The wet kitten gazed mournfully back. With a sound of impatience, Derek strode over to the wall and flipped the calendar to the correct month.
He rolled his eyes when he saw the picture. This kitten was on a tiny picnic blanket, a what-the-fuck look on its face as it glared at the spread of miniature knitted cupcakes and sandwiches.
He grinned. He’d find a way to keep the garage.
And he’d find a way to keep Jenny.
CHAPTER TEN
Hiring Frank to drive her around was a valid solution to Jenny’s problem, but it wasn’t a whole lot of fun.
Jenny liked her independence. Waiting around for a ride was all right once in a while. Twice a day, it got old. Not to mention expensive, even at Frank’s special rate.
