Page 30 of The Summer that Changed Everything
“What?” she said, growing self-conscious.
She had to be the most beautiful woman in the world. And the sweetest. He knew she’d never be able to believe he could be responsible for someone’s death—and hoped to God she’d never have to find out. “I love you. You know that?”
“I know.” She smiled shyly as she rested Kenzie on her shoulder so she could reach across the table to squeeze his hand. “I love you, too.”
Surely, the past wouldn’t reach into the present and destroy everything he’d established, would it? What purpose would it serve to punish him? He hadn’t set out to hurt anyone fifteenyears ago, and he certainly hadn’t harmed anyone since. Sending him to prison for the rest of his life would only cause more harm, would break up his little family and shock his parents, friends and associates for nothing.
She gestured toward his phone on the table beside him. “Are you going to text Ford?”
He was afraid of his old friend, especially after this morning. But that was exactly why he needed to get and remain as close to him as possible. “Sure.”
10
Ford Wagner was in the yard! Lucy watched in shock as he moved around the plants, spraying and trimming and weeding like a regular gardener. What did he think he was doing? Maybe an even better question was—whywas he doing it? Dahlia hadn’t even asked for his help. When Lucy mentioned it, Sharon Smoot’s niece had made it clear she didn’t know who’d helped out in that way.
Whatever was going on, Ford didn’t seem to be in a hurry. He also didn’t seem to care if she spotted him. After an hour, during which she kept going to the window to see if he’d left, he knocked on the front door.
She answered right away—too curious not to.
“Can I have my tools back?” he asked as soon as she poked her head through the crack.
“You mean the gardening stuff I found the day I moved in? I put it in the garage,” she said. “Give me a second, and I’ll... I’ll get it for you.” She closed the door while she went to the kitchen and dug around in the utility drawer. When she found the key she’d been looking for, she went back out.
He was sitting on the front porch, waiting for her. He didn’tsay anything, just stood and followed her as she hurried over to the garage, unlocked the side door and got the rake, pruning shears and other tools she’d put away.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks.” He took them as if that would be that—but she called him back.
Sweat dampened his T-shirt and face when he turned. She wished the fact that he was obviously hot and dirty made him less appealing, but somehow it only made him more. “What are you doing?”
He lifted the tools. “What does it look like?”
“It looks like you’re taking care of the yard here at the Smoot cottage. But you don’t even do your own yard, do you?”
“We have a gardener. I don’t want to disrupt everything just because I’m going to be around for a few months.”
“And yet...” She swept her arm to indicate the work he’d done in the Smoot yard.
“You should’ve seen this place,” he said. “Everything wassoovergrown. It looked terrible.”
She lifted her eyebrows. “Do I need to point out that it wasn’t your problem?”
With a sigh, he leaned on the rake. “I thought... I thought maybe the place would be morewelcomingif it looked as if it was being kept up.”
“More welcoming towho? Tome?” She pressed a hand to her chest. “You don’t even want me here! No one does!”
“That isn’t true, Lucy. Like I told you before, I’m sorry for how I behaved, and I want to have the chance to prove that I’m not the terrible person you must think I am.”
“Why bother?” she asked. “I’m not back here for a vacation. You know that. You’re better off hanging with the opposition.”
“Your enemies...”
“Yes. Why not? Save yourself! What my dad did or didn’t do isn’t your problem any more than this yard is.”
“That isn’t how a friend behaves. And you and I were more than friends. Maybe we weren’t together that long, but... my God, we’d just made love on the beach. It was your first time—”
She put up a hand. “Let’s not go into that. I appreciate the fact that you feel bad about how everything went down, and I’m willing to let bygones be bygones. You should take that approach, too. Keep your distance from me, or this whole community could turn on you. I realize you probably don’t understand what that would be like, since you’ve never experienced it. But who you are, and your financial status, won’t matter all that much if you start associating with me.” She started back to the house but stopped when he spoke again.
