“Maybe if you settled down with someone, I’d believe that. Instead, you’ve taken what you saw with me and your dad and used that to push people away. Talk to him. Forgive him. Then maybe your heart can heal. Despite what you saw growing up, everyone needs someone to count on.”
The heartbreak in his mom’s voice made Andre’s chest tighten. “Ma, you and dad aren’t the reason I haven’t settled down. I don’t need to talk to my dad and heal some hole in my heart. I just haven’t found the right person.” He grinned, hoping she would stop worrying. “That’s all it is. Nothing bigger than that.”
“Start talking about a woman and not just one you work with and then maybe I’d believe that,” his mom replied with her own smile.
For some reason Tamara’s face popped into his head. Not the person he expected to think of when being pushed by his mom to find a woman to settle down with. He wasn’t looking for a wife. He wasn’t looking for anyone.
“Hey, have you been outside today?” He pointed to the window. “I haven’t seen the entire place. Let’s go down and you can show me the indoor pool and some of the other amenities.”
His mom’s side-eye said she knew he was trying to change the subject. Andre didn’t squirm. He was used to her side-eye. Eventually, she sighed and got up from her chair. “Come on. I’ll let you inspect the rest of the place the same way you inspected the room.”
Andre followed his mom as she took him on a tour of the facility. Several of the other people living there stopped them to talk. Proof that his mom was getting to know people despite her introverted ways, which in turn made Andre feel a little better. He still wasn’t excited about the idea of his mom moving out of her house into a retirement community, but he was less excited about the thought of her being in the house alone all day.
He left an hour later with a promise to come by and visit in a few days. Now that he was living in Peachtree Cove, he wanted to come by daily but knew she would view that as Andre being overprotective. Andre felt the need to be overprotective. His mom was his closest relative. His closest sibling was ten years older and they all had their own lives. They hadn’t been close growing up and they were out of the house by the time his dad walked out. After all his mom had been through, he wanted to make sure she was safe and taken care of.
As he was leaving the parking lot, the gas indicator light came on in his truck. He usually didn’t let the gas tank get low enough to turn on the light, but he’d been in a hurry to get here. He pulled in to a gas station and was fueling up when Tamara’s car turned into the station. She parked in front of the convenience store and went inside.
She’d been on his mind a lot after he’d left her place the day before. Her hot-and-cold comment had stuck with him. He wasn’t good at expressing himself, but he wasn’t cold. He sure as hell wasn’t cold when it came to her, and the flash of interest in her eyes when he’d told her that had kept him awake all night.
Andre put the gas nozzle back in the dispenser and strolled to the front of the store. The sliding doors beeped as he entered and the attendant at the register welcomed him to the store. Andre nodded at the attendant, scanned the customers until his gaze landed on Tamara in the back pulling a soda from the refrigerated section.
His heart rate picked up as he made his way through the aisles toward her. So what if they’d flirted a little bit before? He knew how to handle himself around women he was attracted to. Yet he still felt as nervous as he had the first day he’d opened his business.
Tamara turned his way and their gazes collided. Her eyes widened with surprise before she looked around. For a second, he thought she would pretend not to see him, but she met his gaze again and nodded.
He walked up to her. “How’s your house holding up?”
She nodded. “Good. Thanks again for fixing the siding. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Don’t mention it. Like I said, I can’t help but fix things like that. I see you got your car fixed.”
“Yeah, I got it towed to the tire-repair place this morning before visiting my parents.” Her lips lifted in a tight half smile before she shrugged. “Well, thanks anyway.” She moved to go around him.
Andre frowned and automatically stepped out of her way. Was she mad at him? He hadn’t done anything wrong. Maybe she was uncomfortable around him. He had told her he was always hot when it came to her. Had that weirded her out? Instead of coming across as confident, maybe he’d come across as creepy.
“Hey, look,” he said before she got all the way down the aisle.
Tamara stopped and faced him. In the aisle to their left, a dad tried to calm a wailing toddler who insisted on getting a bag of chips, and to their right two women chatted as they picked out candy. Andre hurried forward to Tamara.
“About what I said,” he said in a voice that wouldn’t carry to the people around them. “I’m sorry if that made you uncomfortable.”
She shook her head. “It’s not that.”
“Then what’s up?”
Her brows drew together. “Did you really break Thomas Poole’s nose in high school?”
Andre blinked and took a step back. The hell? He hadn’t thought about that guy since graduation. He couldn’t stop the scowl that always took over his face whenever he thought of that asshole. “I did.”
“So you don’t deny it?”
“Nah, I don’t.” He’d do it again if he needed to.
She shifted the soda from one hand to the other and placed a hand on her hip. “Andre, he had to go to the hospital. When he came back to school, he looked like a truck had hit him. I knew you were angry back then, but you beat the crap out of him. Why would you do that?”
The women in the aisle over stopped talking and watched him and Tamara. The dad picked up his crying son and hurried to the front of the store. Great, now he was the big angry man in the gas station.
“It doesn’t matter why. That was years ago. Why are you bringing that up?”
