“I’m sure your dad is smiling right now.” She gave his hand a soft squeeze, then let go and took a step back. “See you around, Cole.”
There was a finality to her words, as if she didn’t plan to see him anywhere. As if she spent the night talking herself out of a replay of their kiss.
He searched her gaze and decided he wouldn’t let her off the hook so easily after last night. “Not around,” he corrected with a grin. “Soon.”
Her lips curled into an alluring smile. “We’ll see.”
He watched her walk away, the gentle sway of her hips, her long tan legs carrying her with a graceful confidence. Did she know he was watching? He hoped so. It was best if they were both on the same page. He wanted her, she wanted him, and he wouldn’t give up until he had her naked and beneath him, moaning his name.
CHAPTER EIGHT
“That’s your rental car? What a dump.”
Jaden stopped jiggling the key in the rental car’s keyhole to glance up at the girl leaning against the side of Joe’s Garage. She’d been so engrossed in mumbling curses under her breath that she hadn’t noticed her approach. The stupid key fob wasn’t working and neither was the lock on the passenger side door. She’d left a magazine and the rental receipt inside and the company was sending someone that afternoon with a replacement. Finally.
The girl wasn’t old enough to smoke, but she raised a cigarette to her lips and lit up. She kept a defiant eye on Jaden, as if daring her to say something about it.
“I agree.” Jaden shoved the key fob into her shorts pocket. At least her luggage arrived. When she woke up this morning, her bag was sitting on the front porch. “This thing is a pile of crap.”
“I wouldn’t have driven that thing if it was the last car on the lot.” She took a quick puff of the cigarette—Jaden doubted the girl inhaled.
“If you needed a car badly enough, you might,” Jaden mused. She nodded to the cigarette. “Those things’ll kill you, you know.”
The girl shifted her weight from one foot to the other, getting comfortable against the wall. “My mom smokes and she’s not dead,” she said without warmth.
“So does my mom. She’s not dead, but she looks twice her age.” Jaden leaned against the car door. “You work here?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah. It sucks.”
“What’s your name?”
“Tatem.” She blew out gray smoke. “You must be that hotshot television person everyone’s talking about.”
“What?”
“I was at the diner this morning with Uncle Joe. Some ladies were talking about you.” She gave a sarcastic sniff. “You’re going to save the town, don’t you know?”
Jaden blew out a sigh. Mia had done a real great job of keeping a lid on things.
She didn’t like the idea of becoming the town’s savior. Her blog posts wouldn’t miraculously infuse thousands of dollars into the treasury to compensate for what had been embezzled.
“You’re from River Bend?” Tatem sized Jaden up with the skepticism of a teenager. “You don’t look like a hillbilly.”
Jaden chuckled. “I don’t think everyone in this town is a hillbilly.”
“Pretty much, yeah.” Tatem narrowed her gaze and cocked her head. “Why’d you leave? Seems like everyone stays in this town forever.”
There was a harsh resignation in the girl’s eyes. She couldn’t have been more than sixteen, maybe seventeen; what had turned her into a cynic at such a young age?
“I wanted to see what else was out there.” Needing to get away was a point Jaden left unspoken.
“Must be nice to travel all over the place.” Her eyes were riveted on a camper across the highway, a For Sale sign tacked to the dingy yellow siding. Stretching out behind it was a field of beans and hilled pasture land. “This place sucks.”
Jaden didn’t answer—she’d thought the same thing at her age. In those days, graduation couldn’t come fast enough.
“This town’s not that bad,” Cole said.
Jaden and Tatem both swung their gazes to Cole, who had stepped from around the front of the gas station. Jaden’s insides warmed and her lady parts sighed—this is getting a tad ridiculous. She definitely wasn’t caught off guard by her reaction to the sight of him—she was resigned to it now—but she hadn’t expected to see him every day on this vacation.
