Crashing Together (Silver Bay Book 2) Read online

  Kat’s gut clenched, and her heart pounded. Shame washed through her, flooding her eyes with tears. God, she wanted her old life back. She wanted to feel strong again even if it had only been a false sense of strength. Ignorance truly was bliss. One mistake had taught her the truth. She was weak. And even if she hid her cowardice from everyone else, that truth would always haunt her.

  Pushing back the hurt, she tipped her chin up and stepped into the kitchen doorway before she had to hear any more about the loser she’d become. “No worries,” she said in a neutral voice. “I’m happy to find somewhere else to live.”

  Her parents flinched and turned to look at her.

  “Kat, honey. We didn’t know you were there.” Her mom took a step forward, her face tight with concern.

  Kat extended her hand to stop her. “It’s fine. Dad’s right. I am too old to live at home. Probably best if I look for somewhere else to stay tonight.”

  She turned and stumbled out of the house, desperate to leave before they saw the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. She’d meant what she’d said—she was too old to live with her parents.

  Problem was, she was too damn afraid to live alone.

  •••

  Crouched next to Kat’s car, Logan inspected the dilapidated spare tire. The minute he’d seen that piece of shit spare, he’d known it didn’t have much life left. That’s one of the reasons he’d insisted on following her home. Looked like she’d made it to her parents’ house just in time. He could almost see the last of the air leak from the tire as the car slowly sank closer to the ground. He grimaced. Two flat tires in one day was pretty damn unlucky.

  Still at tire level, he heard rather than saw the side door of the house open and slam shut. Both the soft, hurried footsteps heading his way and his own instincts told him it was Kat. His senses always heightened and heated when she was near.

  Since the day he’d met her, he’d been drawn to her. A tiny little thing, Kat looked to be more than a foot shorter and a hundred pounds lighter than him. Her small size and expressive blue-gray eyes had always triggered in him the desire to take care of her, but he’d gotten his hand slapped—figuratively and literally—on more than one occasion for trying to help her when she didn’t want or need it.

  She reminded him of a roaring fire—beautiful, strong, hypnotic. And like a fire, he knew she’d burn him if he ever got too close. So he teased but never touched.

  Besides, Pax would kick his arse—or at least try to—if Logan became involved with his little sister. Not that he blamed Pax. Logan didn’t do long-term, and they both knew it.

  When he heard her footsteps reach the back corner of the car, he slowly straightened to his full height.

  The moment she saw him, she screamed and leapt back.

  “What the hell, Logan!” She wrapped trembling arms tightly around her slender body and glared at him. “You scared me.”

  Her skin’s usual golden tone had drained to white, her wide-set eyes bright with fear and anger.

  “Sorry, darl. I didn’t mean to scare you. Just checking your tire. Looks like your spare wasn’t up to the job. You’ve got another flat.”

  “No frickin’ way?” Kat stepped closer to look at the spare, irritation replacing the fear in her eyes.

  “Rough day.”

  “You don’t even know,” she mumbled and shook her head.

  “Let’s drop off your full-size tire at the shop in town and grab dinner while they patch it. You can fill me in on small-town America living since I’m going to be here for the summer.” He motioned to her car. “After dinner, we can swing back here and get you up and running for good.”

  She blew out a long breath of defeat. “Yeah. Okay.”

  “Careful. Your lack of enthusiasm could really hurt my ego.”

  She snorted. “Big guy, a sledgehammer couldn’t dent your ego.”

  Chapter 2

  KAT grabbed her purse from the mudroom—yes, she’d made her grand escape without thinking about a wallet or keys—and opened the trunk. Before she could stop him, Logan lifted her original flat tire out of the back and carried it in one hand to his own trunk. He was so damn big it looked like he was toting a life ring rather than a full-size tire. Next to him, she probably looked like a puny, pint-sized princess who couldn’t take care of herself.

  She huffed her way to the passenger side of his car and slid into the seat. “I could have carried the tire, you know.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Then why’d you do it?”

