Her Unexpected Detour (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

B
rent looked to Kayla and saw the surprise in her eyes. Damn it, he’d spent all day yesterday easing her into the idea of staying in Mount Pleasant. Now Miles was throwing it at her like he was a pitcher for the Yankees…and she was a catcher with no mitt.

“Would have been nice if you’d mentioned your desire to bail on us before,” he said to Miles. “Or is that why you’ve been courting this offer? It’d be a convenient end to your career here at the inn, wouldn’t it? Ruby gets to retire, you get to cut ties.”

“I could give a shit about the offer, and you know it. My primary concern is Ruby and her health.”

“Right, because you—”

“Boys.” Ruby’s stern voice brought silence to the room. “I need to digest all of this. The offer and Kayla’s ideas both. Thank you, dear, for all your hard work. Until then, I don’t want any more bickering. Offer aside, we have an inn to open in just over a week. I’ll ask that we stay on schedule with our preparations.” She pushed back from the table and rose slowly to her feet. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need some time alone.”

With that, she shuffled from the room.

“Happy now?” Brent asked.

Miles’s eyes narrowed, but he said nothing.

“Brent.” Kayla put her hand on his arm. “Why don’t you get started outside and come see me at lunch? I can help Miles clear the breakfast table.”

The look in her eyes begged him not to pick a fight with Miles. For her sake, he’d comply. That didn’t mean he had to like it. He pushed back from the table and made to leave.

Music erupted from a cell phone nearby. Kayla shifted to retrieve it from her jeans pocket, then froze as she took in the number displayed.

“Kayla?”

Her gaze met his. “I, uh, need to take this.”

With that, she rose and hurried from the room, taking her phone and conversation with her.

Work. It had to be work calling.

Brent felt his heart lodge in his throat. Would they offer her recompense? Beg her to come back?

Would she go?

“Good luck,” whispered Miles as he collected plates from the table.

For once, there was zero sarcasm in his cousin’s voice. Brent almost felt badly about snapping at him a minute ago. Almost.

“Thanks.”

But it wasn’t Miles’s heart on the line right now, it was his. He headed outside to await his fate.

T
ommy tossed a wrench into his toolbox, then walked across the shop floor to where Kayla sat perched on a folding chair.

“Okay,” he said, hands on hips. “What gives?”

“Huh?” Kayla asked, unable to meet his eyes. She was unable to do much of anything, actually, numb as she was.

A promotion. They’d offered her a promotion.

“Seriously, Kay, you’re starting to freak me out. You’ve been nagging me all week about getting your car fixed, and now that I’m finally working on it, you’re being all”—he waved his hands at her—“this.”

“Oh.” She tried to offer him a smile, even a small one, but the expression wouldn’t come. How could it, when her heart was teetering on a precipice? “Sorry. I stayed up late last night. Really late. Working on a new project.”

Tommy squatted down before her, his eyes wary. “Is someone at the inn giving you a hard time?”

She barked out a laugh. “No. No, nothing like that. Though I sort of threw fuel on a family feud at breakfast.”

“Why’s that?”

Kayla took in the worried look on her brother’s brow. Thank goodness for Tommy. If he hadn’t agreed to come and get her, she’d be back in her suite climbing the walls. Or trying to track down Brent, who was working in the far reaches of the property this morning. And she wasn’t ready to face him, not yet.

God, he was going to hate her.

“It doesn’t matter.” She pushed up off the chair she’d slumped into upon her arrival and stretched. “So, can I see the part you just took off?”

Tommy studied her for another moment, then stood with a nod and led her over to a sheet of deformed metal. Instantly, his brotherly side shut off and the mechanic in him took over. It was the perfect distraction to an abysmal situation. Or at least, it would have been, if she’d been able to focus on what he was saying. Instead, her mind kept going back to the phone conversation with her boss.

“Kayla.”

Her gaze shot to Tommy’s. “What? I’m listening.”

“I just told you the sky was pink and you said, ‘uh-huh’. Now what is going on?”

Oops, busted
. “I…” Kayla shook her head. She simply didn’t have the energy to dodge any more questions. “I think I fell in love.”

“With Brent?”

She nodded, then wandered back over to the chair she’d vacated. With a sigh, she sank down and tried to pull herself together. Just hearing his name was like taking a white-hot poker straight to her heart.

“So, what’s the problem?” her brother asked.

“It’s a long story.”

Tommy pulled up a chair and sat down, facing her. “And I don’t have a class until two. So spill.”

