Elsie #2
He snorted. “I doubt you stepped foot in a hardware store three separate times.”
“What can I say?” I shrugged. “It’s not often that I find myself with a hankering to tinker around with tools.”
“So, it was uneventful?” he asked pointedly.
It was clear he was searching for some specific answer from me. I just didn’t know what that might be.
“Oh my God,” I groaned. “It was fine. I don’t know? I’m pretty sure Ava hates my guts, but—”
“Did she say something to you?” he responded, gruff enough to take me off guard.
Shit. They were practically family. He might’ve eased up on the overt hostility toward me, but I doubted that bad-mouthing his sister would win me any favors.
“No,” I answered hurriedly. “I just meant—”
“What did she do? I’ll talk to her.”
“No!” I burst out. “God, no. It was fine. Really. Especially after we ran into her friend. She was in a much better mood after that.”
“What friend?” he asked.
“Some guy. I think his name was Theo or Thor or something?”
“Thor? Really?”
“I don’t know!” I threw my hands up. “I met him for all of two minutes.”
“Clearly he wasn’t very memorable, then,” he said, lightening up a bit.
“He was fine.” I shrugged, not wanting to offend him since everyone in this town apparently had some type of relation to each other. “He’s funny.”
“Funny?” Will frowned. “What, did he tell you a knock-knock joke?”
“No.” I huffed. “I just mean, he’s very charismatic.”
Will chewed on his lip, apparently thinking heavily on the matter.
“What’s with the cross examination?” I blurted out, anxious at the way he was watching me.
“I feel like I’m failing some type of test I didn’t even know I was supposed to be taking!
And trust me, I never did well on tests!
Not even in high school when I had a chance to study!
Which I never did, but that’s besides the point—”
“Sorry,” Will blew out, knuckles unclenching from their backward grip on the counter. “I should go.”
“Great, I’ll walk you out,” I told him, before my socks sent me sliding across the floor and nearly wiping out in the process.
I braced myself, closing my eyes against the impending impact, but before my head made contact with the hardwood floor, Will’s hand wrapped around my arm, tugging me upward in one swift pull.
“Geez.” He blew out a breath, as if I’d scared him. “Do you have any self-preservation instincts at all?”
I blushed again, wondering how I always seemed to embarrass myself around him. And how he was always saving me.
“Apparently I don’t need them with you around,” I said, then glanced down to where he was still holding me. “Thanks.”
He clenched his jaw before releasing his grip.
We made eye contact for a second too long, and I couldn’t bring myself to look away.
That’s how I knew it was too long—because I was trapped. His eyes were pretty. Really pretty. Maybe the nicest I’d ever seen on a man before.
They were a mix of green hues and warm amber, reminding me of a forest from which I had absolutely no desire to escape.
Which was sort of confusing because it was Will. A relative stranger who was prickly and abrasive, and solitary.
And also kind, and helpful, and handsome.
And staring right back at me as if he had no plans to look elsewhere for the foreseeable future.
Until my phone rang, and we sprang apart as if someone had walked in on us in some type of indecent position.
Which, with the intimacy of the eye contact we’d been making, didn’t feel that unrealistic.
“Are you going to get that?” he asked when I made no move to retrieve my cellphone.
“Nope,” I told him, regretting the way thoughts of Andrew flooded back into my head the moment the phone started ringing.
It was probably him again.
And I was determined to ignore him again.
The ringing ended, only to start back up again a moment later. Will stared in the direction of the living room where I’d flung the phone earlier, then back at me with a look that said, you’re really not going to answer that?
I just stuck my tongue against the wall of my cheek and looked around the kitchen absentmindedly, waiting for it to stop once more.
It did.
And then started up again once more.
“Okay, it sounds like someone’s really trying to get in touch with you,” he said, making a beeline for the living room as if he was going to answer it himself.
“No!” I hurried after him. “Just let it ring.”
“No,” he said.
“Why?”
“It’s annoying,” he said, looking over the room before turning back to me. “Where’s the phone?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I threw it somewhere in here earlier.”
“You threw it?” he asked incredulously.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I felt an urge to.”
It rang again, and now even I was sick of the noise. Letting out a sigh, I started reaching my hand into the couch cushion only to come up empty.
