Built To Last (Saltwater Springs #1) (16 page)

F
or the third
time in a row, Scarlett ignored the pounding on her front door. She didn’t care who it was. One thing was for sure, it wouldn’t be Luke, and that was all that mattered.

Once again she’d managed to destroy the only man she’d ever truly loved, and she had no one to blame but herself. Though she’d only been seventeen and distraught at the time she’d run off, she didn’t have that excuse to use anymore. She’d chosen to keep the truth from Luke and now wondered why she’d ever thought that what had gone down earlier that night wasn’t destined to happen all along.

The knocking stopped for a blessed moment and she sighed with relief. Whoever it was must have given up.

As she lay there staring at the ceiling in her living room, tears streaming out of her eyes and running down into her ears, she replayed every moment of what had happened. Scarlett squeezed her eyes shut as she considered the fact that Luke had bought her family home for her—for
them
. Under any other circumstances, it would’ve been ideal.

He wanted to raise a family together in the home that she and her father—and her father’s father before him—had grown up in. The fairy tale portrait that Luke had painted before her was almost a perfect one. If it weren’t for her treacherous body, it would be picture-perfect.

Scarlett had long ago come to terms with the fact that she’d never have any children of her own. That didn’t mean the reality of it wasn’t still painful, but she was able to keep the emotions far enough below the surface that she didn’t burst out crying every time she saw a baby anymore.

How many times in her young life had she envisioned the moment when Luke would propose to her? Way back when, she’d figured it would be after she was done with college. Maybe if they were lucky, her parents would’ve approved of the union by then and helped out with the wedding. She’d thought they would spend a couple of years as a married couple, just the two of them, and then try for a baby. She’d had it all planned out…how naïve she’d been.

A noise from the kitchen startled Scarlett into a sitting position on the couch. It sounded almost as if someone was messing with the window above the sink. She cocked her head and listened.

There it was again.

Her gaze darted around the living room for something she could use to defend herself. There wasn’t much, so she settled on a lamp sitting on the end table. Scarlett swiftly rose and reached behind the table, working to unplug the light. Her cell phone was in the kitchen, so she couldn’t call for help unless she went in there first.

Tiptoeing toward the kitchen with her “weapon” raised above her head, she heard the window sliding across the track.

Shit! She could run, but she wanted to grab her phone before the person made it in through the window.

With shallow breaths and her heart pounding in her ears, she turned the corner to the kitchen, lamp raised high, ready to lambaste whoever was there. She stopped short when she saw Layla awkwardly making her way through the window.

“Damn it,” her friend said to herself as she slid off the counter and onto the kitchen floor with a thud.

“What the hell are you doing?” Scarlett asked with annoyance.

“Ah, you are alive,” Layla said, appearing nonplussed by the fact that she’d just been caught breaking into her friend’s house.

“Of course I am.” Scarlett set the lamp on the counter and then crossed her arms over her chest. “Mind telling me what the hell you’re doing coming in through my kitchen window?”

Layla gave her a look that said she wasn’t happy as she got up off the floor. “Well, if you’d answer your damn door, I wouldn’t have to.”

“Did it occur to you that I didn’t want company, and maybe
that’s
why I didn’t answer the door?”

Layla put both her hands on her hips, her usual pose when she was about to go toe-to-toe with someone. “Believe me, I knew before I even got here that you weren’t going to want company, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need it.”

“Oh, and how’d you know that?” Scarlett asked, not even bothering to try and keep the irritation from her voice.

“Because I ran into Luke.”

All the breath rushed out of Scarlett’s lungs. “What did he say?” she asked, teary and wide-eyed.

“Nothing. He didn’t have to. I swung by One Night Stan’s for a drink and he was there pounding back the shots—which, by the way, is a very un-Luke-like thing to do. You’re the only one I’ve ever known to put him in that state, so I hightailed it out of there and came to see if you’re okay. Only you’re trying to hide from the world.”

“I am not,” Scarlett argued.

“Are to. That’s what you do when you need someone the most—you shutter yourself away from everyone that cares about you.”

Scarlett had nothing to say to that, because the sad fact was…it was the truth.
“
Deveareuxs
don’t cry,”
her Daddy used to say. It’d been so engrained in her that she’d never felt comfortable relying on other people for support—even when everything was falling apart.

So instead of disagreeing with her best friend, she burst into tears.

“Oh my God.” Layla came right over and wrapped an arm around Scarlett, leading her back to the couch. Once they were seated, her best friend rubbed her back and asked, “What happened?”

