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“Well, I don’t want you to rent here anymore. I have the right to rent to anyone I want. Or not if I don’t want.”
Abby tried again. “Then why don’t you want to rent to me anymore?”
“I heard you lost your job at the bank. Can’t have any deadbeats living here.”
Her hands went to her face. “But I didn’t lose my job. Where did you hear that?”
The old guy grinned, revealing methodically even yellow-and-brown-stained teeth. Cooper resisted the urge to recoil.
“It may not be true yet, but it’s coming. I hear things around town. I also heard you were arrested. That’s true, isn’t it? Heard you had someone pay a bundle to get out on bail.” He eyed Cooper with contempt. “So I want my rent money, and from now on you aren’t welcome here anymore.”
Abigail didn’t answer. Her mouth started trembling. She backed up a couple of steps and turned to Cooper with tears welling up in her beautiful eyes. “Seriously. I don’t think I can take much more.”
Cooper moved quickly past her, filled the door with his body, and addressed the landlord. “She will bring the rent tomorrow. On the due date and not one minute earlier.” He started to close the door, but the old guy stuck his cane in the opening. “I want her criminal ass out of here.”
“She’ll vacate the premises in thirty days as the law allows. If you press her to leave earlier, then I’ll slap a harassment suit on your grumpy ass faster than you can swing your cane in the air.” Cooper pushed the cane two inches across the threshold with the toe of his shoe so he could shut the door.
The landlord made an odd humph noise, ground his back teeth emitting a squeak-like sound, and backed up a step. Cooper closed the door as fast as possible before the old guy charged inside.
He turned around and pressed his back against the door. Abigail had moved without him seeing her go. She was now seated on the edge of the sofa. She glanced around her living room once, then bowed her head and started crying.
Cooper hated to see women cry. It was a weakness he willingly admitted. He kneeled down next to her and draped an arm across her shoulders.
“I’m sorry this is happening to you.”
She sniffled some more, shook her head, and continued crying. After a couple of minutes, she was able to say, “My landlord is very good friends with my soon-to-be former boss, the bank president. I shouldn’t be crying. It’s not actually a big surprise.”
“It’s still not fair.”
Her head lifted and a small smile emerged to reward him. “Thank you for thinking it’s not fair.”
“What’s not fair?” Zane asked from the hallway.
“I’ve been evicted.”
Zane made a face. “Then you can come and live with us. We have a spare room you can use.”
Cooper didn’t disagree but was so shocked that Zane would suggest it he found his mouth hanging open. He closed it quickly to keep from saying something inappropriate. Because the truth was, he’d been thinking about having Abigail come and stay with them since he’d said good-bye to her in jail last night.
He didn’t expect Zane to budge on his no permanent relationships stance. Then again, he’d willingly walked inside a jail cell for this remarkable woman. He guessed he shouldn’t be surprised by anything Zane did for her, by this point.
“What?” Abigail took the word out of his mouth.
Zane repeated it with a more matter-of-fact tone of voice. “Come and stay with us. We’ve got plenty of room, right Cooper?”
“Right,” he said automatically, still reeling from Zane’s obvious infatuation of Abigail.
She shook her head. “I don’t think that would be a good idea. I don’t want to be that woman.”
“What woman?” Zane frowned. He sent a puzzled gaze to Cooper. He shrugged, too.
Abigail explained, “The kind of woman who has to have a man—or men in this case—swoop in to rescue her at every turn.”
“Come on, let us rescue you,” Zane said. “I promise, we’ll let you rescue us next time.”
“But you’ve already rescued me once today. I’d be sitting in jail right now if it weren’t for you two.”
