Last Chance

by Natalie Ann

  “You have to thank my sister for this coincidence. I’ve been fixing a leaky pipe under her sink and my payment is dinner. She placed the order without my knowledge.”

  “Must be the night for sisters and their brothers,” she said. There was nothing but happiness on her face now. A big welcoming smile, a touch of teasing, maybe even flirting if he let his mind go there. It really wanted to go there.

  “Bringing home dinner for Max’s family?”

  “Yeah. I wanted to give Quinn a break from cooking for three adults and three kids.”

  “Three?” he asked.

  “She had a baby a few weeks ago.”

  He hadn’t known that. He didn’t keep up on all the local gossip. If people kept their noses clean, he was glad not to know a thing about them. “So you have another…”

  “Niece. Jocelyn.”

  “Bet you’re looking forward to moving into your own place soon.”

  “I sure am. I love my brother and his kids, but I’m not used to the noise. The baby is actually the quietest kid in the house.”

  He laughed. “I’m sure. I have two younger sisters. They went at it like cats and dogs more times than I care to admit. And when they were fed up with each other, they turned on me.”

  “Somehow I don’t see anyone getting the upper hand on you,” she said, smiling. Then she angled her head at him, lifted her hand and brought it to his face, running it down his cheek quickly. There was no denying the spark he felt and unless he was mistaken—which he very rarely was—she felt it too. Definitely flirting. “Sorry. You had some grease on your cheek.”

  “Thanks,” he said, keeping his voice cool. It wasn’t just a spark he felt, but a shitload of sizzle sounding in the air. “Did you pick out your paint colors yet?”

  “I just came from the hardware store.” She reached into her purse and pulled out several shades of gray, blue and green. All light, muted colors. Calming colors.

  “Now you just need to decide.”

  “That will be the hard part, but I’m hoping Quinn will help me out tonight. She hasn’t seen the place yet, and I thought maybe I could convince her to go for a ride and look at these swatches with me.”

  “You should have gotten a few of those sample cans so you could paint some spots to see how it dries.”

  “Already one step ahead of you.”

  She was grinning at him still and he couldn’t help it, the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. “How about dinner?”

  She looked around the pizza joint they were both standing in, waiting for their names to be called. “I think we’ve got that all covered for the night.”

  He laughed. “Another night.”

  Her smile dropped, and he wondered what he’d said to cause that reaction. “It’s probably not a good idea.”

  What was he missing here? “I didn’t know doctor-patient issues pertained to dentists.”

  “They pertain to everyone, but in this case, I’ve got a lot on my plate right now. Sorry if I’ve given you mixed signals. That wasn’t my intention.”

  “What was your intention?” he asked. His tone hadn’t changed at all from five minutes ago, but he was dying to know what he misread.

  “I don’t know. I guess you’re the first person I’ve really relaxed around besides my family since I’ve been here. When you’re tense all the time and find a little outlet, it’s easy to lose yourself. So I apologize. It won’t happen again.”

  “Hamilton,” they both heard.

  “That’s me,” she said, giving him a polite little smile, then walking away.

  She couldn’t drop that little bombshell on him and then think he wasn’t going to pursue it some more. Nope, not happening.

  What was going to happen was he was going to find a way to get her to drop that guard of hers some more. Maybe next time, he’d have better luck convincing her to relax in private.

  ***

  Riley was in her car driving to Max’s house when she groaned out loud. Once wasn’t enough, so she did it again, then banged her fist on the steering wheel.

  What was wrong with her?

  The last thing she needed was a man around her right now.

  The last thing she wanted was one.

  Well, that was a complete lie. She was honest enough with herself to admit that.

  There was a part of her that wanted Trevor desperately. A female part that craved a man’s hands on her. That wanted to be held and held tight. She’d bet when he held on, he didn’t let go unless he was pried off with a crowbar. Maybe not even then. And though that thought should scare her silly, it actually comforted her more.

  What she told him was true. She had too much on her plate right now. Too many things to do, too many changes going on, and she needed time.

  Time to figure out what the hell happened to her in the past year.

  How she lost the person she was. How she let herself fall down a hole and be someone that no one would have ever expected or imagined. How her life changed so drastically from what she’d always envisioned.

  But it’d been so long since she’d flirted with a guy. Since one flirted back with her. Since she could smile at someone and not worry about any backlash. Without wondering if there’d be consequences for it.

  Since she could just be herself.

  She wanted to be the person she was before. She wanted to find that woman again.

  One that was confident, not just in her job, but in her life.

  She thought she was finding it here in the past few weeks. She supposed being asked out by the chief of police was proof enough.

  And she so desperately wanted to say yes to him. But she couldn’t.

  Not yet.

  Not now.

  Not until she knew things were settled down and she was in the clear, that her priorities were back in order.

  Maybe someday.

  Hopefully sooner than later.

  Shut Him Up

  Try as she might, Riley couldn’t get Trevor out of her head. Her colossal effort to extract him from her thoughts only gave her a headache.

