He ignored me and headed for the back staircase, but I grabbed his arm again to stop him. “The second floor was really weak in spots even back in July, and I haven’t even tried to get to the attic.”
“Fuck.” Webb ran a hand over the blackened brick of the kitchen fireplace. “I had no idea. It wasn’t remotely this bad last time I was inside here, but… that was a long time ago.”He chewed the inside of his lip for a second, then sighed. “I keep telling myself I don’t wanna hear this story, but I guess I probably do. How’d you get the land, then? Ben ran a contest, I know that much.”
“He did,” I agreed. “And I—oh,lawsy.” A cold draft blew down the chimney, and I shivered hard in my snow-covered clothes. “Sorry, what was I saying?”
“Jesus. Go change into something warm before you die of hypothermia and my family never speaks to me again,” Webb ordered, sounding weary. Then he frowned. “Hang on, are you sleeping in this place?”
“In here? No way.” It was on the tip of my tongue to ask if he thought I was an idiot, but I was pretty sure the answer was yes. “There’s a perfectly fine trailer out there.” I nodded toward the kitchen door and the yard beyond. “That’s where Ben slept, too.”
“Thank fuck forthat, anyway,” Webb muttered, grabbing my elbow. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before anything else happens to you.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
WEBB
“I can walk on my own,”Luke protested, but once again, I ignored him. There was no way I was letting him go when this house was clearly a death trap.
I opened the back door and led him down the stairs with one hand clutching the bag of ice cream and the other locked around his arm.
We took several steps in the direction of a junk heap before I realized it wasn’t a junk heap at all. It was Death Trap Junior, a clear case of tetanus if ever I’d seen one. The old travel trailer was a collection of rusted metal parts held together with dying vines.
My heart rate reached danger levels as I reared back. “Thisis your perfectly fine trailer?”
“Hey! Don’t be rude. I know it’s not the prettiest, but it’s dry and mostly warm.” Luke moved around me to open the door. “And at least I don’t worry that it’s going to collapse on me… much.”
I climbed in behind him, trying my best to step lightly in case I caused a catastrophic collapse of the old tin box.
Luke scrambled to tidy up. He hung his coat on a hook by the door, turned on the heater, and moved a towering stack ofbooks and a shoebox full of kitchen sponges from one side of the camper’s pleather dinette booth to the other before ushering me to sit.
I lifted an eyebrow and nodded at the sponges. “Planning to use those to repair the roof? Because I have a feeling they might not work.”
His cheeks went adorably pink. “No. Obviously not. They’re for an experiment to help teach the kids about hydroponics. Do you know, hydroponics can greatly increase plant yieldsandresult in ninety percent more efficient use of water?—?”
“I wouldn’t say anything isobviousright now, Luke,” I said, not meaning for it to come out as harsh as it did. “Not after seeing that fucking house. Not after seeing that you’re living in this tiny trailer. Not after witnessing the tarp incident.” I hesitated for a second but finally set the bag of ice cream on the kitchen counter next to his charging cell phone and hung my coat beside his.
“You didn’t witness it,” he pointed out. I could tell he was trying to keep calm. Maybe he was embarrassed by the situation. “You only caught the aftermath.”
“The aftermath was plenty bad enough,” I muttered. I wedged myself into the small spot he’d cleared and looked around at his tiny, hopefully temporary, home.
It actually didn’t look that bad inside. Even though it was packed full of his possessions—including tons of school supplies, books, and crafts—it was somehow cozy. Colorful drawings were pinned up, and soft afghans lay over the back of the dinette bench and on the foot of the bed.
Seeing his little nest felt oddly intimate and a bit intrusive. But my eyes roamed over every detail hungrily. This was a side of the man I’d never expected to see.
Luke huffed. “Look, I’m doing the best I can with the house. And I haven’t had a lot of time or money to work on the trailer,what with school and taking care of the animals.” His words were defensive, borderline nervous babbling. “The best I could do was a fresh coat of paint and some accent blankets for now.”
I hated that he felt like he had to defend himself from me. Clearly he was in a bad situation. I hadn’t realized it before, but maybe I should have. Maybe I should have paid more attention to him and his situation, rather than only focusing on how it related tome.
The truth was becoming obvious. Someone—namely Ben Pond—had royally fucked this sweet man over. They’d put him in an impossibly difficult situation, and he seemed to be trying to hide it from everyone. Hell, we were his closest neighbors, yet none of us had even known he was in trouble.
I wanted to kick my own ass for being so selfish and oblivious.
“I know that,” I snapped. I raked a hand through my hair. “I know,” I repeated more calmly. “I didn’t mean…” I fingered one of the crocheted afghans on the back of the bench. It was a shining example of his sunny personality. Despite living in Ben Pond’s shithole, sweet Luke Williams had tried his best to make it a home. “It’s nice, what you’ve done to it.”
“Right,” he snorted. “I can see how thrilled you are.” A gust of wind hit the trailer and whistled through some invisible cracks, making Luke shiver again. “Look, I need to change. So… it was nice of you to drop by. I accept your apology for this morning. And the apology you should have given me for being a jerk just now, too. Now, go forth and be a jerkface no more.” He gestured toward the door.
There was no way I was leaving yet. He was cold and… and… I just… wasn’t ready to leave yet. I cleared my throat. “Not so fast. You owe me a story, remember? Afairy tale.”
“Oh, right.” He sighed. “Fine. I’ll get changed in the, ah…” He gestured toward the bed area that was located a few inches awayfrom where I sat. It was separated from the main area by only a curtain.
