Page 11 of Sicilian Savior

“I’ve got a good tempranillo that will go with this. You can pour yourself a glass if you want.”

I gestured to the cabinet to my left. Knox opened it up and found the bottle, then went to work uncorking it.

“So, you were saying?” I asked as I shook the colander. “You’re staying with your uncle?”

“He actually passed away a few months ago, and I inherited his place. That’s why I’m here. To fix it up and sell it.”

I set the colander back in the sink and turned around. “I’m so sorry, Knox. I had no idea.”

He shrugged. “Nah. I didn’t even know him. In fact, I didn’t even know I had an uncle until I got the call I’d inherited his place. Apparently, he and my dad had a falling out when I was just a kid, but since he had none of his own and no will, I was his next closest relative. So, I hopped on a plane from Costa Rica, stopped in Michigan to grab Axel from storage, and took a road trip here. I’ve been here almost two months now, just working on the place so I can get a good price for it. Which is a lot of work.”

“Costa Rica?” I asked.

“Yeah. That’s where I was when I got the call.” He took a sip of wine.

“And how long are you staying?”

“I’m not sure. I should have been farther along than I am, but Ned Koepsel kept forcing me to be his handyman, so I got behind.” He chuckled.

“Oh.” I hoped I didn’t sound too sad as it dawned on me he wasn’t a long-term tenant in Mountain Springs. It was nice having someone to talk to, and I realized he may soon be gone. I turned back around and walked the drained pasta back to the pot, dumping it in. “So, you’re not really a handyman?”

“Nope. Just a handy guy who got roped into being a handyman.”

“What do you do for work then?”

The silence stretched a little too long, and I glanced over my shoulder at him. He drummed his fingers on the table before answering, “I’m retired.”

“Retired?” My eyes widened. “How can you be retired? You can’t be more than, what? Thirty-five?”

“Thirty-six,” he answered. “And yeah. I’m retired. I was living in Costa Rica on a beach before this.”

I blew out a puff of air while I dumped the Bolognese over the now-plated pasta. “Wow. When you said Costa Rica, I thought you were just on vacation or something. You lived there? That must have been nice.”

“It was. Nothing but sunshine and margaritas.” He grinned, folding his hands behind his head as he leaned back in my chair. It creaked under his weight, cracking loudly before exploding into pieces and sending him toward the ground. I gasped, but he leaped to his feet in a split-second, moving so fast I wasn’t even sure he’d hit the ground.

How in the hell?

“Are you okay?” I set the plates on the counter and moved toward him.

Knox stood scratching the back of his head, looking at the remnants of my old chair. He glanced over his shoulder and clenched his teeth while giving me a sheepish look. “Shit. I’m sorry about that.”

“You? No, I’m sorry! It was my stupid chair that broke on you. You could have been hurt!”

That last statement caused a smile to spread across his face, and I noticed the dimples it induced. Dimples that softened his rugged exterior a little.

“Trust me. If I’m getting hurt, it’s not going to be from an old chair.”

I tipped my head, still trying to figure out how a man as large as him had managed to avoid ending up in a pile on the floor.

“How did... how are you not on the ground? You moved so fast.”

“Cat-like reflexes.” He jumped in place, whipping his hands out like claws.

The unexpected movement startled me, and I flew back, bumping the plates I’d set on the counter behind me. One of them fell toward the floor, and I reached out to grab it, but Knox’s hand got there first. He tipped the plate to slide the pasta back onto it before it all ended up on the floor.

“Whoa,” he said as he slipped it back onto the counter. “That. Was. Close. That would have been a tragedy to let even a drop of that go to waste.”

I clutched my chest, feeling my heartbeat pounding against my hand. I’d been closer to the plate than Knox, and yet he’d still managed to get to it before me.