Runaway Lover Page 2

  “We don’t have much theft in our town, but I still appreciate it.” He pocketed the phone, trying to place who the girl belonged to. He didn’t know all the kids in town, but he knew most adults.

  “Taylor?” The frantic voice yelled from the opposite side of his truck.

  The young girl rolled her eyes. “My mom. She’d have a leash and a tracker on me if she could. I’m surprised she hasn’t installed one in my sleep. Just press a button and beep beep, here’s Taylor.”

  Kyle chuckled at the imitation of a robot voice. “All moms are the same. Don’t be too hard on her.”

  The one woman he’d wanted to talk to all day rushed around the hood of his truck. “There you are. Why do you do that to me? You know you can’t just wander off like that.”

  Something shifted in Ashley’s daughter. Instead of being the open, funny kid she was a second ago, she closed off, remorse filling her expression.

  She hauled her book bag higher onto her shoulder. “Sorry. I know, Mom.”

  Ashley sighed, the hand she ran over her hair pausing when she finally spotted Kyle. He smiled and held up his cell phone. “Your daughter found my phone.”

  “Found?” Ashley raised an eyebrow and aimed an accusatory look at Taylor.

  Taylor crossed her arms and grunted. “Yes,” she replied to the insinuated question with more attitude than Kyle had seen from a woman since his youngest sister, Zoey, had hit middle school. “I found it. Ask him.”

  “She looks just like you.” Kyle leaned against his truck, trying to break the tension. “Especially with both of you scowling that way.”

  Ashley blinked, and her hard expression cleared. “I’m glad she found your phone. I, uh, need to get back to work. I had to go pick her up from school. Cassie gave me fifteen minutes and said she could work on her homework in the empty office upstairs.” Again, the stern look came into her eyes as she glared at Taylor. “And not touch or take anything.”

  Take? That was an unusual request.

  “I’m old enough to stay by myself at the apartment. I don’t want to be here.”

  “Too bad. You’re not responsible.”

  “Mom—”

  “Stop.” Ashley pinched the bridge of her nose, inhaling slowly. When she opened her eyes, she seemed more in control. Barely. “Go inside. Please. I can’t do this with you today.”

  Taylor huffed and stomped to the back door.

  “Thanks again for my phone,” Kyle called, hating it for the kid. There was obviously some history there.

  Taylor waved her hand in the air but didn’t stop.

  “Sorry about her. Causing trouble is her hobby.”

  Taylor glanced over her shoulder before jerking the door open and disappearing inside.

  “I should get in there before something happens.”

  Although he wasn’t a parent, he had five younger siblings. He’d witnessed his fair share of attitude and tantrums, but this went deeper. “You don’t trust her very much.”

  She huffed. “Is it that obvious? She hasn’t given me much reason to trust her.” Ashley crossed her arms, her vivid blue eyes highlighted in the afternoon sunlight and a sharp contrast to her auburn hair.

  She was beyond pretty. Even irritated.

  “Have you been in town long?” he asked, hoping she’d stay and talk. Just a little more.

  “We moved here last week.” She leaned her hip against the side of his truck. “I didn’t have much time to plan. I was lucky they had a job opening here and I could start work right away.”

  He thought back to earlier in the day, watching her attempt to work that big machine Cassie purchased last month. “Have you worked at a coffee shop before?”

  “Yes.” Ashley lowered her voice, adding, “And it didn’t end well. I’m hoping this time I don’t screw something up and get fired. The odds are not in my favor after today’s attempts to learn that machine.”

  “It does seem a little much for a cup of coffee. That contraption looks like it could launch a space craft.”

  She laughed, her eyes lighting up and taking away the worry they’d held a moment earlier. “I’m sure there’s some secret combination of knobs and buttons to make it fly. Which also means no one should trust me to drive them around in a spaceship. Or this truck.” She rose on tiptoe, trying to see over the hood. “It’s huge. Is it just for show, or do you actually need it for work?”

