Once in a Lifetime(17)

“Tell me you’re kidding,” he finally said.

“You have no idea.”

Ben sighed.

“Listen,” Luke said. “The kids are safe; they get a roof over their heads and three squares.”

And what went unsaid…it was more than a lot of kids got. “Shit,” Ben said, and hung up.

He drove himself to the car wash and took care of the spilled coffee situation. He was halfway through a three-egg-and-cheese omelet and a not-so-short stack of pancakes at Eat Me when Luke slid into his booth.

“Just heard that we’re looking for an engineer to work on the new water systems for the county,” Luke said.

Ben looked at him and then kept eating.

“Interested?”

“That was my old job, before I left,” Ben said.

“Duh. They need an overhaul and want you back to head up the team. Are you interested or not?”

Ben shrugged.

“Let me phrase this another way,” Luke said casually. “You are interested.”

Ben’s brows went up. “Is that right?”

“Yes, damn it.”

“Because it’d keep me here in Lucky Harbor?”

“Your aunt and Jack missed you. And Kevin. Kevin missed you, too.”

“Kevin didn’t know me. Jack just got him last year.”

“Whatever, man.”

Ben smiled. “You missed me. Admit it.”

“Shut up.” Luke snatched Ben’s plate of pancakes and pulled it toward him. He doubled the amount of syrup on the plate and dug in. “You should know that you’ve already turned in your résumé.”

“Did I?”

“Yeah. Stole it off your laptop. They expect you to stop by this week.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

“Smart-ass.”





It was early the next day when Ben pointed his truck in the direction of the bookstore. Halfway there he stopped at a four-way stop and saw a woman standing on the sidewalk in front of a town-house complex. She was staring at a lower unit, looking unsettled and anxious. Normally, this wouldn’t necessarily have caught his interest, but the willowy, well-dressed blonde wasn’t just any woman.

It was Aubrey.

She shook her head, muttered something to herself, and then began walking away. She turned the corner.

There were no cars behind him, so Ben remained there a moment, a little thrown by having seen her look so off her axis not just once, but twice now.

And then, suddenly, she was back, retracing her steps so that she once again stood on the sidewalk staring at the town house.

“What the hell?” he murmured, and pulled over.





Aubrey stood in front of a small, narrow town house, taking mental notes. The place was clearly well taken care of—lovingly so—with flowers lining the windowsills and freshly painted shutters.

You’re not here to notice the care of the building. Drawing a deep breath, she looked at the list in her hand, then back at the town house.

But still, she hesitated. Yesterday she’d have said she had courage in spades, but the truth was that her encounter with the first person on her list hadn’t gone so smoothly, and she was still smarting. What if this one didn’t go any better?

Just do it, she told herself. Like the Nike commercials. She drew in a big breath and started forward—

“What are you up to?” asked an unbearably familiar male voice.

She nearly jumped right out of her skin. Instead, she forced herself to calmly turn.

Ben was in his truck, window down, idling at the curb, dark lenses hiding his eyes from her, looking effortlessly big and badass.

The way she wished she felt.





Chapter 6



Before Aubrey could formulate an articulate answer, Ben turned off the engine and ambled out of the truck.

Damn it. Cursing herself for getting cornered, she narrowed her eyes at him. “What are you doing here?”

“Wondering the same thing about you,” he said calmly. He glanced at the building. “You seem a little fixated on number forty-three. Who lives there?”

“None of your business.”

As if he had all the time in the world, Ben leisurely pulled out his phone and thumbed the screen for a moment. “Huh,” he said, sounding fascinated. Then he lifted his head. “I knew this place was familiar. Mrs. Cappernackle lives here. The school librarian.”



Like she didn’t know. “How did you do that?”

“I have ways,” he said mysteriously. “Didn’t you and she have an incident? What was it?” He paused, thinking, and then nodded. “I remember now. You stole some books from the library, and she busted you for it.”

No. No, no, no, that wasn’t what had happened. Well, not exactly, anyway. “Stop it,” she said. “Go away. Go put in a water system in Nigeria or something.”

He actually smiled. “Already done.”

Show-off.

“Why are you at the home of someone on your list?”

She went still. Shit. He had the memory of an elephant. And he was relentless.

And as nosy as any of the old ladies in town.

“Again,” she managed to say through her teeth, “none of your business.”