Page 63 of A Lesson for Laurel

“I used hers to shower. It was only a few days with no shower.”

“She’s giving you busy work to keep you out of her hair, isn’t she?” he asked, laughing. “Or she is keeping you so busy that you’ll get fed up and leave.”

He knew how his aunt worked. “I think so, but I told her too bad. I’m not leaving until she is out of the wheelchair. She can’t drive either. Even when she gets out of the wheelchair.”

“So you’re staying longer than the end of April?”

“I can’t tell the emotion in your voice,” Abe said. “If you’re excited to have more time next to Laurel or if you’re groaning because you’re doing your job and part of mine for longer?”

“Nothing more than a question,” he said. If he was feeling both of the things his cousin said, he’d keep his lips sealed on it.

“I’m not staying longer,” Abe said. “My mother is ready to strangle me. She’s got friends—as she shoves that statement down my throat daily—who would look in on her. They have all offered to take her to appointments and she knows how to call an Uber.”

“No Uber. She might be taken advantage of.”

“Dude, do you want to say that to her? She might throw my phone across the room and then I’d have to get another one.”

He laughed. “No, I won’t say it.”

“Good. I’ll be home at the end of the month. Once she is out of the wheelchair and walking with crutches or a walker for more than a few steps.”

“No walker!” he heard shouted behind him.

“Shit, she’s across the house and still heard that.”

“Aunt Carrie’s radar has always been up for words that she wants no part of.”

“Tell me about it,” Abe said. “I haven’t booked my flight yet, but it will be the end of the month. So you’ve got a few weeks to get your life in order with your new girlfriend. Then she’s going to be my neighbor. Or you can stay at the house still if you want.”

“I’ll go back home,” he said.

“You’re saying that now,” Abe said. “But you might change your mind.”

“Anything can happen and I’ve got to run. I’ve got a bunch of shit to do.”

“Thanks again,” Abe said. “I can’t tell you how much I owe you for this.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” he said.

He hung up after that and got back to work, but his mind was on the sexy neighbor and what he was going to do when his time was up here.

22

GREAT QUALITY

The following Monday, Laurel called her Aunt Helen. She’d gotten a text about Easter dinner Sunday and what time they were going to eat.

She’d completely forgotten about it and realized that she hadn’t even told her father or aunt she was dating Easton.

It’d only been about a month that she even knew him. But after this past weekend that they spent together, it felt as if she knew him better than anyone else she’d ever dated.

“Hi, Laurel,” her aunt said when she answered the phone. “You don’t normally call me.”

“I did this time,” she said. She’d gotten home ten minutes ago, changed, and then looked around to try to figure out what to have for dinner. There were leftovers from the weekend that she and Easton had cooked together.

They went out on Saturday night. Friday she cooked for him and he was sleeping in the chair by seven in the family room. She wanted to laugh but hadn’t. She felt bad when she realized how much he was working and how early he was starting his days.

He thanked her on Saturday for not giving him a hard time about it. She never would. It wasn’t her way.

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