Page 46 of Lovewell Lane

I laughed. “I won’t get hurt. Nothing will actually happen between us. It’s just quite a revelation that Iwantsomething to happen.”

“I hate to interrupt this delusional conversation you’re having— mostly with yourself, but I have to go. You should write about this in your journal.” She watched me bite back a laugh. “I’m serious. I’ve been waiting for the day you’d be seriously interested in someone romantically. I wasn’t sure it’d happen, but now that it has, you should be honest with yourself about your feelings.”

Scarlet really picked the wrong career when she chose her major in marketing.

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll make sure to write my name with his last and frame it in hearts on the page, too.”

“Margo.”

“Scarlet.”

We had a staring contest until I broke into a laugh, immediately wincing at the effect it had on my headache. “I love you. I’ve got to go to work. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Love you, too. Bye,” I said with as much happiness as I could muster.

I closed the laptop and gently laid on my back. Bread. I needed bread and eggs to cure this hangover.

14

Derek

Fucking idiot. Sam booked himself a delivery all the way in Augusta again, which left me in charge of the store all morning. Lately, I avoided taking morning shifts at the store at all costs. Working in the morning meant I ended up exactly as I was now.

Staring at Margo.

A week ago, she drunkenly confessed she ‘wanted to take care of me’. I didn’t know how the hell to address that, and she clearly didn’t want to face me either, since I hadn’t heard a peep from her. It was the longest I’d not interacted with her since she’d come into town.

I was losing my mind.

Today, she was working in the front of her diner, which was infinitely worse. I preferred staring at the empty walls of her restaurant until I got bored because now I had no hope of getting anything done today. She had on a cute little red apron and was hanging up frames on the walls. She’d measure something, hang it up, take a few steps back, and either give herself a quick proud nod or pop a hand on her hip in disappointment. Then, if her hand went on her hip, she’d start the process all over again. We were on round fifty of this little game when the shop bell chimed.

I tore my gaze away to look at Sam. He was giving me a look. “Really?”

“What?” I already knew I sounded defensive.

“Have you done anything today, or are you too busy being interested in the girl next door?”

“Fuck off.”

“Can’t you just ask her out? Take her on a date?”

I shot my brother a look. If he didn’t see how hypocritical he was being, he was blind as a bat. Ever since Lila moved into town he’d been in denial, and now he was choosing to project his regrets onto me.

Margo might have drunkenly confessed that she liked living in my guest house. That didn’t mean she wanted to do it forever. She was a people pleaser, anyway, always telling people what they wanted to hear. She could have just said it to be polite.

“She’s not my type.”

Sam set down his clipboard with the delivery payslip on it. “Bullshit. I know you, brother. You’ve never been like this before.”

“She’s a Dreamer. She’ll be out of here in less than a year. I’m a thirty-five-year-old man with a child. I can’t be messing around with the woman living in my guest house.”

Sam’s teasing lost its playfulness. “I don’t think it would just be messing around. She really seems set on staying. You heard her, she wants to make the diner work. And she cares about the town. Everyone really liked her at the Seedling Party. Tessa adores her.”

“They all say they’re set on staying,” I said under my breath. “Anything go wrong with the delivery?”

Translation: Conversation over. I was done talking about Margo.

The doorbell rang which made my head turn around to look at the door. I immediately walked over to the door and held it open for the newcomer.

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