  His smile and his laugh, his rugged good looks, found a spot in her brain and they weren’t budging. Nor was she making an extreme effort to kick them out.

  She’d been in her house for two weeks now. It was all painted and she was putting the last of the finishing decorating touches in each room.

  It was starting to feel like home. Like her. Like a place she’d always wanted to be. A place so deep in the recesses of her imagination that she wondered if she’d made it up as an escape mechanism.

  Except it was real. And part of that real feeling was wanting to explore something more with Trevor.

  But she’d said no. Said it wasn’t a good idea, and she had no clue how to go back on that.

  As luck would have it—or not have it—she was rear-ended at the stoplight on her way to pick up some lunch one day. This was what she got for leaving the office for a few minutes to grab a sandwich. She should have just brought something from home, but she didn’t because she left in a hurry after spending too much time thinking about a sexy police chief and forgetting about what she had to do for the day.

  And that sexy chief was the one that happened upon her accident moments after it occurred.

  “Trouble just seems to follow you around, doesn’t it?” Trevor said to her when he walked to the back end of her vehicle to look it over as she did the same.

  “You don’t know the half of it,” she said, more for herself than him.

  She put her hand on her shoulder and started to rub it. “Are you okay? Should I call an ambulance? You’re looking a little pale,” he said, reaching for her hand, holding it lightly. And she let him, because she needed any bit of comfort she could get for a second or two.

  “I’m fine. The seatbelt just snapped me back in place. Looks like there’s more damage to his car than mine, anyway.”

  Trevor looked at the old Honda Civic the teenager was driving, the front
end all wrinkled from where it had slid under the back of the higher Range Rover. The teen was shaking now, more in fear than pain, she was sure.

  “What happened here?” Trevor asked the teen.

  “I didn’t notice that the light was red, and when I did, I couldn’t stop fast enough.”

  “Looking at your phone while you were driving?” Trevor asked, taking a wild guess, as if he couldn’t see the phone clutched in the teen’s hand or hear it going off like rapid fire.

  The teen looked down, his face red. He wasn’t smart enough to deny it. “It was just for a second. My girlfriend is mad at me. I was reading her text.”

  “Well, your parents are most likely going to be madder,” Trevor said, his face stern.

  “Sorry, Chief,” the teen said, tears in his eyes. Riley was starting to feel bad for the kid, but she wasn’t giving in. It seemed his girlfriend wasn’t, either. She didn’t know a phone could go off that much or that fast in a minute.

  “There doesn’t seem to be too much damage to my vehicle,” Riley said.

  “You won’t know until someone looks at your undercarriage,” Trevor explained.

  “True. What do you need from me, my license and registration?” she asked. She’d never been involved in an accident before. The benefits of taking mass transportation most of her life.

  “That’d be helpful.” Then Trevor looked at the teen. “I need that from you, too, along with your insurance card. You better make that call to your parents right now. My guess is they’re going to want to be here for this. Car probably needs to be towed away, too.”

  “Aw shit,” the kid said. Then covered his mouth. “Sorry. I’m in so much trouble,” he said, dropping his head and making his way back to his car for the information Trevor wanted.

  Riley wanted to laugh over the whole situation, except now she was seriously wondering if there was something wrong with her car. The last thing she needed was to be without a vehicle.

  “You sure you’re okay?” Trevor asked her again.

  “Yeah. Just sore. I’ll be fine.”

  “You should get looked at just the same,” he said. “Maybe call Max to look at you.”

  She laughed, it was too funny of a comment not to. “I don’t need Max. I’m not cut or bleeding anywhere.”

  “He’s still a doctor,” Trevor said.

  “I’ve had medical training too,” she pointed out.

  “For mouth injuries,” he said back.

  Why was he bickering with her? He was smiling, even laughing, but there was a coolness under it all. Rather than argue with him, she said, “How’s your mouth feeling?”

  “Pretty darn good. Need to examine it again?”

  Her eyes flew to his, caught the double meaning and the wink. She felt her face heat up, but cleared her throat and said, “Maybe I do.”

  That shut him up. She wanted to pat herself on the back as she turned to walk back to her car to get her license and registration.

  ***

  She was joking, right? Trevor thought. Hoped. Or maybe it was flirting again.

  Either way, he wanted clarification and he couldn’t get that until this mess was taken care of first.

  “Do you need to call your office and tell them you’ll be late? Not sure how long we’ll be, and I’m guessing you might have some appointments.”

  She nodded. “I’ll take care of that. Thanks.”

  She turned and walked away to an area that had fewer gawkers and made a call. Meanwhile, he’d deal with the teen that thought it was more important to pacify an angry girlfriend than pay attention to the law.

  He also needed Riley to walk away for the moment so he could catch his breath. He’d been shocked at the clench in his gut when he turned the corner, saw the accident, and recognized her SUV.

  Right off the bat, he knew it was just a minor fender bender. Nothing to be worried about. Not at all. Piece of cake.

