Mending His Past Page 3

  A sheepish grin played on his lips. “It’s not like that.” He walked over and stood beside the ladder as she continued to climb. “This one is old and dry rotted. It really should be thrown away.”

  “Gotcha. I’ll be caref—” The sickening sound of splintering wood interrupted her as the rung she stood on gave way beneath her weight. The palate and putty knife went flying as Olivia attempted to catch herself by grabbing hold of the vertical rungs. But it was too late. The entire ladder had tipped beyond the point of no return. Her stomach turned a sickening flip. She was going down.

  Two strong arms caught her before she hit the ground. The ladder crashed into the corner and slammed onto the floor.

  Olivia’s heart pounded in her chest. Not only had she nearly fallen from ten feet in the air, she was being held in Trent’s arms and staring into his eyes. Her bottom jaw worked furiously, trying to utter the right words—any words, but none came out.

  “Are you all right?” he asked.

  She blinked several times while catching her breath. “Y-yes. Thank you.”

  “No need to thank me. I couldn’t stand it if I let you get hurt.” He looked intently into her eyes. “You know that right?”

  Was he still talking about the ladder?

  “Sure. Yeah, I know that.”

  Trent slowly lowered her to the ground, never releasing her gaze. When her feet touched the floor, he ran his fingers through his hair and nodded. He took a few steps back. “Good. That’s… good.” He retreated to the other side of the room and got to work.

  Olivia stood still, her eyes glued to the back of Trent’s head. What just happened? She wanted to go to him—to clear the air. But the thought of it made her already-pounding heart race all the faster. Which Trent would she get if she went over there? All-business Trent who wanted to keep her at arm’s length, or dreamy-eyed hero Trent bent on sending her cryptic messages with his hypnotic-brown eyes? He was just as confusing now as the day he’d left her.

  She pried her eyes away from him and reclaimed her putty knife. It was probably better not to ask questions she wasn’t sure she was ready to hear the answers to. Put your head down and get the job done, Olivia.

  After a few hours of working in near-silence, the sunlight streaming in through the window took on the rich golden hue of early evening. “Anybody home?” Kat stepped into the room with a wide smile, holding a bulging white plastic bag of food in each hand. “I hope you’re hungry. I think I ordered one of everything on the menu.”

  Molly followed along dragging a bag behind her. “I got drinks for you.”

  Olivia brushed her hands clean on the seat of her shorts and pasted a smile on. “How did you know I’d be so thirsty, little girl?” She picked her daughter up and gave her a squeeze. “You want to have a picnic outside?” She needed some fresh air to clear her head. If anything could refocus her mind, it was a picnic with her very talkative little one. Molly had started talking early and hadn’t stopped ever since.

  “That sounds like a fantastic idea,” Kat said. “Come on, everyone outside. The sun will be setting soon. There’s nothing quite like the beach at sunset, am I right, Trent?” She spoke the last sentence with a teasing lilt in her voice.

  Trent cleared his throat and looked over at Olivia. “Yeah, that sounds nice.” An uncertain smile curved his lips as he held her gaze. It was obvious what Kat was hinting at, only this time Trent didn’t look like he wanted to run away. If only he’d open his mouth and tell her what was going on inside his head.

  Olivia and Molly followed Kat down the hall and through the side door while Trent finished wrapping up his extension cord for the night. A million-dollar ocean-view met her eyes as she took a deep breath of the salty sea-air.

  She’d spent most of her life living less than a mile from the coast. Still, she never tired of looking out into the vast expanse of the ocean, imagining what lay just beneath its gentle waves. With sea birds calling from overhead, this was exactly what she needed—a distraction from the drama brewing in her mind.

  Kat set the bag of food on the wood planks of a small covered porch that had somehow made it through the storm untouched. She lined up several white boxes with red dragons printed on the side. Pulling small Styrofoam cups filled with sauce out of the bag, she said, “I may have gone a little overboard on the sweet and sour menu. But can you blame me? The Red Dragon has the best sweet and sour sauce of any Chinese place in Texas.”

