Bad Boy Blues - Jessica Lemmon Page 0,2

knew who she was with Neil. She knew who she was with her parents. She was determined to find out who she could be on her own. It’d been a while.

Endless Avenue, and a long street of stores and restaurants, stretched out before her. Evergreen Cove had changed a lot since she’d last been here. The buildings were old, quaint, and somehow modern at the same time. There were pine trees everywhere, adorning the signs, painted on the windows, and physically standing guard in the distance. The cove itself was a dark splotch at the moment, but she remembered well what it looked like in dappled sunlight. How the water was cold in the deep spots, and how good it felt to touch the sandy bottom in the shallows.

Smiling to herself, and eager to reach the lake house just a few turns away, she was snapped from her thoughts when the car jerked to the left. She gripped the steering wheel tighter. The car pulling in that direction, paired with her having difficulty steering, hinted she was dealing with something more serious than a pothole.

The thumping sound that followed sealed her suspicion of a flat tire, or one that was well on its way. With a tired whine, she steered into the nearest parking lot, which happened to house a fitness center very near the library. As much as she lamented her bad luck, at least she’d broken down in a moderately safe place.

Once out of the car, she found the flat on the rear driver’s side, and her options lined up before her. She could call Triple-A. She could call her father and ask how to change it.

Each of those solutions made her feel more like a little girl than an adult woman. She was capable. She was smart. No matter what Neil had told her during their time together, she could take care of herself. This was the age of female rebirth after all. She could change a damn tire.

“All I need,” she said, closing her eyes and drawing on her own inner strength her therapist assured her was there, “is YouTube.”

Then she pulled out her phone and did a search.

Chapter 2

The gym was dead at eleven at night, which was why Brady went at this time. He was a visible guy in the Cove, and the less hi-how-are-ya he could do during his off hours, the better. Touristy though she was, the Cove kept visitors in her clutches and near the water. Most vacationers were either lounging in front of a bonfire or laughing from the decks of their boats at this time of night.

He’d worked out hard tonight and had followed that workout with a long, hot shower. He’d fall into bed when he got home, after he took Lila outside first, of course. She’d been snuggled in her dog bed with her favorite stuffed monkey when he’d left. She was a good dog. He hadn’t been looking for a dog, but it wasn’t like he could’ve left her at Mack’s.

”Is that your dog?” Brady gestured toward the matted dog hunching forlornly next to the post. The miserable mutt was filthy, wet from the rain, and had no water or food bowls.

”The mongrel’s hers.” Mack sneered at his wife. “Told her not to bring the bitch home, yet here she is. Planning on shooting it.”

Shortly after, Mack threw a punch and missed. Brady’s swing connected. Brady had been halfway to hitting Mack after seeing the state June was in, but managed to keep his cool. Mack coming for him had been the proverbial last straw.

Brady had reminded June to call him if she changed her mind about pressing charges, and then he’d untied Lila and informed the Brownings that the dog belonged to him now. Carrying the pup’s shaking body in his arms, he’d murmured a promise into her ear that he’d find her a good home. That she’d never be tied to a porch post again.

The goal had been to keep her that first night and then re-home her. But after a vet visit assuring that she was more emotionally traumatized than physically ill, she’d forlornly watched him with intelligent, frightened brown eyes. They seemed to beg him to stay, and hell, he’d never fallen so hard so fast.

Out in the parking lot, he took in the situation around him in flashes. Habit, that. He always watched his twenty. His truck was parked off to the right, one other compact car probably belonging to the