Will rubbed his thumb over the cap of the water bottle as he tried to formulate an answer that wouldn’t get him killed. “You work a lot, and when you’re not at the bar, you’re either working on the house or sleeping. I figured if I helped out a little, you might be able to rest a little more.”
More silence filled the air.
“You did good work. I could use someone like you.”
Will glanced up, unsure if he’d heard what he thought he’d heard.
“I can’t pay you, but I can offer you a roof over your head.”
Will’s jaw dropped. “What?”
He was being offered a job?
Hector waved his hand around in the air. “Help me get this place into shape and you can stay here rent free. I’ll even toss in enough food to keep you full.”
Will didn’t understand. “I got you shot.”
Hector’s eyebrows lifted for a split second before sliding down low over his eyes. “No, you didn’t. Fred Wilson got me shot.”
“Yeah, but—” Will pressed his lips together when one of Hector’s eyebrows arched up high on his forehead.
“You are not responsible for the actions of others, Will. You are only responsible for your own actions.”
Will’s shoulders slumped. Even if he wasn’t responsible for the shooting—and he was pretty sure he was—his own actions hadn’t been that stellar.
“The sheriff said you did your community service for the things you’d done.”
Will nodded. He probably deserved a lot more time for the things he’d done, but he wasn’t going to argue about it. He knew he’d live with the weight of those things for the rest of his life. His guilt was way harder than any punishment they could give him.
“You want me to stay even knowing the things I did?”
Hector let out a little huff. “Look, Will, you’re no saint, but then, neither am I. I never claimed to be. The best we can hope for is not to be looking through prison bars or down at the bottom of a bottle at the end of the day.”
Will’s eyes rounded with each word. He didn’t know much about Hector other than what he’d picked up here and there, but he had no doubt the man was better than he was. Hector had a job, his own home, and there had been doubt about the respect in the sheriff’s voice when he had spoken to Hector.
Will had none of that.
“You need a place to crash. I need a little help around here. I see it as a win-win for both of us.”
Will wasn’t so sure of that, but he wasn’t sure of a lot of things these days. He’d gambled and put his trust in the wrong man, and now he was paying the price for that stupid decision. He was terrified of trusting someone again.
“Where’d you learn to refurbish trim?”
“YouTube.”
Hector’s brown eyes widened enough for Will to notice. “Seriously?”
Will nodded. “I saw what you were doing and knew you needed some help, so I watched a bunch of videos on YouTube.”
“Holy shit!” Hector started laughing. “That’s epic, man.”
A smile tugged at Will’s lips.
“Can you show me these videos?”
Will nodded as he reached into his pocket for his cell phone. It was the one bill he’d made sure he kept current. He had to have some way to stay in contact with people, assuming he ever found anyone he wanted to stay in contact with.
He quickly brought up the YouTube channel he’d seen that had all the DIY videos then held the device out to Hector. “There’s a lot of them, but this was the one I watched for stripping the trim.”