  “You’re not wrong about that.” Trent stepped onto the porch, followed closely by Sport, and stood next to the door.

  Olivia avoided eye contact with him. “I don’t think you can buy too much sweet and sour chicken when Molly’s around. This child inhales the stuff.”

  “She did!” Kat laughed. “I’ve never seen such a tiny person put so much food away.”

  “What? She’s already eaten?”

  “We both have,” Kat said. “The food smelled so good when we walked into the restaurant to pick it up, we couldn’t help ourselves. We had to eat our dinner, right then and there, didn’t we, Molly-girl?”

  Molly nodded.

  “Just give me your house key, and I’ll take this little gal home for a bath and bedtime story. I’m sure you two have lots to talk about.”

  Trent choked on the sports drink he chugged. “Aunt Kat, please.”

  “What? Don’t construction people talk about their plans for the future?” She pinned her nephew with a pointed look before her features softened into a sideways grin. “You know, like what you’re going to hammer or paint tomorrow?”

  Olivia couldn’t help but snicker at Kat’s pitiful attempt at looking wide-eyed and innocent.

  “Either way, you’ve worked hard today, Olivia. You deserve a little break,” Kat said.

  Olivia’s stomach clenched. There was no escaping part two of Kat’s grand master plan to push her and Trent together, but she wasn’t one to go down without a fight—or a mild protest, at the very least. “That’s all right. You don’t have to go to all that trouble.”

  “It’s no trouble at all,” Kat said, holding her hand out for the key. “It’s my pleasure, and the least I can do for the lady who’s going to help get this place back up and running properly.” She wiggled her fingers as if trying to lure the key to jump from Olivia’s pocket and into her waiting hand.

  There was no point in arguing—especially since Molly was jumping up and down at the prospect of having story time with Kat. She handed over the key. “Molly knows where everything is. Just ask her if you can’t find something.” She placed a kiss on the top of Molly’s head. “I love you, sweet girl. I’ll be home soon.”

  “Don’t worry about a thing. She’ll be clean as a whistle when you get home.” Kat’s eyes darted between Trent and Olivia as she struggled to suppress an impish grin. “There’s no need to rush through dinner. You know, they say walking is good for your digestion. You should probably take a walk down the beach together when you’re all done… for your health’s sake.”

  “Goodbye, Aunt Kat,” Trent said, holding the door open for her and Molly.

  “Come on, little one,” Kat said, looking at Molly. “Let’s grab my purse, and then we can blow this popsicle stand.” She took Molly’s hand and surveyed the scene she was about to leave behind. With an approving nod, she said, “Have fun you two.”

  Again, Olivia caught a glimpse of Kat’s not-so-subtle wink when she walked past Trent with Molly bouncing along beside her.

  After closing the door, Trent crossed the porch and sat on the second stair leading to the beach below. Showing no interest in the buffet laying out on the porch, Sport followed. He lumbered down the stairs and curled up for a nap at Trent’s feet, resting his head on the bottom step.

  “I’m beginning to think there’s something seriously wrong with this dog. He didn’t even give that chicken a second look,” Trent said.

  “It’s hard to be left behind,” Olivia didn’t even raise her eyes to look at Trent when she spoke. Str
aining to maintain control of emotions she’d pent up long ago, she reached for a fortune cookie. The crackling plastic wrap was deafening as she opened it in the silence that stretched between them.

  “It is.”

  Anger flickered to life inside her. What did Trent know about being left behind? All of the things she’d wished she’d said to him ten years ago rushed to the forefront of her mind. She bit the inside of her cheek, her heart pounding in her ears as she sorted through her thoughts for the right comeback.

  She looked up from her cookie with narrowed eyes, ready to let him have it, but the words died on her lips. The pained expression on Trent’s face doused her anger like a fire extinguisher smothers flame. He looked like he was a million miles away as he sat on the stair stroking the dog’s head. How could she be angry at someone who seemed so lost?

