Chapter 27 Something To Think About
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
Meredith pulled into her parking spot at three thirty. She’d gotten a text that her window was installed, then let Clay know. He’d told her not to go into the house until he arrived.
She wasn’t so sure the reason for that, but she’d follow directions because, as she’d told him before, she always wanted to be the teacher’s pet and do what was instructed.
“Hi, Meredith.”
She got out of her car when she saw Karl’s front door open and him waving at her.
Did he just stare out the window waiting for her all the time? The guy needed to get a life.
She put a smile on her face like she always did. “Hi, Karl. How are you doing?”
“I’m good. I see they got your window replaced. I watched while they did it. Made sure they weren’t inside the house too long and didn’t leave the living room. You know, you can’t trust anyone nowadays.”
She had thought little of it with the repairmen being in her house. Ugh. Why hadn’t she?
Did she think they were going to just replace it from the outside and not go in? Her landlord was here while it was getting done, so she hadn’t really worried.
Then there was Karl. He made sure nothing could go wrong because he was the neighborhood watch, directing traffic, and watching out for everything going on around all the buildings, then letting the residents all know.
It was bordering more on creepy than helpful. All the other residents had said it before, but she ignored it.
“No,” she said. “You can’t.”
“Are you going to go in and look it over?” Karl asked.
“I’m waiting for Clay.”
Karl frowned. “Are you dating him? I thought you were friends.”
“We are dating,” she said.
Karl narrowed his eyes, then quickly adjusted them back. “You don’t think that’s a little early after everything you went through with Fredrick?”
Karl was always nosy. Sometimes it came in handy, other times annoying.
This was one of those annoying times.
She didn’t need a keeper or another parent in her life.
“No,” she said. “I’ve known Clay most of my life.” She turned when his truck pulled in next to hers.
He was frowning when he got out.
One of his normal facial expressions.
She put her hand out as if she were presenting the prize on a game show. “Looks good,” he said.
“It does to me,” she said. “As if I could tell one way or another.”
Clay came up on the porch. She wanted a kiss but knew he wouldn’t make that move. Instead, she slid her arm around his waist and gave him a little squeeze. His hand landed on hers briefly, then he moved closer to the window to check it out.
She pulled her keys out to unlock the door, but he took them from her hand.
“I’ve got it,” he said.
“It was nice talking to you, Karl. Thanks for watching them do the work. I know I can always count on you.”
“Don’t forget it either,” Karl said firmly.
She shut the door. Clay walked into her living room to look at the window from that direction.
“I’m putting a camera in the window,” he said quietly. “You’re not to tell anyone. And definitely not your nosy neighbor.”
“I wouldn’t. But what kind of camera? I mean someone is going to see it.”
“Not the camera I’m putting in,” he said. “It’s going to be linked to my security system. Are you okay with that?”
At least he asked. “Sure. Will I have access to it?”
“Do you want it on your phone?”
“Yes. I’d like to know when I get packages and stuff. Most times I come home and find them here. If Karl sees the delivery truck, he’ll hide the packages.”
“Your neighbor is overly involved in your life.”
She laughed. “He does it to everyone. Not just me, but the neighbor on the other side and the building next to us too. He’s been here longer than me.”
“People don’t get pissed?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Not that I know of. I mean it’s kind of nice to know someone isn’t stealing our packages because he hides them. Or knows who is on the property and when. Just sucks he wasn’t around the day of the rock.”
“That won’t be an issue with the camera.” He pulled something out of his jacket pocket.
“Oh my God. Is that the camera? It’s so tiny.”
It was black and might be the size of a dime.
“Yep. No one will see it. I’m putting it outside on top of the shutter. Same color and shouldn’t be noticed with the way I’ll angle in there. Is your neighbor going to see me doing it?”
She sighed. “I doubt it since he’s in the house and won’t be able to see on the front porch. Do you want me to go over and thank him again and distract him? Is it really that big of a deal?”
“I want no one to know. I don’t trust anyone but my family.”
“Not even me?” she asked. She’d try not to be hurt over those words, but it was hard.
He sighed. “I trust you. I just meant aside from you.”
“I’ve got cookies in the freezer that Karl likes. I’ll go bring him over some as a thank you. I’ll go to the backdoor so we’ll be in the kitchen. How much time do you need?”
“Five minutes,” he said. “Then come right back.”
