Excerpt!
Forty-five minutes. Fiona Han discreetly turned off the alarm on her smart watch. It wasn’t that she was having a bad time, these were nice people. But they were people who knew far too much about her, and she was ready for this day to be over. With a small smile, she said, “I called an uber. Hilary, thanks for inviting me. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“I’ll drive you home.”
Fiona blinked and stared at Tomas Alvarado. “Umm… Thanks, but I’m fine.” She waved her phone at him and put it into her purse.
He stood and looked down at her. “I’ll drive you home.”
Eep!
She did not want to make a scene. He didn’t give off the axe-murderer vibe, and her friends were grinning at her like he was perfectly safe, but the man unnerved her.
Marcia Ortiz, a woman in her mid-fifties, and best friend to Fiona’s mother in law Iris, touched her hand. “You’ll be fine,” she murmured.
Fiona rose, tucked her purse under her arm and followed Tomas to the stairs leading from Hilary’s deck to the driveway. She glanced back at Marcia, who winked at her.
Eep!
Descending the stairs, she was aware of the man behind her. It seemed that for the past two weeks, Tomas had been at her back, without saying a word. Reaching the driveway, she faced three white pick-up trucks bearing the logo for Keeney Building Supplies, the company Iris owned. With a hand to her elbow, Tomas guided her to the one in the middle, distinguishable from the others by the rosary hanging from the rearview mirror, and opened the passenger door. Fiona eyed the distance up to the seat of the truck, then down at her pencil skirt and heels. Then she was up. Tomas placed her gently on the seat and reached around to buckle the seat belt.
“I’m not a child!” She glared up at him.
He met her eyes fully for the very first time. “I know you’re not.” He closed the door and walked around the hood of the truck.
Walk was the wrong word. Tomas prowled like a predator. Did that make her his prey?
He climbed behind the wheel, his presence taking up all the air in the truck. Fiona wanted to open the window, to breathe, perhaps to crawl out.
Placing a large hand on the back of her seat, he ignored her as he turned to back out of the driveway. She could smell him. If she turned her head, ever so slightly, she could brush up against his hand and rub his scent all over her. Where had that thought come from? Fiona shook her head and stared forward.
“I live on Dunlop Street,” she told him.
“I know.” Tomas met her eyes in the rearview mirror. “I changed the locks on your doors last week.”
“Right,” she said in a small voice. To keep the douche canoe of her soon to be ex-husband out. Her eyes got big. “I haven’t paid you yet! I’m so sorry, I forgot all about it. I can write you a cheque when we get to the house. It’s just –”
“It’s taken care of.”
“Oh.” Tomas worked for her mother-in-law. Iris must have had him do it. “Thank you.”
He drove in silence.
Not knowing how to converse with someone who clearly didn’t like to talk, she leaned her head back, and closed her eyes.
She awoke to see Tomas scouring the word ‘cunt’ off her garage door.
Fiona threw herself from the truck, stumbling as she hit the ground. She righted herself and flew around the hood of the truck. Tomas whirled and grimaced.
“Ohmygod. Ohmygod. Ohmygod,” she chanted, pacing back and forth in front of the garage. Scrawled in dripping red paint, each capital letter was at least two feet high.
Eddie.
He’d chosen a public and humiliating way to get back at her.
He made good on his promise to call. She refused to answer.
Facing an embarrassing divorce and fighting against her controlling mother, Fiona doesn’t have time for the broody ex-con, despite toe-curling kisses that still star in her dreams.
Surprise doesn’t begin to describe her reaction when he appears in her company’s boardroom months later. And ignores her.
Tomas tells himself he’s no longer interested in the tightly wound executive. But he can’t stop wondering if she’s all right. Can’t stop wanting to pick up the pieces. Can’t stop thinking about how perfect she felt in his arms.
Defying her mother, Fiona gives Tomas a chance, and they connect over their shared dream of building affordable housing. The community rallies around them, but not everyone is on board, and roadblocks are thrown up to challenge their plan and their relationship.
Can they build something solid despite threats to their foundation? Is permanent even possible when family differences turn ugly?
Author bio:
Lynne Hancock Pearson writes fun, flirty, feel-good fiction that simmers at low heat. Set in the Pacific Northwest, they are stories of people finding their way, even if it takes a while to get there.
She lives near Seattle with two and a half finicky felines and one long-suffering husband. She is a left-handed middle child who grew up in the Great White North and is a proud member of the Métis Nation of Canada.
