“Ah …” He tipped his head back. “But if I had smaller tires, I wouldn’t get to help a lady into my truck, now, wouldI?”
Kira rolled her eyes, secretly loving his accent; it sounded good on him. “So were you born in Brooklyn?” she asked, recalling what Gramps toldher.
“Yeah,” he said. “But we didn’t stay there for long. My mother wanted to own a small-town diner. Serve up good old-fashioned American food. My old man, who was running an Italian sub shop, wanted to make her dreams come true. So he put the place up for sale, gave up his own dream to help her accomplish hers.” He flicked on his blinker and took a right at the end of Chapel Street. “She wanted to be as far away from Brooklyn as she could get—not sure why. She had her heart set on living in the country. Own a couple horses. I don’t know, just have a different life, I guess.” Heshrugged.
“My old man was the pleasing type, you know? He wanted her to have it all. So he found the perfect place. Had everything she could’ve wanted and more. But I don’t know, I guess it wasn’t what she wanted afterall.”
Kira felt a frightened prick in her heart. It was something she’d feared about herself. Wasshethe type of person who would never be satisfied, or would she be able to settle down and be content with life here in Cobble Creek? Only time would tell. “So what happened?” she asked, her voicesoft.
“About two years into it, I’d just started elementary school, I believe, she suddenly wanted something else. A whole new life … again. This time she wanted to move outside of the US and live on an island. Go off-grid, as they say, without modern technology and allthat.”
“Wow,” Kira said. “And did she dothat?”
Anthony’s jaw tightened. His dark brows turned hard. “Yep. And if that didn’t stick, she didn’t bother letting us know. We lost track of her. I wasn’t even able to get hold of her for my dad’sfuneral.”
“I can’t imagine that. I’msorry.”
“My dad used to say she must have picked Cobble Creek for us. She may not have taken to country life, but he couldn’t picture a softer place to land.” Anthony shrugged. “When he died, I was lucky to be surrounded by good people. In addition to your granddad, I had folks from church and the diner. Gordon Graham, the pharmacy owner. Chuck and Don, couple of old guys who sneak out for a greasy morning breakfast before they golf together Saturday mornings.” He shot her a look. “I saysneakbecause their wives would have a conniption if they knew they were eating bacon and sausage behind their backs. And they refuse to entertain our low-calorie options. Sounds like they get enough of that athome.”
Kira chuckled. “Guess we’ve all got oursecrets.”
“Dowe, now?” Anthony lifted abrow.
She tried to squelch the smile that spread over her lips at his insinuative tone. “Oh, you can just stop it right there,Sparky.”
“Sparky?”
“I can see right where you’re going with this, but it won’t work. I’m not dishing anydirt.”
Anthony stretched an arm over the back of the seat, kept a light grip on the wheel. “First you tell me you’ve got a secret, and then you say you’ve got dirt to dish, and if I put those together I can only assume you’ve got adirtysecret.”
“I don’t,” she assured. “Just a bunch of … dumb ones,really.”
“Dumb secrets are my favorite,” he said, earning another laugh fromher.
A deep sigh followed. Anthony’s issues were different; being abandoned by a mom, losing a dad, those were hardships brought on by circumstance. Things he couldn’t have avoided. And here he was, making the best out of it. Kira, on the other hand, had made her ownmesses.
“I don’t even think you could call them secrets,” she said. “My stuff’s just … outthere.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’mlistening.”
Dread washed over her like an acid bath. Why ruin her chances with the guy before he had a chance to fall for her? But then a thought came to mind. “Hey, why were you gone during that time? When I came and stayed withAngelo?”
“Ah—I guess if I have a dark secretthatwould be it. Or at least, it’s a mistake I wish I hadn’t made.” He looked over and seemed to inspect her for a bit before setting his eyes back on the open road. “How about this? We put the heavy talk on hold, skip to something lighter while we eat, then put this back on the table at the bowling alley.Deal?”
Kira nodded, relieved that she wasn’t the only one with an imperfect past. Already, it made Anthony more real than he’d appeared a moment ago. “Deal.”
