Page 58 of To Bring You Back
Of course they had. Why did Gannon sound so frustrated?
Bruce sat beside her. She rubbed his warm ears. “They’ve been out front since I got home. What are they saying?”
“I haven’t looked yet, but I hear they’re making us out to be a couple.”
“Oh.” So he didn’t want to look like a couple. Had she taken too long to come around? He’d given up on her?
“I’m sorry. I wish I could stop them, but people buy it. The less we give them, the less they have to run with.”
She pulled Bruce a little closer, earning herself a kiss that didn’t do much for her nosediving hopes. “Wouldn’t we look more like a couple if you paid people to fix my house?”
“They wouldn’t know who hired the contractors.”
“Everyone knows I don’t have the money for it or I would’ve hired someone myself. The church is helping because I couldn’t do the porch myself or afford a carpenter, and they don’t want me to have to pay the fines.”
“What fines?”
He might as well know. He was already unhappy, and with press digging around, her standing with the neighborhood association would come out eventually.
“My house isn’t up to the standards for the neighborhood, so the association gave me ninety days to fix it. The porch and the paint.”
His silence stretched. He was probably thinking about how different they were, him on top of the world and her barely keeping a grip on a rundown house.
“Anyway. None of that’s your problem. If they stop seeing us together, they’ll lose interest.”
“Adeline—”
“No, it’s fine.” Good thing she’d hesitated to reach out to him at the wayside. This rejection, subtle as it was, stung enough. “They’re writing rumors. I’m more concerned with reality. The big waste container is here, Chip has the materials, and a team of deacons is coming. Plus, Drew’s bringing the youth group over to help. I’m not canceling such a big production.”
He sighed. Maybe he was as disappointed as she was by the course this conversation had taken. “When are they working?”
“Four until dark, and they’ll come back tomorrow if they need to, but I have to work then, anyway.”
“And if your boss tells you to stay home again?”
“He didn’t order me to. If I’m such an attraction, I’ll bring in extra business.” And work would help keep her busy and prevent her from thinking about Gannon.
“Okay. Good luck. Let me know if you run into trouble.”
“Thanks.” She kept the phone to her ear a little longer, but only dead air followed.
16
Adeline helped carry a chunk of her old porch, but the men on either end probably could’ve moved the debris without her. As the boards thudded into the large trash container, she stepped back to let a couple of the boys hoist another section of rotting floorboards over and in.
The porch was mostly gone already, and two or three hours of daylight remained.
Three photographers lingered on the sidewalk, but their interest had waned since they’d confirmed none of the thirteen males on the premises—Chip, Drew, five deacons, and six high school boys—were band members.
Good. They didn’t need to snap any more unflattering pictures of her.
She’d found the article Gannon had mentioned. The piece featured a shot of Gannon leading her to the motorcycle. His jacket had, indeed, made her look like a clown.
But in that picture, he’d held her hand and looked back at her.
All eyes were on him, but his eyes were on her.
Or at least, for that moment, they had been.
