“I know you are.” He steered her to the floor. “But I’m your son, and you’re letting me live here rent free. I like to earn my keep when I can.”
She crossed her arms, but a smile worked its way onto her face. “Fine. I just want those two closest to the front.”
“Okay.” He climbed the step stool and retrieved them. “Where do you want them?” he asked, but Loretta didn’t answer. When Mike looked over his shoulder, he saw that she’d walked out to the road. Without so much as a coat or a hat. Grumbling, he put down the boxes and went after her.
A sleek black Mercedes had slowed at the end of their driveway, and Doc Halloran rolled down the window. “Loretta, Mike, how you both doing?”
Mike backpedaled a step or two and lifted a hand. He knew Doc hadn’t had any contact with Al in over a decade. He knew the retired doctor probably felt the same way about his son as Mike did. But still, seeing the same Halloran eyes and the same lazy grin made Mike’s gut twist.
Loretta beamed. “It’s good to see you. When are you going to stop by for dinner?”
“Well, now, I do have Rotary meetings on Tuesdays, and every other Thursday I…”
Mike watched the conversation with mild interest. Is Ma flirting with Doc? Huh. He’d wondered a few times if his mother might ever marry, but she’d never seemed interested in the idea. Her cheeks pinked as she talked to Doc though, and she rested a hand on the door close to the old man’s.
Good for her. Good for both of them. Mike chuckled and turned to go when Doc called him over. “Got a gym question for you, my good man,” he said with a wink at Loretta. She backed up the driveway, her eyes on Doc the whole time.
“Sure, what’s up?” he asked. He’d never seen Doc step foot inside Springer Fitness. The sixty-year-old walked five miles a day and did pushups and crunches on his front porch in all kinds of weather. Someone like that didn’t need a gym membership.
Doc lowered his voice. “I’m sure you’ve seen my son in town.”
Mike froze, eyes on the ground. “Yeah. Once or twice.” He took a deep breath and forced himself to look Doc in the eye. Wasn’t the old man’s fault Al had shot Mike’s life to shit.
“He’s not here on my asking,” Doc said. “Just wanted you to know that. He called me up, said he wanted to make amends. I told him until I saw proof he’d been clean for a year, I wasn’t interested in anything he had to say.” The man talked in controlled tones, but the blood that rose into his cheeks belied his composure. Had to be tough as hell, turning his back on his own flesh and blood. Mike nodded.
“Now, I don’t know all the details about what happened with the two of you out in California, and I’m not sure I want to. But I see what you’ve done here with that gym, and I know you’re a good man with a good head on his shoulders. Just want you to know that.” He peered into his rear view mirror. “If you see him around here, I’d appreciate a heads up. I told him he wasn’t welcome, but if he’s desperate for a place to sleep or something to eat, he might end up here.”
“Will do.” Mike cracked his knuckles. “How’s Arthur doing?” At least the younger Halloran son had made a decent life for himself.
Doc’s face brightened. “Just fine. Living down near New York City and working for a good law firm. His wife’s about to have a baby, so I’ll be heading down there as soon as she does.”
“That’s wonderful. Glad to hear it.” Always nice when a little yin did balance out the yang. Mike waved goodbye as Doc rolled up his window and continued down the street.
Sure takes all kinds of people to make up the world, he thought as he walked to his apartment. Inside, he checked the clock on the stove. Only about ten minutes until Sienna arrived. He hadn’t told his mother about them yet, but he thought tonight would be as good a time as any. He pulled off his shirt and turned on the shower. He was just about to drop his jeans and boxers when someone knocked at the door. He checked the peephole and grinned.
“You’re early,” he said as he pulled it open. Want to join me in the shower? he was about to add, but the disappointment on Sienna’s face stopped him. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
She didn’t step inside. She didn’t even take off her gloves. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d been married?”
