Fading blooms smooshed against my windshield as my car stalled. “Oh God, no.”
Agitated tears hovered at my eyelids as I slapped at the steering wheel, letting the emotions of the day finally overtake me. Maverick Wright had left me on edge since the minute he’d walked into my shop, and I should have known better than to take him on as a client—he’d gotten into a fist fight with my father, for god sakes.
Since the moment that big brute of a man entered my life, I’d had nothing but problems. I sighed, glancing out of my driver side window to the darkening cliff and bay beyond. It turned out I was the moronic one—my fantasy of Lovers Ridge shattered one sunflower petal at a time.
I sucked in some deep breaths, forcing myself to remember all the good times my dad and I had had up here after Mom left. The divorce had rocked both of our worlds, but I was so young, not even in middle school, when she’d decided life in small-town Cherry Falls wasn’t for her. One day she was baking cookies, the next she was sending me birthday cards once a year from Syn City. And after a while, even those stopped.
I didn’t have a lot of happy family memories of my parents together, but I had a lot of me and my dad up here. On the ridge. And now I was trying damn hard to not let Maverick Wright ruin every one of them.
Fat raindrops opened up on my car then, a downpour starting just as quickly as the mist had. The climate coming off the mountain was treacherous on the best of days, why I’d been stupid enough to come up here just to prove a point was enough to have me kicking myself the rest of the way down the mountain. I twisted the key then, praying the engine would fire back to life.
It didn’t.
“Oh, no,” I cried, forehead on the steering wheel. I thought there was at least one blanket in the back—Dad had taught me to keep my emergency stash stocked in the car at least. Maybe sitting up here among the sunflowers overlooking the bay until morning wouldn’t be so bad. I hadn’t seen sunrise on the ridge since the last time Dad and I had come up here. I was thirteen and by the time we were headed back to civilization that weekend, I knew it would be our last summer.
I couldn't put my finger on it, but there’d been a shift between us. One where I was more concerned about friends than fishing, high school crushes overruled even the best smores.
Maybe I was a little glad to have an excuse to come up Lovers Ridge now, grumpy-pants client or not. Streaks of rain tracked down the windshield, a streak of lightning lit the bay to silver, splashes of black evergreens silhouetted against the damp night air. If I squinted I could almost see the native woman, long flowing dress and dark hair, hovering at the edge. I wondered what kind of thoughts might run through her head before she dove off of the cliff.
Dad used to warn me off the teenagers that partied up here when I was in high school. He said some of them claimed that the native woman had lived, only swan dived into the water and went on to swim another day. I think he was secretly afraid I’d lose my mind and try it myself someday. He’d spent most of his time worrying about me through my childhood, and he still did now.
I thought about calling him, or at least the tow service to get me out of here, but for the moment, it felt good to let life take the wheel and just sit back and enjoy the sunflowers for a minute.
“Well, well, well, look what the storm dragged in.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Maverick
“Need my help, little one?” I yanked her door wide, hauling her into my arms without allowing her a minute to reply first. “Told you the ridge is dangerous, you’re lucky the sunflowers stopped you.”
“Lucky alright,” she sniffed, wiping the rain from her face as I walked her back to my truck. I slid her into the cab, tossing my heavy flannel at her. She wrapped herself in it gratefully. “I'm not sure what happened.”
“Probably flooded yourself out on the puddle going into that last turn, must’ve been going pretty fast to land clear over the ditch.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Sure,” I laughed. “Got what you deserved for coming back here so late when a storm was rolling in.”
“You know—”
“Doesn't matter.” I crawled up into the cab and angled my truck back up the steep corner turn. “That drain ditch will be out through the weekend at least. Shored it up with a French drain just this spring. How fast were you going?”
She puffed out her lips and then rolled her eyes.
A grin cracked my face. “Pretty when you pout, Petal.”
Her dark eyes widened to hubcaps. I tore my gaze away, heart thumping in my chest as I focused on the torrents of rain that washed the windshield.
“So I’m stuck here then?” she finally said.
I pulled the truck to a stop near the doorstep of my cabin. “Seems so.”
I exited the truck, trying not to think of her when all I could do was think of her. I didn’t like the way she made my chest ache whenever she smiled. I pushed a hand over my face, coming around the nose of my truck and avoiding her gaze as I opened the passenger door for her.
“You like venison stew?”
She didn't reply, forcing me to meet her eyes. She looked...offended.
“I’m not really a red meat kind of girl.”
“What kind of girl are you, exactly?” I tipped my head, gritting my teeth as I mentally counted the four stacks of venison piled in my freezer.
“I like
