You don’t say?” She giggled.
He laughed, a sexy throaty laugh. “And you know what they say, right? Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” He let out a growl. “So, tomorrow?”
It was going to take her a day or two to recover from this. “You said you have to work. And that’s probably wise. I have furniture I’ll be bringing back from Vermont with me and I need some place to put it. I don’t want to rent a storage unit. It seems silly, just like it seems silly that I have a house here, but have to stay in a room that is costing me $200 a night.” She was silent a moment as she waited for him to say something.
“Well, then I guess I really need to get that house ready for you, huh?” From the noise she could tell that he was scratching his head, messing up that gorgeous thick ginger hair that not so long before, she herself had been running her fingers through.
She sighed as she recalled in vivid detail that breathtaking experience that promised to be so special before it fizzled out. “Yeah, I guess you better.” She really didn’t have anything left to say. Maybe it was better that some things were unspoken at the moment. “Goodnight, Joe.”
She hung up on him. She didn’t even wait for him to say his goodbyes or goodnights or sweet dreams or anything. Part of him wanted to call her back. The other part wanted to just storm over to Hope House and finish what they had started. Only this time, there would be no senile old woman who doused them with a hose. There would be a bubble bath in her swimming pool of a tub. There would be wine. At Hope House there was always wine. Then again, if Keely knew that he was there, there might also be a flaming hot poker to the rear. She had threatened him with similar before, and for far less critical offenses than sleeping with a still sort of married woman.
Instead he cleaned up around the house. He wandered around the empty rooms and decided to look at the place like Marti had seen it. It was clean. It was neat. It was barren, devoid of any décor, the most hopeless home in all of New Hope. Fucking, Finn. He had been thinking of her far too much lately. Far far too much. If only she had never sent that text. If only he wasn’t finally starting to feel something for some other woman.
He wandered into his bedroom, stripped down, and took a shower to wash the stench of the ruined bonfire from his hair and body. And then fresh and clean once more, he towel dried his hair and went to the bedroom to pull on clean boxers, shamrocks on a blue background and sleep pants. Then careful to not think about anything else, he dropped into bed.
Sleeping in was something decadent that Marti had not allowed herself to enjoy for many years. It was a waste of precious time, and a waste of her talents and spirit, she believed. Of course, that was back when she thought she had talent. Now…she had her doubts. Joey would be working all day. They seem to have finally agreed on that at least. And that left her to once again try to figure out how to occupy her time in this teeny tiny town. Maybe they had a library. She was about out of books on her Kindle. And because the internet was spotty at best unless she went to Charlotte, or until she installed it at her home, it would just be easier and might be a nice change of pace if she read books the old fashioned way.
Suddenly, in her mind, she had an image of the kind of day she could have. It was nice enough to sit outside and read. She knew just the place to do it. She had been eyeing the gazebo for some time. Now she would have an excuse to sit in it for hours. She could get some books, pick up some food from Laurel, maybe a baked good or two. She was feeling better the longer she considered how to keep busy. It was perfect.
Having showered the night before, she simply styled her new hair. And after that, she took the time for makeup because…well, she only had this one chance to make a good first impression. And since she was