he was asking about, but I hedged anyway. “What do you mean?”
“On the way out. You seemed upset.”
Fuck my life. I decided the only way out of this awkwardness was brutal honesty.
“I accidentally had an affair last year. I feel like shit. The guy and his wife were in the reception area. I didn’t know it was an affair because he lied to me and even gave me a fake name. He lives up in Anchorage, but he has a summer business down here, so that’s how we met. Last year was his first year in business, so I didn’t know any better. I didn’t know pretty much everything he told me was all bullshit. Long story short, I don’t even know what he told her. As soon as I found out what I’d stumbled into, obviously, I completely ended things. I called her to apologize, but she seems to think I knew what I was doing. I still feel awful.”
“Jesus, that sucks, Cammi. He’s a fucking asshole.”
“Yeah. I feel like the world’s biggest idiot.”
Elias was quiet for a moment, the sound of his blinker loud inside the truck as he came to a stop at the bottom of the hill. He looked my way, his eyes holding mine. The look there stole my breath and set my heart off at a rapid beat.
“You’re not an idiot, and you didn’t deserve that. Hell no. You can’t be expected to go through life wondering if people are completely lying about who they are. That’s no way to go about life. So, you trusted the wrong person. Happens to the best of us. You’re better than that, and you deserve so much more.”
Okay, that was the most Elias had ever said to me in one shot. He exuded a sense of protectiveness and anger on my behalf. My heart flipped over. I blinked at the emotion rushing through me. “I know, but thanks for saying it.”
He dipped his chin in acknowledgment and looked back toward the highway before turning onto it. That charge was still hovering in the air, and I could hear every beat of my heart echoing through my body. I felt hot, and my skin was prickly. I was hyper aware of Elias and I kept stealing glances at him. He drove with one hand resting on top of the steering wheel. My eyes traced the line down from his shoulder over his muscled forearm to his hand.
I tore my eyes away from his hand and they landed on his jaw. While Elias was definitely hot, like need-a-fan-hot as Susie described, he was beautiful. The lines of his profile were clean and strong, almost elegant. His nose was straight, and his cheekbones angled and cut. My eyes lingered hungrily on his lips. They were sensual and full, yet masculine.
Absolutely everything about Elias was masculine. He didn’t even have to try to telegraph confidence, it oozed from him in an understated way.
“Cammi?”
His low voice almost made me jump. I’d zoned out that badly.
“Where should I turn? You said out past the road to the harbor, and the harbor is coming up,” he added.
“Oh, sorry. Actually, do you mind stopping at my coffee truck?” I’d remembered to drop the cash bag off at the bank earlier, but I’d forgotten my laptop. I liked to settle the numbers every night. “If it’s a problem—” I began.
Elias’s eyes slid to mine, and he smiled slightly. “It’s not a problem.”
He slowed and turned in at the harbor, immediately hooking a right into the small gravel parking lot in front of my coffee truck.
“I meant to stop by on my way home. Obviously, I wasn’t planning on having someone slash my tire,” I murmured, feeling my cheeks go pink.
“Right. Most people don’t expect that,” he said dryly.
The gravel crunched under his truck tires as he came to a stop right in front of my little coffee truck. I’d had this business for years now, and I still felt a little surge of pride whenever I looked at my cute little truck. I’d painted the whole thing myself, including the sign, back when I got this truck at a sweet price. It had been a small dream and seemed easy enough to pull off when the city allowed me to rent the space at such a low price. There had once been a gas station here, but it burned down. The city cleaned up the lot, and when I went to ask about parking my truck