AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The way he’d never ever, not once, come to Lake Bittersweet to meet her family. She’d never understood it, because her father was famous, in certain circles. He was a blues legend. But to Dominic, he hadn’t been worth meeting. Too Southern? Too uneducated? Too country?
The truth was, maybe Dominic had never seen her as good enough for him. Maybe for a time she’d been promising raw material for his ambitions. But deep inside, she’d probably never measured up to his vision. And all those little judgments, those micro-moments, had settled into her soul like lake sediment.
She’d failed at love. Failed to keep Dominic’s attention. Failed to live up to his expectations.
Before she rounded the corner into the dining area turned construction zone, she stopped and rested her hands on her knees, desperately trying to catch her breath. Was this some kind of panic attack? A type of PTSD incident? Had Dominic wounded her so deeply that love from another man triggered an emotional meltdown?
Get a hold of yourself. This wasn’t her, this shaky emotional wreck.
Or maybe it was, and she’d never given herself permission to feel all the devastation Dominic had inflicted on her heart.
Fucking Dominic. Why couldn’t she just banish him from her mind for good? Why did he keep lurking inside there like a freaking jack-in-the-box?
She must be starting to hallucinate, because she could swear she heard his voice. One of the delivery guys must have a similar fake-British accent. And a very similar baritone. Even the slightly superior tone he used reminded her of Dominic. Who in this town would sound remotely like a sophisticated boarding school business whiz from Toronto?
Curious now, she stepped into the dining room, then stopped dead. In the middle of the sawdust and power tools and workers and recycled appliances stood the one and only Dominic Robb.
Twenty-Four
Jason took a few beats before he left the music room. Kendra hadn’t exactly rejected him. She hadn’t been coherent enough to reject him, which on the one hand was weird, because she was Kendra, but on the other hand gave him room for hope.
He knew that Kendra had a habit of digging in on her ideas about things. It could be hard for her to change course. She thought of their relationship as temporary, nothing more than a casual in-between sort of thing. A fun diversion until the next important relationship came along. Getting her to change her mind might be a challenge.
He’d give her plenty of time to think, plenty of time to wrap her head around the fact that his feelings had changed. Then he’d try again. And again, unless he got a flat-out “no, get out of my face.”
But if she could just see what he saw, that they filled in missing pieces for each other, that he loved her, that he believed in her, that he saw her completely, flaws included, and loved everything about her. And that he believed in himself now. He knew he could give her what she needed, now and forever, if only she could accept his love.
She didn’t reject you, he repeated to himself as he strode back toward the makeshift kitchen. That’s something. For now.
But as soon as he walked into construction zone, all his optimism shattered like a third-grader’s piñata.
Kendra was standing with a man who could have stepped out of an article on “30 hotshots under 30.” The way he held himself made the entire construction zone look like a backdrop—the daring developer posing with the worker bees. His crisp white shirt set off his stunning good looks, accentuating his dark brandy skin and amber eyes. He wore a jaunty smile that seemed to say, “come away with me, I’ll give you the adventure of a lifetime.”
It had to be Dominic.
Had Kendra mentioned that Dominic was biracial? Jason couldn’t remember. Somehow that fact made him feel even more unsettled. He could understand a lot about Kendra, but he could never know what it was like to be Black. Dominic could.
And he was here. Why?
Kendra seemed to be in some sort of trance state, staring at her ex as if she wasn’t sure he was real. And as if she couldn’t think of what to say. Very unlike Kendra. He remembered her strange reaction to the news that Dominic had sabotaged her. She’d buried all her anger and tried to outguess him.
What exactly did this man do to her?
Everyone else had stopped what they were doing, as if a show was about to start up and they didn’t want to miss anything. That was another anomaly. Under normal circumstances, Kendra would never let all work come to a stop under her watch. Maybe she needed an assist.
He strode to join the two of them. “Can I help you? This is a construction zone, it’s not safe for visitors.”
Dominic flicked him a glance, then turned back to Kendra, as if Jason was barely worth his time. “No worries, old chap, I found what I’m looking for.”
Kendra finally startled out of her trance. Without looking at Jason, she addressed her ex. “What in the world are you doing here, Dom?”
“I went to the Blue Drake first. They told me you were here.” He slid another look at Jason, who folded his arms across his chest. He wasn’t going anywhere until Kendra told him to. “I’m sorry, who are you?”
“Lake Bittersweet Fire Chief Mosedale.” It felt good to say his full title out loud to this business-hipster-model.
“Well, Chief Mosedale, nothing’s on fire at the moment, but we’ll let you know if that changes. Or come to think of it, maybe we won’t.” He winked in a way that was both charming and smug. And was that a British accent?
Jason wasn’t a violent person, but he wanted to smash the guy’s face in. He’d never wanted to punch a guy the way he did right now. His body trembled with the effort of holding himself back. Volcanic, that was how he felt. Like he could erupt in boiling molten rage if that guy fucking winked again.