She moved to the kitchen, him with her. “I need a drink first. Want anything?”
“I’m good,” he said.
She grabbed a glass, filled it with water and drank half. Then she pulled the cookies out of the freezer, took them out of the bag, arranging them on a plate. She finished the rest of her water, his eyes on hers, silently urging her to hurry.
She winked at him, then opened her dishwasher and frowned.
“That’s odd.”
“What?” he asked.
“My dishwasher is empty.”
“So?”
“I swear I had dishes in it. A few. At least my coffee cup.” She scratched her head.
“Your floral one?” he asked sarcastically.
She snorted. He picked on her floral pattern cups. They were kind of ugly. Like grandma china but in a big cup. A set of four from a student one year. Their mother probably got them on sale, but she used them every morning.
“Yes.” She opened her cabinet, saw all four of them in there. Almost lined up too perfectly. She usually just put them in and shut it, never got that OCD.
“Are you sure you didn’t wash it?” he said.
She turned to look at him. “No. I rarely wash cups. I have a routine. Nothing left in the sink. I empty the sink before I turn the dishwasher on. Then I empty the dishwasher the next time I use a cup or dish and then put that in. When was the last time your dishwasher was completely empty? Like you didn’t empty it and put something else in it that might be in the sink? ”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t pay attention to those things.”
“I don’t either. I mean other than knowing my dishwasher and sink are never both empty at the same time.
” She hated that the hair stood up on her arms over this but didn’t want Clay to think she was nuts.
Might be best to let it go. She probably did it without remembering and so much had happened in the past few days.
“Unless you’ve got fairy maids doing your chores, it has to be you. Did you empty it at night and then not drink coffee the next morning?”
She pursed her lips. “I guess it could have been that,” she said, putting the glass in. “There is so much going on that it’s possible what you said.”
The more she thought of it, it was most likely that.
Sometimes she didn’t even drink or eat at home in the morning and left to pick something up on her way to work. So yeah, that had to be it.
She wrapped the cookies, then left through the back door and over to Karl’s, knocked on his door and waited.
He came to the door a minute later. “Meredith. This is a surprise. I thought you had company.”
“I do,” she said. “Clay is fixing one of my chairs. It had a wobbly leg.” She hated to lie but couldn’t come up with anything else for walking out on her boyfriend visiting.
“I wanted to bring you over some cookies for everything you’ve done while it was on my mind.
Thank you so much for keeping an eye on the repairmen today. ”
“Not a problem,” Karl said, his hand out for her to come in. She stayed where she was. “I’m always around. It’s easy enough. I brought my laptop outside and sat on the porch while they worked.”
She barely kept the roll of her eyes. That was intrusive.
“Thanks again. I know you love my chocolate drop cookies.”
“I do love them,” Karl said. “Would you like a cup of coffee with me?”
“I should get back to Clay soon and I’ve got so many chores to catch up on. Just thought I’d drop these off and see if there was anything going on around here I should know about from the weekend.”
Karl would have the scoop. He always did, then got excited if she ever wanted to talk about those things.
“It’s been a quiet weekend,” Karl said. “But I heard Becky and Sean are having issues.”
She was trying to figure out who those two people were. “The building to the right or left?” she asked.
“Left. Middle townhouse. They were outside fighting on Saturday over her parents’ coming to visit. Anytime you don’t want to see another person’s family, that is cause for issues.”
“You might be right,” she said, nodding. She hoped Clay was done. She didn’t want to gossip about other people. It made her wonder what Karl might say about her to people around here.
“Are you sure I can’t get you a coffee?” Karl asked. “I’m dying for a cup with one of these cookies.”
“I’m good,” she said. “I need to get back to Clay before he leaves. I just took the cookies out of the freezer so I’d wait an hour to eat them or you might chip a tooth. Unless you want to pop them in the microwave.”
“I’d enjoy them either way,” Karl said, his crooked teeth flashing with his big grin. His smiles and questions never bothered her like they seemed to now. Maybe she was just sick of everyone being in her business more than anything else.
She opened his back door and walked down the stairs slowly, giving Clay some more time, knowing Karl would stand out there and watch her. He’d do it until she was in her house, waving at her to make sure she was safely inside.
Something he always did.
By the time she got to her back door, she saw Clay in the kitchen with a drink, so she waved to Karl and opened her door.
“All done?”