Page 28 of The Love Fix (The Sunrise Cove #8)

Heath had barely gotten his seat belt on before Lexi hit the gas, flattening him against the back of his seat like they were

heading for space. “Hey, easy .”

“Things to do, places to be.”

She sounded... happy? And he couldn’t take his eyes off her as she pulled onto the highway again and fiddled around with

the music. Two seconds later, “Walk Like an Egyptian” came on. She grinned and started singing.

And here was the thing about Lexi. Unlike him, she could really sing. Clearly, she was using the music to relax and get out

of her own head, and enjoying herself while she was at it. And he couldn’t take his eyes off her. He could watch her move

like that all day long.

“What are you staring at?” she asked, not taking her eyes off the road. “Never seen a girl sing before?”

“Not this girl.” And what made him smile his ass off was how she held her cell phone like a microphone, even adding choreography, in spite of her seat belt. He hadn’t expected to laugh today. Nope, he’d expected one battle after another, but she cracked him up for three songs straight.

“Someone Like You” came on.

She slowed to match the beat. She could move even better than she could sing, and that was saying something.

So was how those moves affected him.

When the song ended, she grabbed her drink and sucked it down, waving a hand in front of her face.

He nearly did the same thing. “You have a pretty voice.”

“My dad’s wife had a karaoke machine. It was pretty much my babysitter. By the time I was a teen, I could sing just about

anything.” She glanced over. “You didn’t mention my dancing.”

He felt a small smile curve his lips. “I’m not trying to get kicked out of my own car.”

“That bad, huh?”

“That good.”

She laughed, and while he had no idea what he thought he was doing, encouraging anything between them when it couldn’t happen,

he laughed too.

They hit the coast and headed south. Rocky cliffs and blue surf to their right, rolling green hills dotted with oaks to their

left. Several hours later, they stopped for gas and snacks. While he got to the pump first, she also got out and climbed onto

the bumper to clean bugs off the windows. She was in a little summer dress that showed off her long legs, a fitted, cropped

jean jacket, wedge sandals on her feet, and she stood on his bumper cleaning his window. No clue that she looked like a walking

wet dream.

He was no stranger to having a woman in his car. But he couldn’t remember a single time he’d ever stopped for gas, or anything,

when he didn’t handle everything.

But Lexi... she didn’t need him, not for a damn thing, and for a guy who considered himself a fixer, who was pretty sure his only value was in helping others, Lexi not needing him was attractive as hell. “You don’t have to do that,” he said.

She leveled him with those knock-’em-dead, drown-in-me eyes. “Why not? You’re filling us up with gas, and I can help.”

“You’ll get dirty.”

She laughed. Laughed . “You do realize you’re just as bad as I am at letting people care about you, right?” She finished and hopped off the bumper.

“It’s like you don’t feel you have the right to ask people to care at all.”

And how she’d figured that out about him, he had no idea, but he was left feeling stripped bare, naked to the soul.

It was early afternoon when they pulled into Santa Barbara. The region’s geography stretched from the foothills of the Santa

Ynez Mountains to wide swaths of south-facing beaches.

He’d taken over driving after their last stop, and Lexi had fallen asleep hard. So hard he wondered if she’d been sleeping

poorly. Given what he’d overheard today—which, for the record, he’d like to go back in time and hurt anyone who’d ever hurt

her—he had no doubt that being in Sunrise Cove had her revisiting all sorts of not-great memories.

He could relate.

He parked on the street in front of a very small but well cared for house, and took the pulse of the place. The property had

a mix of pines and oaks, contrasted by an abundance of grassland.

Lexi hadn’t budged, her breathing deep and slow. When he gave her a few minutes and still nothing happened, he said her name

softly.

She nearly jumped out of her skin, turning to stare at him from eyes that were not entirely with the program. “What the—”

He lifted his hands. “Just wanted to give you a minute to gather yourself before we go in. You okay?”

“Fine.”

“You sure?”

She didn’t bother to answer, instead pulling down the visor to look at herself in the mirror. With a grimace, she ran her

fingers through her hair, then searched her purse, coming up with some lip gloss. When she caught sight of the time on her

phone, she gasped. “What the— You let me sleep for three hours?”

“You seemed tired.”

“I said I was fine.”

“Noted.” He met her gaze. “Also noted is that you’re grumpy when you wake up.”

“I’m always grumpy.”

“No, you’re not.” He looked at her for a long beat. “And you’re also not cold and calculating, like you want people to think.”

“Oh, so you’ve got me all figured out, do you?”

