Page 13 of The Fault Next Door

“Does this happen often?” Nolan asked as he held the wood in place while Ryder nailed in the top corner.

“Naw, but stuff happens on the farm. This is the first time the window has been broken out in a storm since I’ve been here. Really, I appreciate you trying. Finding you in my house shocked me.”

“I need your phone number. I could have called and told you about the window.”

“After this, I’ll give it to you.” Ryder glanced over his shoulder at the nearing storm. “It’s about to come down.”

They finished nailing the plank of plywood in place and then headed in, running the last few steps as rain started to pour.Ryder let out a loud whoop, a smile on his face as he watched the rain come down. Lightning flashed, and thunder rumbled so hard over the land that Nolan felt it deep in his soul.

“Wow, this storm.” Nolan worried about his house as the rain blew in sideways. “Yeah, that cardboard would have been useless. I was going to go out and put up a piece outside.”

“Thanks for trying. Both pieces would have kept out the worst of the rain. But yeah, the plywood is better.”

“Do you want a beer?” Ryder asked.

“Um, is that—” Lightning struck close by and he heard a loud pop. The noise from the refrigerator stopped as the lights flicked off.

“Shit, I guess we lost electricity. I was going to offer to heat up a pizza, but we won’t be heating up anything.”

“Damn. How long do you think the electricity will be out?”

Ryder shrugged. "It depends. Probably a few hours. Everything in your refrigerator should be good. But I'll start up my generator if it doesn't come back on, and you can bring your cold stuff over to keep it frozen."

“Thanks. I don’t have much. I was planning on grocery shopping this weekend.”

Ryder nodded as he moved to a different window. Nolan followed. The storm looked awful. He’d lived in some places he’d thought had wild weather, but those storms were nothing compared to this.

"I'll be back in a minute," Ryder said as he left the room. A moment later, Nolan heard the toilet flush and then saw a light at the end of the hallway as Ryder stepped out with a large flashlight.

“It looks like it’s getting worse,” Nolan said.

Rain pounded the roof, and he saw something blowing outside in the yard. He moved closer to the sliding glass door, but Ryder's hand on his shoulder stopped him. He glanced backover his shoulder and met Ryder's gaze. Neither of them moved as the wind whipped the rain hard against the house.

“Anything blowing in the yard could take out a window. Best to stay over here,” Ryder said before dropping his hand.

“Sure.”

They stood in Ryder's house in silence, watching the rain coming down, neither of them speaking. Nolan felt weird. He'd sworn he'd seen desire in Ryder's gaze, but he wasn't going to act on it. The idea that Ryder might be into him shouldn't be a thought in his head. This man had been married to a woman, and he probably would be pissed if he knew the thoughts Nolan was having about him. He’d dealt with more than one straight man who wasn't so straight in his lifetime, and they were always insulted if he acknowledged their desire.

After the storm died down, Nolan got Ryder's number and then headed back to his place to check it out. Nothing was wrong with his house, and he wondered if he'd overreacted by going to Ryder’s to fix his window.

No, it had been the neighborly thing to do. He would want Ryder to fix his broken window if he'd been at work and Ryder had been home. Maybe it hadn't been desire shining in Ryder's eyes. He needed to get this out of his system because the last thing he wanted was to be called out for being gay by some homophobic tough guy.

Chapter 11

Nolan had spentSaturday setting up bookshelves and unpacking boxes. There wasn't much to do around town, so he planned on catching up with his reading and watching movies he'd missed over the last few years. The bookshelves full of fiction books he'd picked up over the years would help him accomplish at least a part of that goal.

On Sunday morning, he was contemplating which movie he wanted to watch when his phone rang. He didn’t recognize the number and was about to push it to voicemail when he rolled his eyes and answered.

“Hello.” Before Nolan got the whole word out, he was contemplating hanging up.

“You answered.”

The voice seemed familiar. Then memories hit, and he wanted to toss his phone out the door. He swallowed over the rising bile and tried not to sound like he wanted to vomit.

“Sherrie.”

“I want Andrew’s ashes. I can come by the house and pick them up. I’m in Virginia today. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

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