“I’m April, by the way,” she says.
“Jonathan.” It’s all I can manage.
“Nice to meet you, Jonathan.” She smiles. I like the way she says my name, like it’s a word she’s hearing for the first time. “Do you like to read?”
I nod. My own books are still in storage, but I have a short stack of library books in the den where I’ve set up my bedroom for the sake of convenience while I work on the rest of the house.
April trails me through the dining room and into the kitchen where she compliments the original cabinets. Back in the foyer, we head upstairs to the main bedroom where I’ve recently finished bringing all the outlets up to code. It’s dated, like the rest of the house, but it’s in the best shape out of all the bedrooms.
Her brown eyes scan the floral wallpaper. “Wow...”
“Like I said, fixer-upper. The latch on the door doesn't catch, but I can fix that.” I gesture to another door across the room. “There’s a private bath through there.”
April peers into the attached bath and tests the light switch. “How close is your bedroom? I’m a total night owl,” she adds quickly. “I’d hate to keep waking you up.”
“I sleep downstairs. You’d have the whole second floor to yourself.”
“Cool.” She looks out the window. “Do you have high-speed internet?”
“Think so. Seems fast enough.”
“It’s just that all of my classes this semester are online. Would you be willing to upgrade, if I find it’s not fast enough?”
“Sure.” I shrug. Frankly, the list of things I wouldn’t do for this girl keeps getting shorter by the minute. My eyes can’t help but follow her as she paces.
“Can I hang stuff on the walls?”
“You can paint ‘em if you want,” I tell her. “I’ll have ‘em stripped and sanded by next week.”
“Wallpaper’s fine for now. In fact, this is perfect.” That’s about the last thing I’d expect anyone to say about the room in its current state. She rocks back on her heels. “The ad said four hundred a month. Is that amount still good?”
Honestly, I don’t want to take a dime of April’s money, but not charging her would raise questions I’m not prepared to answer. I’ll find a way to pay her back somehow.
“You can have it for two,” I say. “On account of the...condition.”
She exhales some of the tension in her shoulders. “How soon can I move in?”
“How soon do you need the room?”
“Tomorrow?” she says. It’s hardly the answer I was expecting. Then again, a girl her age would have to be pretty desperate to move into a crusty old house with a man she doesn’t know—a man who has no right to even look at a girl her age the way I’ve been struggling not to look at her since we met.
“All right,” I say, against my better judgment. But my judgment is no match for the smile she throws my way. “I’ll be back from work around seven-thirty tomorrow.”
“What time do you leave for work in the morning?”
“Around seven.”
She nods to herself.
“I’ll be here by six-thirty tomorrow morning.” Whatever living situation April’s walking away from, she’s certainly eager to leave it.
It’s none of my business, but I can’t help wondering if she’s in some kind of trouble. The only thing stopping me from flat-out asking her is the knowledge that she’ll be sleeping under my roof tomorrow night, where I can be certain she’s safe.
Downstairs, a short while later, she pauses on her way out the front door to tell me, “Thank you, Jonathan. I promise to stay out of your way. You won’t even know I’m here half the time.”
I watch through the window as April hoists herself into a green Ford pick-up with rust on the back fenders.
You won’t even know I’m here half the time...
Somehow, I highly doubt that.
two
April
I sing along with the radio the whole drive back to town. My truck’s pretty old, so it only gets the local stations, but I don’t mind. Nothing could kill my vibe now that I’ve found a new place to live. Jonathan’s house is a work in progress. The bedroom is musty and coated in dust. But I can fix that. What matters is that the room will be mine for as long as I’m willing to pay for it.
And what I choose to do in there is my business, and mine alone.
I knew the outdated rental ad was a long shot, but it was the last affordable house on my laughably short list of rooms for rent. I honestly didn’t expect anything to come of it. I certainly didn't expect a man like Jonathan to answer the door.
Most men are taller than me, but my new landlord is in a league of his own. I actually felt little, standing beside him, and I haven’t felt that way since I was young enough to believe in Santa Claus. Back then, my stepmom, Eloise, used to try to get me to lose weight by claiming I’d be too fat to sit on Santa’s lap. If our mall Santa had been half as big as Jonathan, I’d still be small enough to sit on his lap.