“Do you have a triple-layer chocolate fudge cake?”
She laughed and poured four cups of lemonade. “No. I have apple crisp for dessert, though. And yes, I’m sharing it with Dill and Matt.”
“And me?”
“Yes, and you. I might even give some to Nick.”
That brought his scowl back full force. Not that it bothered her any. “He’s going home for supper.”
“So I’ll wrap some up some for him to take home. And his mom, too.”
“By all means, let’s punish the little vandal with baked goods.”
Time to do a little fishing. “I hear you were hell-bent on getting cash until you realized he’s Lauren’s son. Then you decided he could work off the debt.”
He paused with a cup halfway to his mouth. “Who told you that?”
“Paige. I assume she heard it from Mitch, who heard it from Drew, but you never know in this town.” He shook his head and then took a long drink of lemonade, probably so he wouldn’t have to talk. “I always thought Lauren would have been better off with you than with Dean back in high school.”
When his jaw tightened and his expression got that smoothed-over, fake look, she knew she’d dangled the right bait. She also knew when to give the line some slack. “You tell Andy, Dill and Matt to come drink this lemonade before it attracts bugs.”
She walked back into the lodge, shifting the puzzle pieces of Ryan and Lauren around in her head. She didn’t have enough fragments to make out the whole picture yet, but she would.
In the meantime, she had some math problems to check.
*
Ryan had just set Nick to work painting the shutters he’d taken off the back of the lodge when he heard a vehicle pulling up the drive. For a few seconds, he thought it was Lauren and his whole body tensed at the thought of seeing her again so soon. But it was too early for it to be her, so he forced himself to relax and walked around the front of the house.
It was even worse. Standing in front of a very used minivan was Dean Carpenter. His old friend had aged well—though not as well as Ryan, if he did say so himself—but his face showed he worried too much, and his gut gave away the beer intake.
Dean didn’t smile when he saw Ryan coming, but he didn’t really expect him to. They hadn’t been friends in a long time.
“Lauren called me. Said my son vandalized your place.”
“Small, stupid shit, but it added up.”
“I’ve come to pay. I can give you half the money now and half in a couple of weeks.”
Ryan shrugged. “His mother, the police chief and I decided he’d work off the debt. That way he’ll be less inclined to do it again.”
“I’m his father.” There was a hard edge to Dean’s voice that made Ryan wonder if he’d have to duck a punch before the conversation was over. “I think it’s best I pay you and then he can work off the debt he owes me.”
“I have the work, though. He’s painting shutters right now.”
“I don’t want to owe you.”
That was the bottom line and Ryan didn’t see any way around hashing it all out. “Look, I know you don’t like me, but—”
“I don’t give two shits about you one way or the other, Kowalski.”
“You didn’t give two shits about her, either. That’s why I asked her to go with me. But she said no and that was the end of it.”
When Dean got very still, his head slightly cocked to the side, Ryan realized he’d made a very big mistake. Lauren hadn’t told him.
“What are you talking about?”
“Forget it.” He just wanted to Dean to leave. “I’m not accepting payment. The kid’s going to sweat off his debt to me or we can get Drew Miller back out here.”
“Don’t threaten me, asshole. What do you mean you asked Lauren to go with you? When?”
“Right after I graduated from college. Nick was a baby. I was heading to Mass to start my new job, and I stopped at your house while you were at work and asked her to take him and come with me.”
“You tried to steal my wife? And my kid?” Ryan could see the anger hadn’t even begun to set in yet. Dean was stunned, and a lot of years of guilt welled up in Ryan’s gut. “That’s why you never came back. It wasn’t because you forgot about me. It’s because you couldn’t face me.”
Actually, it was because he couldn’t stand seeing Lauren struggling to raise a baby while her husband partied with the guys and drank half his income. “You treated her like crap.”
“I wasn’t a good husband to Lauren. I was young and I was stupid.” Dean paused, shaking his head. “But she still wanted me more than she wanted you.”
“Yeah, she chose you. End of story.”
Red crept over Dean’s face. “But it’s not the end of the story, is it? Because here you are, making my son work for you. Getting Lauren over here.”
“Your son is working for me because he was destroying my property and it seemed like a better option than pressing charges.”