AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He liked her style. At least she had one. That was more than he could say about any other driller he’d known, including him. As far as household items went, he owned a leather couch and a recliner, a couple of large-screen TVs, a king-size bed, some bookshelves and a basic dining set. Practical. Period. He hadn’t even bothered to furnish his extra bedroom, which was why Leo slept on the couch whenever he stayed over. Hendrix hadn’t hung many pictures, either—only the framed photograph he’d taken of a bear he’d encountered a few years back, while he was fishing.
“I like what you’ve done,” he said.
She looked startled by the comment. “With the house?”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you,” she said, but without much conviction, as if she didn’t trust the compliment in the first place.
She led him past the guest bath to the primary bedroom, explaining that the guest bath had a leak under the sink.
He remembered Kurt mentioning that at Hank’s and was glad it was currently unusable. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been ushered into Ellen’s bedroom, and he was curious enough about her that he was eager to see the whole house, especially the parts guests typically never saw. It helped him understand who she was and what she was really like—showed him the human side of Ellen, which broke down the prejudice his aunt had fostered in him from the time he’d moved in with her.
Hard as it was to admit, he was beginning to realize that the loyalty he’d given Lynn had led him to help her shut Ellen out. But the older he got, the more unfair he realized that was. Lynn’s own insecurities and unwillingness to share Stuart had convinced him that Ellen posed some kind of existential threat to their happiness and well-being.
Stuart’s daughterdidpose a threat to Fetterman Well Services, of course, which was what had kept him so defensive as an adult. But that factor—her competitiveness on the business front—had developed much later and probably as a result of their actions toward her.
Her room was decorated in beige and white, and the carpet he remembered, along with a lot of gold plastic wall decorations, had been removed. The original hardwood floors had plenty of scratches and some wear but looked much better. “Wow. Great job in here. That old blue carpet was the worst.”
“I need to tear out the carpet in the rest of the house, too, but I’m so tired when I get home at night that it’s the last thing I want to do.”
She was drilling wells they would’ve drilled if she hadn’t come to town, but he was trying to look beyond that, for once. “You did the work yourself?”
“Yep. You can learn anything on YouTube—except how to fix the leak under my other sink, apparently. I’ve tried everything short of replacing the pipes. Kurt must be right that they’re corroded.”
“I can take a look at it while I’m here, if you want.”
“That’s okay,” she said warily. “I’ve got it.”
She didn’t trust him. That was obvious. But since he’d saved her from whatever Jordan was going to do, it was difficult for her to rebuff him. Kindness was proving to be the best way to disarm her. He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t tried that before.
She had all white linens on her bed—even the duvet was a crisp white—with a beige sweater-knit throw across the bottom. She hadn’t bothered to make the bed this morning, but other than that her house was clean and tidy. He knew Lynn would rather believe she was some kind of slob, but she clearly wasn’t. He especially liked the way her house smelled. The diffuser in the bathroom gave off a lemony, earthy aroma he found very appealing. “I need to get one of these,” he said, picking it up.
She blinked several times before politely—and with evident uncertainty—saying, “I ordered it online. I can send you the link, if you want.”
That was a courtesy she’d provide to anyone. Lots of people shared such information. But this type of conversation was brand-new territory for them.
“That’d be great.” He doubted she’d meant she’d do it right away, but he tugged her phone from her pocket, turned it so that her face recognition software unlocked it and proceeded to enter his number. Then he called himself, so he’d have her number, too, and handed it back with a smile. “Now you can send it to me whenever you’re ready.”
He’d expected her to protest or grab her phone away from him before he could finish. Instead, her eyebrows knitted together as she accepted her phone and slid it back into her pocket. “You still haven’t told me what you were doing so close to my house that you could see what was going on with Jordan,” she said.
“I was waiting for you to get home.”
She pressed a hand to her chest. “Me?Why?”
“Because I wanted to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“About calling a truce.”
Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “And how, exactly, would that work?”
“Let me get washed up. Then we can discuss it.”
He got the impression she was tempted to insist he tell her right away, but one glance at his bloody shirt and she nodded. “Fine. Here’s a towel and a washcloth you can use,” she said, pulling both from a basket near the tub.
He stretched out the fingers of the hand he’d used to punch Jordan. They still throbbed but, thankfully, he didn’t believe he’d broken anything. He knew what that felt like; he’d fractured several bones in the opposite hand when he rolled his ATV a few years back.
