by Natalie Ann
“Thank you,” she said, smiling.
The soup was staying down, which was good. It seemed right now all he had was one hell of a fever and headache he hoped didn’t turn into more like hers was. She’d gotten that head cold afterward.
“You know…for someone that laid down the ground rules about not wanting anything serious, you’re doing a horrible impression of it now.” She opened her mouth, her chewed sandwich exposed as if she had no clue what she did. “What? No response?”
“Maybe the rules need to change,” she said.
“Maybe,” he said and realized the corner that he’d backed himself into just got a little tighter. Him and his big stupid mouth.
25
On The Spot
A few weeks later Crew could finally say he felt a hundred percent. He couldn’t remember a flu ever knocking him back like this one had.
He’d been out of work for three days with a fever and when it finally broke, he’d been weak and tired. Then he got a slight head cold but nothing that he couldn’t work through. In his mind, being outside in the fresh air did him good.
Then he got thinking the last time he’d had the flu was as a kid and he’d stayed home until he was better. Now as an adult, he had a job and had to push through it.
Well, he didn’t have to, he didn’t need to work, but no one knew that.
And if he was more than touched that Emily took care of him as well as his mother had, he’d kept that to himself too.
Though a few times he might have been weak enough to let it slip and was shocked he hadn’t. It’s not like she stayed with him for those three days. Nope. Just that one.
But the next two that he was home, she called and she texted and she followed up with him and offered to bring him anything he needed. He hadn’t needed much because, not only had she gotten him some food but she’d also gotten him the cold medicine that she used and a thermometer so that he’d know his temperature.
He’d found that endearing more than annoying.
It’d been so long that he’d been on his own and knowing someone was not only concerned about him but also checking in on him had warmed his heart on those winter days.
And now it was mid-March and the sun was shining and the temperature was a beautiful fifty-two degrees. Not warm enough to not be wearing a jacket, but he didn’t need his thick heavy one, nor did he need gloves and a hat.
He was toward the end of his route when he walked up the steps of the one home that he was thinking of buying. He’d been talking to his lawyer about what he’d need to do if the seller was willing. The door opened like it normally did, but it wasn’t Carm standing there waiting for his mail.
“Hey, thanks.”
He reached his hand out to put the mail in the young woman’s hand. He wasn’t sure who she was. “No problem. Visiting? Normally Carm comes to the door.”
“That’s my grandfather,” she said. “We are here checking on him for a few days. I’m here to convince him it’s the best thing to move in with my parents off the island. Just need to get the house ready to sell.”
“I told Carm I was interested when the time came if he didn’t mind letting me check it out before it was listed. Maybe we could work something out.”
“Hang on,” she said. “I’m Diane, by the way. Mom, come here.”
He waited a second and then another woman came to the door, one that was probably close to what would have been his mother’s age. “What is it, Diane?”
“This man said he told Grandpa he’d be interested in the house before it was listed. Did Grandpa tell you that?”
“Excuse my daughter. She can be a little rude at times. My father did tell me someone was interested, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to sell. We are here to try to convince him otherwise. It’s getting to be too much for him. Have you seen the house?”
“No. Just the outside.” Though the place was bigger than his, he wasn’t sure if it was nicer or not inside. Most likely not by the sounds of it, telling him it’d need some work before he could rent it out.
“Do you want to come in and look around?”
“I’ve got to finish my route, but I wouldn’t mind coming back in a little bit if you’re still around.”
“I will be. I’m Carolyn. We are here for the night.”
“I’ll come back around four thirty if that works,” he said, knowing that would give him plenty of time.
“Perfect. I didn’t catch your name,” Carolyn said.
“Crew Ackley.”
“All right, Crew. Thanks so much.”
He turned and went back down the walk and finished up his route. Things were falling into place faster than he’d thought. If he couldn’t get this place he was thinking of others, but he’d much rather not have to go through any realtor on the off chance that one of Emily’s family members might see it.
Not that a simple house sale would cross their desk, but he wasn’t taking any chances until he could figure out how to move forward and decide if or when he was going to let Emily know more about him.
“You’re back early,” Tyler said.
“I’d say the same about you. You’re never done on time.”
“I had to come back and get a few more packages that I didn’t put in the truck this morning,” Tyler said.
“So that is what keeps you out so long,” he said. “Why don’t you just load it all up at once?”
“It gets me back here talking with Andrea.”
He should have figured there was more to it. Especially since Andrea told him Tyler was a player. “It’s your time,” he said.
“Speaking of time. So Emily Rauch stopped me a few weeks ago when I had your route. When you were out sick. She was looking for you. I thought it was funny, but I knew who she was. I figured you were friends or something since you paid for that date. Then I started to ask around and to my surprise I found out you’ve been dating for months.”
