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

by J. H. Croix

  Moreover, before he disconnected his number, he must’ve gone onto his phone to get all his information off it. My messages would’ve been there. It was highly unlikely he didn’t know about Emery. Either way, he still didn’t believe she was his and simply refused to check in so much as once for a paternity test or otherwise.

  No. Men weren’t to be trusted. If I ever got the urge to give another one a chance, I was going to go out and buy a good vibrator first.

  But Evan would never be anything more to me. Never again. I had tried for years to gain my father’s love and approval, but the harder I tried, the more he hurt me. It took me many, many years to realize he didn’t love me and never would.

  He took pleasure in abusing me. I was a punching bag to him, nothing more. With that kind of start when it came to men, I didn’t know why I’d so naively clung to optimism and the clearly mistaken belief that I would find someone who could love me.

  After wallowing for a couple more minutes, I pulled myself out of bed and went to take a shower. The hot water was like heaven to my tired, tense body. I stood under the stream for longer than necessary before grudgingly shutting it down and going to make coffee.

  All the while, I did my best to keep Evan off my mind. It wouldn’t do to sit around thinking about him. Unfortunately, he seemed to have made it his personal mission to force me to think about him today. As if he knew I’d made the decision to stop thinking about him and this was unacceptable, he kept calling and texting.

  All week, I’d heard nothing from him. Not a peep or a squeak or anything in between. After he’d hung up when he ended things with me, I carried my phone around with me and willed it to ring. There was something strange about the way it had all happened, the timing and how he refused to explain or give me a reason.

  I waited for the call to come through from Evan to tell me it was some kind of joke or misunderstanding or a show for someone else’s sake, but the call never came.

  I finally accepted that Evan had broken up with me for real. He was gone, and I had to accept it. The week had been hell, and every minute sucked. But I made it through. So why was he suddenly trying to contact me now?

  The time to call had passed. I didn’t want to speak to him, and I didn’t care what he had to say. I made it through a week post-Evan, and I wasn’t going back. Inviting that kind of heartache back into my life seemed like an epically stupid plan.

  Nursing my coffee, I watched as my phone buzzed, and his name came up on the screen with the start of a message beneath it. I swiped it away. It was his second text this morning. Last night, he’d called me, but I ignored it. Same as I planned on doing with his texts and calls today.

  Emery wasn’t awake yet. I wound my fingers around my mug and blew on its steaming surface, sitting back as I tried to decide what Emery and I could do for the day. She was bummed about Evan, too, but I didn’t think it had dawned on her he wasn’t ever coming back.

  After all, she often went for the week without seeing him. I didn’t know how to explain to her that sometimes adults did shitty things, and Evan had made it perfectly clear he had no intention of remaining a part of our lives.

  When the penny dropped that he wasn’t going to, her heart was going to break. A fresh wave of anger toward Evan rolled through me. I couldn’t believe I’d been stupid enough to let him in as far as I had, into my life and into Emery’s life.

  Then another text came through from him. Number three for the morning. Who did he think he was, texting every ten minutes when I didn’t answer the phone? I wasn’t some floozy who was so obsessed with all things Lovett that I would swoon and go back to him after what he put me through only because he texted me.

  Fuck him. I glared at the phone and then grabbed it in a huff before the screen went out again. I opened his text, but I didn’t read it. Instead, I set my keypad to all caps and typed out my reply to anything he could possibly have to say to me.

  LEAVE ME ALONE.

  It wasn’t very deep, but it was clear enough. I wanted nothing to do with him. The phone thudded from the force with which I put it down on the counter.

  “Mommy?” Emery asked from the door, frowning at my phone. “Is it broken?”

  Forcing a smile through my frustration, I looked at my little girl. Her auburn curls tumbled in a mess around her face and her bright green eyes were sleepy. “No, honey, it’s not broken. I’m just tired.”

  Which wasn’t a complete lie. I really was exhausted. Emery shrugged and bounced into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Can we go fishing today, Mom?”

  “Uh.” I looked down at her and then tore my eyes away to pour her a glass of water. I wasn’t prepared to deal with this, though I should’ve expected something like it since it was Saturday, and we’d spent the last few Saturdays doing stuff with Evan. “Sure, we’ll go. We’ll just need to pick up some supplies on the way.”

  Emery frowned, taking a small sip of her water and pushing her hair off her face. “Why? Where’s Evan? He has our supplies.”

  Hearing his name from her lips elicited a flash of emotion. It hurt. The pain was sharp, pointed, and targeted. It only hit that small part of my heart where I kept the memories of Evan and Emery together, the unrealized hopes of a future where there would’ve been endless fishing trips and nights around the dinner table.

  “He’s not coming today, sweet pea. We’ll go by ourselves,” I told her, determined that we could go do this on our own and still have as much fun without Evan.

  Emery got dressed while I finished my coffee and got her a bowl of cereal. After she ate, we headed out for the day. There was a small store selling fishing supplies near the entrance of the park. Emery and I stopped there to get the basics. The owner let us rent our fishing poles and talked us through the bait he said we would want for the river.

  Emery walked around, looking at the different containers. “This doesn’t look like the bait Evan had.”

