Page 64 of The Woman By the Lake

“Yeah. Got a workshop west of the house. During down time, I make furniture, refurb it, and create other pieces on commission. Like, I made the mailbox structure for your cabin.”

He watched her eyes grow wide.

“Wow, I’m impressed. That piece is magnificent.”

He gave her another squeeze, a smile with it this time, and muttered, “Thanks.”

“I’m seeing now, but barely, how you can afford your own lake,” she teased. “Seems to me you work all the time, even when you’re not working.”

“Got the ghost of Roosevelt Whitaker to thank for that,” he explained. “All that mess, people freaked about it, the trustees couldn’t keep the houses leased, and in the case of this house, the vandals from fucking with it.”

“Vandals?” she asked, openly shocked.

He lifted his chin. “Yup. Graffiti. Broken windows. Once, they tore up the pier, and I know that because the trustees hired me to fix it. Heard word they even threw rocks to break the windows when they had renters inside in the early days. It was a situation.”

“But nothing while you’ve been here?” she pressed.

He shook his head. “Nothing.” He smiled. “Not even a…boo,” and he gave her an abrupt squeeze on the last word.

Her body mildly jumped, then she shot him a fake glare.

To that, he grinned.

Her gaze dropped to his mouth, he felt it there, but after that, he lost her.

“That’s good,” she murmured, her thoughts seeming to fade to something else.

“Then again, I’m not a guy to fuck with,” he told her.

She came back to him, smiled in return, and remarked, “I’ve noticed that.”

“Yeah,” he replied, then got back to what he was saying. “Trustees also couldn’t give them away, but no one was buying. They tried several times to put all this property on the market. They’d get offers, but nothing near what it was worth, so they couldn’t take them. Even tried once to parcel off the land so people could build.”

She gasped in horror, and he chuckled.

“I know. But that didn’t work either. Years went by, the stink from the mess Lincoln made didn’t lessen, they were still paying property taxes out of the estate, not to mention all the legal action eating into it, something had to give. Dave and Brenda got your cabin for a song. I heard that, had a good look at this place, the resources and know-how to fix it up, bid seriously low thinking they’d tell me to go fuck myself. They took my first offer.”

“Boon for you,” she noted.

“Everyone in town thought I’d lost my mind. But now I got a legacy to give my son, so I’m laughing.”

“Right,” she whispered.

He gave her another squeeze and really should have walked away, moved it to the living room.

But he didn’t.

He looked back to the lake and felt it when she did too.

“You know what I’ve noticed?” she asked the view.

“What?”

“Well, two things. The only outdoor space is your pier, and that area set off to the side, which is surrounded by trees, your house and the driveway. That space just barely has a view to the lake, though nothing else, but your trees, house and driveway.”

“Yeah?” he said leadingly because he didn’t know where she was going with this.

“This house, this location, no balconies, no decks, no porches?”

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