Page 23 of Lovewell Lane (Honeyfield Dreamers #1)

Derek

Tessa Weston fell in love with her favorite movie at age two, and her love for it hasn’t waned since.

I could recite nearly every line because it was the only thing that played on my television for a solid two years straight.

Her absolute favorite moment in the movie was the nightmare I was currently living out.

I sat, dumbfounded, in a row boat in the middle of a lake with Margo. ‘Kiss The Girl’ played from what I assumed was Sam’s portable speaker by the bank, and the umbrella Tessa gave us for emergencies was closed next to Margo.

“Are they trying to parent-trap us?” Margo said with a giggle.

“Seeing as we aren’t both parents, that seems unlikely.”

“Neighbor-trap? That doesn’t have the same ring to it.”

I sighed and hung my head in my hands. I wasn’t sure who I was annoyed at most, Tessa for thinking of it, Sam for encouraging it, or me for falling for it.

I sat up straight to look at Margo. The sunrise shone on her and made her look like an angel descended from heaven and landed in a boat with me.

Her dirty blonde hair was literally golden while her eyes shone bright with restrained laughter.

“Come on, it’s sweet.” Margo nudged her shoulder to mine. “Don’t get so worked up.”

“It’s ridiculous. I don’t know where she got this idea from,” I said under my breath as I scrubbed a hand over my face. I needed to shave.

Margo cocked her head at me like she was about to challenge my idea. “Is it really that ridiculous that we might like each other?”

My heart rate picked up at the accusation. I tried calculating the temperature of the water. If the air was around sixty, my life vest was all I needed, and I could make the swim.

Margo’s hand on my arm stopped me from jumping overboard. “Seriously, answer the question.”

“I can’t like you.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m a father, and I already have enough responsibilities. It isn’t worth it to try the whole relationship thing again. There are a million reasons why it wouldn’t work out.”

“That’s a cop-out, give me a real answer.”

I sat across from her and leaned in to look her in the eye. “You think my answer is a cop-out?”

“Yes,” she said petulantly, crossing her arms like a child. “You’re so emotionally constipated you can’t even tell me how you feel.”

“You think I’m the one that struggles with trust issues? You are the most closed-off person I’ve ever met.”

“Me?” she leaned back and held a hand over her chest.

“Yes, you.”

“Derek, I love talking to people. I’m a fucking social butterfly. I promise that I’ve had more conversations with the people of this town in the last month than you’ve had with them your entire life.”

“Right, but you hide behind this mask of happiness and helpfulness. You know everything about everyone else, but never share anything about yourself. That is the opposite of being open. You’re hiding behind a mask, distracting everyone with your silly jokes and dramatic rants, but no one really knows you, do they? ”

She was silent. So I continued, “You’re no better than I am. If anything, you’re worse. At least I admit to being an asshole that wants nothing to do with people.”

“Let’s just go back to shore,” she said.

“You’re not even going to argue with me?”

“No,” she answered. “You’re right. Let’s just go back.”

I leaned back and stared at her for a long beat. Was she really folding that easily? I expected a lot more bite from her. She refused to look at me and instead held eye contact with the tree line to our right.

I sighed and moved to sit on the bench across from her to pick up the oars.

On the way back to shore, Margo opened the umbrella for Tessa and plastered on a smile. We exited the boat without her so much as looking back at me. But somehow, she seemed perfectly normal to everyone else. Her acting was so good, even I had whiplash.

The little girls laughed and jumped around Margo happily as Sam played another song from The Little Mermaid. I didn’t catch any fish that day.

-

“Can we go tell Margo good luck?”

“She’s probably already at the diner, honey. Restaurant owners have to wake up very early,” I said.

“Okay, then if it’s open can we go?” Tessa asked with excitement.

“Maybe after school, for a late lunch.” I hoped she would forget about my proposal immediately after I offered that up.

She turned to me with a frown. “We should support her. She does lots of nice things for us.”

My daughter was right. So, I sucked up my pride and took her to the damned diner. I had to park further away from my store, with how busy the street parking was. That was new. People littered the sidewalk going in and out of their cars and to and from Margo’s diner.

“It looks like she’s doing great,” I muttered.

Tessa held my hand as we crossed the street. “I’m so proud of her.”

My heart clenched at my daughter’s words. Because honestly, so was I.

“It looks like there aren’t any tables left. We should get you to school, but we can wave hello to Margo if we see her.”

We walked through the door, and I held it open for a couple of out-of-towners leaving. She really had put in the work to bring new people to town. It was the first I’d seen out of any Dreamer’s business to bring in this many people, and on the first day no less.

“There are two seats there,” Tessa said, pointing at the bartop I’d built. Fucking hell. I really didn’t want to sit front row and center. Especially when I knew Margo currently hated my guts.

We took the seats anyway. I helped Tessa up onto the tall chair, and we sat patiently until Margo came over. She wore a pretty pink apron and looked like she’d lived a thousand lives in just the last few hours. Her hair was windswept, and she wore a slight pink tint to her cheeks.

“Hey,” she said. “You guys came.”

“Yeah,” Tessa said proudly. “You make the best cookies.”

Margo laughed. “I’m guessing cookies aren’t for breakfast today. How about a muffin?”

I nodded. “Thanks, we’ll take two.”

Margo nodded without looking at me. “Coming right up.”

She brought back two muffins with a sticker for Tessa. “These are for only my favorite customers, so keep it a secret between the two of us, okay?”

Tessa beamed at her. “Does Daddy get one?”

Margo nearly snorted. “Sure, he can have one.” She tore off another sticker and passed it to me over the counter.

“Thanks,” I said to the back of her head.

Just like that, she was gone again. The sinking feeling in my stomach told me I needed to make this right. There were only a few times in life that I regretted saying something. Being a complete asshole to Margo on that boat was one of them.

The entire way to Tessa’s school I spent thinking about what I could do to fix it.

The few things I knew about Margo and what could make her happy.

Back at the hardware store, I started researching on my computer.

She never said why she named the diner Lucky’s, but she did say her father owned a diner.

In Chicago if I was remembering correctly.

Sam came in around lunchtime. “Did you see the diner yet?”

“Yeah, I took Tessa this morning,” I said.

“She’s killing it, I had to park on a side street just to come in.” I hummed in agreement. “Are you okay? I know you were annoyed at the fishing trip prank, but it wasn’t a big deal. Margo knew it was just a joke.”

“Can we just drop it?” I asked.

“No,” Sam answered. “We can’t. I like Margo, and I’d like it if you weren’t so stubborn about this. You spend all of your time with us or alone. Don’t get me wrong, I love that we’re close as a family, but it would be good for you to expand your horizons.”

Sam leaned his hands on the counter separating us and pushed closer. “And you need to get laid. It might help you to not be so miserable all the damn time.”

I threw a ball of rubber bands that sat next to the computer at him. “I don’t just want to sleep with her. That’s a horrible fucking idea.”

“Then don’t just sleep with her. Take her out. Wine and dine her. Go see a movie. Anything.”

I let out a deep sigh. “I upset her.”

“How?”

“On the boat. I was pretty mean. She’s upset with me.”

Sam stood up straighter. “Oh, well make it up to her. Apologize. ‘I’m sorry’ goes a long way.”

“I’m working on that. If you’d stop interrupting me—”

Sam smiled wide and smacked his hand on the counter. “Great, you’re already on it. I’ll leave you to it then, brother. I have a good feeling about you two.”