“Some.” His mouth curved slightly. “You’re wary. Pragmatic. Tough. You’ve had to be. It’s your armor, your defensive mechanism.”

“Like recognizes like.”

He smiled even though he knew she didn’t mean it as a compliment. “It does.”

She frowned and put her hand on the passenger door handle. “I’ll be back.”

“ Two people,” he reminded her. “We both go.”

“Which of us is the muscle? Let me guess. It’s you, because you’ve got the penis?”

He choked. She raised a challenging brow, and he couldn’t help but laugh.

The way she looked at him called to something deep inside his chest.

“I get to be the muscle,” she said.

“Hey, if you want to protect my ass, by all means.”

She snorted. “I mean, I can’t have anything happening to it. It’s a good ass.”

He tried not to let that go to his head and failed. “Maybe that’s not even my best part.”

It was her turn to choke on a laugh as he got out of the car with her, reaching for her hand, pulling her around to face him

on the sidewalk. “And for the record? I prefer your road trip playlist over Ashley’s.”

“That’s not saying much.” She gave him a nudge with her shoulder that was probably more of a shove. “And don’t think I don’t

know what you’re doing. You’re bullying me out of my bad mood.”

“I don’t bully.”

“No? What would you call it, then?”

“Cajoling,” he said. “I cajoled you out of your bad mood with my wit and charm. And my great ass.”

And that won him another laugh. Then she was heading up the walk ahead of him. His eyes took her in, and while she was the one with the spectacular ass, that wasn’t what caught his attention. She was still smiling a little, relaxed for

once, and maybe even enjoying herself. He realized he was seeing her, all of her, the real her.

And liking what he saw.

He matched his stride to hers, but she picked up the speed. “Are we seriously racing to be the first to the door?” he asked.

“Aren’t we always racing?”

He could think of one situation where he most definitely wouldn’t want to hurry with her.

Lexi was staring at his face. “What’s that look?”

“What look?” He leaned in to knock, but she stopped him.

“You know what look.” She stepped in front of him, eyes on his. “Tell me.”

He met her gaze, a challenge in his. “Bad idea.”

“I’ll just bug you until you’re so sick of me you’ll cave.”

“I don’t cave.”

“Everyone caves eventually, Heath.”

“Not me.” Tugging free, he knocked on the door, staring at it while he felt the weight of her gaze on his profile, thinking,

Open, open, open —

“You have no idea how stubborn I can be,” Lexi said.

“Oh, I think I do.” Because if anyone could outstubborn him, it was her.

“Tell me.”

He just shook his head. Nope, taking that one to the grave.

Still staring at him, like she was running their conversation back through her head, her eyes suddenly widened. “You...

Oh ,” she breathed.

He knocked again. “I don’t think she’s home.” He turned away from the door, wondering how he could avoid this conversation

for the long drive home.

“Oh my God, you meant in bed. You would like to not be in a rush while in bed. With me.”

Of course that’s when the front door opened.

“I never answer my door,” the elderly woman said in a smoked-for-decades rasp. “Especially during Jeopardy! . But your conversation was too good to pass up.” She eyed Heath. “Mostly I wanted to see if you could back up what you were putting down.”

“He can’t,” Lexi said.

Heath arched a brow at her.

The woman sighed. “Well, don’t that beat all. I mean, look at him. You’d think being that ridiculously handsome, he’d have

some game.”

Lexi laughed, a sweet, genuinely amused sound as she held out her hand, effortlessly charming. “Are you Suzie Anderson?”

“Sure am, honey. And you’re Lexi, Daisy’s daughter. You probably don’t remember me, but we met once or twice.”

Lexi cocked her head. “It’s been a while.”

“It sure has. What can I do you for?”

“This is Heath Bowman,” Lexi said, introducing him. “The two of us have got something for you. Could we come in?”

Two minutes later, they were seated at an old Formica table in a small but neat kitchen, their asses all stuck to small vinyl-padded

chairs.

“So.” Suzie set a plate of cookies on the table. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

Lexi pulled the envelope from her back pocket and slid it across to Suzie. “This is for you.”

Suzie stared down at the envelope and swallowed hard. It took Heath a minute to realize she recognized Daisy’s writing and

it was emotion shining from her eyes. “What is it?”

Lexi shook her head. “All I know is that she left instructions for it to be delivered to you a year after her passing.”

Suzie nodded, then shook her head. “I lost my glasses this morning.”

Lexi gave her a gentle smile, one Heath had never seen, and gently pulled a pair of readers off the top of Suzie’s head.

“Oh.” Suzie grinned. “Right.” She opened the envelope and read out loud.

Dear Suzie,