Page 7 of The Lighthouse at the Cove
“Thanks,” she said.
He dialed a number, listened for a moment, and then frowned. “I forgot. They’re close for refurbishing.” He rattled off the names of a few other hotels, along with their locations. Most of them were at the beach or the sound, which sounded way out of her price range. “I can call them if you’d like.”
He must have read her hesitation on her face because he paused and appeared to be working through something in his mind. “I have another option for you.”
She leaned toward him. “Okay.”
“I know this might seem a little forward, so please feel free to say no. But I have a garage apartment you can stay in.”
“Oh.” She moved her hands over the thighs of her jeans, making a swishing sound. Sure, this guy was handsome and friendly, but she didn’t really know him. Just because he was a firefighter and had aphoto of a cute girl on his phone didn’t mean he was trustworthy. “Um...”
“It’s not extravagant,” Reid continued, “but you’ll have your own entrance. One of the guys from my station stayed there while he was having some work done at his house. He liked it. I was thinking about turning it into an Airbnb, but I haven’t gotten around to it.”
She bit her lower lip and debated what to do. Reid didn’t seem like a total weirdo. But what if he was? And what would Kam say about staying with a stranger? Then again, Kam wasn’t stuck in the middle of Nowheresville, nearly broke with nowhere to stay. It seemed like the choice was made for her. “How much?” she asked him.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Free?”
She lifted an eyebrow. Nothing was free. Everything had a price.
“Okay, okay. How about you pay whatever you can afford?”
She hesitated. Reidseemedharmless. But was this a good idea? Would Kam tell her she was crazy for trusting this handsome stranger?
“I can take you by the motels if you’d like,” Reid said quickly. “And if you’d rather find an Airbnb, I can look on my phone and then—”
“Your garage apartment sounds perfect,” she said, shutting down the debate in her brain. For some crazy reason, she trusted Reid, and she decided to go with her intuition. She hoped that wasn’t a grave mistake.
“Great,” he said. “What are you comfortable paying?”
“Well, the repairs on my car are going to be a little over two thousand, so...”
“Yikes.” He grimaced “Don’t worry about it. We can work it out after you get your car back.”
“Really?” This guy sounded too good to be true.
“Yeah, really.” He started the big SUV, and it rumbled to life.
While Reid drove through town, Kaiah made a mental note of everyone she had to tell about her change of plans—her editor, her tour guide in South Carolina, and the owner of the Airbnb where she planned to stay.
And Kam. She needed to give her sister the address of where she was staying just in case...
“Where are you from?” he asked, looking at her in the mirror again while they were stopped at a red light.
“New York.”
“Oh wow.”
“You?”
“Here. A Coral Cove native.”
“Seriously?” she asked. “It’s really... nice here.”
He laughed. “A bit smaller than New York, that’s for sure. How’d you wind up here?”
“My car brought me here. I was on my way to South Carolina and eventually to Florida, but my car had other ideas.” She explained how it overheated. “Now I’m stranded—at least until Monday. Hopefully Bill will find the parts and I’ll be on my way.”
“What are you planning in South Carolina and Florida—if you don’t mind me asking?”