  “A little bit of both, I guess. I like driving big trucks. Never grew out of that phase as a little boy. My formal excuse is that I haul large machines around sometimes if I’m needed.”

  She tilted her head to the side, watching him like she was genuinely interested. “Do you do more than repair windows?”

  He smiled at the simplicity of her statement. A seven-hour repair job? He would fire himself for working so slowly. “I fully replaced the window in a 1930s building, which isn’t the simplest task. And yes, I do much more than windows. My family and I own a construction company.” This was going better than he’d imagined. Each second that he spent across from her whet his appetite to learn more. “Our office is right down the street.”

  She ran a hand through her dark hair, bringing the end of it over her shoulder. “So,” she began, relaxing a little more against the side of his truck. “If your family is here, did you grow up in Hinecaster?”

  Kyle mimicked her stance, leaning his back against the door of his truck. “Yup. My parents did too. And their parents. We’ve been here for a long time. I went to the same school that your daughter goes to.”

  “It must be nice to have those kinds of roots.” She sighed and looked down, rolling her sneaker over a large chunk of gravel.

  He wasn’t ready for the conversation to end.

  “Where’s your family?”

  Ashley hitched a thumb toward the coffee shop. “In there. She’s the only family I care about in the world.” She shook her head when she met his eyes again. “I don’t want sympathy. It’s as much my choice that it’s just her and me as it is anything else. I wouldn’t change my decision.”

  “Okay. I won’t give you the sympathy, but I am curious about the backstory.”

  “Sorry. It’s not very interesting.”

  He seriously doubted that. Everything she’d told him was interesting.

  “I think my fifteen-minute break has nearly doubled.” She glanced over her shoulder at the shop. “I guess I may or may not see you around.”

  “I think I’ll find a reason to come by and grab coffee sometime soon. See how you’re settling into Hinecaster. Find out if you learn how to fly the coffee machine.”

  “You do seem to like coffee. And the cookies.”

  His stomach cramped at the memory of the day. “With my office right down the road, I like to stop by here—”

  “To see Cassie. Right. Erin told me the two of you are dating.”

  Kyle straightened, caught off guard. “That’s not what I meant.” It probably did seem like that. He’d dated Cassie casually for the past couple of years. Nothing that would lead to anything significant. He’d already experienced his one-and-done relationship. Cassie knew that.

  Erin poked her head out of the back door. “Hey, Ash, is your daughter allowed to work the oven?”

  “No!” She jerked away from his truck. “I need to go. I swear I can’t leave her alone for five seconds.”

  Before he could correct her about dating Cassie, she turned and jogged inside.

  Kyle waited another minute, disappointed when she didn’t reappear. He climbed into his truck and drove out of the small downtown area of Hinecaster to the nearest construction site. Although late in the day, the sun still hovered high enough to do some work before calling it quits.

  The whole town thought he had something serious with Cassie, but Cassie knew better. He’d made it clear that he had no intention of marrying again. Maybe it was time to move on.

  Try to date Ashley.

  He forced that thought aside. “You’re crazy.” He didn’
t need to date another woman. It worked with Cassie. There weren’t any fireworks, but it was an easy, drama-free relationship—someone to spend time with. Better than spending every night in his big house, alone with the painful memories of Beth.

  He wiped his hand over his mouth. But those few minutes of conversation with Ashley stuck in his head. Could he legitimately date another woman? Something casual and easy.

  Kyle pulled into the construction worksite and parked beside his sister’s truck. The minute he opened the door, Olivia Rossi’s raised, angry voice hit him.

  Olivia had a big heart and a loud mouth. Based on her current use of four-letter words, his sister was yelling at either one of his brothers or at Nico.

  The minute he stepped into the house, he heard a string of Italian that he could only guess what it meant before Nico’s sharp reply in English. “Then get your own damn screws, Livi!”

  Olivia stomped her steel-toed boot on the concrete floor, a poof of sawdust rising up around her. “Why are you so damn difficult? I needed an inch-and-a-quarter screw. Why can’t you just grab those the first time?”

