Hot and Handy: A Small Town Romantic Suspense (Shameless Southern Nights Book 3)

by J. H. Croix

  “Can I ask you a personal question?” It had been burning in the back of my mind since I found out she had a daughter, but I couldn’t leave it alone any longer.

  She nodded again, but her expression was guarded. “Shoot.”

  Thinking back to what Jeremy had gone through with Marie’s ex, I had to know whether to brace myself for a jealous ex. “Is her father in the picture?”

  Relief rushed through me when she shook her head—not because it would’ve changed anything for me but because I didn’t know what it might mean. “He’s not an issue.”

  “Okay.” I didn’t go any deeper than that. If she agreed to keep seeing me, then one day I would find out more, but today wasn’t that day.

  “No more questions?”

  I shook my head.

  She smiled and brought her hand up tentatively to touch my forearm. “Thanks for today. We had a blast.”

  “No problem.” She gave a gentle squeeze, her touch sending slivers of fire under my skin. Lifting her heels off the ground, she surprised me when she brushed a quick kiss to my cheek.

  “It was good to see you, Evan. Thanks again.”

  She started to draw away when my body kicked into gear. Her lips were still slightly parted and her pupils dilated. I didn’t miss, not for a second, when her eyes flicked to my mouth.

  Before she could step away, I slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her fast against me. She released a tiny gasp before my mouth was on hers. I wanted more, a lot more than a quick, stolen kiss, but I would settle for that then.

  The kiss was brief. The feel of her luscious lips against mine only served to fan the fire burning between us and leave me wanting so much more. Before I could give in to those urges, I slowed the kiss and whispered against her lips. “Good night, Sadie. We’ll talk soon.”

  She looked dazed when I released her, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright. “Yeah. I mean, yes. We’ll, uh, we’ll talk soon.”

  I left after that, wickedly tempted to pull her back into my arms and do a lot more than kiss.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Sadie

  With my heart thudding as if it were going to take flight, I went into the house to find Emery coming down the short hallway. Her pink flamingo pajama top was buttoned crookedly, and she was wearing the wrong bottoms. She’d gotten ahead of herself and had her pajamas on before her bath. “Is Evan gone?” she asked.

  I looked over my shoulder out the window. His truck’s lights came on, a soft glow through the sheer curtain. “He’s leaving now.”

  Emery followed my eyes and rushed to the window, looking out with her nose scrunched and a furrow between her brows. “I wanted him to have dinner with us. I wonder if he likes mac and cheese as much as I do.”

  “He might, honey.” I crouched beside her and quickly fixed her buttons as we both watched Evan’s red taillights disappear from the driveway and finally from view. “Maybe we can have him over for dinner sometime.”

  It was becoming increasingly difficult to remember why I couldn’t give dating Evan a chance. I didn’t have time. Yet he’d managed to find two days in the row where he fit in so effortlessly, it was like he’d always been there.

  “I really like Evan,” Emery announced, her gaze sincere when she caught my eyes. “Do you think he’ll take us fishing again?”

  I liked him, too, which was a bit of a problem. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  Emery chewed on the inside of her cheek and then tapped her lips in thought and went to my bag. When she came back to the window, she handed me my phone. “You can call him and ask. Right now,” she said earnestly.

  I laughed. “I can’t call him right now, sweetheart. I’ll ask about it sometime, okay?”

  Weighing her options, she sighed dramatically and slid her eyes back to the window. “When he comes again, do you think I can show him my puzzle? Oh, maybe we can get another puzzle, and he can build it with me.”

  Excitement colored her tone, her words tumbling out quickly. “Or do you think he’d want to paint instead? He paints cars, doesn’t he? I saw paint when we went to his work. Do you think he’d let me paint a car?”

  Emery’s wide eyes met mine, the tops of her cheeks pink. A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. Her enthusiasm was contagious. “I don’t think he’d let you paint a car, but he might want to build a puzzle with you.”

