Wounded Hearts

Chapter Three

Nearly three weeks came and went quickly. Laura found herself settling into her American history teaching job at the high school. Teenagers were annoying but the pay was decent and the job kept her busy and being busy was what she needed right now.

She had not heard from Mason since he had waved at her and drove away. She still did not understand how he could have just taken over two years of history and flushed it down the toilet as efficiently as he had. She sincerely hoped she never saw him again because if she did she would probably end up on death row, wearing an orange jump suit and begging her lawyers for an appeal.

Laura had not seen Ronan more then a couple of times since the day they had shared lemonade in the kitchen. She knew he had been at the house because everyday more and more work was done. The faucets and pipes in the bathrooms and kitchen had all been replaced, and while he hadn't replaced the windows he had replaced the frames around them and sealed the gaps so that you could no longer feel the breeze through them and they no longer rattled when you slammed the door.

She kept telling herself that she was not avoiding him and that work had just kept her too busy. She was gone before he got there and she stayed late at the school grading tests and doing lesson plans and he was usually gone by the time she got home. Ronan was entirely too good looking for her new motto of 'men suck' and to top it off he was married and had a kid. She did not even know his wife but she didn't like her. No woman should have a good man and be happy if she didn't. Okay so she knew that wasn't the most mature of thought processes but she didn't care. It was how she felt.

Today however she had to make sure she was home early enough to pay him his money for the last two weeks of work he'd done. She parked her Saturn next to his dirty work truck and got out of the car. She walked up the walkway and into the house.

"Ronan, I'm home! I have your money!" she called out. There was no response. She walked into the kitchen and sat her purse on the counter. She pulled off her high heels and released the clip from her blond hair letting it fall down her back.

"Hello, Bob the builder! I'm home." she called out again but again there was answer. She had taken to calling him Bob the builder most of the time since she found the name Ronan to sound entirely too sexy on her lips. She walked into the living room and almost screamed out in fear when there was a thud through the floor beneath her.

"Son of a bitch that hurt!" she heard Ronan's deep voice say. She bit back a laugh. He must be down there working on the heat and air ducts. Laura was secretly happy that she would avoid seeing him today. She tore a piece of paper from the memo pad on the refrigerator and left him a note and a check for the amount they'd determined he was owed on the bar.

She went upstairs and laid out a pair of low rise, tight fitting, dark denim jeans and a red satin, spaghetti strap tank top. She dug through the pile of shoes in the bottom of her closet and found her black, four inch, strappy heels.

She was going out tonight. She had had enough of moping around this house all weekend, every weekend. She was going to go to the honky tonk bar on the edge of town called 'Jimmies' and she was going to sing karaoke and dance and drink and forget all about Mason and being lonely.

She left her clothes on the bed and walked to the bathroom. She turned the shower on and then pulled her clothes off and ran her brush through her long blond hair. She studied her face in the mirror. She had big green eyes, high cheekbones, heart shaped lips and a tiny nose sprinkled with freckles. She was pale skinned naturally but she knew that sleepless night had worsened that and the dark circles around her eyes paid tribute to the tossing and turning she'd been doing alone in her bed without Mason.

It was not really Mason that she missed, it was having someone else around. She missed having someone to talk to about her day and having someone to share a cup of coffee with in the mornings. Maybe she should get a dog. She sighed and then pulled the curtain back and jumped into the shower.