  Nico leaned over the large sheet of plywood. “Because you said ‘screws’ not ‘inch-and-a-quarter screws.’ Don’t get upset with me that I can’t read your mind.”

  Kyle hesitated, debating whether to enter the fight. What the hell. She could spread her anger around so he didn’t lose one of his best employees. “He’s right. You do have a bad habit of not explaining what you want.”

  Olivia narrowed her eyes. “You can’t just show up here and take a side. Zoey would agree with me.”

  Nico rolled his eyes. “No. Your sister would take mine. She would also wonder why you couldn’t go get them yourself if it was such a big deal.”

  “Olivia, cool it. I’m going to start taking Nico’s salary out of your paycheck since you keep him from working half of the time because you enjoy arguing so much.”

  Olivia pressed her mouth into a firm line and huffed. She spun on her heel and marched to another side of the house.

  Nico shook his head. “Man. She’s been a beast lately.”

  “Lately?” Kyle shot Nico a confused look. “She’s been a beast since she was four.”

  “True. Just seems worse these days. Must be guy problems. So, where have you been all day? I thought you’d be here after replacing Cassie’s window this morning.”

  “That was the plan. Took longer than expected.” Because of Ashley. Kyle walked to the line of drill batteries in the corner and popped one off the charger. “Are you about to put this board up?”

  “Yes.” Nico looked around before he dropped his head forward. “She took my drill with her.”

  “Of course she did. She’s nothing if not vindictive. I have no idea how both she and Zoey are a product of my mother.”

  “Maybe your mother just hides her mean streak?”

  Kyle laughed. “Probably. I don’t think either one of my sisters is interested in learning how to control theirs. Here.” He handed Nico the drill. “I’ll grab another one from the truck.”

  He jogged back to his truck. As he reached inside, his cell phone lit up. He answered it before registering it was Cassie.

  “Hey. You left before I had a chance to invite you to dinner tonight. I have two nice cuts of steak,” Cassie said, her voice sounding a little bit put on, even for her.

  Usually, he’d accept. It beat the alternative of being alone.

  Now, for the first time in the past few years they’d dated, accepting her offer seemed wrong. They weren’t exclusive—had never discussed a future—but it didn’t sit well with him to go on a date with one woman when he really wanted to go on a date with another. He wasn’t built to play the field.

  “Sorry, Cassie, not tonight. But thanks for the offer.”

  She sighed, and he could hear the pout in her voice. “If you change your mind, you know where I’ll be.”

  “All right. Thanks.” After a beat of awkward silence, Kyle added, “Bye.”

  “Bye,” she mumbled and hung up.

  He closed the door to his truck, surveying how far their construction company had come on the house and letting his attraction toward Ashley run wild for a second. He should have asked her out when he had the chance. The town wasn’t huge, but other eligible men wouldn’t hesitate to snag a date with her.

  Hell, he was related to two of them. It would be a first time calling dibs on a woman with his younger brothers. Tomorrow, he’d stop by the coffee shop and ask her to dinner before they had a chance. The worst she could do was say no.

  3

  The heavy October rain clouds made the coffee shop dark and busy. Apparently, the men and women in Virginia all wanted coffee on cold, wet days like today. All Ashley wanted to do was curl up somewhere with a book, dream about a tropical location, and ignore the world.

  But people like her didn’t have time for that type of self-indulgence. The luxury of not working for a living belonged to a different class of humans. She worked as much as possible to make two skinny ends of life meet. For her daughter. For her freedom. No reason to start wishing for a different life now. This was it. Better make the best of it.

  “Did you see how I pulled this handle and pushed it to the side first? You keep forgetting to push it to the side.” Erin patiently went over how to use the spaceship/coffee machine again. She lowered her voice, shifting her gaze to Cassie, who chatted at the counter with a customer. “Listen, I’ll work the machine as much as I can, but Cassie has made it clear that she wants you to learn for when I’m out.”

  “What about her? Can she work it?”

  “Hell, no. The most that woman can do is make some decent muffins and plan her next move on how to squeeze a ring out of Kyle to trap him.”