“Says the old guy,” Tatem tossed back, and Jaden laughed,
Cole plucked the cigarette out of Tatem’s hand. Tossing it to the ground, he said, “There. That’s better.”
“Hey!” Tatem propped her hands on her hips while he stomped out the cigarette. “What the hell?”
“What the hell’s right. You’re on probation and you’re underage.” He ignored her glare and turned to Jaden. “They haven’t gotten you a new rental yet?”
She shook her head. “Not yet, but someone’s coming today with a trailer to pick this one up and bring me something else. Thought it would be easier if they just dropped it off here. Joe said he’d call me when they get here.” She nudged the front tire with her flip-flop. “I have to sign a form swearing I didn’t intentionally cause damage to the car.”
His head cocked with amusement. “What, do they think you dumped sugar in the gas tank?”
“Does that work?” Tatem asked, sounding much too interested.
“No,” Jaden and Cole said in unison, and then exchanged smiles.
Tatem raised her brows. “Gross. Old people love.”
Jaden averted her gaze from Cole’s. “Not even close.”
“I'd love to stick around and listen to your lame conversation with the cigarette Nazi, but my uncle will be pissed if I don’t get inside soon.” She strolled off at a lazy pace.
“No more cancer sticks,” Cole called after her.
“Yeah, whatever, old guy.” She disappeared around the corner.
“I like her. She’s spunky.” Jaden smiled after her. “And she seems to have your number.”
“Old guy?”
“Yeah. You’ve got to be what, pushing thirty?”
“Twenty-nine. And I love that you’re keeping track.” He flashed a smile that made his lips into pillows, inviting her in. “She’s giving Joe indigestion.”
“What’s her story?”
Cole shoved his hands into the front of his jeans pocket. “Her mom ran off with a boyfriend and Joe brought her here. She’s had a hard time adjusting.”
Frowning, she shoved the key back into the passenger door lock. No wonder the girl rebelled against authority, against anything—she’d been betrayed by the one person who should have cared for and loved her. Story of Jaden’s life.
“Mother of the year award.” She wiggled the key more aggressively, and it finally turned. “Let me guess, booze and drugs?”
“That’s the story.”
She tugged the door open and leaned inside to the console between the seats. “I hate that story.”
“Yeah,” he said on a sober note. “Me too.”
She pulled the receipt from the console and the magazine off the passenger seat, then slammed the door shut. From the way he avoided her gaze, she could tell that Ellie had crossed his mind too.
Made sense he’d think of Jaden’s mother. The whole town knew about Ellie’s parenting skills. She hadn’t been quiet about screaming at Jaden when coming down off whatever high she’d been on. Those were the worst. When she was popping pills and drinking anything she could afford, she was happy, if not mentally absent. Careless and indifferent, but at least her high hadn’t made her mean. Well, as long as she didn’t mix too many pills, or drink whiskey straight. Those were the times she’d always been the nastiest, cutting Jaden down like a weed with her barbed comments.
“You need a ride?” Cole lifted the ball cap from his head to run his hand through his hair. He replaced the hat.
She almost declined, but then realized that was childish. It wasn’t his fault that she’d gotten caught up in the moment and jumped him in the lake. He was being polite, that’s all.
Rolling the magazine up, she said, “That would be great, thanks.”
“Where to, Ms. Daisy?” His smile was inviting, pulling her toward his warmth.
She took a step back and shoved the magazine in the back pocket of her jeans. Smiling, she said, “Can you take me to Angie’s? Hills told her I was in town and she threatened to hunt me down if I didn’t visit the ceramic shop before I leave.”
His gaze dropped to the camera bag slung across her chest. “Taking pictures too?”
“Thought I’d take a few while I’m roaming around today.” She patted the camera bag with a grimace. “I’m saving the town, haven’t you heard?”
His lips curved with amusement. “I may have heard something about that around.”
“So much for Mia keeping my presence here on the down-low.”
His brows quirked. “We’re talking about the same woman, right?” He held his hand up, measuring just under his chin. “Short little firecracker who kind of marches to her own band?”