Damn. Why did Mike have to be half-naked? She swallowed hard and focused on his eyes, not a great choice considering they pierced through her and sent her thoughts spiraling into the bedroom, but that was better than the alternative of letting her gaze skate across his pecs and down his flat stomach.
“Sienna.” He only said her name at first, and his mouth drew down. He reached for her hand. “Come inside.”
She didn’t take his hand, but she did step across the threshold. She could hear the shower running a few feet away.
“Hang on,” he said, and went to shut off the water. When he returned, he pulled out a kitchen chair, sat, and folded his hands on the table. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I try not to think about it.” He rubbed the back of his neck and stared at the table. “Her name was Edie, and Al introduced us.”
She sat too. “Al Halloran?”
Mike nodded. “He had a big group of friends out there—” he snorted, “—if you can call ’em friends. Anyway, he knew a lot of people, put it that way. I’d been living out there about two years when I went to a party, and she was there.”
“What was she like?” Part of Sienna didn’t want to know. But she couldn’t help asking. She’d never pictured Mike as the marrying type. Someone pretty special must have knocked his socks off.
He shrugged. “Long blond hair and a good body. Like everyone else living in L.A.” He finally looked up at Sienna. “But we had some good conversations at the beginning. She wasn’t from around there either. She grew up in the Midwest and was trying to make it as an actress.” He raised one hand. “And before you say anything, yes, most of the women out there are. Not much else to say,” he continued. “We started hanging out, one thing led to another, I was lonely, the lease was up on her apartment, so we drove to Vegas one weekend, and got hitched.” He rolled his neck from side to side.
“How long were you with her?”
He blew out a breath. “We dated for about a year. We were married for three and a half.”
Longer than she’d imagined. Slivers of jealousy moved through her, no matter how much she tried to tell herself it didn’t matter and she didn’t care. “So what happened?”
“What can I say? When you’re young and dumb, you think things are gonna last forever. Found out about three years in that she was cheating on me with an old boyfriend. Maybe the whole time, I don’t know and don’t want to know.” He waved a hand as if to dismiss Edie’s infidelity, the marriage, this whole conversation. “Wasn’t just that either. Would’ve been bad enough if it was, but she cleaned out my bank account and took my Mustang.”
“What?” At that, all her earlier disappointment fled.
“Live and learn.” His voice sounded casual, but his hands tightened. “I put her name on everything, so I couldn’t do much legally.” He started to say something else but stopped. “Like I said, live and learn. Last I heard, she’d gotten hooked hard on heroin, so it’s just as well things didn’t work out. People make bad choices, me included.” His gaze flicked to hers. “I don’t talk about my marriage because I’m embarrassed by it.”
Sienna reached across the table. “I’m sorry. That’s a pretty shitty story. I wouldn’t tell people either.”
“Does that mean you forgive me?”
She pulled off her hat and gloves. “It means I wish I’d known before Eva Hadley told me, but, yes, I forgive you.”
He wound his fingers through hers. “Good.”
“Do me a favor though.”
“What’s that?” He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb, sending tingles
through her.
“If there are any other skeletons in your closet, do you think you could mention them to me before one of the Hadley sisters does?”
He paused only a half second before answering. “You got it.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
He almost told her. Two or three times, Mike almost opened his mouth and told Sienna about the eight months he’d spent in prison. In the end though, he couldn’t find the words. It was a leap to go from discussing the reasons behind his divorce to confessing he’d stolen enough money from his ex-wife to land a felony sentence. She’d never understand. The way Sienna looked at him, playful and sexy, put him over the moon. He didn’t want that to change. Besides, he rationalized, she’d told him only to reveal any skeletons the Hadleys might tell her first, and no one knew about his prison sentence except Zane, Ma, Doc, and Al. The first three would never tell a soul. The last, he hoped, would be gone from Pine Point soon enough.
They went to dinner at a new Mexican place over in Silver Valley. He couldn’t stop touching her over the table, under the table, any place he could get his hands on her.
