By the time she arrived, she was out of breath herself.
And sweaty.
Great. Why hadn’t she thought of that?
Scott was painting the underside of a boat, music playing in the background. The moment he saw her, he stopped what he was doing. The distance between them shrank to nothing until she could no longer hear the call of the seagulls or the background buzz of a drill. There was only the intense blue of his eyes, the insane pounding of her heart and the way he made her feel. It was as if some magnetic force connected them, able to pull them back together wherever they were.
He walked across to her, using the rag in his hands to wipe the oil from his fingers.
He was wearing faded Levi’s that molded to every muscle, and the sleeves of his shirt were pushed back to the elbows. She caught a glimpse of tanned throat and, thanks to a few open buttons, a hint of dark hair through the open neck. A sheen of sweat clung to his skin and the smudge of grease on his cheek made her think of war paint.
Sixteen years and he was still the sexiest man she’d ever laid eyes on.
Lauren felt a hot flush of guilt. She wasn’t supposed to find other men sexy, but it seemed her body hadn’t got that message. Sexual attraction was no respecter of social conventions.
Her mouth felt dry and her stomach dropped as if she’d missed her step.
How? How could there be anything left after so many years?
She didn’t understand it. She certainly didn’t want it.
He studied her for a long, lingering moment and then without shifting his gaze called to the teenager he had working alongside him. “Cal?”
“Yeah, boss.” The boy was there in an instant, eagerness and respect visible in his body language.
“Would you fetch us some coffee?”
Cal looked at him blankly. “Coffee?”
“Hot. Wet. Full of caffeine. You’ll know it when you see it.” Still holding the oily rag in one hand, Scott dug the other into his pocket and pulled out some notes. “Head to the Marina Café. It’s going to take you thirty minutes.”
Cal glanced at the office. “But there’s a kettle in the—”
“Marina Café. Thirty minutes.”
“Thirty—” Cal opened his mouth and closed it again. “Right, boss.” He took the notes from Scott and scampered off, leaving them alone.
Lauren felt ridiculously self-conscious. “You’ve taken on an apprentice?”
“He helps out from time to time.”
“Local boy?”
“Yes. Life hasn’t exactly gone his way lately.”
And he knew all about that of course. No one knew more about the challenges life could send than Scott. What she’d known about his past had broken her heart, and when she’d realized that his past was going to stop them having a future her heart had broken all over again.
“What happens when you move on again?”
“Who said I’m moving on?”
“It’s what you do.”
He rubbed at a stubborn stain on his fingers. “If that happens, then I guess he’ll have to find someone else to work alongside.”
“From the way he was looking at you, he thinks you’re a hero.”
His mouth curved. “We both know it won’t take him long to get over that.”