“Manhattan… Quite a change from big sky country. I’ll bet he misses it.”
“He does. He didn’t want to leave here.”
“Why did he, then? You can always find work wherever you want to be.”
“It’s a long story.” I sighed.
“Well, then, you’re in luck, Riley. I love a good long story, and it just so happens I don’t have any plans for this evening.”4MatteoShe lifted her perfectly sculpted eyebrows. Ms. Riley Mansfield was also from Manhattan. I was sure of it. She had that New Yorker look.
Of course, her reservation in the name of Chloe Mansfield showed a Pittsburgh address, and she said herself she was from Pittsburgh.
I didn’t believe her. She had uptight New Yorker written all over her face.
But I’d play along. She was a gorgeous woman, and I was free tonight.
“I don’t want to bore you,” she said.
“You are the least boring person I’ve met in a while,” I said. “And that’s the God’s honest truth.”
That got a smile from her.
“I was right,” I said.
“About what?”
“About your gorgeous smile. You should smile more often, Riley.”
“There’s not a lot to smile about in my world.”
“I think you just made my point. You need this place. A week here, and I guarantee you’ll be smiling a lot.”
A week in my bed and she’d be smiling even more than that, but I wouldn’t push. She had an outer shell that was harder than steel from what I could see.
What she didn’t know was I was also the town silversmith, and I could melt anything.
“Let me show you how to unclog this damn thing.” I opened the cupboard door beneath the sink, reached in, and pulled out the rubber plunger. Then I turned on the faucet and flipped the switch for the garbage disposal. I pushed the potato peelings down the drain.
She gasped. “Be careful! Push too far in and your fingers will be caught in the blades.”
“Only if I’m a complete moron.”
She bit her lower lip. “It’s better to use the dish brush.” She grabbed it out of the dish-drying rack and handed it to me.
I held up both my hands. “Haven’t lost a finger yet.”
“Indulge me, then. Just use the brush, at least while I’m here.”
Indulge me. Hell, yeah, I’d like to indulge her. Indulge myself…
But I had to go slow with this one. Very slow.
Like clockwork, the growl of the disposal morphed into a whimper, and the sink began filling up with water clouded by starch from the potato peelings.
“See? Potato peelings always do it, but they’re not the only culprits.” I grabbed the plunger. “First you have to put the plug in the other side of the sink. It’s right there.” I pointed.
She grabbed it and placed it in the sink correctly.
“Now you need to place this plunger right over the drain where the clog is and give it three quick snaps. Watch.” I plunged three times, and again like clockwork, the drain cleared.
“Looks easy enough, but if I don’t eat potatoes…”
“I think you just said you might eat a potato, but it’s not just potatoes. I’ve seen it happen with salad, spinach, carrot peelings. Potatoes are just the worst. The trick is the three quick snaps. Two won’t do it. A lot of my renters call me to fix this, so I figured it was best to just show people up front how to do it because the damned thing will clog.”
“Why not just install a new disposal?”
“Because this one works fine.”
“Clogging up every other time you try to use it is not working fine,” she said indignantly.
“Okay, then here’s reason number two. Installing a new disposal is a big pain in the ass and it will cost me money.”
“Then call a plumber to do it.”
I couldn’t help it. My jaw dropped. I seriously just told her that a new disposal would cost me money, and her suggestion was to hire a plumber? So that I could pay not just for the disposal but also for the installation?
Something wasn’t computing between those pretty little ears.
“Uh… Riley, that would cost more.”
Now her jaw dropped. Had she truly not realized what she had suggested? Interesting. I’d just learned something new and useful about Ms. Riley Mansfield.
She had no financial worries. Not a one.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“No need to be sorry. But I won’t be paying a plumber when I’m perfectly capable of installing a garbage disposal myself.”
“I understand. I’m sorry,” she said again.
“Tell you what,” I said, deciding to take a plunge. “Come out to dinner with me and we’ll call it even.”
“D-Dinner?”
“Yeah. You’ve heard of it. The evening meal?”
She nodded, blushing.
God, she was fucking hot.
“Why would going out to dinner make us even?”
“It’s a joke, Riley. I’m using it as an excuse to take you to dinner. We have a few restaurants here in this tiny town, only one of which is any good. I’d like to buy you dinner.”