Page 16 of Lovewell Lane (Honeyfield Dreamers #1)

I took a look at the plate in front of me. It was just a sandwich, but after working for the last four hours, it looked heavenly. I grabbed half of it and took a giant bite, not even caring what it was.

Margo took the other half of the sandwich and held it up to take a bite. “It’s a BLT. I made the bread at home last night.”

All I could do was let out a groan. It was fucking delicious. Anything with bacon was.

We scarfed down our halves of the sandwich together, mostly in silence. The longer I knew Margo, the more comfortable she seemed to let there be silent moments.

Every now and again as we ate, she’d let out the sweetest little grunts and moans which nearly made me choke. By the end of our meal, all I could think about was my ex-wife to keep me from getting hard. Nothing kills a boner like a raging bitch that ruined your life.

“So, what do we think?” Margo asked when I was down to my last bite.

“Great,” I mumbled. Reaching for my bottle of water, I thought about the fact that I could be eating this for lunch every day. The idea of Margo making a sandwich every day, especially for me , sounded too good to be true. “You’ll need sweet tea, though.”

She tilted her head at me. “I’ll put sugar out on the tables. It’s for coffee too.”

I choked on my water. “No. Adding sugar to iced unsweet tea is not the same.”

She stared at me and shrugged. “Okay, I’ll take your word for it I guess.”

“Trust me.” I watched her pick up the plate and admire the countertop we had just eaten at. “The food is great, you’ll do well.”

She gave me a cheek-splitting smile. “Thanks, that means a lot coming from you.”

My cheeks heated up. Before I had to respond, a truck beeping out front caught both of our attention. “Expecting another delivery?”

Margo looked down at her phone and flipped through a bunch of different screens only to look back up excitedly. “I think it’s the sign.”

“Fun, are they installing it?”

She looked at me guiltily. “I don’t think I paid for that. But I bought a ladder last week, so I can put it up.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m finished for the day. Let’s just knock it out together.”

Once again, we found ourselves in a similar position. Margo 'held’ the ladder for me while I tried slipping the sign into the slots the front of the building already had. She kept giving me tips and advice despite having never done this before.

“Maybe I’ll just go get my ladder and we can both do it,” she offered.

“This ladder has two sides, just climb up opposite me, and it should be fine.”

I held the heavy sign at the top of the ladder and waited for her to nervously take the first few steps. “Margo, if you aren’t comfortable on a ladder, I can just wait for Sam to get back.”

He’d spent the first few hours of the day with us but had to drop out to do a food delivery. I watched as Margo shook her head petulantly and kept climbing. Her knuckles were white as she approached me and clung to the sides of the ladder.

“Are you afraid of heights?”

“No,” she yelped. “Yes, but, it’s a rational fear, okay?”

“Margo—”

“I’m already up here, dumbass. Just give me my side and let’s get this thing put up.”

I scoffed at her bossiness but followed orders. We both wanted her off this ladder as fast as possible. She took her side, and we were able to slide all four corners within the slats of the building.

“Perfect.” I looked over at Margo to see her as white as a sheet. Her face plainly gave away how scared she was. “Alright, time to get down.”

I hauled my ass down those steps and walked around so that I was holding the ladder for Margo. She hadn’t moved since we popped the sign into place. Like a cat stuck in a tree, she was frozen suspended in the air.

“Nice and slow, sweetheart. We’re going to take this one step at a time,” I coaxed. “I’m holding the ladder. I promise I won’t let you fall.”

“What if I die?”

“You won’t die. I promise. Now take a step down.”

Her foot shook as she lowered it to the step below. “Great. Just like that, you’re already almost halfway there.”

I kept giving her words of encouragement until she was three steps away from the ground. I wrapped my hands around her waist and pulled her into my arms to put her back on solid ground.

“You’re okay,” I reassured. “That was great. See? No one died.” She nodded, still looking a little pale. “Let’s go inside, okay? Sit down for a minute.”

Another nod. I kept my hand on her waist and led her back inside the diner to sit next to the window. Fetching her a bottle of water, I took a seat next to her and pushed the cold plastic bottle into her hands.

“I’m fine,” she finally spoke. “Sorry, that was embarrassing.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Are you afraid of anything?”

I blew out a breath. What a fucking question. “I’m afraid of plenty of things. Some of them are a lot stupider than heights.”

“Like what?”

The tactics I regularly used to get out of questions with Tessa likely wouldn’t work with Margo. She was too smart for that. And painfully perceptive.

“My mom died of breast cancer. I guess I’m pretty afraid of that,” I said. “People I love dying or leaving me.”

“That isn’t stupid.”

“It’s stupid to worry about it because it isn’t something you can fix.”

Margo nodded and took a sip of water. “What was she like?”

“Strong. Always had some smart-ass comment to say. She used to be a school teacher, back when Honeyfield still had its own elementary school. She was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known, she genuinely cared about people. Always went out of her way to help her neighbors.”

“She sounds like someone I know. She must have been great.”

“She was.” Then again, she wasn’t perfect. No one was. “She cheated on Slick. After she found out she was sick.”

That left Margo speechless. I saw her scrambling for something to say, so I stopped her before she said something stupid.

“Jack and Calli don’t even know. I think she just— broke. When she found out she wouldn’t be able to see all of us grow up.” I propped up a foot on my cooler and leaned back. “My dad is still trying to figure everything out, I think. Even twenty years later. That’s why he travels so much.”

“My dad cheated on my mom,” Margo said quietly. “He was the only man my mom ever stuck around for. She’s like me. Was like me. Always looking for the next great adventure. But she settled down for him, and he cheated on her.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“It’s okay. People hurt the ones they love the most. That’s the risk you take when you love them. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a relationship that was worth it.”

I tried to remember if I had either.

“Slick would say it was worth it. Even if he knew she’d die young. Even if she cheated on him. He loved her with everything in his soul,” I said after thinking about it.

Margo nodded. “That sounds painful.”

“Love is.”

“Tessa’s mom. What, um, happened with her?”

I looked down at my hands. A few new callouses had formed since I’d started working on building her counters. “If that’s too much—”

“No, it’s fine.” I sat up straighter in my chair and stared out at my own shop through the window. “She cheated, too. Ran off with some rich asshole.”

“That’s horrible. She didn’t even care about what happened to Tessa?”

“She left when Tessa was just over one. There was never any indication that she wanted to be a mother, so I was doing most of the parental duties, anyway. It was probably my fault, too. I was kind of an asshole. She said I never made her feel loved or supported.”

“Derek, that had nothing to do with you. She’s clearly just an ungrateful bitch. I can’t fathom someone choosing to leave you and Tessa. I promise you, she’s regretting it now.”

I didn’t allow myself to dwell on the implications of that statement. She took a long deep breath and stood up. Her face was significantly less pale, and her hands had stopped shaking. “Thanks, for coaching me. I freeze up sometimes with things like that.”

“No worries.”

“Let’s go check out this sign,” she said excitedly.

We both stood out front, craning our necks up to take in the new, and only, restaurant in town. Lucky’s.