Scarlett confessed everything. The real reason she’d left town. How she’d sworn to herself when she started spending time with Luke that it wouldn’t amount to anything. That his pull on her was too strong. How Luke had proposed at her family home and then how she’d devastated him.

When she finally finished, Layla sat beside her, stunned and silent for a moment. “Wow. I’m so sorry, Scarlett. I had no idea.” Tears swam in her friend’s eyes and Scarlett saw the pity there, too. “I can’t believe you’ve held all this in for so long.”

“You understand why I couldn’t tell Luke back then, right?”

Layla nodded slowly. “I understand why you
thought
you couldn’t. I know the pressure your parents put on you. You always wanted to please them…I get that. But you could have come to me. I would never have told anyone, and I could have helped you through it.”

Fresh tears rolled down Scarlett’s face. “I was ashamed that I’d gotten pregnant…and angry I never would be again. I thought that since I was so far from Saltwater Springs, if I just pushed it to the back of my mind…it might lessen the pain until it eventually faded away.”

“Did it work?” Layla looked her dead in the eye, waiting for her answer.

Scarlett exhaled and shook her head. “No.”

Layla blew out a big breath. Before she knew it, Scarlett was wrapped in a hug, her friend squeezing tight. “I’m glad you told me, and I’m so sorry. It’s a shitty situation all around, but maybe you and Luke can adopt? There are lots of couples that can’t have children who are perfectly happy.”

Scarlett squeezed her friend back, then pulled away. “I know. And God willing, I will be able to adopt at some point in my life. But you don’t understand how much Luke has always wanted his own family. He used to talk about having a houseful of kids running around that were half him, half me. We’d daydream about whether our kids would have my dark hair or his sandy-colored hair and whose eyes they would have, whether they would take after him and be good at sports or after me and do well in school. I can’t take that away from Luke. Not when I know what it means to him.”

Layla pressed her lips together, and it was obvious there was more she wanted to say. After a moment, she spoke up again. “So what are you going to do?”

“What
can
I do? There’s no future for us. I need to concentrate on getting my bakery opened and getting it off the ground. I’m going to work so hard that there’ll be no time to think about all this.”

“Listen to me.” Layla took her hand. “I respect your decision, and I won’t try to talk you out of it. That said, you need to realize that it’s okay to need people, Scarlett. I don’t care what your parents have led you to believe—may they rest in peace. But there are people you can lean on in your life and you need to let them help you in times like these.”

“Thanks. I’ll try to remember that.” Scarlett pulled Layla in for another hug, more grateful than ever for her friendship because she now realized that leaning on someone felt less like failure and more like relief that someone else was sharing some of the burdens she’d been bearing alone.

T
he next morning
Luke got a text from his mother asking him to hurry over. As much as he wanted to stay in bed nursing the hangover to end all hangovers, he couldn’t say no to his mom, knowing that if she was asking for his help, she must be in a bad way.

He was surprised when he walked into her house and found her sitting at the kitchen table, looking like she’d been waiting on him.

“Everything okay?” he asked, stepping into the kitchen.

“You look like hell.”

“Great observation,” he said between gritted teeth. “What’s going on? Why did you want me to come over?”

She gestured to the chair across from her. “Have a seat.” The serious tone of her voice set Luke on edge. Worried that she had some bad news regarding her health, his brows were drawn as he sat down.

“What’s going on, Mom?” he asked with a knot in his stomach. He wasn’t sure how much more he could handle.

“That’s what I want to know. I got a call from Graham.” She tipped her head down and looked at him from under her brows. “Guess he ran into you at the bar last night. He seemed a little concerned at how fast you were knocking them back and thought something might be up. So…what happened between you and Scarlett?”

Luke’s shoulders slumped. “How’d you know?”

Betty reached across the table to take his hand. “Son, there’s only ever been one person that could drive you to drink and that was your Lettie.” She paused for a moment, her deep concern evident on her face. “Did you two have a fight?”

He blew out a breath and removed his hand from his mother’s to run it through his hair. “I was stupid enough to propose. She didn’t accept.”

“Oh, Luke.” Her hand flew to her mouth. “I’m so sorry. She’s had a lot of changes in her life the past couple of years…maybe she just needs time.”

Luke shook his head. “No. It’s not that. I wish that’s all it was.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Did he? He had to talk to someone to sort through his feelings, and his mom was one of the only people in his life who really knew what Scarlett meant to him. In the end, he confessed everything—all of it—until his eyes burned with unshed tears that he was trying his damnedest to hold back.

