She stops stammering the moment I start to chuckle, lifting my hand in front of my mouth to stifle it. “You know I’m going to have to agree to show you around now that Nancy’s asked so politely, right?” I shift my eyes to the delighted looking older woman beside me. “I just had Ed Nelson cancel his appointment tomorrow afternoon. I can—”
“I’m sure you’re swamped with other things you could—”
“Megan,” I chuckle, leaning forward onto my elbows. “My shop is around the corner from the newspaper’s office. I’ve got to walk past it to pick up my mail anyway, so I can manage to steal away for half an hour and show you where everything is. It’s not a big town. Trust me, it won’t take long.”
I don’t know why I want to. Maybe because Nancy is so insistent. Maybe because Megan is so against it. Or maybe it’s because she’s the only interesting thing to happen in this sleepy town in the ten months I’ve been back, someone else to get the good ole’ gossip lovers going instead of me and my dramatic reappearance.
Maybe it’s purely because she’s sexy. I don’t know. Either way, I plan to show her around town tomorrow afternoon, hopefully have a quote for her about her car repairs, and then things can go back to normal. I can handle Nancy’s incessant innuendos, even if Megan can’t.
“You don’t have to do this,” Megan says once more, this time more sternly.
“I want to,” I reply, giving her aunt a wink.
“It’s settled then!” Nancy claps her hands, the gavel being slammed down to announce the verdict is no longer in question.
“This is ridiculous.” Megan hangs her head in her hands, shaking it like she can’t believe what just happened. “You’re so going to regret this, Aunt Nancy,” she whispers, not caring that I can hear her.
Well, damn. I might be more than capable of handling Nancy, but it looks like Megan and her feisty streak could be a whole other story.
Suddenly, Cardon Springs just got a whole lot more interesting.
***
It rains the entire day, and even from my vantage point inside my repair shop with the garage door opened to help with air circulation, I can tell the dampness that hangs in the air and the raindrops that splatter on the sidewalk and streets are going to make the impromptu tour of this town a whole lot less appealing to Megan. In fact, with each ting, ting, ting sound that catapults onto the steel roof of my shop, I’m more and more surprised she hasn’t called to try to cancel our date.
It’s not a date, I quickly correct myself. It’s the furthest thing from it, especially seeing the way she was so against even going through with it yesterday. I know it’s not a date. Hell, it’s barely a friendly meetup.
That doesn’t explain why there’s a twist of nervousness in the pit of my stomach, though. Or why I’m looking forward to seeing her.
I don’t know the woman, and I don’t know anything about her save for what Nancy has told me and the little bit I learned yesterday. But I want to know more, want to see her and find out what I can, and maybe that’s the reason for my twinge of uncertainty.
I haven’t wanted to spend time with anyone else other than Ellis since the first moment I saw him. I haven’t wanted to try to be something to anyone else other than being a good father to him since that day all those months ago.
So, what is it about Megan that makes me want to go to her now? It’s a foreign sensation to want to get to know someone despite knowing I can’t bring myself to trust them or let them in the way I once had the ability to.
But Ella stole that ability from me, and she took it with her the day she died. In its place, she left me Ellis, and he’s the only thing that matters to me now. In a way, I blame her for what I’ve become—untrusting and alone—but in a way I can’t blame her at all. Ella died giving me the little boy who has become my world, and she used her last breaths to make sure I was united with him. For that, I will be forever grateful to her.
The fact that I lost the only woman I ever truly loved, though? That will haun
t me till the day I die.
I push the thought away, back down into the deep, dark recesses of my mind where it’s stayed buried for so long. Sure, it resurfaces in my weakest moments, but I have the power to push it back down, to prevent myself from having to think about it too much. That’s how I get through each day. That’s why I can function so well and focus on my life with Ellis and on being everything he needs me to be.
That’s why I’m just fine.
Yeah, if only I believed that.
I finish inputting the information from the work order for my current appointment into the computer and print the invoice out. Then, on a whim, I decide to call the Chronicle and make sure Megan’s still planning to meet up in about a half hour.
“So, this is where the magic happens, huh?”
I’ve got the phone in my hand, so the sound of her voice startles me, and I know my eyes must be wide when I snap my gaze up to look at her. “Megan. You’re early.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever been late for anything in my life,” she says, her gaze still scanning the two-bay garage with interest. “In fact, being on time is just as good as being late in my books, so I’m always early for everything.”
“Always?” I’m too aware of how good she looks in her black dress pants and pale yellow sleeveless top to say anything more. Her dark hair hangs loosely in wet tendrils, dripping darkened spots onto her shirt in front of her shoulders.
“I was even born premature, so you know I’m serious when I say I’m always early,” she grins crookedly.