Page 57 of A Little More

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“Nash?” Lexi walked into the house. The smell of sawdust gave her a jolt of energy. After a crappy night’s sleep and an aggravating drive down in the rain, she wanted to curl up on the sofa with Nash and pretend like being in his arms would last forever. Statem was a completely different world. This house and Nash had proved to be thesomethingmissing from her life.

First, she wanted to show him the perfect sink she’d found after hours of searching online. If he liked it, she could have it there by Monday. She wanted to see it tie the whole kitchen together so much she might lie and call in sick to work, something she’d never done before.

“Hey,” he said, walking down the stairs. His eyes looked tired, and he’d not shaved for the day. Or several. Pity and attraction wrestled for a spot at the top of her emotions.

“Are you okay?”

He shrugged. “Yeah.”

That was a big, resounding negative. “Is anything wrong at the work site for the store?”

“I haven’t made it out there to check on the flooding. We’ve been out making sure livestock was out of harm’s way.” He paused as he passed by, kissing her lightly on the lips before continuing into the living room. “I’m glad you made it okay.”

“But you don’t have livestock, do you?”

He stood at the window, staring out at the dark sky, the lightning illuminating his features every few minutes. “No, but my neighbors still need my help. Nothing much I can do for my fields until the water recedes and I can see the damage.” He continued to watch the rain in silence. The sharp lightning and immediate thunder cause Lexi to jump, but he didn’t flinch.

“I can head to your mom’s house for the night if you want to be alone.” She wouldn’t wait for him to remember that they only had a few more weeks together. That would put her on the desperate side of the equation.

That threat seemed to perk him up for a moment. “Sorry. The rain is bad. There’s a lot to do.”

“Could it really ruin the crops?”

“Too much water, with such sandy soil, is never good. Especially when it comes all at once. At last check, we’ve already had four inches since lunch. More fell in a couple counties north of us. All that’s going to flow down this way.”

She waited for a beat and then set her purse in the corner. “When will you know how bad it is?” She walked to stand behind him, both of their reflections in the window, his gaze distant. She kissed his shoulder, resting her cheek on his back, trying to give him some type of comfort.

“In the morning, if I can get out to the fields. The creek bed beside the house is filling up. It’s in the flood plain for the river, so I know at least two of my fields might be underwater. The wind is as bad as the water for crops. The peanuts are early, and the cotton stalks are still low.” He shrugged. “You never know, though.”

“I’m sorry.” She didn’t have any solution for him.

“You looked like you were going to tell me something.” He twisted around and rubbed his hands up and down her arms. “What was it?”

“I found the perfect sink for the kitchen.” She pulled out her phone, swiping to the page that had the picture. When she looked up, she caught a look of annoyance across his features. What was that about? “We can talk about it later.”

Why did it feel like a rejection? Over a sink?

He waved a hand toward her phone. “I already told you to do what you wanted to do. The white sink looks fine.”

“But it’s your house. You should have some input, and there are a million different kinds of white sinks.”

“It’ll go quicker if you make the decisions, Lexi.” The windows rattled with a massive rumble of thunder. He leaned closer to give her another absent kiss, but she turned her cheek. His eyes darkened a moment with irritation, but his phone chimed before he said anything.

He slipped it out of his pocket, reading the text, before dropping it back in. “Gotta run. Head back to my mom’s if you want. Or stay here. The satellite is out with the storm, so there’s nothing to watch on television. I don’t know how long I’ll be.”

He grabbed his baseball hat from the sofa and then his jacket from the peg near the door. A small puddle of water had formed beneath it.

He left, leaving her alone in his house, not caring if she’d come down to see him or not.

Apparently, the temporary arrangement was the best thing if after a few weeks he was already growing tired of her. She tossed her phone, the farmhouse sink picture still on the screen, onto the sofa and walked to the kitchen. It looked bigger than before with the new white drywall nailed to the walls. But the floor...

Nash hadn’t done anything she’d asked him to do with that. Granted, he looked exhausted, like he’d been going nonstop since the rain started Wednesday.

But after his reaction to the sink, it was obvious he didn’t want to help with the renovation. Withhisrenovation.

The cabinets she’d ordered sat in the corner of the dining room across the hallway. But they couldn’t install those until they stripped the floors. That’s why she’d asked him to do it a few weeks ago. Well, since she seemed to have an evening free, she could do it herself. At least, he’d rented the sander.

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