“And I hope I get called out so I don’t have to work with you today,” Theo grumbled. “Though that means somebody has a fire. Maybe a small fire would be okay. An outdoor garbage bin fire could work.”
Nick stood and took his coffee upstairs to his bedroom, where he could drink it in peace. He’d take something for the headache, take a shower. Then he’d get in his truck, go to work, come home, eat, sleep and do it again. Grief had sideswiped him before, and he just had to push through it.
He made it a day and a half. Nick was on a ladder, trying to plan how they would take down a historic home’s crown molding and tin ceiling without damaging it, when a question blew through his mind and almost knocked him off.
Is Lucy still in Wayward Harbor?
She’d brought him his hoodie back, and that could only have meant she was wrapping up her stay and saying goodbye. There was a possibility she’d thrown her stuff in her car yesterday and was already driving south.
Feeling shaky, Nick climbed down the ladder before he could fall off. Then he stared blankly at the wall they’d be demolishing soon.
Her last memory of him would be the hurtful lies that had come out of his mouth. And his last memory of her would be the utter devastation in her eyes. He’d burned it down, and everything they’d shared was ashes.
If she was gone, it was what he’d wanted for her. To go to Miami and not look back. He didn’t want her torn between him and what she wanted from her life. But now that she might be gone, the pain and regret couldn’t be ignored. Maybe she was okay, but he couldn’t live with the possibility she wasn’t.
He looked up at Beck, who was standing on top of a ladder at the other end of the crown molding, staring down at him. His brother didn’t look confused or annoyed by the interruption. He just looked down at him for a long moment and then smiled. “Go.”
Nick didn’t need to be told twice. He sprinted through the house, past Gray and Theo in the kitchen, where they were measuring the room to be updated. He left an explanation up to Beck and jumped in his truck. Before turning the key in the ignition, he rested his hand on the hoodie lying folded on the passenger seat, hoping for luck.
When he pulled into Helen’s driveway, Nick almost drove into a tree when the relief of seeing Lucy’s car parked next to her grandmother’s sapped all the strength from his muscles.
She hadn’t left yet.
Grabbing the hoodie, he made his way up the porch and knocked on the door. He concentrated on slowing his breathing while he waited for somebody to open it, and trying to prepare himself for the possibility the women inside would ignore him.
He’d deserve that.
When Helen finally opened it, he braced himself for scathing words, or at least anger in her eyes. But her expression was neutral. “Hello, Nick.”
“Hi, Helen. Can I talk to Lucy, please?”
“Hold on a second.”
Nick noticed she didn’t invite him in as she always would have done in the past. Instead, she left him standing on the porch like a guy trying to sell her something, which told him she knew everything.
Through the screen door, he watched her walking toward Lucy’s room. And when he looked past her, his heart sank. He could see enough of the smaller bedroom to see that the chaos that was Lucy trying to organize things was gone. The boxes he’d carried in there the night he finished the room were gone.
He hadn’t thought to look into her car windows when he walked by, but it looked like, very soon, Lucy would also be gone.
As he watched, Helen nodded and then went into her own bedroom and closed the door. A moment later, Lucy appeared in her place and Nick could finally take a full breath.
She walked slowly toward him, her blue eyes never leaving his face. Anxiety rippled through him because her eyes weren’t rimmed with red. Her nose wasn’t red, and her face wasn’t puffy. Maybe he’d misjudged everything, and she wasn’t heartbroken at all.
He had to step out of the way when it became obvious she wasn’t going to invite him in, but rather join him out on the porch. He wasn’t even living room company now. Just front porch company, and he had nobody to blame but himself.
“Hi, Nick,” she said softly when she’d pulled the big door closed behind her and let the screen door swing shut. “What can I do for you?”
There were so many things he wanted to say to her, starting with how sorry he was and ending with how much he loved her, but it was all jammed up in his mind, not making sense. He held out the hoodie. “I want you to take this with you.”
“Why?”
Because I won’t be able to hold you anymore, but maybe imagining my favorite hoodie wrapped around you will keep me from crying myself to sleep every night.“It gets cold in Miami, you know. In January and February it can be in the forties. And back in 2010, the temperature actually dropped to thirty-five.”
“I thought you established you wouldn’t be taking care of me anymore. And I’m pretty sure I established I don’t need you to.”
“I lied,” he blurted out. “Everything I said was a lie.”
Lucy didn’t look surprised. She simply kept looking at him with her arms crossed. “Why?”