Page 50 of Fortune's Control
“Nuclear engineer,” she corrected.
“I don’t know the difference between those jobs. You want to go inside?”
“Is Aiden here?” Emma’s grimace returned.
I introduced them to each other yesterday, and Aiden broke into his silly antics, forever ruining any chance with my perfectionist best friend.
“He’s always around.”
“Let’s go get ice cream instead.”
*****
My voice quivered. “I can’t believe he made it.” I wiped my eyes before tears formed.
“It’s a little canoe,” Emma crooned. She stroked the natural wood. “Shane made this?!?”
“He’s talented, isn’t he?” A strange pride filled me. A plush pillow sat on the soft wood’s gentle curves. A simple pattern adorned the edges. “It has a pirate flag. Where did he find that?” A thin wooden pole carried a skull and crossbones.
“It’s stunning.”
After ice cream, we shopped at Fortune’s Creek’s infamous antique stores and ate dinner at the Creekside Diner. I already considered it a perfect day, and then we came home to find Pirate’s new ship waiting on my bed.
Shane left me flustered yesterday morning, with his questions and his kiss. I touched my lips at the memory. He married a stranger and took a friend to dinner. What came next? “He’s in his woodshop right now.” Like he often was in the evenings. “Where’s Pirate? She needs to see her new bed.”
Emma snapped her fingers. “Lilah, the cat can wait. You can give her the bed later. Go thank him.”
Thank him and kiss him. “I’ll be back. Or not.”
I bounced down the stairs, stopping at the bottom as nerves hit. A trickle of intuition, a what-if, hit me. Shane never invited me to his woodshop. All I knew was that it once belonged to his father, and he enjoyed it. I found out he made those chairs from Pete rather than from him.
A cat purred and rubbed against my leg. “Hey, Pirate. Yes, you’re still the most beautiful, the most prettiest kitty in the house. You stay here. I have plans.”
I opened the door a crack and slid through. The garage apartment was dark, and I wondered where Sophie had gone.
The woodshop’s size surprised me, while the blastof chilled air shocked me. It shouldn’t have, considering the sweltering Florida heat.
I took in the heavy saw and tools hanging from a pegboard. A bench held a stack of wood planks, and I wondered if they were for Shane’s next project.
“Did I interrupt?”
Shane dropped his wooden mallet on a worktable. His typical dark t-shirt was missing, and I’m struck by my first glimpse of his bare skin. I wanted to drool. A jagged scar ran across one shoulder, and a sprinkling of dark hair covered his chest, disappearing under his waistline.
“I came to say thank you for Pirate’s new bed. She’s the luckiest kitty in town. It’s what I hoped for. Better.”
His shorts, slung low across his hips, drew my eye, and my toes curled over what they hid. I checked out his legs and noticed a strange device, made of metal and something else.
“Shane? What happened?” A dumb question, because it didn’t matter. His repeated refusals to go swimming and his odd habit of running before dawn took on new meaning. He was one of the few residents in Fortune’s Creek who insisted on wearing denim or Carhartts, while most chose shorts or sundresses. “You didn’t want me to know.” I knew I was correct the moment I spoke. “You didn’t think I was mature enough or brave enough to know. Is that it?” I was less sure of this, but his apparent distrust was likely due to me.
“Get out.” His usual stoic expression turned stony and cold. He pressed both hands into the wooden bench, hard enough that I imagined it splitting in two.
“No, I don’t want to leave. We should talk about this.” I thought back to our date, and its strange ending. Shane kissed me like a man obsessed as his hands stroked between my legs. Then he lost interest. “This is why you walked away like you did, isn’t it? I spent days questioning myself, trying to figureout what I did wrong or why you rejected me. Your secret mattered more when I wouldn’t have cared at all. I liked you, Shane, I liked you and shared my secrets…and you.” I knew what he saw. A mess. A woman more likely to create problems than solve them.
I waited, but no response came. He should give me an order. That’s his default response, just as Sophie warned me.
Except he’d already done so. Get out.
I squared my shoulders and blinked. “I didn’t intend to get in your way. Thank you again for Pirate’s new bed.”
