Page 14 of Statler

Not Eliza.

She either fell or she didn’t.

Never once—before or after Holden—had she felt an ounce of initial warmth toward the men her father had made her date. Nor had she felt any attraction grow. Even the males with whom she’d gone out voluntarily in the past six months, attempting to find normalcy in her life, had never made her dormant heart beat even the slightest bit faster.

But now…thumpa, thumpa, thumpa.

Deep within her heretofore empty feeling chest, Eliza knew the man who was about to shmooze with her father, could be her “forever” guy.

Just as she’d felt it with Holden.

Crazy? Certainly. But Eliza guessed that was just the way she rolled.

This time, however, instead of succumbing, she had to be strong and completely ignore her feelings. She couldn’t let herself get caught up with her—possibly false flag—emotions. For one thing, it was true insanity, the idea of falling for someone on sight. And for another? Eliza gave an internal shiver. Look where her interest had gotten Holden.

Killed.

She didn’t want to be responsible for another death; certainly not that of the larger-than-life Statler.

On a more selfish note, she never wanted to suffer the loss of a loved one again.

Which meant she’d have to keep her distance from Statler.

It wasn’t going to be easy.

“Since I’m getting coffee,” Eliza addressed Statler as she turned her back to him while reaching for the inner office’s doorknob to give him entrance into the lion’s den, “would you like me to bring you a cup?”

“I’m good, thanks,” he returned warmly. “But while I’m busy, you might give my crew an idea of where we can go for food after this meeting wraps up. We’ve been on the road for a number of hours, and we didn’t stop to eat.”

Eliza thought she heard a groan from the huge man who stood in the corner, but she couldn’t be sure. What she could be sure about, was that she had them already covered.

She hoped she gave what was an appropriate chuckle. “You’ll be happy to hear, then, that Mr. Flazer had me prepare your cottages, and I took the liberty of stocking them all with not only the staples you might need, but also some lovely home-made meals from Granny Edith.”

“Granny Edith?” Statler looked amused.

Eliza nodded, her lips tipping upward.

Granny was one of her favorite people in town, and she was quick to tout the woman’s praises.

“That’s right. Our dear Granny has been a Liminal resident for years and years, and when she retired from this job after training me, she turned her talents to cooking and baking,” Eliza explained. “She’s an unbelievable culinary artist, and since we don’t have any place to buy wholesome, precooked food in town, she’s filled a niche we never knew existed. And her meals are magic.”

“Sweet,” the giant against the wall extolled.

“I, uh, hope you find everything at the cottages to your liking,” she added nervously.

The five structures she’d been in charge of preparing, she’d discovered, had been recently abused by the foundation crew her father had hired. It had taken her several days of hard work to get them cleaned up enough to be not only habitable, but welcoming.

With her father’s grumbling approval, she’d purchased new towels, sheets, blankets, and comforters for the tiny homes, since the ones the places were stocked with had been left…unusable.

That was a mild word for how disgusting she’d found everything.

Had the previous crew gone to bed with their cement covered boots on? It sure had looked like it.

“I’ve tried to give you everything you’ll need,” Eliza continued. “But please, if anything isn’t to your liking, tell me immediately.”

Was she babbling? Perhaps. But the group all seemed to be taking it in.

“Great,” Statler lauded as she finally pushed open the door to the inner sanctum. “And we look forward to having you show us where we’ll be staying.”