Page 53 of Lovewell Lane

I threw a ball of rubber bands that sat next to the computer at him. “I don’t just want to sleep with her. That’s a horrible fucking idea.”

“Then don’tjustsleep with her. Take her out. Wine and dine her. Go see a movie. Anything.”

I let out a deep sigh. “I upset her.”

“How?”

“On the boat. I was pretty mean. She’s upset with me.”

Sam stood up straighter. “Oh, well make it up to her. Apologize. ‘I’m sorry’ goes a long way.”

“I’m working on that. If you’d stop interrupting me—”

Sam smiled wide and smacked his hand on the counter. “Great, you’re already on it. I’ll leave you to it then, brother. I have a good feeling about you two.”

17

Margo

After two whole months of building anticipation for this one day, it felt euphoric for it to finally be over. My nerves had me working overtime for the past week, cleaning every inch of the diner in preparation for opening day. Even Mike, my chef, told me to chill out.

If anything, the actual day proved my preparation was necessary. We had a full house nearly the entire day straight. The morning time brought in mostly Honeyfield residents like Derek, who woke up early and went right to work. Midday brought in stay-at-home moms with kids and workers on their lunch break from neighboring cities. At dinner time, we saw entire families coming in to support our opening.

It was emotional, to say the least. My mind and body were exhausted. Even so, I was excited at the prospect of doing it all over again tomorrow. Everyone was so nice, and excited to be able to support a local business. It felt so special to create my own community of sorts.

By the time I got home, I was hobbling like someone who’d just finished a marathon. My feet ached, and I was sure I had at least twenty blisters on each foot. At my door, I found a small package. Weird, I hadn’t ordered anything.

I groaned, bending over to pick it up. I brought it inside with a huff. Dropping everything I carried, including the clothes off my back, I stumbled to my bathroom to take a hot steamy shower. It was heavenly and everything I needed. I came out of it feeling like a phoenix that had died and risen from the ashes.

The package caught my eye as I returned to my living room area to get some water from the fridge. I gulped down the whole glass and sat down on my couch to stare at the thing. I didn’t even want to sit up to reach for it, that was how tired I was.

I did anyway, curiosity getting the better of me. Ripping open the brown wrapping paper, I gasped. Inside was a framed news article of the grand opening of Lucky’s. Except it wasn’t my Lucky’s, it was my dad’s. In Boston. There was only one person who could have known about this, and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to face him again.

Derek rejecting me on the boat was painful. The shock of him rejecting me, even more so. Usually, I was the one doing the rejecting, so wanting someone only for them not to feel the same, was rough. Seeing him at the diner today was even more complicated. I was happy to see him, but also angry and pissed off at him at the same time.

Swallowing down my pride, I walked out of my house and stormed up the back steps of Derek’s house, only to find him already sitting on his back porch. He had a beer in one hand and his phone in the other. Those unreadable eyes watched me walk up the steps with intensity.

I stopped when I was standing right in front of where he sat on a rocking chair. He held up his beer slightly higher.

“Want one?”

I thrust the framed announcement of Lucky’s opening in his face. “What is this?”

“It seemed like it fit your other wall decorations. I figured you would put it in the diner.”

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to pull my hair out or scream. “The last time we spoke, you told me how ridiculous it would be for you to like me and said I was ‘hiding behind a mask.’ Clearly, you do know me because otherwise, you wouldn’t have known to do this.”

“I said youtriedto hide behind a mask. I know you, though.” Derek lazily took another swig of his beer.

Too tired to argue any further, I collapsed into the chair next to him. “Want ibuprofen or something?”

“No, Derek. Thank you, though,” I huffed.

“You did great today.” I whipped my head around to face him. He wasn’t being sarcastic, or an asshole, he meant it.

“You give me whiplash. It’s either scowls and asshole-like behavior or you’re a kind and thoughtful person. You can’t be both.”

“People don’t fit into boxes, Margo. I am an asshole.” He set down his drink to face me, too. “But not to you. With you, I want to be better, and nicer. With Tessa, I’m a total pushover. To my brothers and Calliope, I’m an unbeatable force that can fix anything. With you, I just want to be Derek, which is all of those things all at the same time.”

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