  Trent sighed and looked up to meet her gaze. “I see you still eat dessert before your meal.” A hint of a weary smile tugged on the corner of his mouth.

  “If you can call this crispy little piece of edible cardboard a dessert, then yes, I suppose I do.” Sergeant. A few moments before, the sassy side of her personality would have won out, and she’d have given him a taste of his own medicine and pushed him away with a little formality of her own. But not now. She’d had too much love in her heart for him when they were together to harden herself toward his pain now.

  Trent dug out a fortune cookie of his own. “I might as well join you.”

  Olivia broke open her cookie and pulled the fortune from the shards in her hand.

  “What does it say?” Trent asked.

  Did it really matter what it said? There were bigger things to talk about—heavy things that were floating around above their heads, casting a shadow on everything they did. She stared at the slip of paper, looking but not reading it.

  “Olivia?”

  The sound of his voice took her back to their college days. It was hard to be so near someone who seemed the same in so many ways, but was a different person in all the ways that really mattered.

  She straightened the tiny slip of paper with her thumb and index finger, and read it aloud. “A tall, dark person from your past will be a part of your future.” Their eyes met again, and Olivia’s pulse picked up its pace.

  “How in the world did that cookie know I was coming to town?” Trent asked, with a familiar glint in his eye. A flash of the old Trent she knew lit up his face. The first man she’d ever fallen in love with was staring at her for the first time in a decade.

  What was happening? She tore her eyes away from his. Only a few hours ago he’d pushed her away—hard. Was he flirting with her now? No. That wasn’t going to work for her. She was already a conflicted bundle of mixed emotions. She didn’t need him muddying up the waters with the jumbled signals he was sending. He needed to dial it down a notch.

  “What makes you think you’re the only tall, dark person from my past? You’ve been gone a long time.” Precisely long enough for her to meet, marry, then divorce the biggest mistake of her life. But there was no way she was going to bring all that up tonight, or ever, for that matter.

  A peculiar look came into his eyes. He leaned forward, all joking aside, and rested his elbow on the porch. He captured her eyes with an intense gaze. “Am I?”

  Olivia sucked in a shallow breath. Why did he care? And why was he looking at her that way? “I-I don’t kiss and tell.”

  Trent’s lips pursed as he chewed the inside of his cheek. A shiver ran down the length of her spine when her gaze fell on his mouth. She relived the first time her lips had touched his. It had been quick, clumsy, and perfect. Just the way a first kiss was supposed to be.

  She couldn’t help but wonder what things might have been like if he hadn’t walked out on her. One thing was certain—she never would have stopped kissing him. Trent had definitely gone through a physical transformation over the last ten years that made his body nearly unrecognizable, but those lips were still the same and they looked just as tempting now as they ever had.

  Her cheeks flushed, when his gaze dropped to her mouth as well. Could he still read her mind? She’d always been an open book to him. It had never bothered her until now.

  No! What was she thinking? She couldn’t fall for him. Not again. He’d skipped town just three months after that first kiss, and there was no reason to think he wouldn’t do it again if given the chance. She’d already decided long before Trent had rolled back into town: no more men.

  Heat spread across her chest beneath his continued gaze. “You know, it’s getting late.” She grabbed one of the containers of food. “I should probably just take this and head home. I’ve still got a lot to do before I can turn in for the night.”

  A mixture of disappointment and sadness flashed in Trent’s eyes as his mouth hung agape. It looked as if words were trying to escape from his lips, but they were unsuccessful. Olivia sighed when he clamped his mouth shut.

  Poor Kat. There was no denying she had high hopes for the two of them, but there was no “fixing” what was broken between her and Trent. They’d had their shot, and Trent had put an unceremonious end to it. She was done having her heart ripped out and trampled on by the men in her life.

  Done.

