However, as he and Johnny completed each repair, and space in the storage shed diminished, he was running out of reasons to avoid explaining why he wasn’t ready to move into the house. From his mother, he knew Daralyn had put out feelers to make sure Elaine wasn’t upset about Rory moving out. Just the opposite. His mom was near ecstatic about their plans. She was already helping Daralyn divide some of the plants at her cottage, as well as offering some of her own, to get the landscaping and future vegetable and flower garden started on the property. So Daralyn knew Elaine wasn’t the hold up for him.
A couple days later Rory ran out of maneuvering room. He had just poured himself a late morning coffee and was talking to Johnny up front while Daralyn was in the back of the store. She was checking on a shipment for Betsy Dorsey, who’d called about it just after lunch.
“So after we get those cracks spackled today, the house should be occupant-ready,” Johnny said cheerfully. “If you can get—”
He stopped at the look on Rory’s face. He didn’t realize what Rory did—that Daralyn had the hearing of a bat, and stayed pretty attuned to everything going on within a hundred yards of her.
As Daralyn emerged from the back, an expectant smile on her face, Johnny realized his mistake. He shot Rory an apologetic look—before escaping toward the back of the store.
“That’s wonderful,” she said, sliding a manufacturer’s pricing notebook back on the shelf behind the counter. “So we can start to move in the furniture we’ve bought for the house this weekend, right?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, possibly. Can we talk about it after lunch? I need to run an errand.”
And there came the little wrinkle in her brow. He really was going to have to come clean on this, because he was concerned he was starting to send the wrong message. He reached out, touched her hand, gave her a half smile that he knew didn’t reach his eyes, but there was a coil in his lower stomach he couldn’t explain to her. Not right now, like this.
“Okay,” she said. He thought she might have said more, but fortunately several customers arrived, letting him off the hook. He was able to slip out a few minutes later while she and Johnny were involved with them, putting off further conversation about it.
Until he returned.
She was standing behind the counter, a conflicted look on her face that had him immediately concerned.
He lifted a brow. “Something up?”
“I don’t know. Yes. Maybe.” She folded her hands in front of her and looked directly at him. “I want to drive out to our house, please.”
She still had an odd formality to her when she stated a desire so directly, as if she had to frame a support for it in her mind before she spoke the words.
“Right now?” He glanced toward Johnny and saw the no clue, dude look. Though his friend threw in an expression of male solidarity he probably considered helpful, a general commiseration on the mystifying nature of women.
“Yes, now,” Daralyn said. There was unusual emphasis to the one syllable. Almost…impatience?
When Rory raised a brow and turned his gaze upon her, she lowered hers and added, “Please.”
Which she charmingly never seemed to realize made it almost impossible for him to tell her no. “Okay,” he said.
She headed out to the parking lot. When he glanced at Johnny, Johnny shrugged. “Call me after she cuts your legs out from under you. Metaphorically. That’s one of her new words this week.”
“I am so hitting you with a shovel later,” Rory promised.
He backed the chair, turned and followed Daralyn out to the parking lot. She was already waiting by the van, but when he opened the door for her, she merely thanked him and got in, waiting in silence until he took the driver’s side.
He thought about several topics of conversation, but whatever this was about, she was inside her head on it and he wouldn’t disrupt that process. Not until he had more cues about what she needed from him.
Though he could guess what that was. His gut tightened around a wad of nerves, but he’d reached the fork in the road, hadn’t he? Time to fish or cut bait.
When they reached the house, he circled around, opened her door. Since it was drizzling, he told her she didn’t need to wait on him to go up to the porch. One of the planned changes was