Built To Last (Saltwater Springs #1) (3 page)

W
hy the hell
had he done that? He wasn’t some horny teenager who couldn’t keep his hands to himself. He should be able to maintain
some
level of control around Scarlett.

Luke wrung a hand through his hair as he pulled into his mother’s driveway and brought his truck to a stop.

Scarlett had been a pretty girl in high school—fun-loving, innocent, driven—but there was no denying she was all woman now. And regardless of the fact that she wasn’t in any way trying to seduce him or turn him on, that was the effect she still had on him. It was like he’d been transported back to his twenty-three-year-old self, barely able to control his urges.

He glanced over at the time on the dash.
Damn it.
He was late. He hated keeping them waiting. Luke slammed the truck door behind him and hurried across the patio stones that led to the front door, then went right on inside. He removed his work boots and threw them on the rubber mat near the front hall closet.

“Luke…that you?” His mother’s frail voice sounded as if it were coming from her bedroom in the back of the house.

“Yeah, it’s me, Mom.” Luke made his way across the worn carpet in the living room. He’d tried to convince his mother to let him install some nice hardwood, but she’d have no part in it. She claimed he worked hard enough and the last thing he needed to be doing on his time off was changing “perfectly fine” carpet into something more “frou-frou.”

He’d just turned the corner to head down the hallway to the bedroom when he was almost plowed over—the little rugrat had a lot of force behind her for a five-year-old. Gabbie wrapped her small arms around his legs and squeezed tight.

“Hey, munchkin. How are you?”

“Where were you?” She pulled back and looked up at him with a full-on pout. Her curly blond hair was a mess and she looked like she might have a dried-on milk mustache, but to him she was as adorable as ever. Luke picked her up and hugged her to him as he made his way down the rest of the hallway to check on his mother.

“Sorry I’m late, ladies. Duty called.”

“That’s alright. I forgive you.” The little girl punctuated her statement with a squeeze of her arms around his neck.

“Everything okay at work?” his mother asked in a hoarse whisper. She lay in the middle of her bed under the down comforter he’d gotten her for Christmas last year. She had it pulled up and tucked under her armpits with her back propped up by some pillows.

“Yep. Everything’s good.” He tried his best to play it off like it was true, but his mom’s forehead creased—a sure sign that she was onto him.

“How are you feeling, Mom?”

Her coloring looked off to him. She’d been diagnosed with stage-three breast cancer a few months ago and was undergoing chemotherapy treatments. Luke had arranged for a nurse to help out, but he preferred to take care of her himself whenever he could.

“I’ve had better days. I’ve had worse.” She shrugged. At least he thought that was what she was attempting. Her movements had been so frail lately it was hard to tell. “What kept you at work late?” she asked, obviously trying to change the subject.

Luke pressed his lips into a thin line. “Never mind about that. You feel up to eating?”

“I’ll give it a go.”

“Grandma and I were just going to play a game of Throw Fish,” the little girl said excitedly, bouncing up and down on his waist.

Luke chuckled. “I think you mean Go Fish, munchkin.” He set Gabbie down on her feet and ruffled her already messy hair.

“Nah-uh. It’s Throw Fish.” She had her hands planted on her hips and looked so sure of herself. Oh, to be young again.

“Well, you girls have fun. I’m going to go get dinner started.”

Gabbie smiled up at him, then bounded over to the nightstand and grabbed a deck of cards off the top before climbing over his mom, finally coming to rest on the other side of her.

Luke opened his mouth to tell her to be more careful around her Grandma, but his mom raised a hand in protest. “I’m fine. You go get dinner ready and leave us to our game.” She gave him a shooing motion with her hand.

He nodded, taking in the two females in his life he’d do anything for, and then finally turned to go get started on the spaghetti dinner.

S
upper was just
about ready when the picture of Luke’s younger brother on the side of the fridge caught his eye before he opened the door. He blew out a frustrated breath, wishing his mother would take the damn thing down. She always refused, saying that he’d always be her son and deserved to be remembered.

Jake may have been her son—and his brother—but he’d been a selfish prick who’d overdosed and left behind a then three-year-old daughter and a girlfriend in mourning. Oh, he knew all that bullshit about addiction being a disease, but that didn’t lessen the anger he felt toward his deceased brother. Not at all.

Luke hadn’t been blessed with children of his own—yet. Even so, he couldn’t imagine doing anything to put himself in jeopardy of not being able to be there for his child as he or she grew up.

He grabbed the milk out of the fridge and picked up his niece’s glass, filling it to the brim. After his brother’s death two years ago, Luke had stepped in as a father figure for Gabrielle. He was all she had in that regard, but at least she had a good mother. Denise did everything she could to provide for her daughter, often taking on extra shifts at the factory where she worked. Between Luke and his mother, they tried to pick up the slack so she’d save on daycare.

“Uncle Luke, I’m hungry.”