“Poor Scarlett,” his mother said when he finished.

“
Poor Scarlett
? Mom, she lied to me! She had
our
child growing inside of her. I deserved to know. I could’ve been there for her! I should’ve been able to mourn the loss alongside her, but she took that away from me.” His face heated in anger and his hands drew into fists on top of the table.

Betty stretched her arms across the table and took his hands in her small, frail ones. “She should have told you. There’s no question about that.” His mom looked him square in the eye. “I know what it is to be young, scared, and pregnant. I wasn’t that much older than she was when I got pregnant with you. But on top of that, Scarlett had a set of parents who put an exorbitant amount of pressure on her. Everyone in town knew the Deveareuxs were good people, but they expected their daughter to be perfect and live up to every one of the dreams they had for her. All I’m saying is that’s a lot for a young girl to deal with. And she didn’t just lose a baby that night, Luke. She lost the idea of what her future was going to be…and that, son, is far bigger than what you’re grieving.”

He pursed his lips. Luke hadn’t thought of it like that. He’d been solely focused on his feeling like she’d betrayed him. Letting his mom’s hands go, he pushed his chair out from the table and paced the small kitchen.

“She should have at least told me when she came back to town and we started seeing each other again.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. It’s not really the type of thing you tell someone on a first date. Perhaps she was afraid you’d react this way.”

Luke whipped around to face his mother. “I wouldn’t be this pissed if she’d told me when she should have.” He drove his hands through his hair again, pulling tight on the roots, searching for any distraction from the pain inside. “I can’t believe she was pregnant with my child.” A groan of pain escaped him as the first tear rolled down over the stubble on his cheek. He slid down against the counter until he sat on the floor, elbows resting on his raised knees, head cradled in his hands. “We’ll never have a baby of our own.”

He tried to rein in his emotions so he could think clearly, but as the grief overwhelmed him, the dam burst and he sat there with silent, wracking sobs shaking his large frame. The helplessness of the situation made the pain inside tangible. There was
nothing
he could do.

His mother’s soft voice cut through his despair.

“Let me ask you something. Do you love Gabbie any less because you aren’t her father?”

With stinging red eyes, he brought his head up to look at his mother. “No,” he said in a hoarse whisper.

“Maybe you should think about that.”

“It’s not that simple.” He wiped at his face, trying to eliminate all traces of his tears.

“Or maybe in time, you’ll find it is.”

She rose from the kitchen table and made the slow journey back to her bedroom, her slippers shuffling on the hallway carpet.

“I just need time to think,” he whispered to himself. Though he was pretty sure that all the time in the world would never be enough to ease his pain.

I
t’d been almost
a week since she last saw Luke, and the hole his absence had left in her life was like a gaping wound.

Scarlett had chosen to spend nearly every waking moment at the bakery, working herself to the bone in preparation for opening day. It was better that way. By the time she fell into her bed at night, she didn’t have much energy left to miss Luke before sleep claimed her.

It was almost eleven p.m. and she had the radio playing loudly as a way to drown out her thoughts. Scarlett had just about finished organizing all her stock and ingredients, arranging everything so that she had easy access to the items she’d use the most. Opening day was the day after next, and she needed everything to be perfect. She’d completely imploded her love life. She couldn’t afford to do the same with her professional life.

Scarlett couldn’t have been more pleased with how the bakery turned out—and she owed it all to Luke. Without his help, there wasn’t a chance in hell she’d have been ready to open in mere days.

Unshed tears stung at the back of her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She’d done nothing but cry for the first few days after the confrontation. And worst of all, Scarlett had no one to blame but herself. She’d known all along exactly how it would turn out, but apparently she’d gotten good at lying to herself.

The fact was that she was once again on her own, a state she’d grown pretty comfortable with over the past couple of years. There’d be no white picket fence for her and Luke. The best thing she could do was to make a success of her business and let Luke move on with his life. The thought of having to witness that tore her in two, but in her heart she wanted him to be happy and have all the things he wanted out of life.

Scarlett yawned as she bent over to collect some of the discarded packaging from earlier. She stood from a crouch and carried the garbage over to the large can near the back of the store.
Great, it was full.
Scarlett tied off the bag and dragged the can to the back door. She pushed the heavy metal door open and used the can to hold it in place. When she’d pulled the garbage bag out, she walked down the small back alley to the dumpster that all the shops in the row shared.

