Single Dads Collection. Lynne Marshall
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him, he instantly saw she was upset. Tears streamed down her face as she rolled her window down.
“What happened?” he asked, resting his hands on the door so he could lean down.
She swiped at her damp cheeks. “It’s nothing. I just needed a minute.”
Noah leaned down farther, resting his arm on the door. “It’s obviously something, since it made you cry.”
Her bright eyes seemed to sparkle even more with unshed tears. “One of the ladies who comes to the meetings lost her dog.”
A rancher at heart, Noah was an animal lover, but for Lucy to get this upset over someone else’s animal was rather surprising.
“Sorry,” she said with a sniff as she waved her hand as if to blow off her emotions. “It’s just that Tammy bought this dog after her husband passed away last year because she wanted the company. But he got out of the house and was hit by a school bus. I just hung up with her and she’s so upset.”
As much as he felt terrible for this stranger, there was a stirring deep within him for the amount of sympathy Lucy had for the people in her group. Lucy cared with her whole heart. He heard it each time she came over the radio to him, he saw it in the way she was with his daughter, and now how she grieved for a widowed lady’s dog.
“You going to be okay to drive home?” he asked.
Lucy nodded. “I’ll be fine. I’m going to swing by her place to check on her. I don’t want her to be alone right now.”
Of course she wasn’t going home. She’d only worked all night and had been pulling double shifts, not to mention whatever hours she logged into her schoolwork.
“It’s not safe for you to be on the roads when you’re this tired.”
Defying him, she started her car. “I’m fine, Noah. I’ll take ten minutes to check on Tammy and then I’ll go home.”
Noah didn’t bother backing away or even attempting to move. She glared in his direction and raised one brow as if to dare him to say another word. Whatever she did on her time off wasn’t his concern, but at the same time, they were friends. Right?
“As your friend, I’m going to give you some advice.”
Lucy gripped the steering wheel and stared at her hands. “A friend?” she asked, glancing back to him. “Fine. If that’s how you want to play this out.”
She was going to be difficult. She couldn’t just let this ride out, but he wasn’t taking her bait.
“Go home and rest,” he advised. “When you wake up, take her some of those amazing scones or something else you bake and then you’ll have time to visit and not feel rushed.”
Lucy pursed her lips and he was shocked she seemed to be thinking about his suggestion instead of instantly arguing.
“Fine.”
Noah stood straight up. “What?”
“Oh, don’t look so surprised that I agreed,” she scolded. “Your idea makes more sense. I just… I want to fix it now for her. I hate knowing people I care about are hurting. It hurts me. My heart literally aches for her.”
Noah swallowed, hating the lump that formed in his own throat. An image of Lucy going through her own grief didn’t sit well with him. Who did she have? Oh, she had her friends, but what family? Because he’d never heard her discuss any. Not that they’d talked a lot, but still. In general conversation most people brought up parents or siblings. She’d only talked about her friends who helped her with the support group.
He didn’t like that she gave everything to everyone and went home to a lonely house. But, again, that wasn’t his business. Damn it, though, he wanted to do something. What would he do? Ask her to come over again? That wasn’t smart. Having Lucy in his house was just adding another layer to this already complicated situation. His life didn’t need anything else that was new and out of his comfort zone.
But Lucy didn’t exactly make him uncomfortable. She made him achy, needy, wanting.
“Why don’t you come over?” he asked before he could stop himself. Shoving his hands in his jacket pocket, he shrugged. “Emma would like to see you again.”
Lame, Spencer. Totally lame.
“Would she?” Lucy asked, her mouth tipping up into a soft smile. “Well, I’d like to see her again.”
Nodding, Noah stepped back, realizing he’d already opted to dive headfirst into this. When she continued to smile at him, he felt a stirring somewhere deep in his chest. Someplace that had been dead so long, he’d almost forgotten it existed.
“Then I’ll see you later,” he told her as he crossed the lot to his truck. By the time he got in and started his engine, Lucy sat in her car smiling over at him.
Whatever he’d gotten himself into was nobody’s fault but his at this point. So, here he was about to have a woman to his house. A woman he’d invited under the pretense of seeing his daughter. But he was a fool and Lucy had seen right through him.
If he was going to continue on this unknown journey, he was going to have to become a stronger man, at least where Lucy was concerned, because she was quickly wearing him down.
“Thanks, Captain.”
Captain Cameron St. John nodded. “No need to thank me, Lucy. I’m sorry about your car.”
She didn’t even want to look around the captain at the sight of her car being pulled away by the wrecker. She’d just left the station and had been heading home, as she’d promised, but someone had run a red light and T-boned her car. Her car she had just paid off.
Her hands still shook and she wasn’t sure she was ready to get out of the captain’s patrol car yet, either. She’d never been in an accident, and she was quite certain she never wanted to be in another.
“It’s a little different being on this side of the job,” she stated, trying to get her heartbeat back to normal.
“I just wish we knew who hit you,” Cameron muttered. “I’ve got some patrolmen driving around looking. Whoever it was has some massive damage to their car, so they should be easy to spot.”
Lucy blew out a sigh. “I’m sorry. It all happened so fast and all I saw was a dark color fleeing the scene.”
Cameron patted her shoulder. “It’s all right. We take care of our own.”
She loved that about her job. They were like family. Still, she wished her car weren’t smashed because she had no backup. Lucy rubbed her forehead, trying to ward off a headache.
“You sure you don’t want the EMTs to check you out?” he asked.
Lucy shook her head. “No. I’ll be fine. I could use a lift home, though.”
“No problem.”
Cameron drove her home, which wasn’t far considering she was only a few miles away when she was hit. During the ride she asked about his family and if they were all bringing their kids to the fall festival. Cameron had two brothers and they were all influential people in the town.
“If you need to call out tomorrow, don’t think anything about it.”
He pulled into her drive and Lucy grabbed her purse. “Thanks, but I’m sure I’ll be all right. Besides, Carla is still out.”
“I think she’ll be back tomorrow,” he told her.
Tugging on her handle, she smiled. “Well, I can still come to work. I wasn’t injured, just shaken up and a little sore on my left side where I hit the door.”
Cameron