  With Emery so excited over Evan, I couldn’t think of him letting us down. Not right then. I knew it was a possibility, but something about him made me trust he wouldn’t. He seemed to have accepted and embraced Emery and had spent more time with her while we were fishing than he did with me.

  There was never a moment where he made me feel like he was being fake or trying to get into her good graces only to ingratiate himself with me. For a man who didn’t have his own child, he was easygoing and relaxed with Emery. But then he’d grown up with four brothers and had a nephew, so I imagined he wasn’t clueless when it came to kids.

  “Come on, little munchkin. Before there can be any painting, puzzle building, or calling Evan, we need to get you into the bath.” She took my hand when I held it out to her.

  We were about to walk to the bathroom when there was a knock at the door. Emery and I looked at each other, both surprised. Then she let out a squeak and yanked her hands from mine, whisper-shouting over her shoulder as she sprinted back to the front door, “Do you think it’s him?”

  My heart stuttered and then lunged at the possibility. His good night kiss, albeit brief, had stolen my breath and slipped right through the cracks of my defenses. I knew I shouldn’t, but I wanted more. I hadn’t felt any kind of spark with a man in too damn long.

  If it was Evan on the other side of the door, well, I couldn’t help but hope for more.

  “I don’t know. Let’s go see who’s there.”

  I took a deep breath before opening the door, bracing myself for the effect of his sage green eyes and the heat of desire contained there. When I swung the door open, Lori was standing outside. She smiled and winked. “I’ve been dying to hear about your day. I brought pizza.”

  She thrust two boxes toward me, and I took them, trying to hide my disappointment that she wasn’t Evan. “Come on in. Little miss Em here was about to take a bath. Want to sit with us? We can have dinner after.”

  “Sure.” She kicked off her shoes and went to fill a glass of wine for each of us before she met me in the bathroom. Emery was neck deep in bubbles, mumbling about fish until she saw Lori.

  “I caught my first fish today,” she said proudly, holding her hand about a foot apart. “He was this big.”

  Lori caught my eye, and I grinned. The fish had been smaller, but there was no point in correcting that detail. Lori handed me my wine and chatted with Emery while she finished her bath. Emery told her day in step-by-step fashion down to every detail from how soft the grass was to how Evan had taught her to bait the hook and right on through until the point when we got home. “Then Mom said goodbye, and I went to put on my pajamas. Mom doesn’t think he’ll let me paint a car.”

  Lori’s brows lifted as she looked at me. “Paint a car?”

  “It’s a long story.” I giggled, the few sips of wine I’d taken already relaxing me. “She’s thinking of all the things she wants to do with Evan when we see him again.”

  “Are you seeing him again?” she asked.

  Emery frowned and looked at me as if it was inconceivable that we wouldn’t be seeing him again. “He’s our friend now,” she offered as if that explained everything. That was what I told her about who he was. The dating world when you were a single parent meant treading carefully in how you introduced anyone new to your child. Considering that Emery had never even met her father, I knew she often wished she had one. She had asked at times, but I’d always been careful about explaining.

  I shrugged, keeping my tone light. “We had fun with him today, and he is a new friend. It would be nice to see him again.”

  “We have to see
him again,” Emery protested fiercely.

  This was precisely why I had to proceed carefully. Even though Evan had made it clear he was interested in more, I couldn’t let Emery get too attached. Not that soon. I held up her towel. “I think it’s time for dinner. The water must be going cold by now.”

  On our way to the kitchen once Emery was dried off and back in her pajamas—with the correct bottoms that time—Lori nudged my shoulder with hers. “It’s clear to me Evan has a fan in Emery, but what about you? Do you like him?”

  I lifted my shoulder in a shrug as I shook my head. “I don’t know. I mean, yes. I do. I like him, but I can’t just jump into things. He’s a friend. What we have is a friendship, not a relationship.”

  “A friendship is a relationship,” she pointed out.

  In the kitchen, the two of us readied some plates and warmed up the pizza she’d brought while Emery went to finish a puzzle in the living room.