  “Trap? I thought you said last week they were together.” He’d come into the coffee shop every day for the past six days. Each day, he’d stayed a little longer, lingering at the counter, making small talk. Probably waiting to see if Cassie would make an appearance.

  Well, that’s what Ashley told her stupid imagination. It wasn’t to see her. No matter how much it seemed that way. He never asked for Cassie, never inquired about her being in the back or upstairs in her office, but somehow, Cassie always knew when he was there. Like she had a sixth “Kyle” sense that alerted her.

  Erin rolled her eyes. “As far as it appears, they are together, but he won’t commit. Whoa.” She nudged her with her elbow. “Speaking of a hot Rossi. Damn, Blake is easy on the eyes. And the car he drives is as hot as he is.”

  Ashley glanced over her shoulder, agreeing. Blake was attractive.

  “He’s one of Kyle’s younger brothers.”

  He was fairer than Kyle, with light brown, nearly blond hair and a scruffy kind of beard. She noted the resemblance to Kyle only because Erin had pointed it out. She wouldn’t have linked the two men otherwise.

  Erin gave her a nudge. “Go!” she whispered. “Unlike Kyle, this one is free game and loaded.”

  Ashley stumbled a little with the second shove from her coworker and approached the counter. She wasn’t interested in the available or loaded type of man. She damn well appreciated money, but it didn’t make a man any better. That lesson had hit a little too close to home with Maxwell.

  “Hi. Can I help you?”

  Blake hooked his thumbs in his pocket and stared up at the sign above Ashley’s head. “I’ll have the number three. The biggest size you have.”

  Ashley twisted her lips to the side, amused with the order. “That’s, like, six shots of espresso.”

  He rubbed a hand down his cheek, over his trimmed beard. “Yes. I know. Long night.”

  “I don’t know if you mean long night last night or tonight, but you’ll have a hard time falling asleep with that much caffeine in your system.”

  “Both, actually.” He refocused on her. Then he smiled. That slow, confident smile matched Kyle’s and was sure to affect every single woman that he aimed it toward. She’d neve
r known that type of thing was a hereditary trait.

  “I’m Blake, by the way.”

  “I’m Ashley.”

  “You’re new in town, right?” He rested his forearm on top of the glass display case. Ashley had to get a step stool just to clean the top of the case.

  She nodded. “Just moved here. Let me get your coffee.” She turned, but Erin swatted her away.

  “I have this.” She lowered her voice. “Go talk to him. God, he seems interested!”

  Ashley turned back. Blake was still standing there, watching her. She wasn’t interested. Not in Blake, at least. “Erin will make that for you. Do you want anything else?”

  He smirked. “Possibly.”

  “Blake! Honey, how are you?” Cassie paused right beside Ashley. “I see you met our new girl.”

  Girl? She hadn’t been a girl since high school. With a barely contained sigh, Ashley left them both and headed back to Erin, keeping her smart-ass comment to herself and preserving her job.

  “I see Cassie is doing community outreach in her master scheme,” Erin muttered with the sharp edge of attitude she usually got when they discussed their boss. “Getting in with the Rossi family is key if you want to marry one.”

  “How many are there?”

  “Six. Two sisters and four insanely hot brothers. Only Jake is married. He lives in North Carolina now. No one else in the group is married.” Erin bumped shoulders with her. “You might have a chance, you know. That leaves Kyle, Landon, and Blake.”

  “I don’t need a chance because I’m not interested in dating.” She glanced back at Blake. He was definitely attractive, but he wasn’t Kyle.

  And Kyle wasn’t even close to being an option, not with Taylor, and definitely not with his attachment to Cassie. Plus, her attraction to Kyle would make it uncomfortable if she ever did date someone like Blake.

  No. She’d stick to what she knew: teenage girls and working as many shifts as possible.

  After Erin finished creating the Blake’s caffeine masterpiece, Ashley carefully walked it to the counter. Slowly, she rose on her toes and set it on top of the glass.

  “Here’s your bucket of caffeine.”