Jaden laughed with a shake of her head. “Right?”
They walked together to the front of the gas station. “Where’s Mia?”
“She had to run over to David’s parents. I guess his mom baked his favorite cookies.” She glanced over to him with lifted brows. “He’s not even home from his trip yet.”
“Jesus,” Cole said on a breath. “That guy would be living in his mother’s basement if it weren’t for Mia.”
They stopped in front of the station’s door. “You don’t like him?”
He pressed his lips together, as if contemplating his words first. “Let’s just say I think my little sister can do a lot better than him.”
“No argument from me.” She pulled the keys out of her pocket. “Who knows, maybe we’re wrong about him. And maybe she’ll get tired of picking up his mom’s cookies and learn how to bake. Watching that disaster might be kind of fun. I’ve seen her burn ground beef on low.” Jaden put a hand on the door handle and grinned at him. “I’ll just be a moment.” She opened the door. “I need to leave the keys at the counter.”
“I’ve got the Cutlass.” He gestured to the car parked in front of the gas prices sign.
Tatem sat behind the counter tapping out a message on a cell phone. She did her best to look bored when she glanced up. “You’re still here?”
She set the keys on the counter. “Leaving these for Joe.”
“If he said that’s okay.” She titled her head and pinned Jaden with a curious gaze. “Festival’s going on if you’re looking for something slightly less lame to do in this town.”
Jaden cocked her head and studied her right back. She sensed Tatem had more to say about the subject, but wouldn’t without prodding. “Are you going?”
Another indifferent shrug. “Maybe. If I get bored enough.”
“Will this be your first Fourth of July in River Bend?”
“Yeah. I’m sure I won’t miss much if I skip it.” She didn’t sound certain.
“We didn’t have a Fourth of July Festival when I lived here, but my friends always dragged me to the county fair.” Jaden smiled at the memories. Hillary was always at some bakery booth or other, and Mia spent hours in the craft and décor displays. During their senior year Jaden got brave and entered some of her photographs, though she didn’t win anything.
“No one’s said much about it.” Tatem set her phone down, and Jaden glanced at the screen. She hadn’t been texting. She’d been typing in a YouTube search. “Not that I care, or anything.”
Did the girl even have friends? Jaden remember how hard it’d been when she moved to River Bend. Her first months had been rough. Embarrassed by her second-hand clothes and knowing it wouldn’t be long before rumors spread about her mom—or before she was dragged out of school and to another town—she kept her head down and wouldn’t talk to anyone. Mia wouldn’t give up, though. Hillary wasn’t the pushy type, so she let Mia do the friendship recruiting. It didn’t take long for Jaden to crack under Mia’s persistence, but she got lucky with those two.
“Maybe I’ll see you there?”
She shrugged. “If Uncle Joe makes me go.”
“Good. I’ll look for you, then.” She picked up a pen and jotted her phone number on the sticky pad beside the register. “Call me when the rental gets here, okay?”
“Yeah, okay. I’ll do that.” She picked up her cellphone, their conversation over.
Jaden watched her for a moment, the urge to befriend this girl strong. She turned at the door. “I could probably use some help getting pictures around town while I’m here, maybe some help posting, too. Mia gave me an itinerary for the festival—I’ve got my work cut out for me.”
There was a spark of interest before Tatem gave a blank-eyed shrug. “I’m pretty busy, but I suppose I can help. Maybe it’ll count as community service since you’re saving the town and all.”
Jaden bit back a smile. “Maybe it will.” She gestured to the notepad she’d written her number on beside the register. “Text me your number so I can call you.”
“Yeah. Sure. Whatever.” Her words didn’t mask the excitement in her voice.
Jaden stepped back out into the sticky summer heat and her eyes went straight to Cole. He sat behind the wheel of his car, his head bent. She wanted to stop and soak in the sight of him before he noticed her watching.
He would be trouble. Hasn’t he always been?