Love On Anchor Island: An Anchor Island Novel

expected to hear. “How’s that? Do you have a medical degree I don’t know about?”
Her soft laugh took Alex by surprise. She hadn’t smiled let alone laughed the few times they’d met.
“No degrees for me. I dropped out freshman year, which my mother still holds against me. Along with my lack of direction, my poor taste in men, and my failure to provide her with intelligent and doting grandchildren.” Roxie crossed her arms and glanced out the passenger window. “I could solve world peace, cure cancer, and invent calorie-free chocolate, but I’d still be a loser to my family.”
A harsh assessment, and though she’d shot for a light tone, there was hurt in her words.
“I don’t think you’re a loser,” he said.
“Then you’re the only one.”
His own ills forgotten, Alex focused on the woman beside him. “Beth doesn’t think you’re a loser.”
With a tilt of her head, she said, “No, she doesn’t. She never has. Though I have no idea what she sees in me.”
“Roxie, not everyone would come down here to help a bunch of strangers put their island back together. I’ve heard about what you’ve done the last couple of weeks. The locals really appreciate you being here.”
She turned his way. “The locals are talking about me?”
Alex was happy to pass on the positive reviews. “Floyd at the Trading Post said you did a great job painting his bathroom. And Eddie at Hava Java raved about how well you put his storage room back together.”
“He did offer me free coffee for as long as I’m on the island.”
“There you go. His wife Robin at the pottery shop raved about the shelves you built.”
“Helped build,” Roxie corrected. “I just swung a hammer and did what Joe told me to do.”
He recognized a pattern here. “You aren’t good at taking compliments, are you?”
She shrugged. “I can take a compliment. I just don’t take credit that I don’t deserve.”
To test the theory he said, “What if I said you’re beautiful?”
That earned him a cynical expression. “I’d say thank you. And then I’d say you’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“I’m not hitting on you,” Alex assured her. “I’m stating a fact.” He made the right into his drive and put the car in park. “My words don’t mean much, but I say your family is wrong. You may have made some mistakes along the way, but these islanders don’t take to strangers very often. You’re generous, you’re good with Beth’s girls, and you’ve been civil to me for a full eight minutes.” When she rewarded him with a smile, he added, “That doesn’t sound like a loser to me.”
Without addressing his comments, Roxie climbed from the car, and then leaned back in to say, “Thanks for the ride, Doc. And the pep talk. If it’s any consolation, your father sounds like a jerk. I think you’re right where you’re supposed to be.”
Alex leaned his arm on the passenger seat. “Maybe we both are.”
The air shifted, and for a moment, he thought she might climb back into the car. Until she stepped back and closed the door. Before she could cross the yard, he rolled down his window.
“Hey, Chandler,” Alex called. She stopped and turned his way. “Friends?”
Staring at the ground, she considered his offer. A second later she looked back up with the grin he was starting to enjoy. “I’m still going to talk shit about your car.”
Happy with the response, he said, “I can live with that.”
Rolling her eyes, she turned away and strolled through the damp grass to the Dempsey home. Alex couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She put on a tough front, but there was a vulnerable woman under all that black leather. A woman he wouldn’t mind getting to know.

Chapter Six
“Roxie,” came Beth’s voice up the stairs. “Can you come down here?”
In the two and a half hours since Alex had brought her home, she’d finished three much-needed loads of laundry and refreshed the black paint on her nails that had been chipped away by her recent manual labor. The last twenty minutes had been spent scrolling through Facebook on her phone, since that’s all it was good for down here. It wasn’t as if she could make calls on it, which was good and bad. At least her mother couldn’t call to bitch about what a disgrace she was.
“What’s up?” Roxie asked when she found her cousin in the kitchen.
“Aunt Ginny left a message on the home phone today. She wants my address so she can send the rest of your things.” Hand on her hip, she added, “Why does she think you’re never going back?”
It was cute that she thought this was Roxie’s choice.
“Probably because she told me not to.” Retrieving a diet soda from the fridge, Roxie took a seat on a barstool and prepared to face the music.
“Why?” Beth asked.
Time to fess up. “I moved back home seven months ago because the girl I was living with in Richmond blew our rent money on oxy without telling me. She also didn’t bother telling me about the eviction notice. I came home from work to find the furniture gone and my clothes in garbage bags in the stairwell.”
“That’s awful,” she said, her eyes wide.
Roxie hadn’t even gotten to the awful part. “Yeah, especially because half of the furniture was mine. I was out of money, and since selling my car was not an option, I chose going home over being homeless.” Maybe not the best choice, knowing what she knew now.
Familiar with Roxie’s history, Beth said, “And then what happened?”
“I met a guy.”
“That sounds innocent enough.”
If only. “A married guy.”
Beth’s face fell. “Oh, Roxie.”
“I didn’t know he was married until a week before I came down here. He said he was divorced, but his ex was crazy jealous so we needed to keep things quiet. For my protection, of course.” She still couldn’t believe she fell for that.
A pan boiled over, and Beth quickly removed it from the burner and turned off