“What’s so surprising about that?” he asked, trying not to get annoyed.
“Oh. I don’t know. I didn’t expect a member of the Bond family to date someone that wasn’t up to their snuff.”
He laughed. “I believe there is an insult in there.”
“No offense to you,” Tyler said, grinning. “I wouldn’t want to piss you off knowing you might deck me. But good on you. I figured it’d be nice to move up in the world myself, but I haven’t had the opportunity to run into one of them yet. Guess I’m going about this job all wrong.”
Crew held back his anger when he really wanted the knock the smug look on Tyler’s face off just like he’d jokingly assumed, but Crew wouldn’t be joking. “I think you’re going about a lot of things wrong, but again, your time, your life. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to clock out and have things to do.”
He finished up for the day and left, went home and showered, then drove over to Carm’s and rang the doorbell.
“Hi, Crew,” Diane said. “Come on in. Grandpa is in the living room scowling.”
“Is this a bad time?”
“No. He knows it’s best if he moves, but he and my grandmother have lived here for fifteen years after they retired. My grandmother passed away two years ago and he just doesn’t want to leave.”
“I can understand that,” he said. “I don’t want to cause any problems.”
“No problems,” Carolyn said, coming to the front. “My father understands and this house is more than he can handle. It’s just going to take him some time to get used to it. But we talked after you left and he said he chats with you often when the weather is nice. He’d like to see the house go to someone that worked on the island that would at least take care of it.”
“I would. I’m here and would make sure the house got the care it needed.” And looking around, it needed a lot.
“Let me just show you around. The roof was replaced eight years ago and the furnace five years ago. No central air, just window units.”
He nodded his head. That was common of the
older homes. This one had a lot of charm, but where his was a one level this was more a cape cod style. He figured maybe Carm was struggling going up and down the stairs, but then when he got to the back of the house there was a bedroom there with a full bath in the hall. Not connected like a master and probably added on at a later date, but a nice feature for sure.
The upstairs had three bedrooms and another full bath. The carpets needed to be replaced, the bathrooms and kitchen updated, but not horrible. They were probably twenty years old easily but usable. The big question was going to be a price. Just because he had the money didn’t mean he was going to hand it all over if a place wasn’t worth it.
“It’s got a lot of potential,” he said.
Carolyn laughed. “Yeah. It needs work. It’s solid and the big ticket items have been replaced.”
“The windows look like they need to be replaced.”
“Probably,” she said. “When my parents bought this place years ago some work had been done on it within ten years of their purchase. Other than the furnace and roof, I’m sure you can see not much more has been done.”
“Your mother liked it just the way it was,” Carm said.
Carolyn laughed. “I’m sure she did. Fifteen years ago when you bought it. But things change. Listen, Dad. I know it’s hard, but you know it’s the right thing to do.”
“I know,” Carm said. “But I sure will miss it here. Are you interested, Crew?”
“Grandpa,” Diane said. “I’m sure he needs to think about it. Don’t put him on the spot.”
“I am interested for the right price,” he said. “Without going through realtors you’d save your fee there. Why don’t you figure out what you want and give me a call.” He gave them his number and then left.
He was walking out the door, Diane holding it open for him, just when he turned his head and there was Emily driving by. Of all the rotten luck.
26
More Than It Was
Emily had to do a double take when she saw Crew coming out of the house with a woman holding the door waving at him with a huge grin on her face. A woman about her age and attractive on top of it.
At first when she’d seen the SUV in the driveway, she just figured it was a coincidence. There was more than one silver SUV on the island like his.
But she was still looking at it when Crew came out of the door and then turned and waved with a big smile on his face back to the woman.
She was trying not to jump to conclusions, but she was really curious what was going on.
He’d turned and saw her. He knew she saw him. Now the question was...who was going to bring it up?
If he had nothing to hide, then she would think he would.
She pulled into her driveway. She hadn’t planned on getting out early tonight, but she was tired and had a frustrating day all around and just wanted to get out of the building before she strangled someone.
Her garage door hadn’t even shut all the way when she saw tires pull into the driveway. She hit the button again and it opened back up and there was Crew getting out and walking toward her. “Hey,” he said.
“Hey to you too. In the neighborhood?” she asked. Crap, she wanted him to bring it up, but why be childish? It was obvious he saw her.
“I was. I was looking at that house.”
“Oh. I had no idea you were looking to buy a house on the island,” she said, relieved. “You could talk to someone at Drew’s if you want. They could let you know of things as they come up. I know it’s hard to find property here.”
“I’ve got it covered,” he said. “I’ve talked to the owner a few times over the summer. He was usually on the porch or this time of year he comes to get the mail when he sees me walking up. Older man, his daughter wants him to move off the island. I just mentioned I’d be interested if he wanted to sell. If he wanted to talk before he listed it.”
