Dammit, she hadn’t even thought about that until now.
If he’d had the decency to break up with her two weeks ago, at least she would have been able to get fifty percent of the money she’d paid for the retreat. The bastard waited until last night—last night—to tell her he no longer wanted to get married. Now she was stuck paying for a retreat she couldn’t even attend.
Leah picked up the brochure from her dresser and began to thumb through it.
When Derrick first came to her with the idea to attend Camp Firefly Falls, Leah had laughed off the suggestion. The notion of two adults going to summer camp seemed silly. Summer camp was for kids.
When she discovered that it was actually a couple’s retreat, she’d started to warm up to the idea. But when Derrick revealed that it was his mother’s idea—because the daughter of one of the women in her gardening club had attended a similar retreat and claimed it didwondersfor her new marriage—Leah had been adamant that they not attend. She didn’t want to set a precedent where her future mother-in-law thought it was okay to meddle in their relationship.
But as she further researched the camp, she decided that maybe a weekend with marriage experts would help her figure out why she suffered light panic attacks whenever she so much as passed a bridal magazine in the grocery store.
Well, she didn’t need those experts now, did she?
She tossed the brochure on the bed and picked up her carry-on. It didn’t matter that she had no clue where to go. She would just get in her car and drive. It had been ages since she’d done anything that wasn’t planned down to the millisecond. A little spontaneity this weekend would do her a world of good.
She rolled the carry-on out to her black Mustang and popped the trunk. The muscle car was her one foray into rebellion. Her mother had gasped at her choice, but the thought of sitting behind the wheel of a sensible, boring sedan nearly caused Leah to break out in hives.
As she lowered the trunk, she caught sight of her neighbor, Caleb Scott, standing in the middle of his driveway, his expression none too pleased. Another man sat behind the wheel of a cherry red convertible, his hands outstretched in a pleading gesture. Nowthatwas a nice car.
Leah opened her trunk again and pretended to look for something inside. She peered around the side of it, straining to hear what they were arguing about.
Fine, so she was nosy. Sue her.
Caleb stood with his arms crossed as he listened to whatever the guy in the convertible had to say. She could only catch a few words here and there, but her neighbor’s body language spoke volumes. His shoulders were rigid with annoyance, his jaw stiff. Leah noticed that he hadn’t bothered to shave yesterday’s five-o’clock shadow. The effect was pretty damn devastating.
Caleb was hot. It was a statement of fact, like saying the sky was blue or Jersey PATH trains smelled like corn chips and sweat in the middle of July. Leah felt zero guilt in admiring what God had undoubtedly put on this earth for all to appreciate.
The guy behind the wheel started to open his door, but Caleb put a stop to it, pushing it close.
Oh, yeah. Convertible Guy had definitely made it to the top of Caleb’s shit list.
Not wanting to get caught spying on his conversation, she went back inside to get her room diffuser. She couldn’t go to bed without the scent of lavender in the air. When she emerged from the front door, the convertible was backing out of Caleb’s driveway.
She didn’t want to pry, but it didn’t seem very neighborly not to ask if he was okay. Leah made her way across the small patch of grass that bisected their two driveways. Caleb stood with his head tilted up at the sky.
“Hi there,” Leah said.
He looked over, his expression still agitated. It softened when he noticed it was her.
“Hey, Leah. How’s it going?”
“Looks as if I’m the one who should be askingyouthat question.” She motioned to where the convertible had taken off. “Is everything okay?”
The faint frown lines bracketing his mouth reappeared. “Yeah, I’m okay. I just may have to murder my friends, that’s all.”
“Oh, well if that’s all,” she said with a nonchalant wave.
He laughed then, the deep chuckle causing an oddly exciting tingle to travel along her skin. Why hadn’t she noticed his laugh before?
“My friends and I were supposed to go on a fishing trip this weekend, but they all bailed on me at the last minute.”
“That…well, that kinda sucks.”
“It sucks big time, but I can’t say I blame them. If I had to choose between sharing a rundown fishing cabin with a bunch of guys and hanging out with my girlfriend, I’d choose the girlfriend too.”
“Except you don’t have a girlfriend do you?” she asked without thinking.
“Thanks for pointing that out,” he said with a grin.
