Page 12 of Lovewell Lane (Honeyfield Dreamers #1)

Derek

“What’s your favorite color?” Margo asked.

“You’re sure you’re not drunk?”

“Positive.”

“Blue.”

“Do you hate my guts?”

I looked at her in the passenger seat of my Chevy.

The lights on my dash and the reflection of my high beams on the road illuminated her face.

She was absolutely breathtaking. Something about seeing her practically swimming in my oversized work jacket made her even more endearing.

Her pink glossy lips caught my eye before I tore my gaze away to look at the road again.

“No,” I answered. I just got out of my bed in the middle of the night to pick her up from a dive bar. Why would she think I hated her?

“You can be honest, it won’t hurt my feelings.”

“I don’t care about your feelings.” Fuck. I never seemed to know the right thing around her, and that definitely wasn’t it. “I am being honest, I meant.”

She gave me a weird look. Then after a moment of silence, she gasped. Immediately, I reached over to put my forearm across her stomach, assuming she saw something on the road that I didn’t.

“What?” I demanded.

“Nothing, I-” she looked at me with an incredulous smile. “Do I make you nervous ?”

I dropped my arm from acting as a makeshift second seatbelt for her. “Don’t do that. I thought there was a deer or something.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” she laughed. “Answer the question.”

“No, you don’t make me nervous.” My voice sounded robotic, even to me. I held my breath to make sure the sound of my heartbeat didn’t give me away. She made me distracted, was what she made me. Ever since the second she stepped into this town, nothing had gone to plan.

I pulled in front of my house and helped her jump down from the truck into the dirt of my driveway. We walked together around the side of the house to her place in silence. She wouldn’t stop glancing over at me with a giddy smile.

“I’m not drunk, ya’ know. I can walk on my own,” she sing-songed.

“I know.” I turned to stalk up my back porch to grab a couple of things. She was still fumbling with her key when I returned. “I’ll get some lights put up back here. Take this.”

She turned to look down at the ibuprofen and water I gave her. “Even if you’re ‘not drunk’ this will help in the morning.”

“There’s no need for air quotes, I’m actually sober, Derek. But thank you, really. This won’t happen again.” The sound of her saying my name in that tone nearly knocked me out. I needed to go to bed. Maybe take a cold shower first.

I resolved myself to not stare at her ass filling out those jeans again as I turned to walk away. Tonight, she was dressed like she belonged here. I needed to remind myself that this was all temporary, she’d be out of here before summer.

“Don’t worry about it. Goodnight.”

I was already taking the first step on my porch when I heard her call out. “Night.”

Slick stared at me as I walked back inside the house. He sat in the same place on the giant brown overstuffed couch that I left him on when I asked him to stay up in case Tess needed anything while I picked up Margo.

“Everything okay, son?”

“It’s fine, her car just broke down, and she was alone.”

“With you, son,” he repeated. “Is everything okay?”

I took a heavy seat next to him. “All good, I just didn’t want to leave Tessa alone.”

“You know I’ll be gone on my trip to Alaska soon.”

I scrubbed my face. “You won’t let me forget it.”

“And you’re getting older,” he continued. “I think it would be good for you to get to know your neighbor more.”

“Margo?”

“Yes, you seem to like her.”

I stood up. Too tired to even entertain this conversation. “Dad, everything I do is for Tessa. And our family, but Tessa will always come first. Dating some woman who will likely leave in less than a year is the worst thing I could do for Tess.”

I’d read plenty of books about parental abandonment and the trauma that comes along with it.

Tessa already had one mom dip out on her, there was no way I was leaving a chance of it happening to her again.

Even if I drilled it in her head for the rest of her life that she was loved and worthy of love, kids internalize that shit.

Slick raised his hands as a sign of surrender. “We can talk about it another time.” Hopefully not. “I’ll see you in the morning, goodnight.”

“Night, Slick.”

Something about the notion that my own father was worried about my love life really stuck in the back of my teeth. I was happy, and more importantly, Tessa was happy. We didn’t need a woman to complete our family unit.

We certainly didn’t need that woman. She was nearly ten years younger than me, and clearly in a different stage of her life. I was in bed by nine p.m. sharp while she was out alone at a dive bar until nearly midnight. That would drive me crazy in a relationship. It was driving me crazy now .

So reckless. It bothered me more that I didn’t even know she was out. What if my phone was on silent and I didn’t hear her call? What would she have done?

