Page 4 of Anything for You
“Sorry, sweet boy,” I whispered, embarrassed I was still so twitchy after being the one to cause all this mess.
The dog followed his owner, and finally, my feet got the messageto do the same.
Meanwhile, my heart was still standing in that hallway listening to a man I’d never spoken to before tell me my feelings were valid and marveling at how effectively he’d squelched the tears with something I’d hardly ever experienced with a man.
Acceptance.
CHAPTER THREE
Stone
She hadn’t stopped talking since we’d made it into the living room, though she’d slowed down when we passed through the kitchen and she saw the two pies on the counter.
Did she like pie? It wasn’t necessarily the landlord’s job to know what kind of sweet tooth his tenant had. Shouldn’t be thinking about that because she would live her life and I’d live mine and we wouldn’t be interacting. I never would’ve gone ahead with this if we would.
Dr. Corrigan had encouraged me. My friends had, too. It’d made sense to rent the space once I’d redone it. I’d get a neighbor, and the person Kenny had suggested needed a good place to land. So why not my place?
Especially if we both kept to ourselves, which I’d assumed we’d do. Then I wouldn’t be thinking aboutasinine things like what I should and shouldn’t know about her.
But pie preference couldn’t hurt.
“So I thought the directions were to go to the left, but honestly, I see now how wrong that was,” she said at a clip I was only barely understanding, it was so fast. “Like,obviouslythat’s the main house and that’s my little cabin. Right? I mean, how? Except, I know how.”
I didn’t comment because she wasn’t leaving me any time to, not that I would’ve.
“I’ve been so tired. That’s the only reason this happened, and I promise you it’ll never happen again. On a normal day, I would’ve realized it was your house.”
I stopped at the top of the small set of four stairs leading to her cabin’s front door.
“Perhaps when your key didn’t work?” I suggested, intrigued beyond measure how the lock hadn’t stopped her from coming inside.
By all accounts, this woman was a little ray of sunshine wrapped in a too-pretty bow. She was a nurse and friends with many of my friends. I’d accepted her application because this was a test for me and she needed the place, but I hadn’t acceptedbecauseit was her.
Well, it wasn’t the only reason.
“Oh, right. Yeah. Let me just…” She dug into her truly gargantuan purse, her arm disappearing completely before she held up a ring of at least a dozen keys triumphantly. “Ta-da!”
I held out a hand, welcoming her to try the lock. She fiddled with the crush of metal for a moment before finding the one she’d picked up from the front desk at Saint Security when she’d signed her lease, and sure enough, it worked.
“Ah, see! There it is,” she said, flashing me a grin and then winking like we were in on the joke together. Her bright smile made creases in her cheeks and tiny lines around her eyes, though she still had a hollow look that spoke to her persisting exhaustion.
My chest seized. Bear’s head slipped under my hand, and he sat.Whoops.Apparently, he could sense my stress. “It’s alright, bud.”
“Oh, this is cute.”
Dove’s voice came from inside, so I followed after asking Bear to wait on the porch for now. She wasn’t a threat to me, and Bear was really only here to help when I was a threat to myself, anyway.
In the small living room, Dove perused the bookshelves on either side of a built-in TV nook housing a decent-sized screen.
“I can remove those if you prefer,” I offered, wondering if she was irritated I’d left the books. The cabin was furnished, which she’d apparently wanted, though she did have some belongings to move in based on the stuff crammed into every nook and cranny of her small sedan where it sat in the driveway like it’d screeched to a halt about ten feet before actually parking.
Sadness peeked out those bright eyes before she tucked it away and smiled yet again. “No, that’s fine. I’ll enjoy being surrounded by your books.”
Hmm. What an odd thing to say.
Why did I like it?
Instead of saying so, I simply nodded and showed her the kitchen. “Electric cooktop here—not glamorous, but there are no gas lines to this cabin yet.”