  I caught her hand, giving her a reassuring smile. “It’s better than the bait he has. This kind man has been fishing in this river for…”

  I looked to the owner for help. He offered, “Forty-two years.”

  Smiling, I turned back to Emery. “He’s been fishing here for forty-two years, and he says this is what we need.”

  Emery looked up at the man, seeming awed by him. “Forty-two years of fishing. You must be really good. My mommy isn’t even forty-two yet.”

  I cringed and apologized, but the man looked entertained. After we left the store, we settled in a spot near the river. I had no idea if it was a good one or not, but I tried not to think about it too much. Emery and I were here spending time together outdoors. It wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t catch any fish.

  Both of us had fun as the day progressed, but everything we did reminded me of Evan, and it dragged my mood down. Emery was thinking about him, too, constantly mentioning him and things he taught or showed her.

  I was proud of us for coming fishing on our own, but the experience was difficult for me with Evan crowding my thoughts. By the end of the day, as much fun as I was having with Emery, I had to force myself to be cheerful.

  That only sent a fresh wave of anger through me. Fuck Evan. I didn’t want or need him to have fun or to be cheerful. Maybe fishing wasn’t such a good idea right now.

  Chapter Three

  Evan

  Sparks flew as I hammered metal against metal. Sweat ran from my arms as I worked out back behind the workshop to repair the dents in a custom bumper. The sun was hot on my neck. I should’ve probably brought a hat out, but I hadn’t.

  Wiping a layer of sweat from my brow, I dropped my tools for a minute and took a swig of water. It was too hot, sitting out in the sun next to me. Turning the bottle over, I dumped its contents and went inside to find something that would actually quench my thirst.

  “You’re looking…” Phoenix grinned. “Not so better today, actually. Want to talk about?”

  “No,” I said, walking to the water
cooler near the truck he was working on. Sliding a plastic cup onto the tray, I pressed down on the lever and watched the water flowing out.

  Phoenix formed a fist and tapped it against his heart, humor lighting his eyes. “I’ve got a real big heart, you know. If you need someone to talk to or a shoulder to cry on—”

  “Fuck you.” With a grunt, I brought the cold water to my mouth, chugged it all down in one go, and then slid the cup back into place for more. “I don’t need to talk. I need to work.”

  Phoenix crossed his arms. “How about a drink? You look like you could use one.”

  “I could use at least ten, but that’s not going to help my current situation.” A hangover would only aggravate my cranky mood. The only thing that would alleviate it was Sadie calling me back, but that wasn’t happening.

  I tried calling her last week and again over the weekend. Eventually, I got a text from her telling me to leave her alone. I still hoped she would return my calls, but it was Monday again, and it had been radio silence from her.

  It hurt, but I had to face the truth. When I’d made that call, I knew there would be no turning back from what I was about to say and do. I wanted to turn back now, but deep inside, I no longer knew if it was possible.

  If by some miracle, I got her to talk to me again and to forgive me, things still wouldn’t be the same between us. It might end up making us stronger in the end if she were to give me another chance, but that was a long way off.

  At the moment, I would settle for five minutes of her time so I could explain to her why I did what I did. I didn’t want to push her too hard to give me those five minutes because I knew how badly I’d hurt her feelings, but it was damned tempting.

  It would be so easy to stop by the diner, sit in her section, and stay until she agreed to listen or to attempt my explanation when she had to stop by to check on me. But that wouldn’t have been fair to her.

  I did this, and if I had any chance of undoing the damage even a little, she had to be willing to listen to the explanation I failed to give her when she all but begged for it. It still made me feel like a fucking ass, thinking back to that conversation.

  I wasn’t that guy, and yet, Sadie had bought into it so easily. It made me wonder if she thought all along I was that guy deep down inside.

  Phoenix shrugged when I turned down his offer for drinks. “Dude, only trying to get you to relax. You’ve been fucking miserable.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s been a shitty week,” I muttered. I chugged another cup of water before filling it up one last time to take outside with me.

  “Well, you let me know what I can do to help,” he finally said, his blue eyes shadowed with worry. A lot of my guys looked at me that way this last week or so. Most people had no idea what was going on with me, and the curious, yet cautious glances continued.

  I shook my head at Phoenix, shrugging a shoulder. “Bring that damaged fender outside and let me take some of this out on it. I know we were struggling to get it straightened out, but let me take another shot at it.”

  “More like take another swing at it,” Phoenix piped up before heading over to the fender in question.

  Working hard, especially physical work like this, always soothed me. It calmed me down. It allowed me to focus only on what I was doing, to watch what was broken and seemed beyond repair begin to be repaired. I wondered idly what the equivalent of this was for a relationship. Whether there was anything that could repair one of those in much the same way.

  I wasn’t afraid of hard work, but I knew my way around my tools in the workshop. I didn’t know shit about the tools required to get the woman you loved to listen to your explanation about why you were such a dumbass. Never mind what it took to fix what I screwed up.

  With the sun beating down on me and with every swing I took, everything else fell away. For the rest of the day, I worked my butt off and didn’t give myself time to think about anything but the next task I had to get done. Distracted from my worries about Sadie, I kept going until all the others had left and the sun was a burning ball of orange on the horizon.