Dropping to the floor, I laid on my stomach trying to see where it had landed.
“Do you have a flashlight?” I asked him.
He pulled his phone out, flicked the light on, and handed it to me.
His screensaver was the traditional iPhone wallpaper, as if he had never changed it from its factory settings. I scoffed. Maybe he didn’t even know how to.
He was only a year or two older than me, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was the type of guy who acted like an old man despite only being in their late twenties.
“Now, what would you have done if you needed to make an emergency phone call but couldn’t because you threw your phone somewhere in here earlier?”
“Then,” I huffed, extending an arm underneath the couch until I found the object in question, “I would run outside and yell ‘help’ which every single person would hear and come to assist because this town is so damn small.”
I handed his phone back with more force than I intended.
“Then why are you here if it’s too small for you?”
“I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” I told him with a scowl.
“So, do you then?” he asked gruffly.
“Do I what?” I retorted, an edge to my own voice.
I didn’t even know why we were arguing. All I knew was that being around him made everything feel heightened in a way I couldn’t explain.
I never wanted to back down when he stared at me with that challenging look in his eyes, and sometimes, it made me want to argue just for the sake of arguing.
If only because I’d rather attribute the way my pulse spiked around him to agitation rather than any other reason I didn’t want to contemplate.
“Like it?” He crossed his arms over his chest.
“Yes,” I bit out. “I do.”
“Fine.”
And then the phone rang again, and before I even knew what I was doing, I pressed it up against my ear and shot out an aggressive, “Hello?”
“Hi, is this Ms. Cameron?” The voice on the other end of the line wasn’t Andrew. In fact, he sounded elderly.
I looked down at the phone, finding it to be a number not saved in my contacts. The Massachusetts area code was my only clue that it wasn’t a scam call.
“Yes, this is she,” I responded.
Will arched a brow, watching carefully.
“You can go,” I mouthed, gesturing him toward the door with a wave of my hand. But he stood still as a statue, waiting.
“Well, I’m just returning your call because you left me a message about this portable heater I’ve got here.”
“Oh!” I said, lighting up. “Hi! You’re the guy from Craigslist?”
“Sure am,” he chirped. “Anyhow, I was just calling to let you know that you can come pick up the heater anytime.”
“Perfect,” I said, elated at the thought of not having to spend another night shivering under a mountain of blankets. “Let me know your address, and I can come over now.”
“What?” Will said loud enough that I turned to walk to the other room. Plus, I needed paper to write down the information.
Predictably, Will followed.
At the kitchen counter, I pulled open my notebook and pen and gave the old man the go-ahead to tell me his address.
“Yup, got it,” I said, phone pressed between my shoulder and ear as I jotted it down. “Okay, thank you so much. I’ll be there soon.”
We hung up and I was face-to-face with a fuming Will.
“What was that?” he asked, eyes following me as I searched for my keys.
“Some guy on Craigslist is getting rid of his portable heater, and I’m going to pick it up.”
I picked up a box of Pop-Tarts, moved over the fruit bowl that was starkly empty, and lifted a wad of flyers before I found the keys.
“Nope,” he said simply.
“Um. Yes,” I said, trying to move around him.
He blocked me with infuriating ease.
“There’s no way in hell you’re going to meet some guy off Craigslist at his house.”
“Why not?” I asked, hand on my hip in aggravation.
“Because Craigslist is full of perverts and creeps.”
“He sounded elderly.” I scoffed.
“Even better.” He snorted.
“Well, I’m not spending another night in this freezing house without it, so you really can’t change my mind.”
“Fine, then I’ll drive you.”
“What?”
“If you’re so set on going, then I’ll drive you,” he said, simple as that. “Let’s go.”
“He lives two towns over,” I said, hoping to show him how absurd he was being.
“So?”
“So, it’ll be a long drive.”
“Great,” he said. “We can admire the foliage along the way.”
“Don’t you have better things to do than drive me to some old man’s house to pick up a heater?”
“What can I say?” he said dryly. “It’s a slow day.”
“Fine.” I threw my hands up. “Whatever! But we’re stopping for coffee on the way there!”
I could’ve sworn I saw him smirk.