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“You don’t have anyone to help you?” he asked, even though it was none of his business.
She stuck out her lower lip and blew out a breath that caused some stray strands of hair that had fallen on her forehead to fly up. “It was sort of a sudden thing.”
“Moving was sudden?”
She nodded.
“How sudden?”
“Um…” She shifted her weight from her right to left foot. “I just found out I got the house yesterday.”
He felt like she wasn’t telling him the whole story which normally he would appreciate. Most of what people shared was TMI in his opinion. But for some reason, with Vivien, he wanted to know everything. “You closed on the house yesterday?”
Her lips pursed and he had the sudden urge to lean down and press his own to them. “No, I was gifted the house yesterday.”
That made zero sense to Glenn. “Like you won it in a contest, or something?”
“Or something,” she clipped defensively.
Her tone and short reply made him realize he was being an asshole for asking so many questions. “I’m sorry it’s none of my business.”
He started to walk away but she reached out and put her hand on his forearm. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
The moment her fingers touched his skin a rush of energy unlike anything he’d ever felt before spread through him. It felt electric. It surged through his entire body.
She must have felt it too because she pulled her hand away like she’d touched a hot stove before continuing, “Um…I didn’t mean to be rude I just… Nonna, a woman who is like a grandmother to me gave me the house. I thought she was selling it and I’ve been helping her with the renovation, you know choosing flooring and cabinets and everything, and then yesterday when I thought we were meeting the new owners here, she gave me the keys and told me she wanted me to have it.”
“That’s…” Glenn searched for the right word to describe what it was. “That’s incredible.”
She sighed, not looking like she was too happy about the situation.
“Or not,” he amended.
“No, it is! It’s just…” Viv fanned out her arms towards the house. “I feel guilty. It’s too much. I don’t deserve this.”
Her statement hit him square in the chest. So many people these days felt entitled to things. Things they hadn’t earned and truly didn’t deserve. It was refreshing to see someone who didn’t think that way.
“Does she want you to have the house?” Glenn asked.
“Yes.” Her eyes widened. “She insisted that I take it.”
His left shoulder lifted in a shrug. “Then you deserve it.”
They stared at one another for several beats and something he couldn’t describe passed between them. He might not be able to see it or touch it, but that didn’t mean the exchange hadn’t been tangible. It was as real as the oxygen he was breathing.
She blinked and shook her head bursting the bubble they’d been floating in before reaching down and starting to grab the bin, but he beat her to it.
“I said I can get it,” she reiterated as she put her hands on her hips.
“I’m not going to let you take thirty of these in the house by yourself.” He kept a firm hold on the bin. She seemed like someone who would play dirty and grab it away from him if he let his guard down. Not that he’d mind seeing her play dirty. He actually had several very dirty scenarios playing in his mind right now starring her.
She bit the inside of her mouth, and he could see that there was an internal battle going on over whether or not she would allow him to help her. He didn’t consider himself to be an emotionally manipulative person but his next move was exactly that. “If my Aunt Rosalie and Uncle Sean found out that I didn’t help you, I’d be banned from Sunday dinners for life.”
He hadn’t actually ever attended a Sunday dinner at his aunt and uncle’s house, but from what he’d heard they were infamous, so he figured there was a good chance she would have heard of them.
“Well, we can’t have that, can we?” She smiled and he felt his entire body relax.
He hadn’t even realized how tense he’d become thinking that she was going to deny his help. Or maybe he was just tense from all the dirty playing he’d pictured the two of them doing.
