“What is that all about? I wasn’t about to ask Ainsley, and I really don’t know how to deal with it.”

He shrugged in much the same way Ainsley had. “Word is he and Melissa have been talking divorce, but just haven’t gotten around to it.”

“Listen to you. You’re like one of those women who used to do crosswords at the Kafe every Sunday.”

He flashed her a grin, ignoring her comment and continuing about Owen and Melissa. “They fight less now that Owen has Aimee, believe it or not. The whole town is thankful for that. I guess Melissa’s loaded? Maybe they’re still working it all out; I don’t know. Melissa’s with some guy over in Westbury.”

“Wow.”

Jen dropped the subject there. She’d never told Leith about her mom’s issues with Frank. Actually, she’d never told Leith anything about her terrible life back in Iowa. There’d been too much shame back then, and whenever she’d come to Gleann she’d wanted to forget. Here, she could be someone else.

“So.” He rubbed his thighs with the heels of his hands. “You, uh, want some company at the fairgrounds? I’ll give you a tour.”

Leith threw his long legs over the front seats and fell into the back. They were both laughing so hard, Jen could barely see through her tears. “Why don’t you come on back here?” he said, running a hand in a circle over the Cadillac’s white leather seats. “I’ll give you a tour.”

Jen blinked, the memory overlapping with reality. But Leith was just looking at her as though he didn’t recognize his old words, what they’d started that night. Chances were, he didn’t.

Workwise, she didn’t need him or his “tour.” She knew the way, and the fairgrounds lay just on the other side of the trees lining the backyards of the Maple houses. Personally, she . . . well, she didn’t know exactly what she wanted from him, just that now that she’d seen him again, she didn’t want to walk away yet.

“Sure,” she replied, and tried not to read into the way his chin lifted or the way his massive chest expanded. “Let me go up and grab those shoes.”

He nodded. Though she didn’t turn around, she could feel him watching her, even through the brick walls of the house as she climbed the stairs and threw on the ballet flats that were now just slightly damp. When she came back down, Leith was still leaning against the truck, arms across his chest.

He gestured to her purse. “You carry that suitcase everywhere?”

“It’s got my laptop in it. So, yes.”

He grunted. “Mind if I go back to my place so I can take a shower first?”

His place? This was moving too fast again, but she wasn’t about to let her minor panic show. “Not at all.”

He went around to the driver’s side door and nudged his chin toward the passenger seat. “Get in.”

“I can’t believe your dad is letting you drive his car when you just got your license last week.”

“He’s not.” Leith waggled his eyebrows. “Get in.”

So she did. Both back then—before he’d been grounded for a week for taking out the Cadillac without his dad’s permission—and today.

She clicked on the seatbelt, settled in. He threw the huge truck in reverse, backed out of her driveway with more speed than necessary, swerved the vehicle around, made a huge arc, and aimed it . . . right into the driveway of 740 Maple.

The truck stopped with a screech. He put it into park and whipped out the key. She sat there, mouth agape, looking first out the window at the tiny brick house with the metal window awnings, and then back at Leith.

With one arm crossed behind her seat back, he gave her the slowest, sexiest grin she’d ever seen. “Hey, neighbor.”

Chapter

4