“First thing this morning to the shop we use.” He said it like he was confessing to drinking my last Diet Pepsi.
I turned in my seat to face him fully. “What shop? I need to call them and find out what the damage is.”
He pulled a face. His mouth twisted to one side, and his grip on the steering wheel tightened enough that his knuckles paled. “It’s taken care of.”
“What does ‘taken care of’ mean?”
“Gary looked at it this morning, and it’s handled. Don’t worry about it.”
Heat prickled on the back of my neck, and my fingers dug into the edge of the seat. The instinct to snap at him rose fast and sharp, loaded with every memory of discovering charges on credit cards I hadn’t known existed, of watching my savings vanish into a hole I couldn’t see the bottom of while someone I trusted smiled and told me not to worry about it.
I swallowed the snap. Lucan wasn’t asking me for anything. He hadn’t hidden a bill or forged my signature or gambled away the rent. He had towed a broken car and hired a mechanic, and he’d done it without attaching a single condition.
That truth cooled the heat in my chest by exactly one degree.
“I’ll pay you back.” My voice came out flat and controlled. “Or you can just have your knife back.”
“I still have the check in my wallet.”
I exhaled through my nose and watched the trees blur past. “I don’t want financial strings attached to anyone.”
He was quiet for a moment. The truck rounded a curve, and the lake appeared through a gap in the pines, glittering in the sun.
“Why?” The one word was gentle, unhurried, and completely devastating.
I looked out the passenger window and bit my lip. The answer sat right there, coiled in my throat. Every humiliating detail. Every statement I should have opened and examinedmore closely. Every lie I swallowed whole because trusting felt easier than questioning.
I wasn’t ready to hand him that story. I wasn’t sure I’d ever be. “Ask me another time.”
He nodded once and pulled up next to my RV. “Do you need a vehicle today? I need mine for work, but I’m sure Reese won’t mind if you use hers.”
“I’m good.” I fiddled with my purse strap. “Thank you, Lucan.”
After a moment of hesitation, he reached over and took my hand, stopping my nervous movement. “There are no strings here, Liz. I can help, so let me.”
I swallowed hard and nodded. At some point, I was going to have to move on from my hang-ups. Maybe this could be the first step.
I spent an embarrassing amount of time researching how to kayak and what to wear. Why had I suggested something so ridiculous? Just the thought of all the rowing had my arms cramping.
I was going to make a fool of myself, and canceling was in my best interest, but every time I picked up my phone to text Lucan, I stopped myself.
The walk to the lake only took a few minutes, which didn’t quite give me enough time to convince myself that this wasn’t a date and that I could keep things platonic.
I was also distracted by how beautiful the trees and weather were. But October in the mountains could be a con artist. Today the air was warm enough for a light long-sleeved shirt over atank top, but tomorrow could bring six inches of snow or a freak ninety-degree afternoon.
The trees varied from green to vibrant fire colors depending on the species. The summer chaos of tourists and social media poses on every available rock had packed itself up and gone home. The lake stretched wide and still, reflecting the sky so cleanly that the surface looked solid enough to walk on.
Two kayaks sat side by side at the water’s edge, their yellow hulls bright against the sand. Lucan crouched next to one, checking something, while Atlas stood behind the other with a paddle in each hand, spinning one of them like a baton.
Atlas spotted me first. His face split into a grin so wide it looked like it might actually hurt. “Liz!” He planted both paddles in the sand and strode toward me with his arms open. “You came! I told Lucan you’d come. He did that thing where he pretends that he’s not nervous, and I was like, relax, man. She said she’d be here.”
I laughed, sidestepping the hug trajectory by lifting my water bottle in a wave. Atlas adjusted course without missing a beat and clapped me on the shoulder instead.
Lucan stood and wiped his hands on his shorts. His gaze found mine and stayed there. “Hey.”
“Hey.” My chest gave one solid thump. I ignored it.
Atlas’s sandy blond hair stuck up in four different directions, and his green eyes practically glowed with enthusiasm. “I was helping Lucan get the kayaks down here because, and I quote, he wanted everything to be perfect.” He made air quotes. “I’m the manual labor.”
