“I was counting on it.”
She dashed inside, giving him the brief opening he needed to slip into the garage and switch off the well pump. He had to be quick, or Rilee would discover the water was off before he had a chance to drive away.
A twinge of guilt twisted his stomach as Ford rolled down the gravel road into town. Maybe Cadence didn’t want guests. She might crave privacy to remember and mourn Patty. The two had been quite close at one time. At least, Patty’s stories about her great-niece led him to believe so.
But she hadn’t given Ford the luxury of time. The narrow window of Patty’s request called for more drastic measures than he’d usually resort to. At the very least, he needed to buy more time. If he could persuade Cadence to stay the rest of the week, maybe it would be enough to convince her to stay indefinitely.
Though some rural residents were spread out along the very outskirts of Sunset Ridge, most could get anywhere they needed in four minutes or less in the summer. Seven in the winter with four-wheel drive or a snow machine.
He found Liam Davies in his garage bay, underneath an old rusted pickup truck. His husky lounged lazily in her dog bed nearby. Eyeballing the vehicle, Ford guessed it was an eighty-one or eighty-two. Most likely a hunting truck someone didn’t mind beating up a bit—and obviously had.
“Need that alternator?” Ford’s best friend asked as he scooted forward and hopped to his feet. Liam wasn’t the only mechanic in Sunset Ridge, but he was the best. If something had a motor, odds were good Liam could fix it.
“Yeah.”
Liam pulled a box from a nearby shelf. “Got it right here,” he said, and handed it over.
Ford dug his wallet out of his back pocket. “How much?”
“You better get back to your guest. Clock’s ticking.”
Liam knew all about Ford’s dilemma. About Rilee’s desire to go to an expensive college, and the task before him to help raise some of that money. But he wasn’t about to accept handouts. Liam had a business of his own to run. “How much?”
“Put that thing away. I’ll be asking you to return the favor soon enough.”
Reluctantly, Ford stuffed his wallet back in his pocket, unsure what Liam meant. But whatever favor he asked, Ford would come through. They’d been friends since they were old enough to be trusted in their neighboring front yards with only mild supervision, and inseparable ever since. There wasn’t a thing Ford wouldn’t do to help him out.
“I better head back. Rilee’s about to blow up my phone until she finds it on the counter.” Shutting off the water to his cabin—and incidentally, the neighboring rental cabin—was a brilliant idea that came to him while mowing the lawn. Not even Liam knew about this scheme. “Thanks again.”
“Hey, what she like?”
Ford paused at the door, escape so close. “What’s that?”
“The Whitmore sister you have to babysit. As city as you thought?”
“No. Not at all.” Ford let a slow smile spread. “She’s down to earth. Nice. Ed scared her, but I’m afraid she might try to kidnap Riggs and take him home.” Ford left out how attractive he found her. The way her blonde hair danced in the light breeze. How she’d taken so easily to a German shepherd the size of a black bear, and how it tugged at his heart. He shouldn’t feel that way about anyone again. It didn’t matter how many people told him it was okay to date again. He had his happiness, and he was grateful for it. But Ford had taken about all he could of the people close to him leaving.
“Huh. Not what I expected to hear.”
Ford didn’t have to say much. Liam was really fishing for anything about Cadence’s sister, Tessa. The summer they were all seventeen—the same summer the Whitmore sisters visited Sunset Ridge and Ford spent with his grandparents in Wyoming—Liam fell head over heels for the oldest girl. “I hear Tessa’s a chef in New York now,” Ford said just to give him something.
“I see.” Liam dropped back down to the floor, pulling himself beneath the truck and disappearing to his waist. Ford took it as his cue to leave. He still had to grab steaks.
He’d taken less than forty-five minutes to run both errands, but when he pulled into the driveway there stood Rilee with crossed arms and narrowed eyes; he might as well have been gone a week. Cadence stood beside his sister, her expression much less . . . frustrated. She wore an almost apologetic smile.
“We’re out of water,” Rilee said the second Ford was out of the truck. “How can I wash potatoes if we’re out of water?”
Calm and collected, he reminded himself. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. Ford, I need running water.” Rilee stared back from her firmly planted spot in the driveway, arms folded. “I need to take a shower before . . . tonight.” Her gaze dropped to her sneakers. Ford tried to ignore the hole in the toe, but he couldn’t. Just another thing to add to the list before Rilee left for college.New shoes.
“I thought we were doing steaks tonight. What’s tonight?” Though she was eighteen and he didn’t insist on knowing every plan she had, he preferred to know about the ones that would cause her to come home late. She knew it, too.
“We are—if I can wash the potatoes. And, it’s nothing. Just a thing.”
“You can take a shower over there,” Cadence jumped in, hooking a thumb to the rental cabin. Ford didn’t have time to wonder how long the two had spent getting to know each other during his absence. He’d purposely left his cell on the kitchen counter, hoping Rilee would seek out the neighbor. This plan was unfolding, so far.
“If our water is out, yours is, too.” He wanted to know more about Rilee’s plans, but as long as she was staying inside the city limits, he could trust her to make smart choices. “Same well,” Ford said, apologetically.
