“Yeah,” he said. “It has.”
He felt his father’s eyes on him, so he turned his head. “Everyone has days where it goes wrong,” his father said. “But you learn from it. You’re a fast learner. And anything you can learn from, it’s not wrong.”
Clay nodded his head.
He learned something from every action he’d had.
Even spending all this time with Meredith.
He realized you can’t halt feelings that want to grow.
“We should get back to work.”
“My last piece of wisdom is never push away a woman that can build rainbows in the darkest parts of your soul. Everyone needs a rainbow now and again. Some more than others.”
His father walked away with those parting words.
27
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Meredith pulled into her parking spot at three thirty. She’d gotten a text that her window was installed, then let Clay know. He’d told her not to go into the house until he arrived.
She wasn’t so sure the reason for that, but she’d follow directions because, as she’d told him before, she always wanted to be the teacher’s pet and do what was instructed.
“Hi, Meredith.”
She got out of her car when she saw Karl’s front door open and him waving at her.
Did he just stare out the window waiting for her all the time? The guy needed to get a life.
She put a smile on her face like she always did. “Hi, Karl. How are you doing?”
“I’m good. I see they got your window replaced. I watched while they did it. Made sure they weren’t inside the house too long and didn’t leave the living room. You know, you can’t trust anyone nowadays.”
She had thought little of it with the repairmen being in her house. Ugh. Why hadn’t she?
Did she think they were going to just replace it from the outside and not go in? Her landlord was here while it was getting done, so she hadn’t really worried.
Then there was Karl. He made sure nothing could go wrong because he was the neighborhood watch, directing traffic, and watching out for everything going on around all the buildings, then letting the residents all know.
It was bordering more on creepy than helpful. All the other residents had said it before, but she ignored it.
“No,” she said. “You can’t.”
“Are you going to go in and look it over?” Karl asked.
“I’m waiting for Clay.”
Karl frowned. “Are you dating him? I thought you were friends.”
“We are dating,” she said.
Karl narrowed his eyes, then quickly adjusted them back. “You don’t think that’s a little early after everything you went through with Fredrick?”
Karl was always nosy. Sometimes it came in handy, other times annoying.
This was one of those annoying times.
