Page 15 of Freak
Chapter Five
After they finishedthe dishes, Abigail made some fuss about not needing her dining-room light fixed, but Mel rolled right over that silly resistance. He went out and got his tools and went down into the root cellar to pull the fuse for the dining room. When he came back in, she was bent over at her open refrigerator, organizing leftovers. She didn’t say anything as he headed through the kitchen to get to work.
She’d been quiet since the last part of their washing up. In fact, the temperature between them had been slightly cool for most of the evening. Not anything dramatic, just a vague impression of tension, an eggshell or two under their feet.
He wasn’t sure if he’d said something wrong, or if she was tired, or what. For his part, he figured he was thinking a little romantically about her tonight, and that had put him off his feet some. He’d feel better if she was into it, but she’d given him nothing to work with. Maybe that was rubbing up a blister on his subconscious tonight.
Setting those thoughts aside as he finished fixing the light—decrepit wiring in the housing that would eventually have caused a much bigger problem if left unattended—Mel decided to shake off whatever weight sagged between them and leave on a lighthearted note. He was not a man who enjoyed a beef. He preferred to be on good terms with everyone, and especially Abigail. It felt like a black mark on his soul to have a woman like her feeling even slightly bad because of him.
He packed up his tools and returned to the kitchen. She wasn’t in there, and the kitchen had the distinct look of having been closed up for the night—only the light over the sink on, the faucet gleaming beneath it, everything put tidily away. Through the old screen door, he saw Bogie perched atop the porch steps and knew she was out there.
Looking through the mesh of the screen, he saw her standing at the porch railing, gazing up at the night sky. Moonlight edged her in silver. The hem of her flowery blue dress caught the breeze and danced over her bare calves. She had her house shoes on—lime green Crocs with little charms. Ariadne and Lilith, her two cats, a matched set of pure white fluff, sat primly on the rail beside her, taking in the same view. Sleepy sounds filled the night: the low susurration of crickets and frogs, the occasional tinkle of a windchime, and the gentle song of a single whippoorwill.
Mel paused at the door and soaked in that serene, lovely moment. This was country quiet, more peaceful than silence, and a major reason he had no desire to live anywhere else ever again.
The spring of the wooden door creaked pleasantly as he pushed through, and Abigail smiled at him over her shoulder. “All done?”
He smiled back and set his toolbox on the painted plank floor. “All done. The wiring in that box is at least eighty years old, Abs. I spliced some good wire in at the connection points, but that’s not a long-term fix. We should talk about rewiring the house.”
“Mercy!” she said. “That sounds expensive.”
The cats jumped down and came to Mel to offer head butts and demand scritches, then they strutted to the door, puffy tails waving. One of them—he couldn’t keep them straight, though Abigail insisted they weren’t identical—used a paw to open the screen door, and they slipped inside.
Bogie turned his tawny head and gave him a look and a blink, which Mel interpreted as the canine version ofHey. Then he returned to his quiet surveillance of the property. Bogie rarely clocked out.
Mitch was in the yard, chewing a stick. He was all about the work-life balance.
“It doesn’t have to be,” Mel said as he went to stand at Abigail’s side. “You know the labor’s free, and I can get the parts and supplies at cost.” The cost of a rewire was mostly in the labor, anyway, and it was labor Mel would be delighted to take on.
Looking up at him, she sighed. She turned back to the view before she answered, “You mean the labor’s free because you’d do it.”
“Well, yeah. ‘Course.” When she shook her head, Mel felt a surge of frustration, but he pushed it back down. “I’m an electrician, Abs. It’s what I do, and I want to do it for you.”
“It’s too much, Mel. I don’t know what I’ve got to offer in exchange for somethin’ so big.”
He meant to end this evening on a good note, but his frustration was growing—so much so that his right hand curled into a fist. Every time he offered to help in some way, she had to offer something in return. But he didn’twantanything in return. He’d happily sit at her table and eat delicious food she’d made, but for him, it was about her company more than her cooking ... and about letting her feel she’d given him something in return.
He simply wanted to do something for this person he liked. She made the world better every time she woke up and started her day. Why couldn’t she just let him be good to her?
“Why do you do that, Abigail?” he asked directly.
She turned to give him her full attention, her moonlit brow folded with confusion. “Do what?”
“Turn everything I offer into a transaction.”
Her beautiful blue eyes went wide at once, but she took a moment before she answered.
“I suppose itisa transaction, but I don’t mean it in the way I think you do. I don’t mean it as a business dealing. I mean balance.”
“You think we’re not balanced?” Could she mean she felt beholden to him? Well, that was funny, since he was a little bit in awe of her. If they weren’t in balance, it wasn’t him pulling the weight.
You know what?he thought.What the hell.With thorns suddenly sprouting between them, why not just go for it? Why not say it all?
Before she’d formed an answer to his question, he laid some shit out for her.
“Seems like you think it’s a burden for me to come out here like I do and help out where you need it. Seems like you think eating at your table and bringing your food home with me is nothing but what’s owed. Let me tell you something, Abigail Freeman. I’m here because I want to be. I help out because I want things here to be nice for you. I want you to be safe and happy, and it makes me feel good to know I can do something about that. You are an amazing cook, and I will eat your food breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day of my life, but it’s not payment for fixing your light, or your truck, or anything else. You make the world better just by waking up every day and being in it. You make my life better just being in it. I’m here because I want to be where you are.”
