“Yup. Broken. Dead. Kaput.” I couldn’t believe I’d just used an onomatopoeia in front of him like that and mentally smacked myself again.
“Oh. Well, if you need help fixing it, I could give it a try.”
“You want to help me fix my fridge?” My brow furrowed. “Shouldn’t you be at work—you know, removing ingrown toenails or something?”
He chuckled. “It’s no big deal, honestly. My afternoon patients canceled, so I have a few hours to kill.” He neither confirmed nor denied the podiatrist theory, leaving me still itching to know more about him. “Unless, of course, you want to pay a handyman… but I’ll warn you, Joe is the only one around, and he’s not exactly cheap.”
The lopsided smile on his face turned into a playful smirk.
Not exactly cheapwasn’t going to work for me. And I really wanted to buy food that wasn’t in a Styrofoam container.
“Well… if you’re sure.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Are you doing anything this afternoon?”
“I think you already know the answer to that,” I said pathetically, letting out a weak chuckle. I should’ve tried to play a little harder to get, but I was terrible at putting up a front. I was unemployed and had no plans. It would just prolong the inevitable if I tried to hide how pathetic I was.
“Great. I’ll take my groceries home, grab my tools, and I can head over there after.”
I couldn’t believe I was agreeing to this. That would mean he’d be seeing the inside of the cabin and all its humble glory.
We both started toward the front of the store, and Jay gestured for me to go first in the checkout line. I did my best to ignore his presence behind me, but despite my efforts, I found myself peeking over at him.
One of the workers opened up another lane and invited Jay to check out. She had curly silver hair and brown eyes, and she was all smiles as he put his things on the conveyor belt. They immediately started chatting like old friends.
“You didn’t come to Knitting Club last week. We missed you,” the checkout woman said.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t make it, Patti. I had an emergency down at the office I had to help with.”
Knitting Club?
“Well, we’re getting together later this week. The ladies would love to have you stop by.”
“I’ll be there,” he said, flashing her a smile that made the woman’s cheeks pinken a bit. She tucked a curly silver lock behind her ear before fumbling to finish ringing up his items.
I got the last of my ramen packs rung up and paid for.Grabbing my bags, I started walking out to my car, still confused about whether I’d heard correctly that Jay was in a knitting club.
I opened the trunk, and suddenly he was there, helping lift my things into my car.
“Can I get your number? I’ll text you when I’m headed over.”
“Uh, yeah, sure,” I mumbled, handing him my phone, figuring it was practical enough.
A few moments later, he handed it back with another half-smile that had my heart skipping a beat.
“I’ll see you soon.”
He walked away, and I watched him get into a sleek black truck a few spaces down. My insides twisted with nervous butterflies as I got into my own car and turned the key in the ignition.
CHAPTER 7
When I turned down the road to my cabin, I came to a small fork in the road where I watched Jay’s truck disappear down toward his mansion on the lake. He was grabbing his tools and would be meeting me back at my place.
I did my best to tidy up the cabin while I waited. But there wasn’t much more I could do to make the place more presentable. It was pretty clean, but there was no fixing the shabby décor or the vintage furniture, which were both in desperate need of an upgrade. It was just going to have to do.
I stepped out onto the porch again just as Jay pulled up to my place with a bunch of tools in his trunk.
He stepped down from the driver’s seat, and his shoes crunched on the gravel as he neared.
