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She covered another yawn. “You don’t want breakfast first?”
The longer he stayed, the greater the chances someone would see his truck in the drive—especially if Rocko was watching Ellen’s house, as they’d guessed. “I’d better not. But I’ll be back tonight, since you owe me dinner,” he said and shot her a grin when she didn’t argue.
Leo called just as Hendrix was ready to walk out the door of his house.
“It’s me, Leo,” he said as soon as Hendrix answered.
“I’m glad to hear from you, bud. How are you this morning?”
He didn’t answer the question, just moved right on to the reason he’d called. “Are you coming over to see me? I was gone for a long time, Hendrix. I bet you missed me.”
Hendrix had been hoping to avoid Lynn and Stuart until their next regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday. He felt it would be smarter to keep his distance until he could, hopefully, learn who’d sabotaged the well and use that information to take the fire out of his aunt’s anger. Otherwise, the friction between them would just continue.
But he hadn’t accounted for Leo and the fact that his cousin could never wait that long to see him. “Do you want to go to work with me today? If so, I can swing by and pick you up.” He always enjoyed Leo, but thinking his aunt and uncle might cut him off made him eager to spend time with his cousin while he could.
“Yeah! You’ll come get me? I’ll be ready, Hendrix. I’ll change out of my pajamas and brush my teeth right now.”
“Good. Go ahead and do that because I’m on my way.”
Leo didn’t even bother to answer. He must’ve gotten so excited he forgot to finish the call, because Hendrix heard him yell to his mother that he needed to hurry up and get dressed. Then the phone went dead.
He smiled as he strode to his truck. He wasn’t sure where his life was heading. Just a week or two earlier, his future had been predictable. Now it seemed much less so. But he’d never seen Ellen as a major or intimate part of his life before. Now he did, and that changed everything.
Another call came in as he was climbing into his truck; he answered on Bluetooth so he could still drive.
“Dude, is it true?”
It was Kurt. When Hendrix saw his name on caller ID, he’d assumed this call would be about going out tonight or maybe target shooting or riding ATVs tomorrow. “Iswhattrue?”
“Are you and Ellen friends, after all this time?”
“Who told you that?”
“When I was at Hank’s last night, everyone was talking about how you helped her drill a well for Jay Haslem. I said that was impossible, that Ellen owns a business that competes with yours, and you were pissed off when Jay hired her instead of you. But Charlie Gerhart was there, and he said he saw you with his own eyes.”
News of him helping Ellen was already starting to circulate around town. He needed to figure a way out of the mess he was in before the gossip reached Lynn. “It was nothing,” he said, hoping he wouldn’t have to clarify further.
“You’re saying youdidn’thelp her?”
Hendrix couldn’t go that far. Charlie had seen him there. And the more he dodged the question, the more Kurt would press him. He figured a semblance of the truth might serve him best. “I screwed things up for her with her driller, so I took his place for a couple of days, that’s all. It was a unique, onetime situation.”
“But you hate her. You two are like oil and water. So, why would you step in to help?”
Judging from how things had gone in bed last night, as well as the first time they’d slept together, they weren’t nearly as incompatible as people thought. They weren’t nearly as incompatible ashe’dthought. “I just told you—I felt bad that I caused her to lose her driller, so I stepped in for a day or two.”
“I see. And...what’d your aunt have to say about that? She didn’t care about you helping her greatest enemy? Did Ellen split the money with you or something? Was it just a way to get a piece of the job?”
Hendrix hadn’t charged her. If Lynn foundthatout, she’d be even more pissed. Damn it! Why couldn’t Charlie mind his own business? “I was just making up for something I’d done wrong.”
Silence. Then Kurt said, “I’m still a little confused. Was that all there was to it? You two haven’t become friends or anything, right? Because Charlie said it looked like you were having a pretty good time together.”
Hendrix cursed under his breath. Jealousy was causing his friend to push so hard it left him very little wiggle room. “We were working, Kurt. That’s it. It was just a...a business deal.”
“Right. Okay. Well, I was thinking of going over there tonight to fix the sink in her guest bath. You wouldn’t mind if I did that, would you?”
Yes. Yes, he would mind. There was no way he wanted Kurt trying to move in on Ellen right now. He was too excited about her himself, and he didn’t want to lose her to a relationship that would be tempting if only because it was far less complicated. “Actually...”
“Actually?” Kurt repeated.
