SWNOVELS Chance: Chapter 6
“Asshole,”Rory muttered as she went into her bedroom and dropped the backpack on the worn Queen Anne chair sitting in one corner.
The room was large, with tall windows, original scraped pine floors, and plaster walls. She’d kept them white, because she liked how bright the room was during the day. Her bed was a four poster, inherited from her grandparents, though of course the mattress was new. She’d bought new sheets and a duvet, but the quilt was one Granny had pieced herself.
Rory’s heart flipped at the memories of what she’d done with Chance on that mattress. She’d told Emma Grace she wasn’t ever gonna go there with Chance, and then she had. So damned easily, in fact. She’d softened like butter left out on the counter, and she’d melted like it too.
Rory went over to her nightstand and took off her watch and earrings, dropping them into the dish she’d put there for that purpose. Then she went into the bathroom to wash her face. She figured Chance would be gone long enough for her to do that, and she was tired.
Tired and wired, but she still had to get ready for bed. She’d sleep in tomorrow because she didn’t need to be to the Dawg until three. Amber was opening, and she could handle the lunch crowd. They typically didn’t get too many drinkers early in the day, and those who wanted a drink usually wanted beer. There was the occasional wine or mixed drink, but those mostly came later in the day.
Rory didn’t change her clothes yet, because she didn’t want to put on her pajamas until after Chance was in the house and she could close the bedroom door and not see him again.
Once she’d washed her face and twisted her hair onto her head in a messy bun, she decided to forgo teeth brushing and get a small glass of wine. Her nerves were wired, and she figured a four-ounce pour would take the edge off. She could have taken a Xanax, but those typically knocked her out for hours. When she woke, she didn’t feel rested at all, just more tired.
Rory went into the kitchen and took the bottle from the fridge. She was so focused on the idea someone had been creeping around her property before it hit her why she couldn’t drink it.
“Dammit,” she grated before putting the bottle back.
She grabbed the pitcher of sweet iced tea instead, programmed the number of carbs into her insulin pump via the app on her phone, and carried the glass to the living room. People often asked her if she should be drinking wine or sweet tea, or eating sugary desserts, breads, or pasta. So many things people thought they had a right to comment on.
The answer was that she could eat whatever in the heck she wanted so long as she accounted for it with insulin. Her life was normal. She just had the added complication of figuring her carbs manually instead of her body doing it for her like most other people.
She’d been doing it for so many years now that it was second nature. She waited a few minutes, then took her first sip of tea. She didn’t make it too sweet, but it was sweet enough to make her think of summer days on the front porch with Granny, snapping beans and sipping tea while feeling put out that she had to snap beans in the first place.
What she wouldn’t give to sit out there and snap beans with Granny again.
Rory picked up her phone and scrolled social media. She was starting to get worried about how long Chance was taking when her phone finally rang. She thought about not answering to screw with him for worrying her, but that would be mean after the trouble he was going to.
“Let me in, Rory,” he said without preamble.
“Say please.” She didn’t know why she felt compelled to needle him, but she couldn’t seem to help it. It gave her a little thrill inside. She didn’t know what that said about her, but he was the only one she did it to. Probably a good thing.
“Please let me in,” he growled. “Before I huff and puff and blow your house down.”
“Ha. Ha.”
She went over to the door and unlocked it. Chance looked irritated, but what was new about that? He was always irritated when he was around her. Except for those couple of weeks where she’d let herself go and stopped thinking about the future.
“Find anything?” she asked as she turned to go back to the armchair she’d been sitting in.
He closed and locked the door behind him. “Footprints in the clay that aren’t yours. Too big. You have anyone out here for anything recently?”
“Nope. I mow the yard myself, and it’s not time to bale hay so the guy who bales hasn’t been here yet.”
“If they took anything from one of those buildings, I don’t know it. You’ll have to look when it’s light out. I didn’t see anything out of place, but I’d like to get the guys out to do a more thorough sweep during the day.”
Rory gaped at him. “A more thorough sweep? Chance, I’m a woman with some desirable farmland, not a foreign country to be invaded. What do you expect to find? Landmines?”
His mouth twisted as he flopped onto the couch and leaned back against the cushions. Now why the heck did he have to look so damned handsome slouching on her sofa? He wore faded jeans that were loose but somehow molded his body in all the right places and a white T-shirt that said “Into Fitness. Fitness Taco Into My Mouth.”
