Page 17 of Until You Found Me

“My wife picked up a few things for you. There’s food in the fridge too, and extra blankets in that box. Some other things we’ve been thinking about offering as welcome gifts to the guests. You can test them out for us?”

She’ll cry again if she’s not careful, can already feel it like a lump in her throat. “It’s perfect. Thank you so much. Can I hug you?”

“If you feel so inclined, then I don’t see why not.”

She gives him a gentle squeeze, feeling him pat her back like the grandfather she wishes she could remember.

“Alright now, you rest up and then Logan will show you the ropes on how to assemble these things when you’re ready. No rush. You need to be well to work.”

She thanks him again and then she’s left alone with Logan, who’s been hanging back this whole time. She twirls in place, her words like a secret on the tail end of a smile. “I’m staying in a dome.”

He dips his head. “You like it?”

“Are you kidding? It feels too good to be true.” She moves closer, staying an arm’s length away, cautious of crowding him where it wouldn’t be welcome. “You didn’t have to do all this for me, but I’m so grateful you did. I didn’t wanna complain before, but it was…difficult at the shelter.”

“I know it was. I remember.” His tone turns teasing after that, much as he can muster up anyway, which seems like an effort he struggles with. “Might change your mind about staying here, though, when you see who your neighbor is.”

“Who?”

“Me.”

She laughs. “That’s right, you said you live next door.”

“Mhmm, you can see the lights from my trailer from here at night.”

“Well, I suppose I’ll manage somehow. It’ll be hard though. Do you play loud music?”

“All the time. Especially at two am.”

“Lots of random power tools going at all hours?”

“Hell yeah, no better time to use a power saw than midnight.”

She raises a brow. “Lemme guess, tons of Christmas lights that’ll blind me?”

“They blink, too.”

“Sounds like endless hardship. I can’t wait,” she says, her grin spreading wide enough it hurts her cheeks.

Something she’s been ignoring since she met him makes itself known in the glow of the fireplace. It’s useless and pointless because she can’t and won’t do a damn thing about it, but she can’t deny that he is painfully handsome. Now more than ever, she sees it in his kind eyes and gently tousled hair. In his thick biceps under a dark t-shirt. She isn’t quite sure if this attraction is rooted in his features alone or in how good he’s been to her without any obligation or reason.

Both, she decides. Definitely both.

He catches the change and looks away as if she caught him when it was the other way around. “I ah, I’ll show youwhich direction my place is in case you need anything.”

She follows him out into the cool air where fall colors are in bloom, leaves and acorns crunching beneath her shoes.

“Look.” She bends to pick up an acorn that stands out from the rest. “It’s two joined together. They’re good luck.”

“You should keep it then.”

She offers it to him instead, holding it out in her palm like a gift. “I’ve already gotten my dose of luck today. You keep this one.”

He takes her offering with the careful hand of someone who isn’t used to this sort of thing, and that’s when she decides she has to be honest with him, at least as far as she can be. He deserves the truth and she can’t let a small lie fester after everything he’s done for her.

“What I said before about not remembering anything, that wasn’t true. I had a nightmare at the shelter, a memory, but I can’t talk about it. Not yet. It’s nothing useful. I don’t want it in your head any more than I want it in mine, but I’m sorry I lied when you asked.”

“You don’t have to talk about anything.”

---