The bag wasn’t heavy since it was mostly full of packaging materials, so she tossed it up over her head and into the dumpster. The cold night air had her shivering by the time she reached the back door. She went back inside and moved the can away from the door, letting it slam shut.

One of her favorite songs was playing on the radio. It was a melancholy tune, but it suited her mood these days. She began humming along as she turned to make sure the back door had locked when it closed.

All good.

Something hard pressed into her back.

All not good.

She froze on the spot, all her muscles tensing, her adrenaline spiking to the point that it was hard to breathe past the pounding staccato beats of her racing heart.

“Hello, princess,” a man’s voice from behind her said. It sounded vaguely familiar, but in her frantic state, Scarlett wasn’t able to place it. When she didn’t reply, he pushed what her brain now registered as a gun deeper into her back. “Got nothing to say? Funny…seems you had plenty to say to the cops.”

Her mind searched through her memories for the reference, and she realized it was Rich—the guy who’d ripped her off and skipped town. Before she could give that much more thought, he spun her around by her arm.

Oh God. Something was really wrong with this guy. He looked like he hadn’t showered in a week—his greasy hair lay flat on his head, there were dark circles under his eyes, and he was sweating and twitchy. He was definitely on something.

“Wh-what do you want?” she managed to get past her trembling lips.

He stood with the gun pointed at her, dangling from his jerking hands.

“When I came here tonight, I figured I’d just mess shit up—break your windows, trash your store, make life as shitty as you made it for me. Imagine my surprise when the light was on. Figured I’d come in here and see what cash I could score.”

Scarlett’s eyes widened as she realized she couldn’t give him what he wanted. “But I haven’t even opened the store yet. I don’t have any cash here.”

“Shut up!” he roared, causing her to recoil. “I looked you up. Little rich girl like you can’t spare any cash? Bullshit!” The gun shook in his hand while he screamed at her. Scarlett closed her eyes, waiting for the moment it would accidently fire and the bullet would rip through her flesh.

When she heard nothing but the radio playing in the background, she opened her eyes. He was pacing in front of her, mumbling to himself and running his dirty hands through his stringy hair.

She glanced around. There was nothing she could use to defend herself. The few knives she had were stuck on the magnetized board over the prep table, but they were too far away for her to reach. He’d shoot her before she even had time to grab one, let alone turn around and attack him with it.

The best she could hope for was to give him what she could and get him out of here.

“I-I have some money in my purse. It’s not a lot, but…”

His head swung around and his beady eyes narrowed. “If you’re trying to get to your cell or something—”

Scarlett put her hands up in front of her. “No, I swear I’m not.”

He continued to stare at her, and though he was standing still, his hands kept fidgeting. Scarlett’s feet were rooted to the spot in fear while she waited to see if her plan would work.

“We’re both gonna go get the money. Where is it?” He used his free arm to wipe the sweat off his forehead.

“My purse is in my office.” She pointed with a shaking hand behind him.

“Let’s go then. And no funny stuff. You try anything and your brain becomes part of the wall art.”

With a large swallow she nodded and took a step in his direction. It felt unnatural to be walking toward the man pointing a gun at her, but she had to pass by him to get to the office. Scarlett’s legs were numb as she walked, as if all the blood had moved to the center of her chest in order to help with the furious pumping of her heart.

His anxious eyes tracked her as she passed him. As she entered the office and crouched down to pull her wallet from her purse, she could feel his presence behind her.

“You’d better not pull anything other than money from your purse,” he threatened.

Her hands shook and she dropped the wallet she’d just located. “I’m just getting my wallet,” she said with a tremor in her voice.

“Hurry up!” he screamed.

Scarlett quickly reached into her purse to retrieve the wallet again. As she began to stand, she heard Rich cry out from behind her and she spun around.

Luke was there and had Rich in a chokehold. The two men struggled as Luke tried to subdue him from behind while keeping the hand holding the gun pointed up at the ceiling.

Scarlett stared wide-eyed at the pair as Rich pushed back and slammed Luke into the wall.

“Call nine-one-one,” Luke ground out, right before he shoved forward and wrestled Rich down the hall out of her sight.

She whirled around and frantically searched her purse for her phone while the sound of a struggle in her kitchen continued. Shelves crashed to the floor, and she had no doubt they were leaving a trail of destruction in their path. The radio must have been one of the items to hit the ground because the sound of the music cut off abruptly.

Scarlett had just found her phone when a gunshot echoed throughout the store. Every muscle in her body tensed as she waited for a sound—any sound—to tell her that Luke was all right. Only deathly silence hung in the air.