“That’s nice,” she said. “So he’s ready to?”
“I’m not sure about that, but his daughter is. Anyway, the granddaughter answered the door when I was dropping the mail off and one thing led to another. They asked me to come back and look at the house if I wanted so I accepted.”
She could only imagine what the “one thing led to another” meant with the other woman. “She was very pretty.”
“Who?” he asked following her into the house.
“The granddaughter. The one that was holding the door open when you left.”
He laughed. “Are you jealous? Did you think I was stepping out on you and that is why you didn’t wave to me but kept driving?”
She felt the flush fill her face. “No.”
“Yes,” he said, caging her in against the wall and forcing her to look at him. “Be honest with me. Did you think I was seeing someone else? Maybe delivering goods to another woman on the island besides you?”
She gasped. “I’d never.”
“Really?” he asked. “I don’t think I believe you. What’s going on?”
“Nothing. It just surprised me is all.”
“You don’t think I’ve got friends on the island? That I can’t talk to other people?”
Now she was sounding horrible in his eyes. “It’s not that. I just. I don’t know. It was a knee jerk.”
“I don’t cheat,” he said. “You’re more than enough woman for me.”
“I want to think that is a compliment, but I’m not so sure.”
“It can be any way you want to take it,” he said.
“I’m sorry I thought anything.”
He smiled. “So you did think it might be more than it was?”
“How was I supposed to know you were looking at houses?” she said. “You’ve never said a word to me about it before.”
He stepped back from her and she moved a few feet away. “You haven’t asked.”
“So I’ve got to ask everything?”
“I’ve told you that before,” he said.
He had, but she didn’t think she’d have to ask something like that. How would she even know or assume to? And it wasn’t that big of a deal and she didn’t know why she was making so much out of it.
But she did know.
What she knew of him was he didn’t stay in one place for long. Didn’t he say his tattoo meant freedom? She found herself falling for him and worried now that he might be ready to move on from her and leave again.
She never used to jump to conclusions like that before and wasn’t sure why she was so insecure about things now.
“Fine. So tell me what it looks like inside. I like that it’s not that far from me.”
“Which is why you saw me,” he said. “Not much to say about it. It’s old and needs a lot of work.”
“Most of those houses do unless they are rental properties or someone’s vacation home. But that isn’t on the water or near the water so I can see where it might need some things done to it.”
“More than some things,” he said. “They are going to get back to me with a price and then I’ll weigh it. As I said, a lot of work has to be done.”
“So you are looking to stay here?”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You’ve moved around a lot in the past few years. You told me that. But you’re looking to buy a house so I’m assuming you see yourself staying here?”
There, it didn’t sound so bad when she said it that way. Not like she was insecure or anything, hoping he didn’t question her on it.
He angled his head at her. “I’m not sure what is going through your mind, but if you have issues or concerns, then bring them up to me.”
“I think I have. Or I just did. I asked you if you were staying.”
“I’ve never owned a house anywhere else if that helps answer your questions,” he said. “If you’re asking me if I’ll retire here? Well, that’s hard for anyone to say this early in their life.”
She liked the smile on his face telling her that he wasn’t offended at least. “Could you do the work yourself or would you
need to hire someone if you bought the house?”
“I can do some things, but it needs an overhaul. Demo would be fun,” he said. “Anyway, don’t worry about it.”
“I just thought I could help you paint. But it could take time to get contractors and such. You could be paying rent and then a mortgage if you can’t live there during construction.”
“Like I said,” he said. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not.”
She frowned. He wasn’t short with his answer, but it wasn’t like him either. She noticed that at times. When he was done talking about something he’d say not to worry about it, or he had it covered. “Okay.”
“So why are you home early?”
Guess he was done talking about it. “It’s been a frustrating day. Penelope and I had to fire our night manager. That is never pleasant. Then there was a clogged toilet in two rooms. Three cancellations and two bad reviews on our website.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I can’t believe you are being bothered with clogged toilets though.”
“I wouldn’t be except one was so bad it flooded the bathroom and then leaked down to the room below. There was someone in that room, so we had to move them and comp them for the inconvenience of it. And that was part of the reason the night manager was fired. He didn’t handle the situation well. When the guests below noticed and called down, he brushed it off. He didn’t even go up and check.”
“Not good.”
“Nope. When I found out this morning it’s because the guests in that room said that it started to smell. Of course it did with toilet water staining the ceiling! Now the room needs to be professionally cleaned, the ceiling and between the two floors looked at. It’s just a mess. We called Bode and he will send a crew over immediately in the morning. But he came over to check it out first.”
“That’s a nasty expense too,” he said.
“It is, but that is what insurance is for if it comes down to it, though I’d prefer not to make a claim. Anyway. It was never ending today and I couldn’t take it anymore once we finally got it settled.”