His First and Last (Ardent Springs #1) (5 page)

The feeling hit too close to home. This structure reflected what had become of Lorelei’s life. What she had let it become. For too long she’d ignored the signs of decay. Let outside forces tear at her self-esteem and batter her dreams. If she were forced to describe what it looked like inside her head, Lorelei could present a picture of her current surroundings with a one-word caption—
This.

She asked the same question she’d been asking herself for months.

“How did this happen?”

Spencer shrugged and shook his head. “Neglect. Apathy. Greed. Take your pick.”

“Your committee really thinks you can fix this? Twenty thousand dollars would barely make a dent. You’re fighting a lost cause.”

A lost cause. Something Lorelei knew well.

“The twenty K is more a show of good faith. We have a written agreement with the Baler Group, owners of this theater and six other small movie houses between here and Memphis, that if we help raise the funds, they agree to do their part. They also agreed not to sell the building out from under us or this would all be a waste of time.”

He pointed up to the balcony. “Believe it or not, things aren’t as bad up there. The leaks are mostly by the screen, and the raccoons seem content to stay down here. The concession counter could be replaced with something used to start with. Popcorn machines aren’t much.”

Spencer had always managed to see the good in things. The possibilities. That was something she’d loved about him. No matter how moody or hateful she’d been, Spencer saw the good in her. Saw the potential of what she could be beyond the stubborn face she showed to the world.

“So?” he said, tossing a wet shingle out of his way. “You in?”

Staring at the wreck surrounding them, Lorelei knew nothing in this endeavor would be easy. But maybe she didn’t need easy.

Maybe she’d gone down the easy road for too long.

“I’m in. I have my doubts, but I’m in.”

When Spencer didn’t respond, she turned to read his face. There it was. That twinkle in his eye he’d always gotten when Lorelei proved him right. He’d known she’d cave as soon as she saw the condition of the theater.

The idea of someone knowing her so well, better than she knew herself, made her stomach clench. Lorelei stepped back, putting more distance between them. She wasn’t the simple teenage girl he’d once dated. There were open wounds Spencer knew nothing about.

“You ready to go?” Spencer smiled, but she could tell he knew she’d withdrawn. “My gut is telling me it’s time for lunch.”

“I’m not hungry.” Lorelei’s stomach chose that moment to make a liar out of her. To Spencer’s raised brow she said, “Fine, but walk fast. If those bats wake up, I’m running you over to get out of here.”

Spencer nodded. “Sounds fair.” He kicked empty popcorn boxes and shredded seat cushions out of his way. “And Lorelei?”

“What?” she said, following the path he created.

He stopped, causing her to run into him. Staring into her eyes, his expression unusually serious, Spencer said, “I’m glad you’re home.”

Lorelei didn’t have an answer, nor could she have spoken if she did, since all the wind rushed out of her lungs. As he leaned forward, she was certain he was going to kiss her. God, how she wanted him to kiss her.

Instead, he took her hand and said, “Now let’s get out of here.”

Chapter 4

He should have kissed her.

That was the only thought racing through Spencer’s mind from the time they’d left the theater until they’d parked in front of Tilly’s Diner. But doing so would have been a huge tactical error. Lorelei was already on the defensive. She’d had a chip on her shoulder back in the day. That chip seemed bigger than ever now.

Which made him wonder what had happened in the last twelve years. What had her life in LA been like? A new place where no one knew her should have given Lorelei the opportunity to start over without the parental baggage holding her down. Then again, maybe the crap from childhood tagged along no matter where a person ran off to.

Spencer wouldn’t know, since he’d never felt the need to run. At least not any farther than out of the trailer park. He too knew something about parental baggage, but he’d been fortunate in that his mother had
always
been from the wrong side of the tracks. No one
expected Paula Boyd to be any better than she was, and when she’d come up pregnant without a ring on her left hand, no one batted an eye.

In fact, where Lorelei was condemned for being a child of sin, Spencer had received little more than the occasional sympathetic glance. The double standard irked him, but he’d never played into it. Any respect his fellow natives had for him was solidly earned.

“Tilly’s is still here?” Lorelei asked. “Nothing ever changes in this town.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” Spencer cut the engine and shot his passenger a smile. “We’ve got one of those twenty-four-hour pharmacies over on Cobbler Street, and the high school built a brand-new football complex three years ago.”

“So the old folks can get their pills at three a.m., and the pigskin-obsessed have a new chapel.” Lorelei dropped out of the cab. “At least their priorities are in the right place.”

“Were you expecting a shopping mall with all your Rodeo Drive shops?” Spencer asked.

With clenched teeth, Lorelei said, “Struggling waitresses don’t shop on Rodeo Drive.”

“I thought you were a struggling actress?”

“So did I.” Her voice dropped as she stepped out of the bright sunshine into the dimly lit diner. “Turns out we were both wrong.”

“Hey, Spencer.” The silver-haired waitress greeted them from behind the counter. “Have a seat, darlin’. I’ll be right with ya.”

“Thanks, Jeanne.” Spencer led Lorelei to a booth along the left side wall. Before sliding in, she brushed a hand over the red vinyl, clearing invisible crumbs. The old Lorelei wouldn’t have noticed a few crumbs.

“The burgers are still the best around,” he said, pulling two menus from behind the salt and pepper shakers. “And if you’re real nice, I’ll splurge and buy you a piece of pie.”

“I can pay for my own,” Lorelei responded, sunglasses still perched on her nose as she perused the menu. “I’ll have a salad.”

The woman was skin and bones. If anyone needed a hefty dose of greasy calories, it was his tablemate.

“Since when do you turn down a hamburger?”

“Since I lost out on an underwear commercial because of love handles.”

