What the hell had just happened? Topher stood there, perplexed, as his architect ran from the porch and his grasp on the past took a monumental shift.
Holy crap. She hadn’t been pregnant? She hadn’t been sent away to one of those places for girls in trouble?
Then what the hell had happened?
He limped his way across the living room, heading in the direction she’d gone, embarrassment, confusion and…an overwhelming desire to make things right consuming him.
That desire surprised him. It was not merely altruistic. He was smart and realistic enough to know when a woman was starting to get under his skin.
He found Jessica in the kitchen, a big room with 1950s-style paint-splatter linoleum. The cabinets were solid cherry but in desperate need of refinishing, the appliances were definitely from the 1970s, and everything about it screamed antique.
But he loved it at first sight. He could almost imagine the members of her family gathering here to celebrate the Fourth of July on one of South Carolina’s hot, humid days.
She was down on the floor, her head poked under the sink, muttering. He might have caught a whispered “damn.”
“Can I help?” he asked.
She made a noise that conveyed a mountain of repressed fury.
“So it’s not going well?” he asked.
“I’m kind of ticked off right at the moment, so—”
“Kind of?”
She pulled her head out from under the sink and gave him an adorable glare. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, as my old Granddad used to say, you look madder than a mule chewing on bumblebees.”
Her mouth twitched. “PopPop used to say that. I used to think it was dumb.”
“Yeah, it is. But it’s kind of descriptive too.”
She nodded, her expression softening.
“Look, obviously I made a big mistake. I’m sorry. Can we talk about this?” He stepped to the edge of the counter and looked down at her.
“About what? The baby I never had or this stupid nut that won’t come off?”
“Well, maybe we could start with the nut and work from there.”
“Who are you? What happened to the rude, obnoxious guy who took me out to the island a few days ago?”
For some reason that made him smile. He really liked honest and independent Jessica.
He shrugged. “He’s feeling a little contrite at the moment. Let me help, okay?”
“You know,” she said in a voice laced with annoyance, “you aren’t the sort of guy I would associate with DIY projects. You’re more of the whip-out-your-cell-phone-and-call-the-plumber type.”
He tried not to smile. “You might be surprised at my DIY skills. A man contemplating a life on a deserted island doesn’t have the luxury of whipping out his cell phone and calling the plumber.”
She gave him a slightly less pissed-off stare. “I’m fine, really,” she said, breaking eye contact.
She wasn’t being honest now. And he liked her when she was speaking nothing but the truth. So maybe he should just call her on it.
“I know what you’re thinking…that if you let someone help you, it diminishes you in some way. But honestly, if you just need help getting a nut loose, I might be of assistance. I promise not to help in any other way.”
The corner of her mouth twitched, and that little tell made something ease inside him.
“Okay,” she said, one eyebrow arching. “You can help. It will be part of your penance.”
“Penance?” he asked.
“Yeah, for starting a bunch of rumors about me.”
“Whoa. Wait a sec. I may have repeated some gossip about you, but I never started any.”
“No? You didn’t tell anyone that you’d seen me in Colton’s car that time? I remember that summer when I worked at the yacht club. You cornered me one day and made a point of telling me that Colton was bad for me.”
“Because he was. It was only the truth.”
“No. You’ve got that exactly backward. I messed things up for him.”
“How?”
“All I ever wanted to do was to befriend him. Because, you know, he was a kid who needed a friend. And I was stupid enough to think that my kindness would help him.” Her voice shook.
“He was out of—”
“No,” she interrupted. “He got the book thrown at him because I crossed the color line. Everything else was made-up.”
That stopped him because it sounded exactly like the truth. The very ugly truth.
“Okay. I won’t argue with you about that. And I apologize for not seeing through the BS before this moment. But why did your family send you away?”
“They sent me to a boarding school, but it wasn’t someplace where girls have babies,