  Except his stomach had tightened and wouldn’t relax until he could walk up and talk to her himself. See that she was fine. Touch her hand for some reassurance, and when she held on for a few seconds, he wasn’t about to let go.

  He was soon done writing the ticket for the careless teen—whose mother had arrived, and was furious. First hugging the boy, then when she knew he was fine, yelling at him that she was going to blister his behind for not paying attention. Trevor walked away to await the tow truck, pretending he didn’t hear the threat of parental violence. Just words from a worried and upset parent. Trevor had learned to recognize the difference and was thankful it seemed that was most of the situations he dealt with now.

  “Everything all set?” he asked Riley when she came back fifteen minutes later. He’d thought she was on the phone the whole time, but she was walking toward him with two drinks in her hand and a bag from the bakery on the corner.

  “It will be once I eat this brownie,” she said, handing him the drinks, then reaching in the bag.

  “You need two drinks for that?” he asked, staring at the monstrosity she pulled out. He’d had one of them before. Loved every delicious bite of the chocolate gooey square that was larger than his fist.

  “Nope. One is for you and one is for me, to wash this thing down. If you don’t like unsweetened ice tea, too bad, the sugar isn’t good for your teeth.”

  He burst out laughing. “You can say that with a straight face as you bite into that three-thousand-calorie square of sugar?”

  She chewed quickly, then held the brownie out to him while she leaned down and put her mouth over the straw of one of the drinks and took a long sip.

  He had no choice but to take a bite. Her mouth had just been on it, and that might be the closest he was going to get to her lips, so he was taking advantage of it.

  When she was done drinking, she lifted her head up and grinned at him. “Sorry. Chocolate relaxes me. I’m good now. You can have the rest,” she said, handing it over to him, then pulling her drink out of his hand. He just automatically swapped them out.

  “You took one bite. One big bite, but still, only one bite.”

  “One bite is all you need if you do it right.”

  Okay, there had to be a double meaning there.

  “You should get your vehicle looked at today,” he said, trying to gather his thoughts.

  She leaned forward and took another bite. Just a small one this time. “You know how to put a damper on things,” she said.

  “It’s just a vehicle,” he said. A very nice, expensive vehicle. That didn’t mean he expected her to react that way.

  “Yeah, I know. But it’s complicated. Not a big deal. I’ll be good. If you know of a garage I can take it to, I’d appreciate it. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a dealership around here.”

  “Nope, but I know a few places that will look it over.” He took another bite of the brownie—after all it was there, so why not—then a healthy sip of tea.

  “Maybe you could give me their numbers over dinner tonight?”

  He shifted and looked right into her eyes. “Not such a bad time now?” Clarification again. He wasn’t leaving this spot until he got it and he was satisfied.

  “No,” she said. Her face flushed slightly, or maybe it was a sugar rush, but she added, “It wasn’t a good time then. I probably didn’t express myself right, or well, but when I take something on, I put one hundred percent into it. I couldn’t do that a few weeks ago.”

  Take something on? Why was that bringing up images that probably didn’t coincide with what she meant? “And if things get busy for you again? Then what?”

  “I’m not giving mixed signals right now. I’m not playing games. If you don’t want to, that’s fine, too. But life happens and life gets busy, we have that in common. I’m hoping my life is going to settle down now, but if it doesn’t, I won’t change my mind since I can focus on you now.”

  She couldn’t get much clearer than that. “Then dinner sounds good.”

  Hits a Nerve

  “So why did you pick this pl
ace?” Riley asked him when she was shown to the table Trevor was sitting at. He was on the deck overlooking Mirror Lake. In the short time she’d lived in Lake Placid, it was already feeling like home to her. Exactly what she’d been hoping for all along.

  “It’s casual and has good food. I figured since you’d changed your mind so fast once, you might do it again, so why not keep the pressure low.”

  He said it with a grin, but she could see the seriousness behind his eyes. “I’m not wishy washy.”

  “So you’ve said. You also said that you like to give things one hundred percent. Why don’t you tell me a little about that?”

  She hesitated, pulled the seat out, and sat across from him, preparing to get comfortable and deciding how much she wanted to say. In the past, she never held back anything; lately it seemed like that was all she did. But if she wanted a glimmer of the person she was before to return, she had to relax and just try harder.

  “You know Max is a plastic surgeon, right?”

  “I do.”

  “So is my father. Well known in New York City. Has a big practice. One that he had hoped Max would take over. Well, one that he’d hoped both his kids would take over.”

  “Ah, so you’re afraid you’ve never measured up?”

  She frowned. “No. I’m smarter. Smarter than Max, but don’t tell him I said that. If I’d wanted to be a plastic surgeon, I could have been. I could have stepped right into my father’s shoes in ten years, easily.”

  “You don’t lack any confidence,” he said, before he picked up his beer.

  The waitress came over. “Can I get you a drink before you order?”

  “I’ll have what he’s having,” she said, noticing Trevor’s surprise. Good, throw him off. What, did he expect her to order a fancy wine? Maybe a glass of champagne? She liked a good beer now and again. “Are you ready to order?” she asked him.