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She just hung her head and laughed. “You can go somewhere else if you want, but it’s like that everywhere in town, Hon. We don’t get good signal around these parts.”
“Ah, I see,” I nodded, offering a polite smile. “Thank you anyway.”
With nothing else to do, I leaned back in my chair and blew across the steam of my fresh cup of coffee before taking a slow sip. The spotty internet was annoying and wasn’t doing much to help me in my mission to stop Jeffery from stealing my job. But the more I thought about it, I didn’t mind so much. Why did everyone have to be so plugged in all the time anyway?
I looked around the cafe and then out to the sunny streets, where people stopped to say hello and chat the way they always did when passing someone they knew, which no one seemed to have to go far to find around here. It was one of the things I was starting to love about Silver Point. People had conversations face to face while walking down the street instead of texting on their phones. They sat across from each other in little shops and really talked, rather than having obnoxious cell phone calls or video chats on their laptops. It made life in this town feel slow and personal and real, in stark contrast to the land of social media, in which everyone back home was more active than they were at the gym.
I snapped out of it after a moment, remembering that for as nice as all that was, I had a demanding career. I had to work. I needed reliable Internet, whether I liked it or not. I was starting to regret sticking around here for the renovations, but I closed my eyes and reminded myself I only had three more weeks to go.
For some reason, as I pictured the days flying by on my calendar, Derek’s face flashed through my mind. I felt a strange tug of regret that I’d be leaving him behind here, but why? Last night’s accidental kiss aside, I always knew nothing would ever really happen with him. I still had things with Evan to figure out.
Besides, Derek and I lived in two completely different worlds. Not just geographically, but literally everything about our lifestyles and what we were used to was different. He could survive in a town with barely any internet and no celebrity gossip columns. My life quite literally revolved around both of those things through my job, which I loved…most of the time.
So why did I feel an absurd longing to stay whenever I thought of Derek? I chalked it up to nothing more than curiosity, like reading a romance novel and being forced to put it down before it got to the juicy parts. But since nothing juicy would ever happen between Derek and me, no matter how long I stuck around, I knew I could put that craziness in my head to rest.
I gave up on the internet a while later and decided to go back to the lake house. I had rushed off, leaving the whole place and everything I brought with me to Silver Point unattended with a crew of construction workers I barely knew. I needed to make sure Derek actually showed up that day to supervise, and facing him again was a whole other box to check on the to-do list. It was better to get it over with since it would have to happen sooner or later.
I got home just as he was packing up for the day. He met me in the kitchen, as usual, to let me know he was leaving and to give me the daily report.
“Oh, and sorry I was late this morning,” he added at the end. “That’s not like me at all. I just…overslept somehow.”
He rubbed the back of his neck and avoided looking me in the eye as he said it. We were both trying to pretend like everything was normal, but there was no denying the awkwardness between us.
“That’s okay,” I smiled tightly. “We all have off-days and moments.” I let out a nervous sigh, darting my eyes across him studying his body language. Finally, I gave up and sank down onto the bar stool. “Speaking of which, I’m sorry about last night.”
“Don’t mention it,” he shot back, not seeming too eager to discuss it.
“Well, I wouldn’t, but...,” I answered slowly, chewing my bottom lip. “The thing is, you’re a nice guy. And you were kind enough to offer to show me around town. I can’t let you think that I’m the type of woman who would cheat on her fiancé.”
His brows perked up as if to say,Go on.
“I did have a serious boyfriend back in New York,” I explained. “And I did think he was about to propose, but then…well, he cheated on me instead. We broke up, and my mom passed away so suddenly in the middle of that aftermath. And now, here I am. Evan, my ex, he’s been begging me to talk to him and give him another chance. That morning when I blurted that out to you, I was just confused and maybe even a little worried about what it would mean if you and I were both single and available and around each other like this every day.”
I winced, wishing I could take that last part back. “I’m going to stop talking now,” I laughed nervously.
A warm smile spread across his face, into his eyes. “It’s okay. I think I know what you mean. And honestly, I’m relieved to know you’re not the kind of woman who would cheat on her fiancé while she’s out of town. You’ve also answered another question of mine that’s been bugging me.”
“What’s that?”
“Why would your fiancé ever let you come down here and handle all of this on your own,” he waved around the house. “Especially after your mom just passed away. I guess it makes more sense now that I know he’s the type to cheat and that you two are broken up.”
My eyes widened with a cynical laugh. “Even if he hadn’t cheated and we weren’t broken up, I probably still would have been on my own here. It’s a miracle I even got the time off from my own job that I did. Evan would never have taken that kind of time off from the firm. He’s trying to make partner, and even so much as taking a long lunch is practically a death sentence on that.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think I could handle that. Don’t get me wrong, I keep busy. I like to work hard. I love running this business with my brother and helping out the community by picking up shifts at the fire station. But at the end of the day, if someone I loved needed me, all of that would have to take a back seat. Family comes first.”
I stared back at him with both perplexity and admiration. Like I had stumbled upon some mythical creature or lost relic. “That’s a very noble way to look at things, even if it is a little old-fashioned. I don’t think there are many places on earth left outside of Silver Point where living that way is even an option. At least that’s how it feels after being in the city for so long. It’s nice to know there are still men left in this world who think like you.”
I tried not to compare to Evan, who not only put his career before everything, he put his own selfish desires ahead of the woman he loved too by messing around with Natasha.
Derek rubbed his calloused hands together with a bashful smile.
“I’m glad I know one of those men,” I added. “Especially since I don’t know anyone here. And that’s another reason I was so worried about what you thought of me or that maybe I had made everything weird between us after last night.”
The longer I stared at him, the more I remembered how the kiss came to happen. Looking at Derek was like sticking your feet in the current, offering yourself up to get swept away. Without all that wine in my veins, I was unlikely to jump across the counter and make the same mistake again. But I could feel another impulse rising up inside of me, threatening to come bursting out into action.
“Let me take you to dinner,” I announce. “As an apology for letting things end that way last night. You know all my secrets now, and as I said, I don’t know anyone else here. I’d really hate to lose you as a friendly face I can turn to while I’m here. Especially now that I’ve discovered what a rare breed you are.”
“Why do I feel like you’ll be conducting some kind of sociological study on me at this dinner?” he joked.