  “Point taken,” I said. “It’s not a romantic relationship then. It’s a platonic one.”

  Lori shot me a disbelieving look as she lowered the slice of pizza she was holding. “You’re practically glowing, and don’t think I forgot the part where ‘Mommy went to say goodbye to him.’ Are you telling me there was no good night kiss or you didn’t at least want him to kiss you good night?”

  The heat that rushed to my cheeks answered for me. Lori flashed me a triumphant grin. “There was a kiss, wasn’t there? Was it bad?”

  “No!” I exclaimed, mortified she’d think that. “He’s a perfectly good kisser.”

  She scoffed, a teasing glimmer in her black lined eyes. “Perfectly good?”

  I sighed. “Fine. It was great, okay? He’s a great kisser.”

  Swallowing a bite of pizza, she circled her hand in the air. “In that case, isn’t it time you moved it along from your ‘platonic relationship’?”

  My teeth sank into the side of my lower lip. “I don’t have time to date, Lori. You, of all people, should know that.”

  Placing her palms down on the kitchen counter, she cocked her head. “Bullshit. Are you busy? Yes. You’re a single mom working two jobs. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t even try. Evan knows what your deal is, right?”

  I nodded. She lifted her eyebrows and made a snaking motion with her head. “Then what’s the problem? He knows not to expect you to be at his beck and call twenty-four hours a day. In that day and age, no guy would expect that anyway. He’s already shown he’s willing to spend time with both you and Em. On nights you want to be alone, I can always stay later and watch Emery for you. Don’t throw away the possibility by hiding.”

  “Hiding?”

  She nodded, shrugging one shoulder. “You have mountains of baggage when it comes to men. Saying you’re too busy to give a seemingly good guy a chance is hiding behind Emery so you don’t have to face the mountain. Maybe you need to consider giving this guy a real date.”

  The truth of her words shook me to the core. I never meant to hide from anything, but once she mentioned it, I understood why it might look that way. Maybe she was right, and I should reconsider going on a real date with him.

  Knowing me as well as she did, Lori smiled and went to fetch my phone. “Well? What are you waiting for?”

  My palms suddenly started to sweat. “You want me to call him now?”

  She nodded. “No time like the present.”

  My heart kicked into overdrive again, and my neck and cheeks heated. “Maybe I should wait until morning. It’s getting late.”

  “In the morning, you’ll come up with another excuse,” she countered. After grabbing some pizza from the oven when it was heated up, she put two slices on a plate. “I’m going to go give these to Emery. It’s time to put on your big girl panties and make that call.”

  After she left, I stared at my phone for another minute before I inhaled and dialed his number. His voice was deep and warm when he answered. “Sadie? This is a surprise.”

  A giggle fell from my lips, and I clamped my hand over them to stop it. “A welcome one, I hope.”

  “Of course. What’s up?”

  Here goes nothing. With my fingers and toes crossed, I forced myself to woman up and ask the damn question. “I was wondering if you would like to go on a date with me on Saturday.”

  For a fraction of a second, there was nothing but silence. I started to curse myself for listening to Lori when he finally answered. “Wow. Sure. Okay.”

  “I haven’t given you any details yet. Are you sure?”

  Chuckling, he replied, “I’m sure. Whatever you’re in the mood to do, I’m up for it.”

  Warmth bloomed through me. I couldn’t hide my smile when I walked into the living room a few minutes later, meeting Lori’s expectant eyes. I didn’t say anything because Emery was there, but Lori winked and gave me a thumbs-up.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Evan

  Clouds were rolling in over the miles of empty greenery adjacent to the prison. Gray and heavy, they served to make the building look more foreboding. I wouldn’t have thought it was possible, but the gray skies, the promise of rain, and the faded flags flapping in the wind on the posts outside the entrance all combined to add to the metaphorical weight I carried in coming here.

  Sighing, I let my head fall back on the seat in my truck and dragged both hands across my face. What the fuck was I doing here?

