His muscles glistened with a light sheen of sweat, his T-shirt gone missing as he wielded a sledgehammer to get thejob done. She admired the enticing show of masculinity without question, but she wondered what on earth he was doing.
She pulled into her driveway and he turned to see her. His broad grin made her smile back. He stepped aside so she could read the sign he’d just installed on a sizable wooden post right where she had planned to plant a peony bush. The sign displayed a logo for a home security company—right underneath the words “This home protected by…”
He’d installed a home security system.
Disappointment deflated her. She’d let herself really hope this time. Now she needed to drum up some kind of response while she sat in her car and stared through the windshield. She felt gut punched and knew she should stir up enthusiasm. It was very kind of him, and had probably taken several hours to set up. But in spite of everything, she had longed for a romantic gesture before he left. An indication that he cared about her enough to make her a priority.
That risking her heart had been worth it.
“Wow.” She stepped out of the car and strode across the grass. “Thisisa surprise.”
He wrapped her in his arms and squeezed her tightly. Because he missed her? Or because he spent so much time remembering the horrible death of the woman he could never replace?
She blinked, trying not to let this upset her when she’d known…known…he was planning to leave her tomorrow. Damn it, she had no one to blame but herself for letting herself hope.
“I couldn’t leave here without knowing you’re going to be safe.” He stroked her hair. “Wait until you check out all the features this thing has.”
Circling her waist with one arm, he guided her toward the house.
“Has Sarah seen it?” She wondered what his daughter had thought. “She said she was going to drop by here with Lucas this afternoon to use the internet and search for schools.”
“They were here for an hour or two.” He pointed to the motion-detection lights around her flower bed and on the potting shed. “But I may have slowed down their project when Lucas gave me a hand wiring a few things. I figured it was just as well he worked with me on this so he’d be able to wire his own house one day.”
“You know how to do wiring?” She studied the security cameras trained on the backyard.
A pile of unused fresh-cut lumber remained neatly stacked behind the garage along with some flattened cardboard boxes from a cordless drill, a saw and the security components.
“I only needed to run electricity to a few places.” He raised one arm and showed her how the camera followed the movement. In addition, two big floodlights turned on even though it wasn’t dark outside yet. “It’s deceptive because they call the system ‘wireless’ since it uses cellular coverage to send information to your phone and to the home security monitoring company. But you still have to run some wires to power the electrical mechanisms.”
“Who sees the footage on all the cameras?” How comfortable would she feel in her backyard knowing her every movement was recorded?
Although, the bigger concern was how clearly this system broadcast his intention to leave town. There would be no last-minute change of heart. No declaration that he realized he wanted to spend more time with her or that shemeant too much to him for him to be without her. Remy was leaving and taking his daughter with him. She’d foolishly let herself hope for so much more.
“You can send feeds wherever you want. Check the footage on your secured website or access them from your phone.” Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew his phone and called up the video feed. “The monitoring service, of course, has access to the cameras, but they wouldn’t actively watch any of them. They’d pull up the recordings only if there was a break-in and you needed evidence to prosecute someone. Or if the police wanted a clue how to find the intruder.”
“Cool.” She tried to smile and be excited about what he’d done, but her heart kept telling her this was all wrong. “I can’t believe you went to so much trouble on your last full day in town.”
She’d started this day with very different hopes for how it might turn out. She’d told him about a fishing spot nearby before she left the house that morning and pictured him visiting it. Pictured him making himself at home in Heartache or remembering some of his love for nature, which she’d seen in his old photographs. Instead, he’d been leaving her with one final parting gift to keep her safe.
“I’ve been planning this all week.” He pulled her to sit down beside him on the outdoor sofa on her back deck. “So even when you were trying to convince me to fish, I knew how I’d be spending today. I only just finished up and I worked from the second your car pulled out of the driveway.”
“Perfect timing.” Heart aching, she kissed his cheek. It tasted like clean male sweat. In spite of the empty ache in her chest, she wanted to drag him inside and undress him,to use her last hours with him to make him see how good they could be together.
But if it hadn’t worked yet, why did she think she stood any chance of swaying him now when he already had one of his suitcases in the trunk of Sarah’s car?
“I hope you like it.” He reached toward her purse, which she’d set on the deck, and pulled out her phone. “Do you mind if I set you up with the feeds and then we can figure out what do about dinner?”
She drew in a deep breath and nodded, telling herself to put on a brave face. “That’d be great. In fact, I’ll go look and see what I have in the fridge while you do that.”
They could still have a nice dinner at least. And she knew he’d take her out if she wanted to go. Mack and Nina had been looking at properties all over town for a prospective restaurant they wanted to open, and she’d hoped they could make the rounds after dinner and see where they were. Right to the bitter end, Erin kept hoping something about Heartache would make Remy want to stay.
Even if it wasn’t her.
She stared, unseeing, into the refrigerator, hoping for inspiration. A miracle to make this day turn out differently.
Until an alarm bell blared so loudly she jumped a foot off the ground.
Confused, it took her a second to realize something had tripped the new security system. Was someone in her house? Fear spiked. Her heart clamored so fiercely she thought it would pound right out of her chest. She saw Remy racing around the front of the house, picking up a two-by-four off the stack of lumber along the way.
