Page 14 of When Morning Comes Around

“Of course, you can come in if you like, I’m just trying to save you from having to deal with Dad again.”

Was she trying to get rid of him? He didn’t understand. Maybe she was. Perhaps he’d been so caught up in trying to assess why he reacted to her the way he did that he’d missed something. Was she uncomfortable with him? Maybe she was. He had no frame of reference, and he’d hate for her to feel as though he was outstaying his welcome.

“That’s okay. I should get home. You have Jake’s number. I… I’ll have him call you in the morning. He can take it from there.”

He didn’t understand the way she was looking at him. Perhaps the poor woman had been uncomfortable all evening and he just hadn’t realized it.

“Okay, well… err … Thanks again. I never had a knight in shining armor ride to the rescue before – never thought I needed one – but when I did, I’m glad it was you.” She rolled her eyes. “That sounded way better in my head. All I meant was thank you. Anyway, I’m going to go now, before I make even more of a fool of myself. Goodnight.”

With that, she got out, taking the box with Harvey’s sticky toffee whatever-it-was with her.

He watched her hurry up the path to the front door. When she reached it, she turned to give him a quick wave and a sheepish grin before disappearing inside.

Dominic stared at the empty porch for a couple of moments before pulling away. He ran the events of the evening through his head as he drove back to Summer Lake. There was no denying that he’d enjoyed himself. It was only when he passed her abandoned minivan on the side of the road that he remembered that he still had all her belongings in the back of his SUV. She hadn’t even taken her overnight bag.

He smiled. He might feel like an idiot, but he was relieved to have a legitimate reason to talk to her and hopefully, see her again.

As he was driving back down the eastern shore of the lake, his phone rang. He felt guilty when he saw Nina’s name on the display – he should have called her before now to let her know that Sadie had made it home safe.

“Hey, Nina,” he answered.

“Hi, did everything go okay?”

“It did, she’s home safe with Harvey. Sorry I didn’t let you know sooner.”

“Not a problem, I didn’t want to seem like I was chasing you up to make sure everything was all right, but it’s getting late, and I didn’t want to go to bed wondering.”

“Yeah, I should have called you earlier.”

“To be honest, I thought Sadie would have called – I didn’t expect you to. I left her a voicemail, but I haven’t heard back. Maybe she went straight to bed.”

“Maybe.” He wasn’t about to explain that they’d been out for dinner.

“Thanks again for going. Next time we all go out you must come, and your dinner’s on me.”

He chuckled. “There’s no need for that, it was my pleasure.”

“I’d argue with you about it but there’s no need; I intend to get my way – and you can ask Manny how that usually works out.”

“I don’t want to argue with you, so for now, I’ll just say thanks.”

She laughed. “Okay, see you soon.”

“Yeah, see you.”

When he got back to the house, he parked in the driveway behind Jake’s truck.

“Hey, Uncle Dom. I was just about to call you. Dad told me what happened; did everything go okay? I thought you would have been back before now.”

He chuckled. “It was fine.” He dug the key to Sadie’s minivan out of his pocket and handed it to Jake. “There’s your first customer.”

Jake grinned. “Thanks. Where is it?”

“Almost to the top of the hill on the way to Hidden Valley. Do you know where that is?”

“Yeah, that’s if you just keep following the road up the east shore past Four Mile, right?”

“That’s right. How do you want to handle it?”

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