“Sure thing. If I can free up someone to start sooner, I’ll let you know.” He glanced at Luke. “Good to see you again, Luke. I’d heard you were back. Planning to stay?”
Luke nodded. “If things work out,” he said enigmatically.
As soon as the roofer had left, Kate whirled on Luke. “How dare you interfere in this? The cost of repairing my roof is none of your business.”
“Never said it was,” he said complacently, shoving his hands into the pockets of his worn jeans. “But you weren’t asking and the question needed answering. Spelling out the details is one of the cardinal rules in business. Getting it in writing is another.”
The suggestion that she had been about to make a lousy business decision and didn’t know enough to get a contract aggravated Katie almost as much as Luke’s interference.
“Ron and I have done a lot of business together,” she said.
His knowing glance took in the old Victorian from porch to roof. “I can imagine.”
His sarcasm had her gnashing her teeth. “We would have discussed the cost.”
“When?”
“Later.” She scowled at him, hoping her frosty reception would drive him away before she betrayed the fact that his presence had her heart hammering a hundred beats a minute. “Did you want something in particular?”
“You and Ron seem...close,” he said, watching her intently. “How close?”
“Oh, I’m sure if you hadn’t been here, he would have thrown me to the lawn and made mad, passionate love to me,” she said sweetly.
Luke’s jaw clenched. “That’s not something to joke about.”
“It’s also none of your business.”
“So you’ve said. Well, let’s just pretend for a moment that it is my business. How close are you?”
“Oh, for pity’s sake, Luke, Ron is happily married and has three kids.”
“Then how come he’s so eager to give you a break on the roof job?”
If Luke hadn’t looked so genuinely bemused by Ron’s generosity, Katie might have blown a gasket at the suggestion that the younger man might expect something in return. As it was, she figured it was about time Luke learned that not every relationship was about sex. Maybe, after all those years of well-reported wheeling and dealing in Atlanta, he needed to remember that in Clover people helped each other out without ulterior motives.
“Ron’s kid sister was one of my first boarders,” she said. “She was having a rough time at home. When she moved in here, I looked out for her. He credits me with keeping her out of trouble, though the truth is Janie was smarter than anyone in her family recognized. She had her whole life mapped out, and it didn’t include getting smashed up with a bunch of teenage drunks out on the highway or an unplanned pregnancy. More kids today should have the kinds of goals and limits she’d set for herself.”
If she hadn’t had her gaze pinned to Luke’s face, Katie might have missed the fleeting change in his expression when she mentioned the unplanned pregnancy. It made her wonder all over again how much the son he’d turned up with on his return had to do with his abrupt departure all those years ago. Just guessing that the timing roughly coincided with the same period in which he’d made love to her filled her with regrets. If Luke had been trapped into marriage, why couldn’t she have been the one...? She let the thought trail off uncompleted. She would never have done that to him. Never.
Whatever Luke was thinking, though, he managed to banish it. He resumed that bland, inscrutable expression that tempted Katie to do something, anything to draw a reaction.
Regarding her evenly, he asked, “How are you going to pay for a new roof?”
The question was so far afield from the direction of her thoughts that Katie took a minute to form a response. “That’s what you dropped by after six years to ask?”
Luke’s mouth tightened into a grim line. “How are you going to pay for it?”
“I’ll find a way,” she said, injecting a misplaced note of confidence into her voice. “Well, it was great seeing you again. We’ll have to catch up some other time. I’ve got things to do.”
She tried to subtly edge toward the front door, but Luke kept pace with her. She sighed at her failed attempt to escape. He’d always had a single-track mind and an inability to take a hint.
“How? By working more hours at Peg’s Diner?” he asked irritably. “You can’t earn enough there in the next week to pay for the tarp Ron is going to use, much less a new roof.”
She stared at him, filled with indignation at the certainty she heard in his voice. “How would you know a thing like that? And what difference does it make to you, even if it is true?”
“It’s not all that difficult to get information in Clover,” he said. “Nothing thrives in this town quite like gossip.”
“You used to hate that,” Katie reminded him.
“Yes, I did,” he agreed. “I’ve discovered, though, that it has its uses. The rumor mill provided all the information I needed on you, including the fact that you are knee-deep in debt. Half the people I talked to are worried sick about you. They say you’re wearing yourself out trying to make a go of this business. What in all that’s holy ever possessed you to buy this ramshackle old place and try to turn it into a boarding house? It should have been torn down thirty years ago when the McAllisters abandoned it.”
I bought it because we used to sit on that secluded porch night after night and share our innermost secrets, she thought to herself. Those were memories he’d obviously forgotten. She wouldn’t have divulged them to him now for a stack of free shingles and sufficient tar paper to cover the entire roof. She decided it was best to ignore