Kayla scowled at him but could tell by the look on his face he wasn’t going to let it go. So she took a deep breath, braced herself for the pain, and told him everything. The first time she met Brent, there, in the diner. Him saving her from that long, brutal walk in the ice storm. Their night together. His disappearance the next day and standoffish behavior the days following. Him comforting her when she had the meltdown by the daffodils. The pond. The bees. The recovery.

The happiness.

“I got back to my room last night, and for the first time in forever I felt sure of what I wanted. What I needed to do. He helped me see how miserable I really have been at Wayne. How I’ve been under this grand illusion about my future there and how convinced I was that they see me as just another employee.”

“I’ve been thinking that for years,” he said. “But you always seemed so excited about that place. I didn’t want to burst your bubble.”

“Well, he spared you from having to do that. Only, when Jacober called earlier, he didn’t talk down to me. I’d never heard him sound so excited, Tommy. My plan and hard work after-hours paid off this time.” She smirked. “I finally hear the words from my boss that I’ve been dying to hear, and now I’m miserable. Go figure.”

“Sounds like your head and your heart are misaligned.”

Kayla shook her head. “Always with the mechanic speak.”

“I’m serious, Kay. Maybe it’s time for a change. What did Brent say when you told him about Jacober’s offer?”

“I didn’t. He was outside when I came back downstairs. So I called you.”

“Well, my advice? Talk to him before you make a final decision. Once you know exactly how he feels, you can weigh your options.”

“It’s not that easy, Tommy. This isn’t just about work—what about dad?”

“What about him?”

“Who’s going to look out for him? Make sure he’s taking his medications, taking care of the house? The yard?”

“Kay, listen to me. Dad will be fine. I’m sorry I can’t exactly go down there and fill your shoes, but maybe those shoes don’t need to be filled. Maybe a little time alone will make him see how much living he has left to do.”

“But what if it doesn’t? What if he gets depressed? Or—”

“He won’t—he’s smarter than that. And besides, even if he does, he’s not your responsibility. Dad has friends, coworkers. They’ll watch out for him. It’s what friends do.”

Kayla stared into his eyes, wanting so badly to buy in to what he was saying, and yet unable to do so. She’d played the role of caregiver for so long now. Letting go wasn’t as easy as flipping some imaginary switch. And if something did happen to her father, she would be the one to carry it the rest of her days, not Tommy. “I don’t know…”

“Look, why don’t you take a break from all this thinking and give me a hand with your car? With the two of us working together, you’ll be able to drive yourself back to the inn by lunchtime.”

Her gaze drifted to her car. It
would
be nice to have her own car back… “Why, does this kind of repair require a woman’s touch or something?”

“No,” said Tommy. “It needs a trained monkey. Unfortunately, all I’ve got handy is you.”

Kayla rolled her eyes and stood as well. “Like you’d ever trade me for a monkey.”

“Nope, never. Though the monkey would never demand DQ.”

“You love our DQ trips just as much as I do, buddy.” She jabbed him in the shoulder. “How do you manage to stay so upbeat all the time, anyway?”

“Easy,” he said, steering her toward his workbench. “I work with inanimate objects all day. If something ticks me off, I just come in here, grab a wrench, and crank on metal until I feel better.”

“Wouldn’t a gym membership be a little more…normal?”

Tommy released her and shrugged. “Maybe. But who ever said I was normal?”

Kayla shook her head and sighed. She’d given up on normal herself long ago. Today’s drama was living proof of it.

B
rent sat in the Gator, trying to keep his heart rate in check. A laser blue Impala sat in the Checkerberry’s lot beside his truck and Miles’s Camaro. Kayla’s Impala, fixed. Which meant she was free to leave any time.

All that was left to be seen now was—would she?

He took a steadying breath, then climbed out of the Gator and headed for the door. No sense in delaying the inevitable. As he stepped inside and was greeted by nothing but silence, Brent knew in his heart what was coming.

She wasn’t staying. She’d go back to Indiana and leave him and the inn far behind. Yesterday, he’d been ready to fight to keep her in town. To demand it. But today? Today the weight of defeat had him pinned back, feeling helpless and, once again, alone.

He drew near her room and found the door already open, her gym bag on the bed. His hand felt detached from his body as it rose to knock on the doorframe. Kayla stepped out of the bathroom and offered him a small smile.

“Hey.”

Hey. All he got was a “hey.” The writing might as well have been scrawled on the walls.

“You said to come see you at lunch.”

“Yeah, sorry, I’d hoped to have gotten further on the web updates, but I spent longer at Tommy’s than I expected.” She swung her arms at her sides and looked around. Anywhere but at him. “I, uh, got my car back.”

“I see. Tommy did a nice job.”

“Always does.”

