Hot Winter Nights (Heartbreaker Bay #6)(60)

She didn’t. Shaking his head, he stopped and texted her:

Where are you?



He could see that she was responding to the text, so he stopped walking to wait. She took her sweet ass time, too. It was three full minutes later when he saw that she’d stopped texting.

And yet nothing came through. Shaking his head, he tried her again.

Lucas: Tell me you’re not heading to the Christmas Village alone.

Molly: Going through a tunnel, bad connection.





“Dammit,” he muttered.

“Problem?”

Lucas turned and found Old Man Eddie sitting on a bench in front of the fountain, tossing a coin up and down in his hand. “Women are insane.”

“Son,” Eddie said on a laugh. “Tell me something I don’t know.” He tossed the coin to Lucas, who caught it automatically, reflexively.

“What’s this for?” Lucas asked.

“To make a wish.”

He laughed and shook his head. “You’ve been eating your homemade brownies again if you think I’m going to bet on this fountain. I know what it does. Look what it did to your own grandson Spence.”

“Hey, I haven’t made any brownies in a while now,” Eddie said. “Archer went directly to my . . . er, um . . . supplier and told him if he delivered to me again, Archer would relocate him. Permanently. So I’m annoyingly sober, which means you can take it to the bank when I tell you that what this fountain did for Spence was bring him Colbie and give him a life he’d never dared dreamed of.”

“You’re going to feed me a line like that and seriously expect me to believe you’re sober?”

Eddie smiled. “You’re scared. I get it. I’d be scared too. Wishing for love on this fountain has been wiping out the single community here one unsuspecting lonely soul at a time. Might as well stop fighting it and toss in the coin and wish.”

“Not going to happen,” Lucas said, knowing that Molly wasn’t going to fall in love with him. She wasn’t going to let herself.

“If you’re so sure it’s dumb,” Old Man Eddie said, “then why not just give it a try?”

Lucas rolled his eyes, a gesture he was aware he’d picked up from Molly. Which made it all the more ironic when he held his closed fist above the water and closed his eyes.

And wished . . .

He let the coin fall from his hand into the water, where it hit with a very small splash. He stared at it as it sank to the bottom and wished . . . wished he believed in the fountain.

Eddie just smiled. “It works in mysterious ways, you know. Going to be exciting to see what happens.”

“Yeah.” Not willing to believe, Lucas went through the pub intending to grab an order of something to satisfy his gnawing belly before hunting down Molly, but he found her at the bar paying for an order to go.

Some of her friends were there eating and talking, and when he moved closer, he heard Sadie say, “They really should put prizes in our tampon boxes, like ‘hey, your period sucks, but here’s a fifty percent off ice cream coupon, you cranky bitch.’”

The girls all laughed and Molly spotted him. She grabbed her bag of food and headed over.

“Going through a tunnel, huh?” he asked.

She shrugged.

He grabbed her free hand when she went to walk away. “Talk to me, Molly.”

“Okay,” she said. “I’d never go to the village alone. I’m not completely stupid, you know.” She paused. “But I do have a shift there tonight that I promised to take, so if you’re ready, I’m driving.”

“Not necessary. I’m parked closer.”

She craned her neck, eyes narrowed at him. “Let me guess. Women can drive in your bed but not on the job?”

He found a smile in the shitty day after all. “You’ve driven me before. When we first went to your dad’s house.”

“We weren’t on the job that night.”

“Okay, first, let me just say that you’re welcome to drive in my bed any night of the week,” he said. “But when we’re on the job and you’re the one going undercover, that makes me the getaway man. Makes more sense for me to be behind the wheel.”

“Fine,” she said.

“To which? In bed or on the road?”

“Keep dreaming,” she said.

Yeah, he had no doubt he’d have to make due with just that, dreams. He eyed the bag of food in her hands. “Bringing your dad dinner first?”

“Yes. But not you.”

“Liar,” he said on another smile. “You won’t be able to help yourself. You’re a caretaker.”

She slid him a look. “Guess it takes one to know one.” She paused and took in his surprise. “Come on,” she said. “You already know this about yourself. You take care of your family. You take care of the guys at work. You’re every bit as much of a caretaker-slash-worrywart as I am.”

He thought this over and then shook his head. Damn, she just might be right. “If you tell anyone, I’ll deny it.”

“Don’t worry,” she said dryly. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

A few minutes later, Lucas pulled up to her dad’s duplex. He eyed the building. “Joe home?”