Page 11 of Strike a Chord
Levi nodded.“Yeah.”Then he slung his backpack over his back.“Mom’s making me bring my homework and books.”
“That’s a good mom you have there.”
Levi rolled his eyes, but he was smiling as he headed out the door.
“Truck’s open.Climb on in.”
Jennifer slouched into her jacket and tugged on her ankle-height dark purple rainboots.“Thank you,” she said, gazing up at him with those beautiful pale green eyes.
“Don’t mention it.This your bag?”
She made to grab it but he reached down before she could and hoisted the dark purple duffle bag over his shoulder.
Nodding, she followed him out the door, locking up.
Her landlords were already out their front door, hiding under their porch overhang.
“Phil, Gloria, this is Dax.”
Dax shook both their hands, the long duffle bag straps crisscrossed across his chest and the bags hanging at his ass.“Nice to meet you.Just hang tight and I’ll come back and help you.”He ran to the back of his truck and tossed in Levi and Jennifer’s duffle bags, then jogged back to grab Phil and Gloria’s.
“You’re too kind helping us,” Gloria said, taking her husband’s hand and heading to the truck.
“Not at all, ma’am.Happy to help.”Dax stowed their bags in the back of his truck, as well, then reached them just in time to help Gloria climb up into the back of the truck.Phil was tall, but had a slight tremor to his hands, so Dax helped him up, too.
Jennifer climbed into the front seat.
“All right.All the doors are locked?Gas has been turned off?”Dax asked, hitting the button to turn his truck back on.
Everyone nodded.
“Good.And we’re off.”
“Wait!”Gloria called out.“We forgot the cooler.We’re bringing food.So it doesn’t go bad if the fridge and freezer don’t come back on for a while.And so that we can contribute.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Dax noticed Jennifer’s cheeks go pink.“I never even thought of that.”
“I have food,” Dax said.
“Yes, but we are four more people,” Gloria argued.“And it might go bad.It’s just in the foyer.”
Dax held his hand out to the backseat.“Give me your house keys and I’ll run in and grab it.”
Phil handed over the keys, so Dax ran through the raindrops, unlocked the house and grabbed the cooler only to find Jennifer no longer in the front seat when he returned.What the hell?
He stowed the cooler in the back of his truck, grateful that he had removed all his instruments before he came to pick everyone up.Then he climbed back in behind the steering wheel.“Where’s Jennifer?”
“Mom ran back in to get food,” Levi said.
Dax rolled his eyes.“She didn’t have to.”Then he bailed back out of the truck and ran to her front door again, opening it only to find Jennifer with both the fridge and freezer doors open and a big collapsable cooler at her feet.She was throwing in all kinds of things.Perogies, French fries, a salmon filet, eggs.“What are you doing?”he asked, shaking his head.
She glanced at him and more pink filled her cheeks.“Well, Phil and Gloria had a point.We should bring food.So it doesn’t spoil, but also so we don’t eat you out of house and home.You’re already kind enough letting total strangers come stay with you.”
“Life has a way of balancing out,” he said.“I wasn’t worried about it.”
“Well, I already owe you for your help last night.I—”
He reached into the freezer and grabbed her hands.They were ice cold and wrapped around a big bulb of frozen ginger.“You don’t owe me for anything, Jennifer.Life is not just one transaction after another.Some people still do things just because it’s the right thing to do.”He removed the ginger from her fingers and put it back in the freezer.“This will not spoil.And I also have a lot of ginger at home.”
