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Chapter Three
The kitchen was nice enough. Nothing modern or fancy, but at least it was all white, so she could add her own touches. The wooden cabinets were plain, the appliances antiquated, and the counters some sort of boring ceramic tile. A blank slate she could make her own.
She went to her big laundry basket full of cleaning supplies—Penelope’s idea of a house-warming present—and pulled on a pair of rubber gloves before grabbing the cleaner.
Might as well start with the sink. She tested the water, and it came out in a blast, surprising her. Back home she’d rented a brand-new condo where everything was low flow. She hadn’t seen water pressure like this since the nineties. Clearly Revival didn’t care about water conservation.
She sprayed down the sink and started to scrub, contemplating what she could do with the space. That would give her something to fill the time. She’d never considered herself a workaholic like Penelope, but until she’d lost her job she’d never realized how much actual time she’d spent working.
She needed projects to work on. Yes, she had the projects with the city, but the hours didn’t come close to what she was used to, so this house would have to do.
She hoped her landlord would appreciate her efforts.
She huffed. God, he rubbed her the wrong way. Realistically she didn’t have a good reason other than gut instinct warning her off him. He just reminded her too much of the kind of man she’d given up a long time ago. She was older now. Wiser. She didn’t care how good-looking he was. She didn’t want to live next door to him, but she had no choice.
She was stuck. This was what she got for letting Maddie take care of all the details because she wanted to avoid the reality of her situation. What she should have done was come check out the place herself, but how could she have predicted Ryder Moore?
She scoured around the drain. She’d do what she always did and make the best of it. Of course she’d avoid him at all costs. It was only six months. And while she wouldn’t be working seventy hours a week, she’d keep busy.
There was plenty to do. She had to come up with ideas on how to effectively utilize the new town square, to ensure new and existing businesses saw the positive effects and increased traffic and revenue, and she had two major events to plan and make a smashing success. The town square grand kickoff coincided with the Fourth of July, and that left her two months to make it so spectacular people would come from all over just to see it.
The mayor of Revival, Griffin Strong, had already given her the current plans, and she’d prepared a list of suggestions to make it a thousand times better. Then she’d have the Pumpkin Festival to keep her busy, and she’d be back home by Thanksgiving.
This might be a disaster, but she needed to remember to be grateful, because she was lucky to have a place to go, with friends to support her and work to do while she waited out the shit storm tainting her reputation back in Chicago.
She’d be grateful. Do her job. Keep away from her neighbor and go back home without causing a ripple.
Ryder Moore was a minor blip of annoyance she wouldn’t pay any attention to.
Maddie and Penelope came barreling into the house, tumbling into the small kitchen. Sophie realized she’d been scrubbing the sink furiously for the past five minutes and stilled her frantic movements.
Maddie screeched. “What was that?”
Sophie flicked on the faucet and again marveled at how the water blasted out. She splashed the water around to get rid of the cleaning solution and said calmly, “What was what?”
“Now, Sophie,” Penelope said in her calm, “let’s discuss this reasonably” voice.
Sophie turned off the faucet and faced her friends. “What?”
Maddie, the more high-strung of the two, blew out an exasperated breath. “Why were you so unpleasant to Ryder? You need to be nice to him.”
“I wasn’t unpleasant.” She picked up the cleaning product again. Sure she’d given him the finger, but her friends hadn’t seen. Penelope gave her that look and Sophie grinned at her. “You know you’re going to make a great mom someday.”
Penelope shook her head. “Don’t change the subject.”
“What’s the subject?” She didn’t see what there was to talk about. She didn’t want to spend one second of energy on stupid Ryder. Okay, yes, she was being a touch ... unreasonable about him, but so what? She didn’t have to like everyone, and she certainly didn’t need to apologize.
Maddie ran a hand through her long red hair. “He’s your landlord, and your neighbor, it’s best if you keep him on friendly terms. I don’t even understand what your problem is. Ryder is a great guy. Everyone thinks so.”
Of course they did. She couldn’t imagine a single woman in Revival that wouldn’t have heart palpitations when he walked by, but she wasn’t so easily charmed. Her hormones were too smart to be fooled by all that testosterone. She was a South Side city girl; she could spot bullshit a mile away. She raised her hand and held up three fingers. “He called me pet names three times, Maddie. Three times! That’s so obnoxious.”
“He was clearly antagonizing you,” Penelope said, as though that explained everything in a perfectly logical fashion.
Sophie threw up her hands. “Duh. That’s my point.”
Maddie sighed. “Only because you were being so snippy with him.”
Sophie shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. It’s not like I’ll see him.”
