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“I hate to tell you, but they’re calling for rain tomorrow too.”
“All the more reason to talk about the interior. You got a minute? I’ll need to order the flooring if it’s to arrive before I finish the roof.”
“Sure, come in out of the rain. Have you had supper?”
“I did. Is that coffee I smell?”
She opened the door wider and winced. “I forgot there was no coffee maker out there. I’m so sorry.”
“The gas station down the road sells it.”
“Even I have my standards.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t great.” But it had given him the fuel to make it through today. He took in the open apartment. A gray leather sectional took up a large chunk of the living area. The original wood floors had been restored to a sheen, but the wide baseboard was sporting several coats of paint—currently white. The kitchen lay just beyond and a short hallway ran alongside it. The walls sported a neutral shade of gray, but pops of color appeared here and there: pillows, wall hangings, and throws. An eclectic collection of picture frames propped up photos on the end tables and bookshelves.
“Make yourself at home. I have a Keurig and pretty much any kind of coffee you could want.”
“A dark roast if you have it. Any chance you have real cream? I’ve missed it.”
“Half and half?”
“Perfect.” Curious, he wandered over to the bookshelves.You could tell a lot about a person by the books she read. Unsurprisingly, Avery had two shelves full of medical textbooks. Below that, in alphabetical order by author name, were four rows of fiction. The genres were varied, everything from thriller to historical to romance. Classics like Austen and Brontë stood alongside the latest best sellers. He’d read four or five of the novels himself. Biographies and memoirs took up the bottom shelf.
A few minutes later Avery returned, coffee in hand.
“Thank you.” He took a sip, savoring the best coffee he’d had since his stop in Erwin.
“Do you like to read?” she asked.
“Very much. I brought a paperback on the trail, hoping it would keep me company at night. But it was too good—I finished it inside of a week.”
“You’re welcome to borrow any of these.”
“I’ll take you up on that. The nights can get boring. I’ve been playing solitaire to keep my brain busy.”
He followed her to the sectional, and his body ached as he lowered himself at one end of the beast. “This must’ve been a bear to get up that staircase.”
She chuckled. “It took both my brothers and me to make it happen. There were some unfortunate verbal exchanges involved, but in the end, I saved the relationship with a large deluxe pizza from Poppy’s.”
“Smart woman.”
Avery settled in the corner, pulling her legs underneath her. She cupped a pink insulated mug between her hands. “How are you feeling? I hope you didn’t overdo it today.”
“The rain saved me from working too long. I got a peek at the roof, and I’m pretty sure it has three layers.”
“Is that bad?”
“You really shouldn’t go beyond two. They’ll have to be torn off, and for that I’ll need a dumpster. I took the liberty of ordering one. I’ll reschedule if it looks like rain tomorrow. No sense paying for days we won’t be using it.”
“I didn’t even know you could order a dumpster.”
He grinned. “Well, I didn’t know URIs could be viral or bacterial.”
“I thought everyone learned that in school.”
The thought of his upbringing dimmed his smile. “I’m afraid I didn’t do very well in school.”
“You’re a self-professed avid reader, and you have an excellent vocabulary. Were you an underachiever, Wes?” Her voice was slightly flirtatious.