  Chapter Five

  “Wait.” A surge of energy rushed into Trent’s limbs. He reached out to Olivia as she got up and turned to leave. It took every ounce of his self-control to stay in his seat instead of jumping up like an over-zealous nut. He had to convince her not to leave. Every bit of the tension between them was his fault. He hadn’t meant to create it—he hadn’t meant to do a lot of things. “Don’t you want to hear my fortune?”

  She paused, turning to eye him with curiosity. “Okay, let’s hear it.”

  He crushed his cookie in the palm of his hand and held the fortune in front of his face. His tongue clung to the roof of his dry mouth. Nerves rolled around in his stomach as he prepared to speak.

  He took a deep breath, pausing for an extra beat before pretending to read. “You will make a complete idiot of yourself today, and act like an uptight jerk to someone from your past. You’ll wish you could start the day over and say all the right things from the beginning.”

  The sound of Olivia’s sudden laughter sent a rush of warmth racing through his body as she gave in to her good-natured sense of humor.

  “That’s about the longest and most accurate fortune I’ve ever heard in my life.”

  The sparkle in her eye forced a smile onto his lips. He’d forgotten how great it was to be near her and hear her beautiful laugh.

  For the first time since he was discharged from the United States Army, he was completely at ease in the company of another human being. He didn’t feel out of place with Olivia. With her, even after so many years, he was home. He needed to hang onto that moment for a little while longer. “Hold on. There’s more. It says, ‘You’ll wish that person would stay and eat cold Chinese food with you.’”

  Olivia’s laughter quieted and a pleasant smile settled on her lips. “I can’t tell if that’s an apology or a dinner invitation.”

  Trent locked his gaze onto hers. “It’s both.” He dried his damp palms on his dusty pant legs while she made up her mind.

  “I suppose I can stay for a while.”

  His heart pounded against his sternum when she moved to reclaim her seat across from him on the porch. Wow! Fortune cookie communication was awesome. Apparently he had no problem speaking if the words were supposedly coming from somewhere else. If only he weren’t fresh out of cookies. He was going to have to stop by the Golden Dragon and buy a bagful of those things.

  Trent’s pulse throbbed in his ears. Only a few moments before, asking her to stay had seemed like the biggest hurdle he’d have to face this evening. Once she sat down, panic niggled at the back of his mind. She was here. She was staying. Now what?

  His military instructors had invested countless hours training him to survive in the most difficult environments on earth. Too bad the
y’d never considered teaching him how to engage in conversation with an ex-girlfriend. He was on his own.

  Trent’s jaw muscles twitched as he watched her open a container of fried rice. Tension pulled at his neck. Olivia wasn’t just an ex. She was the one who got away—or rather that he’d pushed away. What was he supposed to say to her after so many years?

  “So… you ended up going into construction like your dad?” Trent asked, reaching for a box of lo mein. It may have been a boring opener, but at least it was a safe topic.

  “No, this is just a temporary job until I can figure a few things out.”

  “Really? You’re still as good as ever with a tool in your hand. I figured you took the lessons your dad taught us at the job sites and turned them into a career. Those summers working with you and your dad are some of my best memories.”

  Olivia tucked a few fly-away hairs behind her ear, avoiding his gaze. “Mine, too.”

  Looking at her transported him ten years into the past. There was no way to know if she felt the heat growing between them. But he couldn’t help but wonder if she was thinking of the stolen kiss they’d shared at the last job site they’d worked together before leaving for college.

  The memory of that first kiss in an unfinished office building was indelibly etched in his memory. Flecks of paint had dotted her flushed cheeks, heated from a long day of painting tall industrial ceilings. She’d worn her hair in a messy bun that sat low at the base of her neck, just the way he liked it.

  He’d walked in on her as she was putting on a final coat. Her soft pink lips curved into an inviting smile that lit up her face when he came into the room. One relentless question had played on repeat in his mind that day. What would it be like to kiss her? He needed to feel her lips against his—even if only for a moment.

  When the moment came, he’d moved in for a soft kiss, tentative in its execution. What they’d lacked in experience, they’d made up for with sincerity. That was when he knew it. He was going to marry Olivia one day.