There was a picture of a taco as well. Dang, now she wanted a taco.
“No landmines, but if it’s the construction company guys, hard to say what they might fuck around with. You got good insurance on this place?”
Her heart dropped. “I don’t know how good it is, but I’ve got insurance. To replace the house, but not the barn or other buildings. It costs too much to insure everything and this is no longer a working farm. But the property is paid for. Has been for years. You don’t really think anyone would do something to the house or buildings, do you?”
She envisioned a fire, because that’s all she could picture, taking decades of history and memories with it.
“It’s my job to think of the worst things people can do, and to prepare for them.”
Rory sipped her tea and shook her head. She needed the warm burn of alcohol in her stomach right about now but this would have to do. “I could see where a fire would benefit them by leaving me without a home, thereby making their offer tempting, but I can’t see where it would be worth the risk of getting caught. Arson is a felony. And it’s punishable with as much as life in prison in Alabama.”
“Guess it depends on how badly they want the land. Did they say what they want to do with it?”
“Not specifically, though they mentioned building homes and bringing more dollars to town. But there are other plots of land to buy. They don’t need mine. They can buy somebody else’s and build their subdivision there.”
“No doubt they will.”
“Precisely. You can see why I’m doubting that someone from D&B Properties trespassed tonight. Now somebody prowling around Gramps’s stuff looking for treasure or just stealing tools? That I could believe.”
“Except the guy didn’t have anything on him when he returned to the car.”
Rory’s heart stuttered at the truth of Chance’s words. But she found an explanation after a moment’s thought. “Casing the place. He’ll come back another night when I’m at work with a truck or something.”
“Uh huh.” Chance shoved a hand through his hair and yawned. The dark strands stood on spiky end and she found herself wanting to run her fingers through them. “You gonna give me a blanket and pillow for this couch or do you want me to get them from upstairs?”
The intimacy of him knowing where things were was almost too much. “You could sleep in one of the beds, you know. Sleep in mine if you want.” His eyebrow arched. “My childhood bed,” she added.
“Too short. And I’m not sleeping in Theo’s room either, so forget it. The couch is fine.”
Rory finished the tea and went into her room to retrieve a blanket and pillow from the linen closet. She tossed them onto the couch beside him. “You know where the bathroom is. I have to brush my teeth, but I’ll be out soon.”
There was only one bathroom on the first floor, and it had a door into her room and one into the hall. One day, if she had more money, she’d like to add a big ensuite and wall up the door so she wouldn’t have to share with anyone who came over to visit. She’d have her own bath, with a big tub and a walk in shower, and it would be heavenly.
“You still have an extra toothbrush in the drawer?”
“Yes.”
She always tossed the toothbrushes from her dental checkups in there since she used an electric toothbrush and the dentist didn’t hand out refills for that.
“Okay, then. See you in the morning.”
“I don’t have to be to the Dawg until three, but if I’m not up when you need to go, wake me and I’ll let you out.”
“Or you could give me the spare key in the kitchen junk drawer.”
He knew where the spare was? Of course he did. She didn’t think much got by him. Or his friends. Weirdly observant, all of them. But they were former military guys, so maybe that had something to do with it.
“You don’t need the spare key,” she said, though it would be easier. But if she gave him a key, then what? It seemed like a step too far in the direction of relying on him.
“Suit yourself, Rory. I was trying to be nice so you could sleep in.”
“I appreciate that, but I can let you out. No need to complicate things.”
He stared at her for a long moment. Her pulse beat a little faster at the scrutiny.
“The only person complicating things is you, honey. You seem to have trouble accepting help. Or maybe it’s just me you have trouble with. I’m not quite sure. But okay, I’ll wake you up. Then I’ll get out and let you be happy you got your way.”
He got to his feet and she took a step back, but all he did was toss the pillow to the head of the couch and shake the blanket out. She was trying to think of how to respond when he eyed her again.
“You planning to brush your teeth first or what?”
“I’m going. Just wanted to make sure you have everything you need,” she lied.
“I’m good, Rory. Don’t worry yourself about me. I have to be out of here by eight, so you’d better get to bed and get some sleep.”
“Okay. Good night then.”
He didn’t look at her. “Night.”
She went into the bathroom, closed the door behind her and leaned against it. She couldn’t even talk to him about basic things without problems cropping up between them. How in the hell was she going to tell him she was pregnant?