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I hesitated, gripping the business card so hard a cramp shot through my fingers. “I was thinking… I was actually wondering,” I corrected myself, my face starting to feel hot. “If you would go with me to look at a rental house.”
Silence.
“I just thought it would be better for Iris and me to stay elsewhere. Mom and I don’t always see eye to eye, and I’m putting a real damper on her dating life.” I forced a nervous laugh, hoping that he wouldn’t respond with more silence.
“Where at?” His voice brought me relief.
“Uh, it’s off of Emerald Street.”The same color as your eyes.
“When are you going?”
“In like thirty minutes.”
“Someone cancel on you?” I heard the tension in his voice grow.
“No, I just didn’t have the nerve to ask you until now—and it was last minute, to be honest.”
There was a pause of silence. “So you wantmeto be the one who goes with you?”
“Uh, yeah, why are you being weird about it?” I shifted uncomfortably in the driver’s seat. “If you don’t want to go, then just say that.”
He let out a sharp sigh. “Just send me the address, and I’ll meet you there.”
“I don’t want you to go if you’re going to be like this,” I retorted, feeling suddenly stupid for asking at all. “I thought after the night at the church—”
“I want to go with you, okay?” He cut me off. “Jesus, just send me the address, and I’ll meet you there.”
“Okay,” I huffed, hanging up the phone and texting him the address. He gave me a thumbs up, and I rolled my eyes. Gunner had moods sometimes, and either he was changing his mind after the night at the church…
Or he was just in a mood.
Either way, this was going to be interesting.
I parked opposite the attractive two-story home. It was nicer than I had expected it to be, the pictures not having done the white siding any justice. I saw a black SUV parked in the driveway and a middle-aged man in a beige suit sliding out of the driver’s seat. I instantly recognized him as the guy on the business card.
The clock in my car showed that I was right on time, so I went ahead and got out. If Gunner was going to show, he was going to be late, apparently. The sound of the door shutting must’ve caught the guy’s attention as he spun around, his eyes wide as he smiled.
“You must be Hallie?”
“That’s me.” I returned a smile, though the disappointment in my chest was borderline suffocating.
“I’m Jeff Leed.” He stuck out his hand.
I took it, shaking it. “Nice to meet you.”
“You, too. So, this is it.” He gestured to it. “Feel free to wander around as much as you’d like. I’m more than happy to give you a tour, but I’ve found that most people like to wander around themselves. We keep up with all the landscaping,” he added, as I paused to admire the flowerbed full of multicolored flowers, surrounded by a dark rubber mulch. “We like to maintain a certain appearance.”
I nodded. “It’s really pretty. I scanned the way it lined the perimeter of the porch and sidewalk. It was meticulously maintained, and I hoped the inside would reflect the same. The house had a nice, manicured yard, the grass a dark shade of green. My eyes flickered back to the porch steps.
“We rebuilt the porch a few years ago. In a house this age, you have to keep up with the remodels.” He sounded proud of himself as I headed up the steps, running my hand along the smooth wooden railing. My nerves were getting to me as I made it to the front door, pausing to scan the covered front porch. There was white swing hanging from the rafters, and my mind instantly pictured Iris and I enjoying it in the evenings.
She’d love this.
A smile crept across my face, and it only grew as the sound of a motorcycle engine caught my ear.
He is coming.
Jeff and I swung our heads as a jet-black Harley pulled in behind his SUV. Relief flooded my body as Gunner climbed off the bike, hanging his helmet on the sissy bar and tucking his sunglasses into his vest pocket.
