CHAPTER 10
GRANT

When I pulled into Hollis’ driveway, I sighed with relief. The last thing I needed was to be answering questions about where I was the night before. I wasn’t ready for the barrage of curiosity nor was I ready for any stories on how he fucked Theresa’s best friend.

All I wanted to do was punch something. How Theresa could let that toad talk to her like that, I’d never understand. I stormed out back and picked up a crowbar, then began ripping the stairs away from Hollis’ porch. I was irate. My blood was boiling to the point I thought I might stroke out right there. What the fuck was wrong with Theresa? A mistake? Did she really think what we’d shared was a mistake? I was sure the raw passion had scared her. Hell, I was sure she hadn’t experienced something like that throughout the entire duration of her fucking relationship with that little rodent.

But a mistake?

Fuck no. Nothing that had or could happen between us was a mistake.

I ripped at the stairs and watched them crumble to the ground. A sorry excuse for a construction job, if asked my professional opinion. I ripped into the wood and knocked it off the side with the cool metal in my hand, allowing my anger to flood through my veins. Theresa wasn’t mine. She wasn’t mine to defend or mine to take on or mine to fix. But I wanted to. More than anything in the world. And she had called me a mistake.

I didn’t mean anything to her any longer. Once upon a time I had, but not anymore. I was nothing but a fling, something she wished she’d never done. And as much as I hated to admit it, that had sliced through me. Cut to my core. To a place that wasn’t yet scarred over with thick tissue. I was bleeding inside as I slammed the crowbar into the wood. I was in pain, and I didn’t know how to stop it.

All I knew how to do was power through it.

I threw all my energy into the porch. I put the staircase together and hammered the nails in the old-fashioned way. I beat the anger out of my bones as sweat dripped down my face. Plank after plank. Step after step. The sun hung heavily in the sky, and I could feel my need for water taking over the rest of my senses.

But when I went inside to hydrate, my vision was still dripping red.

So, instead of putting fresh holes in Hollis’ hallway, I took apart the railing on the back porch. It was rotted away as well because the wood wasn’t sealed properly, and it gave me another thing to do. I started crafting some of the excess wood into a sturdy railing, then I took to sanding it down. By the time I was done sanding and finishing off all the pieces, the sun was setting below the trees. It was getting cooler causing goosebumps to dot my arms.

I’d worked the entire day away in my own little zone, but my chest still hurt.

A phone ringing from inside caught my attention, so I set down my paintbrush. I walked up the newly-renovated steps and grinned when they didn’t creak underneath my weight. I walked inside and lifted my shirt to wipe off my brow, then I reached for the phone on the kitchen counter.

This bastard still had a landline?

“Hello?”

“I need your damn cell number.”

“Hey, Hollis. What’s up?”

“I wanted to let you know that I won’t be back tonight. I got picked up for a double shift, and I’m about to take a power nap before getting back out there.”

“That’s fine. I got your steps installed, and I may or may not be redoing the railing, too.”

“Then it sounds like I won’t be missed too much,” he said. “Thanks, man.”

“Least I could do?”

“See you in the morning,” he said.

“Yep.”

I hung up the phone and looked back out into the yard. I was going to have a lot of time to myself tonight, so I figured I could be productive. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and pulled up some music, then started back outside. If I gave myself a few more hours, I could have the railing installed and see about replacing the weathered boards on the main porch itself.

The music filled the backyard, and I bobbed my head. I went back to sanding and coating the finished pieces in primer so it could withstand Bar Harbor’s erratic summers and winters. I took my time lining up the railing pieces before adhering them into place.

The porch was coming along nicely, and I grinned as the music faded away.

I wiped the sweat from my brow and stood up to survey the porch, when a lone figure caught my eye. Theresa stood in front of me, wringing her hands. I had been so engrossed in what I was doing that I hadn’t even heard her pull up.

She stood there, beautiful as ever, looking like she had something to say, but wasn’t sure how to start. I wasn’t going to help her out. For as much as I wanted to reach out to her and make everything okay, she had hurt me more than I’d initially been willing to admit to that morning.

My eyes raked up and down her body, looking for any signs that Ike had laid his hands on her. I watched her sit down in a chair on the porch, and I walked up the steps, my forearm wiping the rest of the sweat off my face. I stood in front of her, my gaze never leaving her face as she fought for words.

“I’m sorry,” she finally said, in a voice so gentle I barely heard her.

“For what?” I asked. I needed to hear her say it.

“It wasn’t a mistake. You, Grant—you weren’t a mistake. You could never be.”

I watched tears form in her eyes, and I wanted to reach out and brush them away before they spilled down her cheeks, but my stubborn pride got in the way.

So, I stood and leaned against the railing I’d just installed.

“We’re done for real. He came back to ‘give me a chance to change my mind’, but I told him to kiss my ass.”

I grunted and nodded my head as I cast my gaze on the glowing horizon. I had nothing nice to say about that pathetic little weasel. Nighttime would soon be upon us, and it would get cold. Theresa didn’t look like she was dressed for the dropping temperatures at all. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to resist wrapping her up in my arms once the cold set in if she started shivering.

And we were at her brother’s house.

Across the street from her father.

This was a very bad concoction, and she’d been through enough.

“So, I guess I just wanted to say that,” Theresa said.

I nodded and watched as she pushed herself up from the chair.

Even though she was distraught, she walked taller. She wasn’t looking down at her feet, and her shoulders were rolled back a bit. The faintest tug of a grin ticked my cheek as I watched her walk away, and suddenly it dawned on me.

The one question I did want to ask her.

“What does it mean?” I asked.

“What?”

Theresa spun around on her heel to face me, a question in her eyes.

“The tattoo on your thigh. The small lily.”

“You saw that,” she said with a sigh.

“I saw everything last night. Saw it and memorized it.”

I watched her cheeks flush, and I suppressed the grin trying to escape.

“It’s for my mom. Lilies were her favorite flower,” Theresa said.

Then she turned and walked down the front steps.

I stood there silently as I heard her car backing out of the driveway. My stomach was in knots, and my mind swirled with confusion. This woman had me tied up in fucking knots. The job was done. I had come here to make sure that she was okay. To make sure that she was happy and being treated the way she deserved to be treated. To see her take herself back and be the woman I always knew she would become. She was no longer with the abusive piece of shit, and I was convinced that she would be okay. Seeing her walk taller and with more confidence only solidified the thought that she was going to be all right after all this.

I had work piling up back home and a company that needed me. My foremen were blowing up my phone, and the investors in a new project my company was about to start were threatening to pull the plug if I didn’t get my ass back to Boston to meet with them ASAP.

So why was I still here? Why was I rooted to a place that had caused me so much pain?

I knew why. I was here for her.