Page 36 of Saltwater Memories
He laughed. “No, she’s my landlady. She’s owned this house for, oh I don’t know, a hundred years? I rent a room upstairs from her.”
“Oh.”
“I’ve been trying to slowly fix things up for her. She has a son, but he lives in Oregon and can’t help much. Oh I’m sorry – can I take your coat?”
“Sure,” Amanda said, unbuttoning the black peacoat and handing it to him.
“I’m just going to come out and say it,” he said in a way that made Amanda’s heart skip. “You look stunning.”
She smiled. There was that salesman. He almost had her for a second. “You don’t look so bad yourself. Is that the suit that I almost ruined?”
“Similar! But no, this is my ‘fancy’ tuxedo. Nothing’s been spilled on it. At least not yet.”
“Is that a dare?” she said with a laugh, taking a seat at the kitchen table.
“No, I already know you can do it. What would you like to drink? A glass of wine, water, beer…a margarita?”
She looked around. “I wouldn’t expect Mrs. Holland to have a full bar.”
“Oh yes. She has a drink every night at seven. Just one. Her doctors keep telling her that she has to stop, but she refuses. She says that she hasn’t gotten to this age by following their advice.”
Amanda laughed. “I’m surprised that she shares this information with you. And in that case…I guess I’ll have a margarita?”
“Coming right up! And she doesn’t exactly tell me these things,” he shook his head, a half smile on his face. “I drive her to her appointments and they assume I’m her grandson. It wasn’t technically part of our deal, but the first month I was here, she nearly took out a neighborhood kid while driving. Ever since then, I drive her wherever she has to go.”
Oh my gosh. Was he serious? Was this his real life?
Since when was Will…selfless? Driving this woman around, fixing up her house?
Whyhad she ever listened to Morgan!
“Are you okay?” He set down the lime squeezer.
She shook herself out of it. “Yeah, sorry. Just spaced out for a second.”
He eyed her for a moment before returning to his drink-making duties. “Okay.”
“Can I ask why you decided to stay here? I don’t mean to be rude, but the way that you talk about money, I thought you’d live somewhere – ”
“Nice?” he suggested.
Amanda smiled. “No, just – you know, fancier.”
He nodded. “Yeah. Well, that’s the thing. This place is good enough. I’m on San Juan a lot now, and like I told you, my dad’s back injury ruined his business. So I’ve been paying for my parents’ mortgage for the past couple of years. And I help my sister out too – she’s in school. She has some bad spending habits that they can’t support.” He laughed to himself, “Honestly, I shouldn’t be supporting those either, but she’s almost through.”
Oh dear. Oh dear ohdearoh dear. So not only did he take care of this strange, unfriendly lady – he took care of his entire family too?
Maybe he only liked Amanda because she, too, was a strange, unfriendly lady!
No. He was nice to her because he was a nice person. Morgan had been wrong. This whole plan was wrong. She shouldn’t have come here, tricking him into taking her to this ball so she could spy on Lenny.
She swallowed, feeling her throat drying up. Amanda was the lowest of the low. Scum of the earth. Will was a nice guy – what was she thinking?
She felt the room spinning and reached her shaky hand to take a sip of water.
Will had been distracted and missed all of this. After a moment, she managed to choke out a response. “What’s she going to school for?”
“Dental hygiene,” he said over his shoulder, shaking the drink shaker. “She had a tough time when she was younger; she went to the community college after high school, but she ended up dropping out. Had a rough few years after that, but now she’s doing what she wanted to do.”