He smiled to himself and turned to face the little girl he now looked at as a daughter.

“Lucky you. Dinner is ready.” He pulled out her chair. “Hop up while I go help Grandma to the table,” he said, patting the seat cushion.

Gabbie’s bottom lip poked out and she looked so sad all of a sudden that Luke wondered what he’d said wrong. “Is Grandma gonna go to heaven like my dad?” Gabbie whispered.

Good Lord, this little girl had the ability to break his heart in two. Luke got down on his haunches so he was at her eye level. “Grandma is going to be fine. She’s taking her medicine, and even though it makes her feel sick right now, it’s going to make it so she’s all better and will be with us for a long time. Okay, munchkin?”

“Okay.” The worry left her features and she swung her feet underneath her chair, taking what he said to be gospel. He hated that he had no idea if he was lying by telling her that, but he wouldn’t have her believe any different. She’d already suffered enough loss in her little life.

He’d do everything in his power to make sure Gabbie didn’t have to suffer anymore. Unfortunately for him, Luke was pretty sure his own suffering had just begun—spending time with the woman who’d broken his heart was its own brand of torture.

S
carlett beat
a path down Main Street toward The Country Cut & Curl Salon where Layla worked. The two friends needed to have a little chat.

The cooler air felt nice on her face but was a sure sign that autumn was setting in. The town had already adorned the lampposts with Halloween decorations—hanging baskets with red and orange mums dangled along with goblin and ghost figurines hooked to the bottom that swung in the wind. The baskets were beautiful and Scarlett made a mental note to pop by Shelby’s flower shop to talk to her about creating some floral arrangements for the tables in her bakery on its grand opening.

Though she didn’t really feel like it, Scarlett smiled and nodded at the fellow Saltwater Springs residents she recognized as she made her way along the sidewalk. She’d been taught since she was young to always make a good impression when she was out in public. Her parents had been well known in town when they’d been alive, and it seemed it was a hard habit to break.

She reached the Cut and Curl and pulled open the door a little harder than necessary. The bell above the door alerted everyone to her arrival. Without pausing, Scarlett walked past the young girl sitting at the reception desk and stalked toward her friend who was rinsing someone’s hair in the sink.

Layla glanced up and her eyes widened. She turned her body so that her back was facing Scarlett, as if trying to make herself invisible. But Scarlett wasn’t having any of it.

“Oh no you don’t,” she said, stomping across the tile floor. “I see you there, Layla, and I know you know we need to talk.”

Layla spun back around and went back to rinsing the shampoo out of her client’s hair. “I’m kind of busy here. Can we do this another time?”

Scarlett came to stop at the feet of the person in the chair, crossing her arms in front of her. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Why didn’t you tell me who the contractor was?”

“Would you believe me if I told you I didn’t know?” Layla asked as she pumped some conditioner out of a bottle on the shelf above the sink.

“Not for a second,” Scarlett replied, tapping her foot.

Her friend exhaled audibly. “I didn’t say anything because I knew if you knew Luke owned the company, you wouldn’t call. And he was your last hope.”

Scarlett’s hands flew out to her sides. “You don’t know that. And at least I could have been prepared.”

Layla gave her a pointed glare. “Are you trying to tell me that if you knew it was Luke, you still would have called?”

She opened her mouth to respond but found the lie wouldn’t form on her tongue. “That’s not for you to decide.”

“Oh, please! There’s so much unfinished business between the two of you, there is no way you would have called,” Layla said, wringing the water from her client’s hair.

“How do you know that?” Scarlett said, a little too loud.

“Because you haven’t asked about him at all. Not since you first left town a decade ago and not since you’ve been back.” Layla grabbed a towel and began guiding her client to an upright position, but Scarlett was too busy pinning her best friend with an evil stare to bother looking at the customer. “A woman who was over her ex would ask those questions at some point because the answers wouldn’t matter to her. You don’t ask because you don’t want to know. Because you still care. Because the answers matter to you.”

Scarlett crossed her arms over her chest again and stood there, silently fuming that she couldn’t deny her friend’s accusation. She glanced down to the woman whose hair Layla was toweling off.

Mrs. Montgomery.

Great.
The universe certainly wasn’t doing her any favors these days.

Mrs. Montgomery was as much a part of Saltwater Springs as the river that ran through the town. She’d lived there her entire life, which had to be approaching eighty-some-odd years, and somehow she seemed to know everything about everyone in town. If you wanted to know the scuttlebutt, you went to Mrs. M to get it.

Scarlett forced a small smile onto her face. “Hi, Mrs. Montgomery. How are you?”

“I’ve seen better days, I’m afraid. I was just telling Layla here that my cataracts are bothering me again, and Lewis is driving me crazy at night getting out of bed every hour to pee.” The old lady rolled her eyes. “Prostate. Still, a woman needs her beauty sleep.”