Brent hated this, hated that she was prepping to let him down easy. Only, there was nothing easy about this for him. He’d rather just rip the damn bandage off and go back to being miserable again.

Because miserable, it seemed, was all he was destined for.

“Brent, I—”

“You’re leaving.”

The sadness in her gaze said it all. Though why it was there was beyond him. If she was sad, why leave? He held everything in—the anger, the words, his emotions. What good would it do?

“I
have
to go back,” she said quietly. When he said nothing, she continued. “I can’t leave my dad, I just can’t. He’s not ready to be on his own, not yet.”

“When, Kayla? When will you deem him to be ready?”

Brent hated the way his voice cracked on that last word. Hated even more the look of pity she offered him in response.

“I don’t know. Until then, I need to stick around.”

“And your boss? That was him on the phone earlier, I’m guessing.”

“Yeah. He saw my proposal, said it’s the best I’ve done. Offered me the promotion I’ve been demanding if I’d come back.” She sighed, shook her head. “This totally sucks.”

“Why? It’s what you’ve always wanted, right? The perfect job, staying close to your dad—sounds like a win-win for you.”

Her eyes shone with fresh tears, and guilt stabbed at Brent’s heart. This wasn’t how he wanted things to end between them. Then again, if she hated him, at least one of them might heal someday.

“Brent, I—”

“Just go, Kayla. Clearly they need you in Indiana far more than I need you up here.”

With that, he turned, headed downstairs and out the door without a single look back. Just like the women he loved always seemed to do to him.

Chapter Twenty-Three

K
ayla blinked back a fresh round of tears as she threw her dirty clothes into a leftover shopping bag from her trip out with Tommy on Monday. It felt like a lifetime ago. Emotionally, it was a lifetime ago. She was leaving the Checkerberry a different woman than she’d arrived, had finally been able to open her heart up to someone outside their little family.

Too bad it’d ended with the feeling that her heart had been ripped right out of her chest.

“You really leaving us, Indiana?”

She swiped a hand under each eye before turning to face Miles. “Yeah, I…I really need to get back to work. Big project coming up, and they need my help if we’re gonna win this bid.”

“That sucks.” He frowned. “Well, for us. Good for you, though.”

“Yeah.” Too bad it didn’t feel that way. “Can you do me a favor?”

“What’s that?”

She picked up a note from her bedside table. “When Ruby comes out, can you give her this? It’s just a little thank-you note.”

“Sure. But I think she’d rather receive it from you.”

“I know but I…” She felt her lower lip waiver. “I just can’t.”

A small sob slipped from Kayla’s lips, and Miles walked forward to pull her into his chest.

“Aw, come on, now. Ruby wouldn’t want you to leave crying like this.”

No, but Brent probably would.
“I really messed things up, Miles.”

“No you didn’t.” He rubbed small circles on her back. “In fact, you’re the best thing that could have happened to us. Ruby’s loved having another female here to keep her company, and you gave us some great ideas for marketing if she does decide to keep the place.”

“What about Brent?”

“Oh, don’t worry about Brent. He’ll uh…well, he’ll just go back to being his grouchy old self. That last bit I might have to hold against you. He can be such a bear sometimes.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. Everything will work out the way it should. Always does.”

She nodded and pulled back with a sniffle. “Maybe you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right. I’m the numbers guy, remember? Come on, I’ll give you a hand with all this.”

They gathered her possessions and Kayla gave her suite a last once-over. The bed was made, trash emptied, and bathroom tidied—all things a guest shouldn’t bother with. But not once had Kayla felt like a guest. This past week she’d been made to feel like a member of the family. A family it tore her up to leave.

She paused only once more on her way out, just long enough to take one last look at the lobby, to memorize its beautiful woodwork. Woodwork that had been lovingly carved by the man she wanted most but who no longer wanted her. Then she stepped outside to her awaiting Impala and said farewell to the Checkerberry Inn.

B
rent stared at the tape measure stretched atop a board on the sawhorse before him, trying to remember how long the piece needed to be. He pulled the scrap paper from his back pocket to check his notes. For the fourth time.

Damn it, why couldn’t he focus? So what if his heart had been trampled on again? So what if the first woman he’d opened up to in nearly a decade had just chosen a stupid job over him? He was made of tougher stuff than this.

“There you are. Come on, Ruby needs us back at the inn.”

Brent looked up, alarmed. “Why?”

“Wants to talk, said she’s made her decision.”

“About the offer?”

Miles nodded.

