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“I…I’ve been thinking about you a lot,” he said then he lowered his eyes to the tablecloth and his smile faltered. That was the part of him that was the most real. “I…don’t really know why, Kanan. I can admit that.”
So, my thoughts on politicians went quickly out the window. I had yet to see one become truly vulnerable, and unless Kendrick was a great actor, he was suddenly exposed.
“New guy in town, I guess.”
“Yes, that must be it. And you like working here?”
I didn’t want to be disloyal, but I was pretty honest most of the time. “It’s not my dream job, but I like the people a lot, those we serve and those I work with.”
“I don’t know if you know, but I have a farm up the river. Chickens, goats, sheep, and horses, of course. I am always looking for help if you’d like a change.”
Not a farmer, I kind of laughed. “The people I stay with, I help them out, but I’m not very good at it. They’ve got almost all those animals, but…I’m strictly city.”
He laughed with me. “I couldn’t help it, I was born and raised here, around animals. Still, there are any number of things you can do.”
It caught me as terribly strange, his being so persistent. I tried to read him, but I couldn’t. At first, I’d thought the man was cruising me, but he wasn’t gay, or at least, he didn’t show others he was. Not if he’d married two women. Still, there was tension between us, and it was thick. I wanted to know more. “Why? You don’t know me.”
“I know Noah Oliver,” he stated plainly as if that should explain it all. It did, actually, as Noah was a good man.
“He said you called, asking about me.”
“I don’t do applications; I’m much more interested in referrals.”
I sighed hard, and thought momentarily, that I felt relief. He hadn’t asked about me because he wanted a date or sex. He wanted to give me a job. I should have felt relief, knowing that the tension between us wasn’t sexual, but I didn’t feel that way. I was disappointed.
That right there should have made me turn down the offer, but it didn’t. I was too curious, I guess. “What exactly would you want me to do for you?”
A smile bloomed even as he brought his hands together on top of the table to clasp them, and that’s where he stared as he said, “I have a son. He’s about to graduate and leave home. I need someone to coach him on doing that.”
I shook my head to clear it from all the former thoughts I’d had, as they obviously no longer fit. “What? What are you talking about? Why can’t you do that?”
“He’s a teenage boy that doesn’t listen to me much. We don’t…understand one another. He’s decided to move far from here, and out of all the people in town, I thought maybe you’d know about that.”
I did, but my story wasn’t pleasant. “You asked more than Noah about me.”
His smile faded and he admitted, “I did, and I hope that doesn’t make you think too badly of me. It’s my son, after all, and if I want to hire someone to work closely with him, I need to know you’re an upstanding man.”
“You must have gotten a good report.”
“I did. You, like him, lost your mother. He never knew his, but he feels the loss, nonetheless. It’s tainted our relationship since my other wife left me and Colby. He blames me, though he knows that makes no sense.” After glancing at my food, he said, “I’m sorry. Let me let you finish eating. Come to my home tomorrow at nine in the morning if you’re off work here.”
I smiled and asked, “Did you already know I was off tomorrow?"
His voice became a little growl as he said, “Yes. I’m thorough, Kanan. And I’m very determined when I want something.”
My insides flamed as I heard that, and the way his eyes danced, I was terrified as much as I was curious. Still, he wasn’t someone I could deny anything to, not then, in that moment. “I’ll be there.”
He left my table, and I watched him order a cup of coffee once he got to the table of his own. As I finished my food, I watched him take two sips of the coffee and then leave it with a ten-dollar tip.
Gwen waited until he was gone before she came to sit across from me in the seat he’d left. “What the hell was that about?”
“He wants to hire me to…I don’t even know. Something to do with his kid.”
“Colby? Are you gonna be the manny or something?”
I laughed at the mere thought. I’d never been around little kids. “No. The other one.”
“Chandler? Are you freaking kidding me?”
