AllFreeNovel
Share Us
If he was here to rob me, he wouldn’t be toting this book, would he? Unless he plans to whack me over the head with it.
I regret opening the door to him. He’s clearly lost his way.
“You looking for downtown Windsor or something?” I ask because he hasn’t said a word yet.
“Nope.”
“So, what’s up?”
He cranes his neck to look around me—which really irks me. What is his deal?
The dogs must be somewhere back there, given that my sister hasn’t loaded them into her car yet. Why aren’t they barking?
That Zoey is great at barking. I’ve heard that bark echo off these walls many, many times. Apparently, the dogs are good at barking when it suits them, but they’re not great at security.
This guy is a stranger, but they must be too busy with Kate to care.
He strokes his long beard. “Big place you got here.”
What, is he trying to case the place, for some crew of burglars he runs with? Bold move, showing up all weird and quiet like this.
Maybe he’s going to try to sell a service, like landscaping. He looks like he’d be at home pushing a mower or trimming trees.
“Hey, man, I’m sort of busy. Family in town,” I tell him.
He grunts.
I’m getting majorly impatient.
Kate arrived this morning. It’s only Saturday, so she’s here a couple of days before I expected her. And though I assumed that meant she’d pack the dogs up and be on her way, it’s now early afternoon, and she’s shown no signs of leaving.
In fact, the opposite is true.
She’s shown signs that she wants to stay. For a long time… maybe even months.
We’ve been talking in the kitchen. Apparently, she lost her job because of her trip to Alaska. She’s afraid she won’t be able to keep up with rent on her apartment, back in Long Island. I have extra rooms. It seems to make sense…
The man with the shaggy hair keeps looking behind me into my entryway.
I’m about to tell him to quit scoping out my home when all of a sudden, his face transforms. The worry lines ease away. He grins, exposing a chipped tooth.
“Kate?” he says.
“Sawyer?” Her voice floats past me from somewhere deep in the house. Her footsteps echo across the walls. One of the dogs barks, but it’s not a warning woof. It’s a happy woof.
I can’t believe I know that, but I do.
The next thing I know, Zoey’s piling into the guy with the shaggy hair. The pale fur of her tail tickles my legs. I step back. Mr. Brown barges in, his slobbery teddy in his mouth.
The guy—Sawyer?—crouches down and accepts the teddy. Then he burrows his head into the frenzy of fur and wagging tails. “Hey, guys… I’ve missed you two.”
When he stands up, his eyes shine with tears. “And I missed you.”
He’s talking to my sister. He takes another step and wraps his arms around her. “I went to your hotel room. You were gone.”
They hold each other tight, like they’re lost at sea, and the connection is their only hope.
I watch my sister’s fingers curl against his back, digging into his worn, sleeveless shirt. “Sawyer…” She’s crying now, too.