“You’re going to get us thrown out of here for indecent behavior,” she said across a plate of nachos.
“I don’t care.” He just wanted to get as close to her as he could.
Later that night, they made love twice and then fell asleep until dawn. When the sun woke Mike, he wrapped one arm around Sienna and tucked his chin into the warmth of her neck.
“Is that a throw pillow, or are you happy to see me?” she said with a laugh. Her voice, low and sexy in the silence, turned him on all over again.
“What do you think?” He traced the length of her torso, from shoulder to hip. So gorgeous. So smart and put together. Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought someone like Sienna might wind up in his bed. In his life. Maybe the good was finally balancing out the bad after all.
I can’t tell her about prison, he thought again as he snaked his arm between her legs. She moved against him and murmured. It would ruin everything. His lips went to her ear, then to her neck. He flipped her over and moved above her, sliding down the bed in slow degrees until he reached her belly. Then the soft skin inside her thigh. He ran one thumb along the crease of her leg, and her laughter turned to a quiet moan. His hands went to her thighs, pinning her against the sheets, and when she wriggled and cried out in pleasure, he smiled and took his time. This amazing experience, tasting her and feeling her come against him, he could do forever.
* * * * *
The guy’s insatiable, Sienna thought as she waved goodbye to Mike and walked upstairs to her apartment. She ran her fingers over a raw spot on her neck. Not like that was a bad thing, but she hadn’t come home with a hickey since college.
She unlocked her door and kicked off her boots. Then she frowned.
“This place is a disaster.” Notepads, crumpled pieces of paper, jeans, socks, and scarves covered the floor. Her dirty coffee pot sat in the sink, and two towels in desperate need of washing hung over the shower rod. She’d spent so little time here the last couple of weeks, it looked like a neglected college dorm room. Sienna changed into sweats and a T-shirt, put up her hair, and spent the next hour cleaning.
Finally, she sat back on her heels and surveyed the apartment. Much better. She’d forgotten how the distraction of a new boyfriend could push everything else to the side.
Boyfriend.
Sienna stripped down and ran a hot shower. Is that what she was calling him now? She let her head fall back under the spray. They came from the same town, yes, but they lived in different worlds now. She wasn’t staying in Pine Point, while he was putting down roots here. Still, the idea of having someone to call every night, to laugh with and have dinner with and, yes, have down-and-dirty, amazing sex with, came pretty close to the definition of a boyfriend. I’ll just be careful, she decided as she toweled off and rubbed steam from the mirror. For both their sakes, she needed to.
She walked into the living room and glanced out the front window. Most weekends, you could throw a stone down the center of Main Street and not hit a thing. Pine Point residents apparently stayed tucked inside their homes on chilly weekends, not that she could blame them. She finger-combed her damp hair and considered her options for lunch. She did have some cold cuts in the fridge. She could order delivery from Gino’s Pizzeria, two blocks down. Or she could venture downstairs to Zeb’s.
As she weighed the pros and cons of putting on real clothes or enjoying pajamas for the rest of the day, a small red car drove into town. It slowed in front of the diner, but rather than park, the driver put on the flashers and pulled haphazardly to the curb. Sienna leaned closer to the window, but she couldn’t make out the faces of the couple inside. The car looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t place it either. A half-dozen people in town probably drove the same one. She was about to turn away when the passenger door opened, and a man stepped out. He said something to the driver, pounded a fist on the side of the door, and then scowled and walked into the diner. Sienna’s eyes widened as he turned back to say something else, and she recognized the distinct face of Mac Herbert. Wow. Really? She couldn’t imagine the laidback construction worker fighting with anyone. The car did a U-turn and pulled away, but not before she caught sight of a sticker on its back bumper.
Whoa.
Now she knew why the vehicle looked familiar. Sienna parked next to Polly Preston, and her Vegan and Proud Of It stickered red sedan, almost every day at work. She flattened one palm against the window. Huh. Mac and Polly. Driving together on a Saturday morning. Having some kind of quarrel, if Sienna had to put money on it. With a burst of new energy, she pulled on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt and headed downstairs. This looked like exactly the kind of juicy secret she’d been looking for.