The sunglasses hid Lorelei’s eyes, making it difficult to read her expression. But her voice made it clear she wasn’t joking. Lorelei had always been confident about her body, which is why the confession put him off-kilter. This was the first time since seeing her at the airport that Spencer felt as if he were talking to a stranger.

With little else to go on, he followed his instincts. “Whoever was in charge of that commercial is a moron. And if I’d have been there, I would have told him so.”

“It was a woman, and she was right.” Lorelei crossed her arms and looked away from him. “And that white-knight bit is cute, but a waste of time.”

Jeanne stepped up to the table before Spencer could respond. She’d been a staple at Tilly’s Diner for as long as Spencer could remember. “Okay, folks. What are we having?”

“House salad,” Lorelei said. “Separate checks.”

“House salad for Lorelei,” Jeanne said. Lorelei huffed as she removed the sunglasses, but the waitress ignored her. “And what to drink?”

“Water.”

“Simple enough.” Without asking, she said, “And a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a vanilla shake for Spencer.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

As the waitress walked away, Spencer chuckled. “Did you think the sunglasses would work?”

“Hoped, maybe.” Lorelei continued to avoid making eye contact. “I suppose I have it coming, but I don’t feel like facing it today.”

“You have what coming?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Open hostility. Public lynching.”

“That would take some organizing,” Spencer said. “Employing the phone tree to spread the word that you’re back in town. Remind them to bring their pitchforks. I say you have another twenty-four hours before you need to start looking over your shoulder.”

Lorelei finally met his eye. “I know better than most how far memories stretch in this town. And how unforgiving the general population can be.”

“We’re talking twelve years, Lorelei.”

“That’s like a nanosecond around here, and you know it.”

Spencer leaned forward. “Has it ever occurred to you that maybe no one has given you a second thought since you left?” Almost before he’d finished speaking, a voice that could cut glass echoed from the diner entrance.

“Do my eyes deceive me, or has the infamous Lorelei Pratchett graced us with her presence once again?”

Becky Winkle strolled up to their table, her hair teased into its typical dishwater brown rat’s nest. Leave it to Lorelei’s high school nemesis to show up at exactly the wrong moment.

“Well, glory be, it really is you,” Becky said.

Lorelei managed not to grind her teeth. Barely.

“Yes, Becky. It’s really me.”

Becky Winkle had been everything Lorelei was not in high school. Head cheerleader. Teacher’s pet. Miss Popularity. All reasons to hate her on principle alone, but then Becky had made sure she and Lorelei would never be friends when, in the sixth grade, she took it upon herself to inform their classmates that Lorelei was a bastard. Yes, by the technical definition of the term, Lorelei certainly qualified. But sixth grade was also the year her mother had died, on Lorelei’s eleventh birthday no less, making her both a bastard and an orphan.

There were two ways Lorelei could have gone that year. She could have curled into herself and attempted to become invisible, or she could have lashed out, burying the hurt under a mountain of attitude and spitefulness. Lorelei had never been the reserved type, and Becky’s constant attempts to make her feel like a worthless speck of canned meat added fuel to an already angry fire. By the time they’d graduated high school, Becky and her friends had dubbed Lorelei “Hatchet Pratchett.” A name Lorelei abhorred, though she would never have let them know it. Instead, she had smiled whenever they hurled it her way.

“Is this a brief visit?” Becky asked. “Or are you back to stay?”

With a smile, Lorelei said, “I don’t really see how that’s any of your business.” She had no intention of staying in Ardent Springs any longer than it took to figure out her next move, but Becky didn’t need to know that.

Becky’s already thin lips flattened. “I see you still have the same attitude problem.”

“I see you still dress in the dark.”

“And we’re all caught up,” Spencer said. “Nice chatting with you, Becky.” His facial expression managed to appear friendly and dismissive at the same time. A skill Lorelei had never mastered. Which probably should have been her first clue that acting was not her calling.

With narrowed green eyes locked on Lorelei’s, Becky said, “It’s a shame you haven’t learned to tell the trash from the treasure after all these years, Spencer. Maybe one day you’ll wake up and realize you can do so much better than this.” The
this
was spoken with disgust.

“Since you’re two up on me in the divorce count,” Spencer said, “maybe you ought to take your own advice there.”

Becky attempted to flip her hair over her shoulder, but not a lock moved. How much hairspray did that take? “I guess we all make mistakes now and then. You two have a nice lunch.”

As Becky retreated across the diner, shooting Lorelei dirty looks as she went, Spencer ran a hand through his short hair. “That was uncalled for.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’ve been back less than twenty-four hours.”

“It’s not as if I started that.”

“Right,” he said, his voice laced with sarcasm. “Asking if you were home to stay was an absolute provocation.”

Lorelei couldn’t believe he’d take Becky’s side. “Have you forgotten how she and her friends treated me back in high school?”

“No,” Spencer said. “But we’re not in high school anymore, remember?”

Her mouth opened and closed twice, but Lorelei couldn’t think of a response. So maybe she’d been a bit childish. Becky was wearing kelly green capris with an orange blouse she must have borrowed from her mother. Who could ignore that?

“I guess I’m not as mature as you are,” she said, studying her menu as if they hadn’t already ordered. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

And she was. Which set her teeth on edge. Lorelei had believed she didn’t care anymore what Spencer thought of her, but clearly she did.

Spencer sighed. “I’m simply suggesting you not start off this second chance by making enemies right away.”

“Second chance?”

“Twelve years have gone by, Lorelei. Things change.” He settled his hand over hers. “You can start over. Show them there’s more to you than spite and attitude.”

Lorelei removed her hand from his and crossed her arms on the table. “You think I’m staying.”

“I didn’t say that.” His jaw tensed, which meant he might not have said the words, but he’d been thinking them. “Whether you stay for a month or a year, there’s no reason not to make an effort.”