The fire between us had been building for two days now, growing stronger with every accidental touch and every charged silence.
Our lips were just inches apart. Was this the moment when I couldn’t handle the hunger any longer? Right here in Loretta’s house?
Was I going to kiss this woman?
Fuck… I definitely was.
I leaned in to close the final distance between us, my lips brushing hers, right when Mrs. Andretti came around the corner into the room.
“Oh my, I didn’t mean to interrupt!” The old woman’s eyes twinkled with poorly concealed delight. “I made lunch for all of us. Would you like to take a break and enjoy some pot roast and potatoes? Or maybe I’ll give you two some privacy to finish your… inspection.”
She literally tittered as she left the room, and I knew without a doubt that this particular bit of gossip was going to fly around the mountain, reaching every last person who lived here before the end of the night.
Great. I didn’t love parading my private life around town.
But I’d learned a long time ago that if you didn’t want it hitting the gossip stream, you needed to keep your head low and your business to yourself. Almost kissing the claims adjuster in a client’s homedidn’tcount as keeping my head low.
Rachel pulled back, her cheeks flushed. “Pot roast?”
I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling heat creep up my face. “Sometimes folks can’t pay, so they give me a good meal instead.”
“Will work for food?”
“Yeah. I suppose so.”
Actually, I spent more time working for free than working for pay. Sometimes it was a problem, but not one I wanted to fix. Ineededto help my neighbors up here on Red Oak Mountain. It was coded into my DNA.
The ones whocouldpay? I was more than happy to take their money. But folks like Mrs. Andretti? She needed my help. How else would she get the work done? She lived on social security alone.
Rachel’s expression shifted as she looked at me, something new entering her eyes. Like she was seeing me differently than she had before. “You really are the small-town hero, aren’t you?”
“Naw, I just like to help out a little when I can.” Then I changed the subject. “You want some lunch? I can tell you fromexperience that woman knows how to cook. You might never want to leave Red Oak Mountain after you’ve sat at her kitchen table.”
She gave me an unguarded smile, similar to the one she’d given me on her first night here when she’d spotted my couch.
Then she breathlessly said, “Itdoessmell delicious.”
We followed our noses to Mrs. Andretti’s modest kitchen, where the most incredible scents were wafting from the stove.
The roast was delicious, as expected. Rachel looked like she was having a religious experience eating it. A home-cooked meal had to be better than what she got on the road.
After lunch, while Mrs. Andretti washed dishes in the kitchen and fed the dogs leftovers, Rachel and I stood in the muddy yard, looking up at the roof.
“The repairs you did last year,” she said quietly, her professional mask back in place. “They weren’t permitted, were they?”
My jaw clenched. “No.”
“You used salvaged materials and… non-standard installation methods.”
My chest tightened. “What I did last year shouldn’t matter.”
“And what about this year? Does she have receipts to show how much she spent on the work?”
My pulse beat erratically in my throat. I grunted out, “Sheneedsthat money. And what’s the difference between her waiting and having it done by insurance money or me taking care of it for her? Her house would have been ruined if I waited for the insurance money to come in.”
Rachel gently said, “But if she didn’t spend any money on the repairs, you know that means there’s no claim to pay out.”
I took in a deep breath and let it out again before speaking.