“Morning, Josie,” Sienna said as she walked into Zeb’s a few minutes later. She pulled up a stool next to Mac. “Hi, Mac.”
“Hey, Sienna.” He didn’t smile. Instead, he stared into his coffee.
“Surprised to see you here,” Josie said as she poured a cup of decaf for Sienna. “You’re not a lunch regular.” She gave Mac a pointed look. “Neither are you, now that I think of it.” She folded her arms on the counter. “There a full moon or something I don’t know about?”
Sienna shrugged. “Just an empty refrigerator for me.” She waited to hear what Mac’s excuse might be.
But he didn’t say anything. The only other person in the diner, one of Pine Point’s local cops, sat at a table near the front door.
“I’ll have a spinach and cheese omelet,” Sienna said.
“BLT for me,” Mac said. He hadn’t looked up from his coffee.
“Hey, are you all right?” Sienna asked as Josie disappeared into the kitchen.
He shrugged.
Sienna elbowed him. “C’mon. What’s going on?”
He rubbed a hand over his face. “Women.”
Josie returned from the kitchen. “What about women?”
Mac looked up. “What d’ya got super-sonic hearing or something?”
“Of course. How else do you think I manage in this place? I got fourteen different people hollering at me they need water or a menu or some napkins or their burger isn’t cooked right or where’s the bathroom…” She stopped for a breath. “Of course I gotta hear ’em all.” She folded her arms on the counter. “So what’s your problem? This have anything to do with that woman who didn’t want to see ya in public?”
The pieces fell together for Sienna before Mac answered. He’s been dating Polly. Or sleeping with Polly. And she doesn’t want to give him the time of day or risk being seen together because she and Harmony are holding out for Mr. Rich and Right.
Mac nodded, a forlorn expression on his face. “Guess I gotta break it off, huh?” He spun his mug in a slow circle. “Thought she’d come around. Thought maybe—�
� He sneezed. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t think I’m good enough for her.”
Josie’s hand snaked across the counter. “You listen to me,” she said as she squeezed his calloused palm. “You’re a good man, Mac Herbert. Any woman who doesn’t see that is a purebred idiot. She sounds like she’s messed up in the head. I wouldn’t be surprised if she has that mental illness after all. What’s it called again?” she asked Sienna.
“Agoraphobia.”
“Yep. That’s the one.” She patted Mac on the shoulder. “You keep your chin up. There’s other women out there.”
“Not in Pine Point,” he grumbled.
She swatted him with a towel. “Ah, now you’re just bein’ fresh. There’s plenty of women here.” She walked back to the kitchen.
They sat in silence for a minute. “I’m sorry,” Sienna said.
“Guess it’s okay. I just really liked her, you know?”
Sienna thought of the look on Polly’s face as she bent over her phone and the brusque retorts she gave Harmony from time to time. “I think she likes you too.”
Mac looked over. “How do you know?”
Her face flushed. “I didn’t mean…just like what Josie said. How could anyone not like you? Maybe there’s more going on in her head than she’s telling you.”
“Why are all women like that? Why don’t you just say what’s on your mind, instead of making us try to figure it out?”
“I don’t know,” Sienna admitted. “I think men and women are wired differently, that’s all.”
“Well, it makes it damn hard to have a relationship.”
They didn’t say anything else. Mac ate his sandwich in about three bites, paid his bill, and left. The cop got an extra-large coffee to go and followed a few minutes later, and then Sienna sat alone in the diner. She pulled out her phone and made a few notes to transfer to her research, but the thrill of discovering Mac and Polly’s secret had faded.
Josie scooped up Sienna’s plate and empty coffee mug. “Anything else for ya?”
Spring Secrets: Pine Point, Book 3 Page 15
