Page 2 of When Morning Comes Around

The woman seemed to get over her shock and took a step forward. Dominic herded the other two away from the carts. “Sorry, we’ll move out of the way.”

She nodded her thanks and grabbed a cart, looking distinctly uncomfortable. For a moment, he thought he’d misjudged – that she was in fact afraid of them. It was only when he noticed the flush on her cheeks that another possibility occurred to him.

He met her gaze and smiled. Something about the way she smiled back hit him square in the chest. She looked uncomfortable, unsure of herself, but she held his gaze. Then,she turned and scurried away, leaving Dominic wondering what it was about her that had piqued his curiosity.

Since he’d moved here to Summer Lake, he’d grown used to women flirting with him. He enjoyed it, it was a fun way to connect on a superficial level. But he didn’t take it beyond the superficial. He felt as though he connected more deeply through just one look with the woman scurrying away from him than he had with any of the women he’d shared drinks and dances with over the last few months.

He still wasn’t paying attention to Dalton and Cal while he watched her walk away. He realized that he was biting the inside of his cheek, willing her to look back before she disappeared. He didn’t even know why he wanted her to – until she did.

She met his gaze, and he smiled. When she smiled back, an old familiar feeling filled his chest with longing. It felt like the two of them shared a connection that no one else was aware of. It was the way he used to feel all the time with Polly.

He frowned. And there was no reason in hell that some stranger in the grocery store should make him feel that same way.

He came back to the moment with a jolt when Dalton grasped his shoulder. “I’ll see you later, then.”

“Yeah, but like I said, I won’t stay for long.”

“Me neither,” said Dalton. “I’ll just have one with you guys before I head over to the restaurant.”

After he’d gone, Cal raised an eyebrow. “Was that someone you know?”

“What? Who?”

Cal folded his arms across his chest and waited.

Dominic let out a self-conscious laugh. “No. I don’t know what the deal was. She just… I dunno.”

Cal cocked an eyebrow. “And you don’t want to know, right? You flirt enough to keep everyone off your back, but you’re not looking for anything.”

“I’m not. I know that you guys have found yourselves second chances with some amazing women. But I’m not looking for a second chance – my first chance was all I ever wanted.”

Cal nodded solemnly. “That’s what I thought, but the way you reacted just now...”

Dominic shrugged. “I know, it caught me by surprise, too. But… I dunno.” He shrugged again.

“And you don’t need to know. You don’t need to explain it to me, or anyone else.” Cal met his gaze. “But I get the feeling that one day, maybe even one day soon, you might need to explain it to yourself.”

Dominic gave him a puzzled smile. “I doubt it. I doubt I’ll ever see her again.”

“Maybe not. I need to get going. I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah, see ya.” Dominic looked toward the corner where the woman had disappeared. Even if he went after her, he doubted that he’d bump into her. And the thing was, there was no reason that he should want to. He hurried to the breakfast aisle to collect the syrup that he’d come in for. He was still sharing the house with his nephew, Jake, and it had become something of a tradition for them to have pancakes for breakfast on the weekends.

As he made his way back out to his SUV, he scanned the parking lot, but there was no sign of the woman. That was probably a good thing. Even though his brother, Damon, and the rest of the guys tried to encourage him that finding a relationship might do him good, he wasn’t interested. He wasn’t. He knew that he’d been lucky in love the first time. After Polly, he’d known that he wasn’t going to be looking for someone new.

~ ~ ~

“Come on, please make it, please make it,pleasemake it!” Sadie leaned forward in her seat as if she could somehow encourage the minivan to make it to the top of the hill.

It had done well; the temperature gauge had stayed on normal as she made her way out of town and had only started to creep up as she made her way along the east shore of the lake. She should have known that she wouldn’t make it to the top of the hill, but she’d decided to go for it anyway.

She was regretting that decision now. She could see steam escaping from under the hood. The minivan was going slower and slower, and when the steering wheel started to vibrate in her hands, she knew it was time to pull over.

There was a pullout a little further up the hill. If she could just make it… She let out a yelp when the engine quit, and the minivan started to roll backward. She hit the brakes and then eased off them slightly as she tried to steer toward the side of the road and onto the shoulder. She wasn’t good at steering in reverse at the best of times – and this was far from the best of times.

Once the minivan was safely off the roadway, she put it in park and pulled the handbrake. The last thing she needed was for itto roll all the way back down the hill – given her luck lately, it’d probably end up in the lake. With that thought, she climbed out and searched for a couple of rocks to wedge behind the wheels. With that accomplished, she went to fetch her purse from the passenger seat.

It was only once she had her phone in her hand that she realized she didn’t know who to call. Dale had insisted that they should let their AAA membership lapse last year. She scowled as she wondered how else he might have spent that money. At the time, she’d thought that he was simply going through a frugal patch. In light of what she’d learned over the last few weeks, it seemed more likely that he’d been diverting the money – their money – toward his own pleasures.

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