  Logan shrugged as he began driving the short distance to Silver Bay’s small commercial area. “It feels good to help people.”

  “Whatever, Superman.” Kat was totally unwilling to bond with him over anything, even though she’d thought that exact thing when she was mowing a lawn in the blazing sun just a few hours ago.

  Not long after returning from Costa Rica, she had unintentionally become the Jill-of-all-trades for a group of older widows in the area. It had started the day she ran into her childhood piano teacher, Ruth Dobolek, at the Silver Bay Market. Mrs. Dobolek had lost her husband to cancer and now had a small home near the center of town to take care of by herself. Kat had ended up carrying Mrs. Dobolek’s groceries home for her that afternoon and every Wednesday afternoon since.

  After that, Kat had helped Mrs. D and two of her friends, Lillian and Margaret, with tasks that were easy for the young but potentially dangerous for the elderly. She’d hung bird feeders, mowed lawns, brought items down from the attic, taken other items up to the attic, hung window treatments, carried large bags of cat food into the house, and any other chore they could find for her.

  Somehow within the last few months, one good deed had snowballed into a nearly full-time—albeit completely non-paying—job.

  “Turn here.” She pointed to a freestanding shop at the edge of town with a freshly paved parking lot, small reception area, and six large garage doors running down the side of the building.

  Danny’s Tires, Brakes, and More was owned by Danny Sullivan, her onetime classmate. Though he’d crushed on her through high school, she’d ignored all the signs of his affection. No sense in ruining a friendship over unreturned adolescent hormones.

  Kat climbed from the car and strode into the shop. Logan followed at a leisurely pace.

  “You could have stayed in the car,” she said dryly as they entered.

  “I need to get a feel for the community. Can’t meet any locals if I stay in the car.”

  “Fine. But I’ll do the talking.”

  She glanced around and spotted Danny behind the counter. He used to be a string bean in high school. Now he was tall and lean with kind brown eyes and a welcoming smile.

  “Hey, Kat.” He looked over her shoulder at Logan and then out the front window at Logan’s sports car. “Did you finally let your dad buy you a new ride?”

  “Nah, it’s his.” She jerked her thumb behind her. “Bruno’s got a flat. Any chance you can patch it?”

  “Sure. I can get to it tomorrow.”

  “Let me rephrase my question. Any chance you can drop everything and immediately patch a tire for the girl who got you a date to senior prom?”

  He raised an eyebrow, trying to look stern, but the smile tugging at his lips ruined the effect. “I wanted to go to prom with you.”

  She flashed him a grin. “Well, that was stupid. Mindy had a much bigger rack and was known for putting out. You should be grateful. Maybe even grateful enough to get my tire fixed within the hour, don’t you think?”

  “You’re a pain in the ass.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  He sighed. “You know it is.”

  “Great. Thanks, Danny. I’ll be back.”

  “Is that a promise or a threat?” he asked as she turned to leave the shop with Logan tailing close behind.

  “Bit of both,” she threw over her shoulder on her way out the door.

  As one of Danny’s employees unloaded her tire from Logan
’s trunk, Kat mentally checked “get tire fixed” off her to-do list. Progress was being made, but she needed to hurry things up if she was going to find a place to stay tonight before it got dark. After her dad’s summary of her pathetic state, she couldn’t bear to spend another night at her parents’ house.

  Besides, living with her parents for almost a year had taken a toll on her self-respect. She’d been raised on stories of how her father, Richard Bennett, had turned his father’s small family cabinet company into a national brand. The realization that she’d become the loser daughter living off her parents’ wealth really pissed her off. God, she didn’t want to be that person, but she didn’t know how to beat back the unrelenting fear clouding, controlling, and distorting her life.

  “Where to next?” Logan asked, falling in step beside her.

  “I need to swing by Hannah’s place before we grab a bite to eat. We can leave your car here. It’s only a few blocks to the town square.”

