We both know I’m not talking about the Jessop place. A young woman of fame and fortune did not find herself in a town like East River Forge by accident.
“There are only two reasons a person uproots their life…”Ma always said when I’d asked her about my father’s perpetual absence. “They are either running from something or running to something.”
There is nothing in the Forge that a woman like Lizzie Lucas might want to run to. So what in the hell is she running from?
“I needed a change,” Lizzie finally confesses. She looks up at the house again, as if fearing to show me her face. “A new place to… to be. My great grandparents were originally from here, so I,” Looking uncomfortable for the first time since I had met her, Lizzie shrugs, “I thought perhaps there was something of a home here to find.”
“And you think it’s in the old Jessop house?”
“I don’t know. But I think it’s in the Forge, at least.”
“Why?”
Jolted back into her easy smile, Lizzie rolls her eyes at me, completely unfazed by my bluntness.
“Because East River Forge is the kind of place where people help strangers lost in the woods,” she says.
Oh. Feeling suddenly awkward, I shove my hands deeper in my pockets and glance at my feet.
“So?”
I look up. Lizzie’s watching me with an expectant look.
“So?” I repeat.
“So, can I count on your assistance with this glorious monstrosity?” she waves a hand up towards the second-floor windows. One is broken and another almost entirely covered with a creeping vine. “I’m booking you in now if you want the work?”
Did I want thework?
“You’re already paying me for the room,” I remind her, feeling a little awkward to be charging her twice over.
“Exactly!” she laughs. “The faster you help me get this place up and running, the sooner I can stop paying someone else for the roof over my head.”
“Are you sure?”
She hadn’t looked around. She hadn’t asked for references. She’s just handing it to me.
“Is this how you conduct business, Caleb?” she asks with a suspiciously raised brow. “Challenging your clients on whether they want to hire you?”
“No, I…” I stop. In truth, I’d never really had to query anyone I’d worked for. Everyone in town had known me since I could crawl. Why wouldn’t they trust me? Lizzie’s faith is a little confusing.
When all she does is continue to stare at me, I’m not sure what else to say except to agree. “Okay!” I take a steadying breath. “Okay. If you buy the place, I’ll work on it for you.”
Feeling a headache starting up behind my eyes, I run a hand down my face and rub at the back of my neck.
“Look, we should get going,” I wince as a ray of bright orange sun pierces its way through the tree line to the west of the property. A last-ditch effort to resist the dusk.
“Where?” she asks.
“Back home.” Had she taken a knock to the head in that workshop today? Where else was she staying? Deeds or no deeds, you don’t get to move your stuff in on the same day you view a place. “I mean, to my home.”
“You’re letting me stay another night?” She seems genuinely surprised, which only makes me feel worse. “I thought that was a one-time deal?”
Yeah, Walker… What happened to the one-night-only plan?
Unfortunately, none of the leads I’d had that morning had panned out, and the woman is just as homeless now as she’d been last night. Despite the impression I had clearly made to the contrary, I’m not a total monster.
But I can’t deny that the money is an added bonus. Lizzie might not be the kind of houseguest I’d hoped to find, but she pays the same as anyone else. I look again at the work to be done on the Jessop property. The broken frames, the rotten floorboards along the porch. No doubt the inside is just as bad. It’s weeks, perhaps months of work. And if Lizzie is serious about paying me to oversee it, then that’s a lot of hours. A lot of money.