“Have you always been this . . . annoying?”
Ellis genuinely looked surprised. “Whoa . . . can’t remember the last time a woman called me that.”
“It probably happens a lot more than you think. Anyway, I wasn’t asleep. I’m frustrated because my car won’t start. I have an important paper I need to turn in at class tonight.” She thought to herself, and my entire life is one big disaster. Tears started to sting her eyes.
Ellis was always a sucker for tears. He guessed he could only be grateful that Haven hadn’t wrangled a new car out of his grandmother. “Pop the hood. Let me see if I can tell what’s going on under there.”
“You?” She half laughed through her tears. “You want to look underneath the hood of my car?” She rolled her eyes. “I should probably call AAA or somebody who knows what they are doing.” There was no way Ellis McKenna, rich boy and heir to the McKenna fortune, knew anything about cars.
He was offended. “Pop the damn hood.” His tone left no room for argument as he walked to the front of it.
Haven pulled a lever underneath the console, and it opened. Humoring him was wasting time she didn’t have. After a few minutes, Ellis came back around to the driver’s side window. “It looks like your alternator is gone.”
“Are you sure? How do you know?”
“I know my way around a car or two. My grandfather and I used to work on classics all the time.”
“Damn it! I’ve got to make it to class. I’ve worked too hard this semester to mess it up by missing this assignment.”
“Can’t you just call the professor and tell him you’re having car trouble?”
Haven bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling. “No. He has stressed all semester that he wasn’t going to accept any late assignments especially this one—short of death or hospitalization.”
Ellis didn’t want to be bothered with Haven, but his grandmother would never let him hear the end of it if he didn’t help her. “Get out. I’ll take you.”
“What? No. I’ll figure something out.” Haven didn’t want to be confined to such a small space with that man. She couldn’t be responsible for what she might say, and as of this moment, she at least had a job. That could all change if he gave her a ride to school. “I’ll get a Lyft or something.”
“It’ll take them at least thirty minutes to get here. You’ve got that kind of time?”
Her non-answer was answer enough.
“Exactly. So, what choice do you have? I’m not looking forward to it either, but this might be a good time to finish our chat from this morning.”
That’s what Haven was afraid of. Still, he was right. She didn’t have a lot of time. “It’s almost an hour’s drive from here, and the class is two hours long.”
“Great, three hours of my time.” His sarcasm wasn’t lost on her. “I’ve never known a woman yet who brought nothing but problems. Grab your stuff and let me go get the car.”
Chapter 5
The drive to the University was made mostly in silence except for the few times Haven attempted to call Dylan—each time getting his voicemail.
“I don’t know who you’re calling, but he’s obviously kind of busy.”
Unable to hide her frustration, Haven responded, “Can you please just drive?”
“I would think you could at least pretend to be grateful considering I’m the one saving your ass from pissing away an entire semester.”
He was right. It killed her to say it, but she managed to grind out the words. “Thank you.”
“That’s better.”
Haven wondered what she’d done wrong in life to deserve this string of bad luck, Ellis McKenna included.
They drove along the highway for another few moments lost in their own thoughts before he broke the silence again. “How did you meet my grandmother?”
If they were going to talk, Haven thought this was the safest topic. “We met at the hospital.”
Ellis took his eyes off the road, and a slight crease appeared on his forehead as he stared. “Hospital?”
She nodded. “Yes. Last year when she had her heart attack.”
His eyes lingered on hers longer than necessary before he dragged them away. His jaws clenched, and she noticed his knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel.
Dawning finally hit her. “You didn’t know? That’s why you didn’t come visit her over the past year.” It was said as a statement of fact and not a question.
“Apparently, my grandmother is better at hiding things than I thought.” Barely able to contain his anger, Ellis answered, “Despite what you may think, I love my grandmother. There’s no way in hell had I known she’d been hospitalized that I wouldn’t have been by her side.”
Part of Haven felt as if she’d just betrayed Ms. McKenna. If she didn’t tell him, then she obviously had her reasons. Haven could put her own issues with Ellis to the side. She felt awful. “I’m sorry. I’m sure she didn’t say anything because she didn’t want you to worry.” There was another part of Haven that was somewhat relieved he wasn’t as big a jerk as she’d originally thought. He was still a jerk . . . just not as big.
“You worked there?”
“No. She and I met at the chapel. We were both feeling a little . . .” Haven didn’t finish her thought. “She and I seemed to find common ground there and bonded immediately.”
Ellis heard what he thought was loneliness in her voice. “Was my grandmother lonely?”
Haven couldn’t maintain his gaze and looked straight ahead. “I think a little.”
“Of