  When I heard my phone ringing, I pulled it out of my pocket and answered so fast, I didn’t bother wiping the dirt and rust off my hands or checking who it was. I only wanted it to be Sadie.

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t. My mood took another turn for the worse when the call turned out to be from the prison. I accepted the charges when the operator asked, but I couldn’t help the spark of anger that lit inside.

  Between missing Sadie, her boxing me out, and my frustration about the whole situation, I was itching for an outlet. I was sick and tired of this mess my father had created and dragged us into, and even more so, that he kept pulling us back into it.

  Why the hell else would he be calling now? If not for him, Ken wouldn’t have been on my tail, and none of this shit with Sadie would’ve gone down in the first place.

  “Evan? Are you there?” my father’s voice came over the line.

  Bitterly, I answered, “I’m here, but I’m sick of all this. What do you want?”

  My dad paused for a beat, sighing heavily. “I’m sorry, Ev. I never meant for all this to happen the way it’s happening now or for my actions to affect the whole family. I took responsibility for what I did, which is why I’m here. I never thought the blowback would hit all of you.”

  Taken aback by his uncharacteristic apology, I was momentarily speechless. My dad didn’t apologize, especially not to us. I released a deep breath, clutching the nape of my neck. “Why are you calling, Dad?”

  “I wanted to check up on you,” he said, sounding older than he had the last time I spoke to him. There was a gruffness in his voice I wasn’t accustomed to hearing.

  “Check up on me?” That was a first. “I’m thirty years old. Why start checking up on me now?”

  After another pause, he said, “I know it’s rich coming from me, but I wanted to check and see if anyone had bothered you.”

  Ken’s face jumped into my mind. I didn’t know what to make of my father asking. It was an interesting turn of events. I wondered if he was finally ready to let us in on whatever the hell was going on.

  “Actually, yeah. Someone has been bothering me. Does the name Ken Lyons ring a bell?”

  I heard my father’s breath hiss and a muffled curse. “Be careful, son. Those are dangerous people.” He offered no more.

  It pissed me off, these cryptic warnings. “Maybe it would help if you fucking told us more than to be careful, so we knew what was happening. Kind of hard to be careful if you don’t know what you’re supposed to be looking out for.”

  “You know all you need to know.” Great, more vague messages. “Be careful, Evan. All of you. Please.”

  Before I could answer, the dial tone sounded in my ear.

  Anger swarmed inside me. My frustration with my dad and the entire situation was more acute than it’d ever been. We were expected to fall in line, to help without so much as asking a single question when he needed us, yet he refused to return the favor. It was too late for us to get out of it now, but I was still fucking irritated by it all.

  Shoving my phone back into my pocket, I decided to call it quits for the day. If I kept working, I was going to bury myself so deep, I would only emerge again in the morning. Then I wouldn’t be good for anything tomorrow, so that wasn’t an option.

  Slamming my office door and then every outer door in the workshop, I locked up and headed home. On the highway, I slowed when I saw red brake lights pulled over on the shoulder.

  Unlike most, I couldn’t drive past when people were having trouble on the side of the road, and it wasn’t because I wanted their business for the shop. My conscience didn’t allow me to leave people possibly stranded when most of the time, I could help them right then and there.

  It was only when I got closer that I recognized the number plate. Turning the music down, I leaned forward to make sure my imagination wasn’t playing tricks on me.

  But it wasn’t. T
hat was Sadie’s car on the side of the road. “Holy fuck.”

  Chapter Four

  Sadie

  A sob caught in my lungs when I tried starting my car for the fourth time, and it wouldn’t turn over. As soon as I saw the steam coming from the engine, I should’ve known it was going to end this way. When I saw the “check oil” light come on back at the diner, I had Dan take a look for me.

  As it turned out, Dan’s knowledge about oil started and ended in front of the fryer. Worst of all was that Evan had warned me I might spring another oil leak. He cautioned me that my car was on its last legs and told me that if I sprung a new leak, the car could overheat, and I’d be stranded.

  Of all the assurances he’d given me, it would be that lousy one that held true. I’d told him not to worry about it at the time. My car was old, but I kept it going for years by repairing it whenever I could. Vouching for the old rust bucket, I told him to have a little faith.

  Only now, my own stupid faith landed me stuck next to the highway on a darkened stretch of road. Cars kept passing me by, but none of them even slowed to help. The sun had disappeared from the horizon a few minutes ago, leaving me alone in the darkness.

  My shift at the diner ended late, so it was going to be tight getting to my cleaning job on time before my stupid car broke down. I had no chance of making it on time now. Given where I stood with the boss and that I suspected they knew I was snooping, they would probably use this to fire me.

  Tears burned the backs of my eyes. Slamming my palms onto the steering wheel over and over again, I cursed my bad luck. This was one of those days where everything that could go wrong, went wrong.

  I’d overslept after finally managing to fall into a deep, albeit dreamless sleep for the first time in over a week. Trying to make up the time, I tried doing one too many things at once and ended up burning breakfast. I was a queen at multitasking, but even I had my limits.