Brent shoved the paper back into his pocket. Why bother cutting more boards to update a picnic table down by the pond when it’d likely be bulldozed over soon, anyway? With Kayla gone, the marketing plan would be useless. And since his grandmother was sharp as a tack, she had to know that as well. She’d be a fool to pass up this offer.

That left Brent to go back to his construction contracting business. Alone. Again.

“She gone?”

“Yeah,” Miles said, his voice soft.

He nodded, eyes fixed on the tape measure. “Good.”

“Tell me something—when exactly did you become the world’s biggest asshole?”

Brent looked up in surprise. “What?”

“You heard me,” Miles said.

“Wait—she leaves and
I’m
the asshole?”

“Damn right you are. Did you even ask her to stay?”

“Didn’t need to. She’d already made up her mind.”

“So you just let her go, didn’t try to convince her that you actually wanted her to stay?”

Brent stared at him, incredulous. “Since when do you feel the need to offer relationship advice?”

“Since I saw Kayla bring you back to life!”

His words ricocheted through the old barn. Somewhere overhead, a handful of startled pigeons took flight.

“Look, it may have been your parents who died, but you weren’t the only one devastated by it, buddy. We all grieved their loss, all of us. The difference is that Ruby and I, we moved on. We knew Aunt Sue and Uncle Craig would have wanted it that way.

“But not you. No, when that plane went down, it took the old you with it. And I, for one, am sick and tired of waiting for you to get your head out of the goddamn sand and start
living
again.”

Brent stood there, frozen with shock. “I haven’t been—”

“Yes,” Miles cut in. “You have. But you can change that. You can go back to being the Brent Masterson we all know and love.”

“No, I can’t.” Brent turned from him and stared out across the barn floor. “That time in my life, the
old me
as you keep calling it, is gone. I was a fool to think otherwise.”

“Bullshit.” Miles marched over to stand before him. “You can be whatever you want. Whoever you want. But it’s
you
who makes that choice, cousin, not your circumstances. You.”

Brent looked into Miles’s eyes and felt his heart strain against the iron bars he’d spent the afternoon resurrecting. Bars that had kept him safe for years from more heartache but that he’d foolishly taken down the last few days. And at what cost? His gaze shifted toward the door.

“She’s out there, man,” said Miles softly. “She needs you.”

“No, she doesn’t.” He turned away from the door, away from Miles. “She’s made that perfectly clear.”

“Just like you’ve made it perfectly clear that you don’t want her around?” Miles’s right brow rose high on his forehead. “If you two would stop butting heads long enough, you might find that you’re actually—”

“Perfect for each other,” Ruby said, finishing his sentence as she entered the barn.

She paused beside Miles to offer him a peck on the cheek, then walked over to Brent and placed a soft hand on his chest.

“She’s confused, dear. Much the same way you are. Both of you have hidden from love for so long that you’ve forgotten what a blessing it can truly be.”

Brent stood there for a moment, grappling with her words. He had hidden from love, had avoided it like the plague for years. From what he knew, Kayla had, too. Was that really what was keeping her from seeing how much she meant to him? How badly he wanted her to stay? Needed her here?

“But what if…?”

“Taking risks is a part of life, Brent.” Ruby’s voice was soft. “Some are well worth it.”

His gaze shifted again to the door.

“Stop thinking so much and go get washed up,” his grandmother commanded with a grin. “You’ve got amends to make and an inn to finish getting ready for this season.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Brent pulled his spunky grandmother into a bear hug and whispered in her ear, “And thank you. For not giving up on me or the inn.”

“I’d never dream of it,” she whispered back.

K
ayla returned home to a lockbox full of junk mail and a refrigerator full of spoiled food. Well, half full. She’d been due for a trip to the grocery store even before she’d skipped town a week ago. With a sigh, she started to unpack and did her best to block Brent, Ruby, Miles, and the inn from her mind.

And failed miserably.

After being in her silent, lonely apartment for barely an hour, Kayla headed back out the door. Usually after spending three hours in the car, she was cured of wanting to leave home again for a day or two. Not today. No, today a trip to one of their local noisy supermarkets was exactly what she needed. All that chaos might be just enough to drown out her thoughts of the surrogate family she’d left behind. A family who had received her with arms wide open, taken care of her as if she were their own, and yet she’d bailed on them when they probably needed her most.

But it was best this way, she reminded herself as she wove mindlessly through the grocery aisles. A clean break for all of them. Ruby could shop for a quiet retirement villa, Miles could go do whatever it was finance guys do with extra time on their hands, and Brent…

Kayla snagged a cereal box from the nearest shelf. She read every ingredient, every nutrition fact. Cheerios were heart healthy? Huh, who knew? She tossed the box into her cart and gripped the handle tighter than necessary. No more dwelling on the past. Life was too short to live wallowing in regret, and Lord knows she had plenty.

