Elliot worried his lip and sighed. “Every time I close my eyes, I imagine that guy in my bedroom.”
“That’s not an easy thing to get over. I’d be more surprised if you weren’t nervous.”
“So it’s natural for me not to have slept well?”
They walked to Winston’s Jeep as they spoke. “It is, trust me. You feel violated.” He disarmed the vehicle and opened the door. “But it’ll be all right once we fix the lock. Let’s go.”
Elliot couldn’t figure Winston out. One minute he seemed friendly; the next he was short and almost impatient, but Elliot, being naturally curious, couldn’t resist learning more about his gorgeous new neighbor and asked the usual background questions to fill the silence.
“You haven’t been living in the neighborhood long, right? Where did you move from?”
“Queens.”
Well, that didn’t tell him much of anything. “This is a nice area. I bought my parents’ house from them when they retired and moved to Arizona for my father’s health. I lived in Clinton Hill.”
“Thanks for the background information.”
Wow. “I was only trying to make conversation.”
“I’m not much on small talk.”
“So I see. Don’t worry. I won’t bother you anymore.”
They drove another five or so minutes before Winston stopped at a red light and huffed out a sigh. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. Working the special details I do, you learn not to speak unless you have something important to say.”
“What do you mean by special details? If you can say.”
“I’d rather not.”
Elliot bit his lip. “Fine. Never mind.” He didn’t need to beg someone to be his friend.
They pulled into Home Depot, and he hopped out of the car as soon as Winston turned off the engine.
“Hey, where’re you going?”
Elliot didn’t bother to answer and walked inside. Overwhelmed by the vast space, he wandered the aisles, unsure where to go until he glanced at the overhead signs that pointed him to where he needed to be.
“Of course, I have no idea what I’m looking for,” he muttered to himself as he searched the rows of shelves, finally coming across a collection of locks.
“That’s why you shouldn’t have run away from me.”
With a sinking heart, Elliot turned around to see Winston leaning against the shelves, a metal lock in plastic packaging dangling from his fingers.
“How do you know that’s the right one?”
“The first thing you do when you need to repair something is go to the source. I was up early this morning for my run and looked at the window lock.” He held up the lock. “This is the one you need. Let’s go.”
He walked off with his long-legged stride, leaving Elliot to hurry after him. At the register, Elliot grabbed the lock out of his hand.
“I don’t need you to pay for it.” He gave the cashier his credit card, then turned to Winston. “Thank you for getting the right one. I appreciate it.” The words came out stiff and formal, but he had no idea how to act around this man who seemed to be simultaneously considerate and prickly. He reminded Elliot of Wolf, but they didn’t have fifteen years of friendship behind them, where he could tease him or say what was on his mind.
And yet the guy had gone out of his way to do him this huge favor…
Winston watched him carefully with that all-knowing gaze, and Elliot, as he knew he would, broke first.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you.”
“It’s okay. You’re still on edge.”