The thing that got me through raising my entire family after my mom’s death and my dad’s injury was having tabs on everyone and everything. To this day, Calli and Jack still share their location with me. Sam doesn’t even leave city limits without talking my ear off about it.

Having some woman that I now had responsibility over, if only because I was one of the few people she knew here, reminded me of that time. She was chaotic. And new. My entire routine was thrown off by her presence alone. Yet, I still was interested to know more.

I was interested in her. Not just physically attracted. Don’t get me wrong— I was also physically attracted to her, but it was more than just that. This was something I hadn’t felt since nearly childhood.

I wanted to get to know Margo Sinclair. Up until this point, I’d only ever cared about me and mine. Sure, I tried to be a good person and look after my community. But, individually, the only people I ever cared to spend time with were my family and Andy.

Until Margo. And I didn’t know what the fuck to do about that.

Birds singing pulled me out of my thoughts. Beams of light filtered through the curtains in my bedroom. I hadn’t slept at all. Finally taking that cold shower cleared my head, if only a little bit.

I found Slick in the kitchen already sipping on his cup of coffee. “Do you mind staying in here for an hour?”

“Got plans?”

Not wanting to continue our conversation from last night, I stole the coffee pot from him and poured myself a thermos. “I’ll be back in an hour. Thanks.”

-

“So you do like her?”

I loudly slammed my truck’s door shut before glaring at my best friend. “I’m being a good human. Setting an example for my daughter. Why does everyone assume that means I like the woman?”

Andy shrugged with a smirk. “You’re feisty lately. I like that.”

“I’m annoyed .”

“Hate is not the opposite of love, my friend.”

“Save your words of wisdom for someone who will listen.”

I handed him the car keys that Margo left in my truck last night. He took them and got to work testing out the car. The lot Barley’s was situated in was empty, so I took in the beginnings of a nice sunrise while sipping my coffee.

“Just needs a new battery,” he informed me. “Let’s jump it, and I’ll replace it at the shop.”

I pulled out the black and red cables from a box in the bed of my truck. Handing him two ends, I walked around to pop my hood. “Do you like her?” I asked.

My friend’s head popped up from where it was under the hood of her car. “Margo?” I nodded. “She seems nice.”

“No, do you like her? The way you’re implying I do.”

He laughed and patted my shoulder. “You’ve got no competition from me, dude. She seems great.”

Honestly, I was hoping he’d say yes. He could take her off my hands and sweep her off her feet. Andy was a great guy, he’d make a great partner. And it would solve my curiosity for why I was so interested in her. Everyone else must see what I saw, too.

Maybe my friend just had awful taste in women.

Even after meeting her for the first time, I was drawn in by her sweet smiles that gave way to sass and bite when she was provoked.

Her constant need to figure everyone out, and making everyone else around her comfortable while she drew as little attention to herself as possible.

On the outside, she was a flashy disco ball, but she never really opened up about herself. Not that I saw at least.

And that only made me want to know more.

We didn’t talk about Margo again for the rest of the morning. I helped hand him parts while he replaced her car battery and paid for it once he was finished. He tried to convince me not to pay, but he knew I’d always find a way to put cash in his box no matter how much he refused.

Once he was finished, he helped me drive it back over to mine.

Since it was a Saturday, Sam was opening the store and gave Andy a ride back to the car shop.

I thanked him one last time and gave him an unspoken look that had been used time and time again throughout our lives— it meant ‘don’t tell my little brother about this’.

I napped on the couch to catch up on as much sleep as possible before Tessa woke up. Slick was too wrapped up in his newspaper to even notice I was back home. So I was graced with prime nap time.

The smell of cinnamon woke me up before I felt a finger poking at my cheek. “Daddy, you’re snoring again,” Tessa whined. I opened my eyes and sat up to find her holding out a plate for me. “I made breakfast.”

‘Breakfast’ looked like a piece of bread with cold butter and cinnamon sprinkled on top. “Thanks, honey. Have you eaten yet? You could’ve woken me up.”

“Grandad made me eggs,” she answered. “Scoot over. Can we watch a show?”

“Spongebob?”

She nodded happily. I choked down my cinnamon bread with a smile. At one point, I muffled my choking by clearing my throat, and I swore cinnamon came out in a cloud of smoke like I was a cinnamon-breathing dragon.