extension of my grandmother’s greenhouse? You know, for extra storage.”
Flanner narrowed his eyes. “You want me to build you a shed?
“Well, yes. It doesn’t have to be fancy or this large. I already have a pile of scrap wood in the garage going to waste. You could decide if it’s usable or not. But what I could really use is the kind of sink you have.”
She noticed how skeptical he looked and went on, “Don’t you get lonely out here by yourself all the time?”
He pointed to a certain section on the shelves lined with books. “I read a lot.”
“Is that how you learned to do all this?”
“You really like my cabin?”
“I do. That’s why I want to hire you to build one for me.”
“For real?”
“Yes.”
“That would mean I’d have to come into town.” He shook his head. “I don’t like coming into town.”
When the coffee had boiled enough, he took a rag and used it as a potholder to pick up the metal pot. He used a strainer to pour the liquid into two metal cups and handed the steaming beverage off to Gemma.
The aroma of strong, freshly brewed coffee wafted on the air. They took their cups outside and plopped down in the Adirondack chairs.
She noticed he kept watching the dogs at play as they darted in and out in a game of chase.
“If you had a dog, it might help you hunt,” Gemma blurted out. She handed him her phone with a link to Inez LeMond’s website for Protect the Paws. She swiped through pictures of the various shelter dogs. “You just find one you like, and we’ll head out there to see if you two bond, see if you’re a match.”
“What if I couldn’t feed it? You didn’t even know I was alive until yesterday when I found that body. You have no idea the lean times I’ve had out here. I stretch my food for as long as I can so I don’t have to go into town that often.”
“Why don’t you want to go into town?”
“Because I always end up saying the wrong thing, and people don’t like it. They look at me funny or just get mad.”
“Maybe that’s their problem, not yours. Did you ever think of it that way? Yesterday you told me you once had this idea about fixing up that old drive-in theater south of town. What if you could do it?”
“That was just big talk. It’s just something I kept thinking about during my deployment. When you’re a million miles away from home, your mind goes back to the little things that made you happy. People don’t even go to drive-ins anymore. It never really made sense.”
“They don’t go to drive-ins because they’ve all closed down. You could fix it up, get it reopened. Building this cabin proves you have a talent for renovation, for fixing old things up beyond what anyone else might imagine. I couldn’t do this. Most people couldn’t. You did it.”
“Like I said, necessity. The first four months I was out here, I soon got tired of sleeping on the hard ground in the cold.”
“See? You did something about it. Where did you find the material anyway?”
“Here and there. I didn’t steal it if that’s what you mean.”
“It’s not what I meant at all. It takes skill to envision building your own house, then actually go through with it. I inherited my grandmother’s house. I’m not sure what I would’ve done if the bank had taken it away. But I can tell you I would’ve been mad as hell about it, enough to put up a fight.”
“I was mad for a long time. But it didn’t get me anywhere.”
“So you came out here to your dad’s land?”
He narrowed his eyes again. “How did you know this patch belonged to my dad?”
“Honestly, I talked to Lucy. And I came out here to save you from living off the grid. But guess what? I’ve changed my mind. You’re living just fine. You don’t need me to save you at all.”
That made him smile. “I see. So that’s what brought on the job offer?”
“Initially. But now that I’ve seen your cabin, the offer still stands. How’d you learn to do this kind of work anyway?”
“My dad taught me carpentry. Long before I joined the Marines, I used to build stuff out of the garage with him supervising.”
“Like what?”
“Oh, you know, things like tables, shelves, bookcases, planter boxes, that sort of stuff. I like making things, working with my