Page 9 of Chasing Honor

She placed her hand on her hip, much like my mom did when she was annoyed with my dad, and looked me over from top to toe.

“I’m sorry, but that’s none of your business,” she said.

“Come again?”

“You heard me. I’m not telling a stranger why I’m doing anything. For all I know you’re a crazy person. Sorry to have bothered you—again. I’ll go check the address.”

I wondered if she was the woman coming to look at the room. The timing was right.

“What’s your name?”

“Hello. Did you miss the part about you being a stranger and me not telling you anything?”

Something strange ticked inside of me. My dad would call it instinct, my mom would call it an aha moment. Whichever you called it, I suddenly understood what my father had been saying all these years. There was something sexy as fuck about this woman throwing me attitude. The cop in me was kind of proud she wasn’t divulging any personal information. But the impulsive man in me wanted to yank her close and kiss the sass right off her tongue.

“Honor?” I asked.

She rocked back on her feet, and her green eyes sparked to life.

“How do you know my name?”

“A wild guess,” I teased.

“Right. Because Honor is the first thing that pops into most people heads when they try and guess a name. Now if you’d said Mary or Donna or something as equally common, I might believe it was a wild guess.”

“I bet you’re looking for a room to rent.”

It was fascinating what her face gave away. She wore her emotions boldly.

“Ethan?”

“That’s me,” I confirmed. “Would you like to come in and look around?”

I held the door open and stepped aside. She stood there, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, then suddenly nodded as if she were having some sort of internal discussion.

“I’d like that,” she mumbled and crossed the threshold, taking in the large, open downstairs.

The house was too much for Carson and me, but it had been a foreclosure, and my dad and uncles had helped me fix it up.

“This is nice.”

“Thanks. Around here is the kitchen.” I led her farther into the room and around the corner into the breakfast nook.

“Now, this is amazing.”

The kitchen was a housewarming present from my family; all of them, my aunts and uncles had pitched in too. My Aunt Emily had insisted the kitchen was the soul of a home and it should be the best room in the house. They’d gone all out with top-of-the-line appliances. Too bad I was a shitty cook.

“Through there is the laundry room and garage.”

I turned and walked to the other side of the house and opened the door to the downstairs bed room.

“This is the room. It is a modified mother-in-law-suite. It has a private entrance going to the side yard and a private bathroom. You’ll have to share the kitchen and laundry.”

“May I?” She asked motioning to the door.

“Yeah. Take your time. I’ll be out here.”

She walked into the room, and I went back to the kitchen. For some reason I hoped she liked it and wanted to move in. I kept telling myself it was because I was too tired to keep showing the room and if I wanted Carson to have both cheer camp and dance, I needed the money. But that wasn’t the entire truth. I could scrape by and give my daughter want she wanted without renting the room, and as lazy as I was, I’d wait until I found the right renter. There was just something about Honor that made me want her to move in. Which was crazy because the first time we’d exchanged words I was a dick to her, and this time she’d been in my house just a little over ten minutes.