Layla suppressed a giggle while towel-drying Mrs. M’s hair. Scarlett wasn’t sure how to respond, so she settled on, “I’m sorry to hear all that.”

“Okay, Mrs. M, you can make your way over to the chair and we’ll get started on your cut.” Layla patted her shoulders in a friendly gesture. The elderly lady tried leaning forward in her seat but seemed to be having trouble. Scarlett reached out a hand to help her. Mrs. M didn’t seem that steady on her feet once she was up, so Scarlett continued to help her shuffle over to the chair.

“I haven’t seen much of you since you’ve come home,” Mrs. M said.

“I’ve been busy trying to get everything together so I can open up the bakery.”

They reached the salon chair and Scarlett continued to hold on to her arm until she’d plopped down into the seat.

“So I hear. And what’s this I hear about Luke helping you out?”

Scarlett glanced up to Layla, who stood behind Mrs. M and began combing her wet hair out, doing her best to avoid eye contact with her friend. “That’s what we were just discussing,” she replied, her voice even.

“I know,” Mrs. M said with a wink. “I remember you two back in high school.” She smiled and held a hand covered with age marks to her chest. “You guys would spend every minute together. Seemed like such an odd match at the time—him being so much older and a bit of a troublemaker. Your daddy sure wasn’t happy about it.”

Scarlett swallowed back a lump at the unexpected mention of her father. She found moments like this the toughest. When she was expecting someone to bring up her parents, she could steel herself. But with no warning, it hit her almost as hard as the night she’d gotten the call about the car accident.

“No, ma’am, he wasn’t,” was all she managed to say.

Mrs. M wasn’t done. “Of course, I could always understand the appeal. I know he doesn’t look it now, but my Lewis was quite the wild man back in the day. The things we used to do…” she trailed off, grinning to herself while Layla and Scarlett exchanged wide-eyed glances.

“Well, that was a long time ago. Things are different now,” Scarlett said.

Her voice seemed to snap Mrs. M from her thoughts. “Sure was, but feelings like that don’t just fade over time, my dear.” The old woman raised a grey brow and gave Scarlett a pointed look. “’Course, if I remember right, after you left town that Luke went on a bit of a spree, dating almost anything in a skirt.” She shook her head to herself. “Always was so good-looking. He’s grown into quite the attractive man, don’t ya think?”

Hearing about Luke dating other women stole the air from Scarlett’s lungs. She’d assumed he’d have moved on, but the despondent feeling settling in was exactly why she’d never asked what he’d been up to over the years. It was better not to know for certain.

All Scarlett had wanted to do was give her friend a piece of her mind and get back to the disaster that was her shop. Was that too much to ask? How had she ended up on an unwelcome stroll down memory lane with Mrs. M?

“Anyway, it was good to see you, Mrs. M. I’ve got to get back to the shop. You…” Scarlett pointed a finger in Layla’s direction. “Don’t you
ever
do that to me again.”

Layla raised her hands in front of her in a placating gesture. “Okay, I’ve learned my lesson.” She lowered her hands and placed one on Mrs. M’s shoulder to draw her attention. “Are we doing the regular today?”

Mrs. M patted her hand. “Of course, dear. I’m too old to try something new.” Layla laughed.

“Is there anything else I need to know?” Scarlett asked pointedly.

The elderly woman opened her mouth to say something, but Layla cut her off before she could speak. “I’m going to be out of town for a bit.”

Scarlett’s stomach dropped. As irritated as she’d been with her friend for leading her directly into Luke’s path, she still valued her friendship and was counting on her to be around for support while Luke was helping her out.

“Where are you going?” she asked, sounding more panicked than she had intended.

“The Sassoon Academy finally accepted me, so I’ll be taking some classes at the Chicago location for a few weeks. I just found out.” Her friend’s eyes lit up and it was impossible not to be excited for her. Scarlett remembered her saying it was a long shot when she’d applied to the hairdressing school in order to upgrade her skills.

“Wow, I’m so excited for you!” Scarlett moved forward to give her friend a hug, dodging the scissors she held in her hand. “When do you leave?” she asked as she pulled back from the embrace.

“Day after tomorrow.” Layla bit her lip. Scarlett sighed. “But I’m only a phone call or a FaceTime away.”

Scarlett pressed her lips together. “You’d better pick up if I call.” She glanced down at her watch. “Damn it. I’ve got to get back to my shop to get ready before Luke shows up.”

“You already look lovely, dear,” Mrs. M said with a sincere smile. “Stick around and tell me what plans you have for this shop.”

“
I
don’t have to get ready. I have some things to get done at the shop before he arrives.”

“Oh, of course you do.” Layla and the old lady exchanged a look in the mirror that said she was full of it.

“It’s true,” Scarlett said. They both looked at her skeptically. “It is!” she insisted.

Whatever…it didn’t matter what they thought. She didn’t have time to stand there and argue. She still needed to figure out how she was going to prevent the feelings from the past from surfacing and causing her more heartache.