Stormy Surrender - By Nicole Andrews Moore Page 0,45

stood up to look at her. “What makes you think that was the problem?”

“Wild guess. The blush confirmed it.” She chuckled. It was funny when he did it. They weren’t together. Blaine, however, had not found her to be so forgiving. And soon after her complaint about how he was spending the money in the joint bank account, he had opened a private one that she didn’t have access to. There was never any question as to whether or not the two were connected. Why did she stay? She had been asking herself that question all day…maybe for days…or months…or years. And in the end she knew it was because she thought being lonely was superior to being alone. She thought that being married meant having a family and she desperately wanted one of those. She had tolerated everything in the hope that they would have a child to fill the void in her heart. She sighed.

“Oh, you don’t approve of porn?” He asked with a tone that suggested he was more than a bit annoyed.

“What do I care? I’m not dating you.” And with that, she turned her head to examine the bedroom.

It was a bland room with cream colored walls and a bed that looked completely unappealing. There were two pillows in white pillow cases, and a gray duvet cover on the bed.

“Where’s the feather bed?” She asked out loud without considering that it was even inappropriate.

“What?” She could tell he was somewhat confused by the question.

“Oh, your bed just looks…I don’t know, I just thought that someone with your reputation for being such a ladies man would have a fancier bedroom.” She stared him boldly in the face.

“What makes you think that?” He crossed his arms in front of his chest while he waited for her response.

“I hear things,” she said with a shrug.

And with that, the conversation was dropped. He helped her clean up. Once the bleeding stopped, she could see that it was just as she suspected that she really didn’t even need a bandage.

“No more demo.” He reprimanded.

“Fine,” she said, stomping out of the bathroom. “What am I supposed to do now?”

“What do you mean? Go shopping. Go have a late breakfast. Go play in the street. I don’t care; just get off my job site. You are a hazard and a menace.”

“Do you talk to all your homeowners this way?” Her hands were on her hips and her voice was raised. “This is my house. And I’m paying you and your crew to do a job. I am literally hemorrhaging money, staying at Hope House. I just want some kind of normal. I want running water and a roof over my head. I want a working toilet. I want to move in before I lose my nerve.” She sank down on the edge of his bed. “Although I don’t know where I would go anymore anyway.” She sighed. “Give me a time frame, Joe. Give me something. Right now…I need something to hold onto.”

She was looking up at him with those sad chocolate brown eyes and it was melting his heart. He knew she didn’t mean to be in the way. He knew she had something going on that she wasn’t ready to talk about. And he knew that without a home or friends or a job, New Hope could be a pretty lonely place. He knew because he had experienced it himself when he first moved into his father’s house.

He hadn’t always fit in. She was adapting much better than he had. She had Keely and apparently Laurel. And he had moved into a home that had essentially been the home of the local recluse. After his third marriage went belly up, his father had opted to stay away from people. He didn’t speak to his neighbors. He didn’t give out candy at Halloween. He didn’t decorate for holidays or participate in the town activities. When Joe moved in, the quiet was a welcome change from the life he had in Charlotte. Instead of women knocking at all hours of the day and night and an endless string of weekend parties, he stayed in. He cleaned out. He sold what was salvageable and threw out the rest.

Soon he discovered that he was living in the shell of a house and felt like a shell of a man. That emptiness that settled in when he had finally walked away from Finn…it still hadn’t gone. Sure, he had tried to fill it with other