Like her most recent—going off on Phillip Jacober while fighting late afternoon traffic as she passed through Grand Rapids. Yeah, maybe not the best time for him to call and tell her the board had rejected his recommendation to pay her for her time off. On the bright side, her former boss was sure to stop calling now. And since he’d quietly requested she clear out her desk this weekend with no one but the security guard around, she wouldn’t have to deal with any departure drama.

At least he’d agreed to pay her six weeks of severance pay, after she’d threatened to sue Wayne Advertising for withholding overtime pay from her for years. Not enough to live off for long, but better than nothing. Maybe her hanging out with a bossy Neanderthal the past week had paid off after all.

A bossy, sexy Neanderthal. Who’d taught her how to feel again, then stolen her heart.

Nope, no regrets, she reminded herself as she headed to the checkout lanes. If she hadn’t met Brent, she’d still be under the illusion that Wayne Advertising appreciated and respected her. Both not true. Plus, she never would have met Ruby, or Miles, and rediscovered the importance of family—even if they had their fair share of dysfunction. Didn’t most families?

Kayla headed home, consumed by a new dilemma—how to break the news that she’d quit to her father. That was, if Jacober hadn’t already blabbed. With her recent bout of bad luck, it wouldn’t surprise her. But if she could craft her explanation into something that her father could understand, maybe he wouldn’t be as worried about her. She had the severance pay, after all, and a terrific résumé that was certain to help her land another job soon enough.

At least, she sure hoped so.

She pulled her car into the lot at her complex and looked for an empty parking space. But all the ones along the front walk to her building were already taken. Lots of sports cars, shiny and new, as if to rub it in. Kayla glared at a red one as she continued past her door.

Oh well, she thought as she slid into a spot in the back row, three doors down. At least it wasn’t—

A raindrop hit her windshield. Then another. And another.

She peered up at the darkening clouds in disbelief. “Are you kidding me?”

By the time she parked and climbed out of her Impala, a gentle spring rain was falling. Gentle, but ice cold. She dug into her trunk, grabbed the bags containing frozen and refrigerated items, and hurried for her apartment. With clothes already more or less soaked, she set the bags just inside the door and didn’t bother hunting for an umbrella. Instead she turned and braced herself for a second tromp out into the great—and wet—outdoors.

Kayla dashed back out into the blinding rain. Several men came running from the parking lot, headed in the opposite direction.
So much for modern chivalry
.

To her surprise, a man came up beside her and reached into the trunk to help. Usually, she’d be wary of help from a stranger, even in her safe pocket of Fort Wayne. But not today. Today she just wanted to get out of the rain and into some warm, dry clothes.

“Thanks so much,” she said, reaching to pull the far bags closer to the edge.

“Anytime, princess.”

Kayla stopped in mid stretch. That voice. It couldn’t possibly be.

She turned to get a better look at the man peering down into the grocery bag in his hands and gasped. “Brent? W-what are you doing here?”

“Helping you unload groceries, from the look of things.” He stood beside her, his rain-soaked T-shirt matted to his muscular torso, looking like some Greek god. As rivulets of water cascaded down his face, a slow smile formed on his lips. “I had no idea you were such a chocoholic.”

“I’m not.” Mortified, Kayla swiped her shopping bag from him, set it back in the trunk, and shifted to stand between him and her stash. Usually when she went on a pity trip to the store, the reason for her mass intake of chocolate wasn’t around to witness it. “There was a sale.”

“Uh-huh.”

“There was!” Which wasn’t a complete lie. “Now, dang it, answer my question.”

Confusion clouded his handsome face. “I said I was—”

“
No
. Why. Are. You. Here?”

“You forgot something.”

“I did?” The hope spawned by his appearance beside her car faded. “Well, why didn’t you just put it in the mail?”

“Because. This item doesn’t travel well in the back of a UPS truck.”

“Oh?” She couldn’t think of anything she’d left behind that might have been too fragile to ship. “What is it?”

Brent cupped a hand to her cheek, then lowered his face to within a whisper of hers. “Me.”

He pressed his wet lips softly into hers, and a rush of warmth swept through Kayla’s rain-soaked body.

“You told me to go.”

He kissed her forehead. “I was an idiot.”

“Not gonna argue with that. Though I didn’t give you much of a chance to say otherwise.”

“No, you didn’t. So I had to make a road trip, ask you to reconsider in person.”

She grinned up at him. “Ruby made you come, didn’t she?”

“She might have smacked some sense into me.”

“Smart woman.”