  I seriously questioned my sanity in coming here. My week had started off on a fucking amazing note after I took Sadie and Emery fishing, and my Monday blues were negated by the prospect of my date with Sadie on Saturday.

  Twenty-four hours later and dread churned with anxiety as I sat outside the prison in the parking lot. I knew I was doing the right thing by coming here, even though it was the last place I wanted to be. Yet I struggled to comprehend how I’d gone from having no contact with my father and having not seen him for years to being here for the second time in as many weeks.

  The answer, of course, was Beau. He’d pushed me to come back out here, to help our father. While I knew he was right and that it was our responsibility, it didn’t make walking through those doors any damn easier.

  The urge to start my truck and blaze a trail in the opposite direction was strong. But I hadn’t been raised as a man who ran from things. I certainly didn’t understand everything going on—hell, if I did, I wouldn’t be here—yet somehow, I needed to see it through.

  I expected Beau to be waiting at the shop to ask me when I was going to go see our father.

  Taking a deep breath, I gathered my composure. I’d always walked into whatever fire or storm or firestorm was headed my way and kept my head held high until I made it to the other side. It was one of the qualities that use to get me in trouble.

  It was also the only thing that made me open my door and go into the prison to see my father. Surprise flashed in his eyes when he paused at the door on his side of the partition and saw me sitting in the same spot I’d turned him down in not so long ago.

  He settled onto his uncomfortable metal stool, bolted into the ground if it was anything like mine, and raised the receiver on the other side of the partition. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again, son.”

  “I wasn’t expecting you to see me here again either,” I admitted, meeting his pale blue eyes but keeping any trace of emotion out of mine.

  “What changed your mind?”

  If only the answer was as simple as the question. Eventually, I settled on the only thing that summarized the complete truth. “Beau.”

  My father’s brows rose, and his jaw set in a grim line. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean I’m only here for Beau,” I told him. It was callous, but it was also true. Without Beau pushing me, I would never even have taken our father’s calls. Never mind coming out to see him.

  “Why would Beau want you to come here? He’s never been here.” My father searched my eyes, the skin on his hand pale as he gripped the receiver.

  “You refused to see him w
hen he tried,” I told my dad, calling him out on Beau not wanting to see him.

  He hung his head briefly but not in shame. His graying hair fell over his eyes before he lifted them back to mine. Determination and a hint of anger shone in them. “Why did you come here, Evan? You know what I wanted to ask you, and you made it clear you weren’t interested in helping me.”

  Gritting my teeth, I tried to hold back the frustration coursing through my veins. Trust my father to be told his one son came to see him because the other insisted and then to turn it all back to what he wanted.

  My fists clenched in my lap. My relationship with my father was complicated enough as it was, but I couldn’t just get up and leave. I’d made a promise to my brother, and unlike my father, I kept my fucking promises. “I know, but Beau’s been getting threats, and I can’t ignore that.”

  My father’s head jerked back, but then he shook it, and his broad shoulders sagged. As the shortest of my brothers at six feet, we’d all inherited our stature from the man sitting in front of me. For an old man, he still stood taller than most of the guards and was easily as broad as they were, but his skin was slightly sallow, and his muscles were leaner than I remembered.

  “I’m sorry about the threats.” His shoulders rose and fell with a slow breath as he rubbed his palm over the back of his neck. “I wish there was something I could do to make them stop.”

  “There is, Dad,” I told him. “Give these guys the money you stole from them. That’s all they want, their money back.”

  He laughed humorlessly, a cruel curve to his mouth. “You don’t have any fucking clue what you’re talking about here, Ev. I know you think you do, but you don’t. I can’t lose the money out of that account.”

  The pole bolting my stool to the ground made a metal ding as I kicked it. “Why the hell not? What makes this money so important? You had plenty of money, Dad. I don’t know how much of it was yours and how much of it was stolen, but why not return this money if it keeps Beau safe?”