  Her sister Hannah owned a coffee shop called Fresh. It served delicious pastries and coffee for breakfast and sandwiches, salads, and soups for lunch. Hannah lived above the storefront in an adorable apartment. The apartment was small, but Kat knew Hannah would let her sleep there for a couple of nights while she searched for a longer-term place to live. Her other sister Claire had a bigger place, but she also had two kids.

  “Sure.” Logan nodded and began walking beside her down the block. “I like Hannah. I met her when I first got to town. She’s one of the nice sisters.”

  “Agreed.” She laughed and turned to look up at him. “But I’m the fun one.”

  Logan’s eyes darkened. “I like fun.”

  Her belly tightened, and her wayward nipples perked up in interest. She should know better than to flirt with the world’s biggest player. Bantering with guys had always been her thing, but this strong physical attraction to Logan threw her off her game and messed with her head.

  To cut the sudden and unwanted tension, she rolled her eyes so dramatically she almost lost her balance. “Cool your jets, big guy. Dessert is the most fun you’re getting out of me tonight. Come on. Less talk, more walk.”

  Ugh. Why Logan? Why did she get all hot and bothered about a guy who moved through women quick enough to make her head spin?

  She might be flirtatious, but she’d never been easy. Hell, she’d only ever slept with three guys. And all of them had been semi-serious boyfriends at the time. She didn’t do one-night stands.

  Even so, Logan’s tantalizing proximity intensified everything. Her heart raced, and her nerve endings tingled. Each breath filled her lungs with the scent of soap rising from his sun-warmed skin and conjured images of slick bodies and tangled sheets.

  Pushing that thought from her mind, she looked across Main Street to the darkened windows above her sister’s coffee shop.

  “Oh, frick,” she mumbled as her gut twisted into a knot. “I forgot. Hannah went to Chicago with Claire and the kids.”

  “When is she back?”

  “Not until tomorrow.” Kat remained frozen on the sidewalk, her pulse beating in her throat. It would be dark in less than two hours, and neither of her sisters were home to ask for refuge. “I need a place to stay, and I knew either Hannah or Claire would let me crash on their couch for a couple of nights.”

  “I thought you were living at your parents’ place?”

  Kat cringed, fidgeted with a ring on her finger, and avoided eye contact. “No longer an option. Long story.”

  “You can tell me about it over a beer.” He placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her across the square to the entrance of Bayside, the town’s best bar and grill.

  When he opened the door for her, she fought back the rising anxiety over her homelessness and took a deep breath. Turning left inside, she hustled through Bayside’s bar, marched through the crowded tables in the next room, and slid into the lone open booth along the window.

  When Logan settled into the seat across from her, she handed him a menu.

  “You in a hurry?” he asked, one eyebrow raised.

  “Sorry to rush you. But it’s getting late, and I have nowhere to sleep tonight. It’s summer. The hotel in town will be full.”

  “My place has two bedrooms. You can stay with me.” He shrugged and opened the menu. “Are the burgers good here?”

  Kat stared at him, mouth open, and tipped her head to the side. “You can’t possibly think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why not?” He grinned over the menu. “A burger sounds ace.”

  “Not the burger, big guy. I’m talking about me crashing at your place. Bad idea.”

  “Afraid you won’t be able to resist me?”

  “I can resist you.”

  “You sure? I can be very persuasive.”

  “Tell you what. If I feel myself start to weaken, I’ll just ask you to tell me the full name, eye color, and favorite food of the last three women you’ve slept with.” Kat leveled him with her I’ve-got-your-number stare. “Your inability to answer those questions should douse any lustful thoughts.”

  “I might surprise you.”

  “Fine.” She shrugged. “I bet you can’t even tell me the names of those two blond guests you paraded off to bed with at the resort.”

  His eyes widened in surprise. “Who?”

  Kat bit back an expletive. Then she took a deep breath, willed her blood pressure under control, and did a slow count to five. “I rest my case.”

  “Hate to ruin the playboy image you’ve created for me, but I’ve never slept with any of La Vida’s guests.”

