Page 10 of Love in Overdrive

Chapter 5

“Stupid cap.” Laney fought with the lid on her aspirin. She’d been fine yesterday morning, but today, Sunday, she was tired and achy.

Were delayed hangovers a thing? Because her neck and head throbbed with every movement.

She’d worked a double shift yesterday at the market before working on projects for the kids at the daycare. Okay, she might have had a glass of wine when she finished and then fallen asleep on her couch with her phone in her hand. That could explain the throbbing. Surely, it wasn’t from checking her phone hourly to see if it was broken.

Thirty-six hours and still not a word from Cade. Did she really expect some random guy in a bar to call? That soon? Sadly, yes. They had a connection. He had to feel it, too. Didn’t he?

Ugh! She did a head slap, then winced. “Stupid headache.”

Stupid heart, too. Well, no more. The guy was probably only looking for a hookup. She huffed. Heck, she might have taken him up on it if he’d asked.

Who was she kidding? Everyone knew she wasn’t a one-night-stand girl. It was probably stamped on her forehead. She glanced in the mirror to check.

Not there. So why couldn’t she have a fling?

Before she could answer herself, the time on the microwave caught her attention. Shoot. She was late. And her head was still pounding.

She bit her lip and wrenched the cap from the bottle with all her muscle. The cap finally moved. It flew across the room. Tiny white pills littered the floor.

She squeezed her eyes closed and cursed her luck. Dropping to her knees, she popped two pills into her mouth, then shoved as many of the pills as she could into the bottle in twenty seconds.

“Good enough.” She grabbed her keys and ran out the door.

The chill from the single-digit temperatures seeped into the car. She cranked up the heat, but cold air hit her face.

“No. Not the heater.” What good was a remote start if it didn’t preheat the vehicle? She groaned.

The windshield frosted from her breath. Going by feel, she dug under the seat until she found the ice scraper.

“Dumb hunk of metal. I should have asked for the truck in the divorce,” she muttered as she scraped the inside of the windshield. When she finally cleared a big enough hole in the frost to see the road, she backed out of the driveway.

A flash of orange caught her eye.

“Holy…” She slammed on the brakes, barely missing the snow plow. She really had to get this fixed. Mentally, she ran through the balance in her accounts. Not going to happen until payday.

She carefully crossed the intersection. Good thing she could drive to work blindfolded. She’d ask Sawyer if he could look at it. Her brother might be a computer guy, but he was good with cars.

Was Cade good with cars? He sure had a way of getting her motor running.

“No. Don’t even go there. He didn’t call.”

But he still could. The voice in her head was right. It hadn’t been two days yet. Was that a long time in guy-time? Laney had been out of the dating pool for so long, she couldn’t say.

Fine. She’d give him a few more days, but he better hurry up about it.

Now, she just needed to make it through her shift without checking her phone every twenty minutes.

“Mmm.” Cade inhaled the smell of his childhood. If there was one thing that never changed, it was his mom’s Sunday dinners. He followed his nose and the feminine voices to the kitchen.

“Ladies.” He nodded hello to his sister and sister-in-law.

His sister acknowledged him with a head bob.

“Cade, I’m sorry I missed your coming home party. The girls had a choir concert that night.” His sister-in-law wrapped her arms around him.

“No worries. Good to see you, Kari.” Cade extricated himself from the hug and slinked toward the stove. He leaned over the steaming pot and lifted the lid. Rich, red sauce bubbled. Heaven. Cade dipped in a spoon.