  She snorted. “I saw you leading two of those women from Georgia to their villa like the frickin’ Pied Piper of one-night stands.” Kat crossed her arms and glared. “I’m not buying that look of confused innocence for a second.”

  Logan’s lips twitched and laughter danced in his bright blue eyes as he closed the menu and slowly slid it to the edge of the table. “South Carolina, not Georgia,” he said patiently, as if explaining basic geography to a child. “Jennifer and Jackie were from South Carolina. And I didn’t sleep with them. They’d had a few too many glasses of wine that night, and Jennifer kept talking about taking a dip in the ocean, which would have been a very bad idea in their condition. So I made sure they got to their villa safely, then hung around at the beach until I was sure they’d gone to bed. I would have explained it to you earlier if I’d known you were jealous.” He winked and offered her a wolfish smile.

  “Sorry to disappoint you, big guy. My reaction to your friendly three-way was disgust, not jealousy. Even if I choose to believe you didn’t sleep with those women, you’re still a player, and from what I can tell, you’re damn good at it. I, on the other hand, don’t have time for games. I need to deal with real-life problems.”

  “Then solve one of your problems by staying at my place tonight, until your sisters get back.”

  The worry churning her stomach eased at the thought of sleeping in a room next to Logan’s. Though he brought his own brand of trouble into her life, she felt safe with him.

  Even her attraction to him didn’t worry her much. She could resist Logan McCabe if it bought her time to find a longer-term solution to her housing dilemma.

  “Okay. I’ll stay tonight,” she said with a resigned sigh. “Just don’t read anything into this decision. I am not joining your long list of conquests tonight, so keep it in your pants. Capiche?”

  Logan’s grin widened, and his eyes brightened with restrained laughter. “Fair enough. I’ll make you a promise. I won’t take it out of my pants until you ask me to.”

  “Until?” Kat snorted. “You’re a cocky guy, Logan. And honestly, I kinda like that about you.” She shrugged and flipped open her menu. “But just to be clear, there’s no chance in hell that’s ever gonna happen.”

  •••

  After finishing their burgers and beers, they picked up her repaired tire from Danny’s, and then headed to her parents’ house to retrieve her car. For s
peed’s sake, Kat agreed to let him change the tire while she slipped into the house to pack an overnight bag.

  Okay, yes, earlier she’d forgotten that too. In her defense, though, she had expected to stay with Hannah or Claire, who would have gladly loaned her whatever she needed.

  Thankfully, she didn’t see her parents and assumed they were on their nightly post-dinner walk along the beach. On her way out the door, she stopped in the kitchen and left a note explaining that she’d found a place to stay and would be back for the rest of her things later in the week. She didn’t know where the frick she’d be taking those things, but, hey, she preferred to be upbeat.

  By the time she stepped out of the air-conditioned house into the humid evening air—a mere ten minutes later—Logan was already stowing the spare tire and tools back into Bruno’s trunk.

  “You’re already done?” Kat asked a little impressed.

  He turned toward her and winked. “I’m good with my hands.”

  She sighed, tipped her head to the side, and gave him a look of mock sadness. “You really can’t shut it off, can you?”

  “Nope,” he answered cheerfully. “Now, are you ready to spend the night at my place? We can go skinny-dipping to cool down from this heat wave. It’s really secluded, so no worries about privacy.”

  She blew out a breath. “Just drive. I’ll follow you in Bruno.”

  “Bruno?”

  “Yeah. My car, Bruno the Buick.”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Your car’s name is Bruno the Buick?”

  “Bruno for short.”

  Logan eyed her for a moment, then shrugged. “Good-oh.” He climbed into his car and shut the door.

  Kat slid behind Bruno’s wheel and tossed her overnight bag onto the passenger seat. She didn’t know what the hell “good-oh” meant but figured it was easier to just run with it than to ask for an explanation. Plus, there was only an hour or so of daylight left, and she preferred to get settled into his place before darkness arrived.