Damn didn’t even come close to covering it.
“You’ve already met my son, Matt, I see.” Kieran felt like he was in the Twilight Zone. There was no way in hell she was the single mother of the teen currently towering protectively over her shoulder. He blinked at her words, and was dimly aware of Shane clearing his throat and Faith attempting to reclaim her hand.
“Sorry,” he murmured, stammering out an apology. He reluctantly released her hand. “I didn’t expect you to be so...”
Matt scowled, but Faith’s features softened. He could tell he embarrassed her, given the shy way she averted her gaze and the pretty pink color blossoming in her cheeks, and he immediately felt bad. It wasn’t like him to totally zone out like that.
“It’s okay,” she said kindly. “You’re not the first.” She made a point of scanning him from head to toe. “But you might just be the biggest.”
Her smile was dazzling, and he found himself chuckling with the others as the awkwardness passed. “Fair enough.”
Faith’s eyes moved away from him and back to Shane. For a moment, it felt as if the sun had been hidden behind some clouds. Surely it was a trick of his imagination.
“So to what do we owe the honor of your visit, Mr. Callaghan?” she asked. “I hope there’s not a problem.” Her voice was light, but Kieran didn’t miss the way her pretty gray eyes clouded with concern.
“Call me Shane, please. And no, there is no problem. We were just hoping to make the place a little more habitable for you before you arrived.”
“That’s very kind of you,” she said.
Kieran forced his addled brain to start functioning again. “We’ve got the truck loaded with a bunch of stuff – lumber, hardware, a couple of fixtures.”
Faith’s smile faltered a bit. She glanced at Matt again and shifted her weight slightly. The two exchanged a knowing look before she spoke. “That’s really nice of you,” she said hesitantly, “but we haven’t really had a chance to go through thoroughly and see what we need.”
“I walked through yesterday,” Kieran told her confidently, confused by her apparent sense of discomfort. “Trust me. You need this stuff, and a whole lot more.”
*
Faith’s unease grew. It had taken nearly everything they had to get this far. Things were going to be really tight for a while, and they were going to squeeze every possible dime out of what they had left, at least until she got that first paycheck. Even then, it would be a struggle. For their own home, they had both decided it would be worth it.
But she did have her pride. She wasn’t about to share all that with a stranger, no matter how good looking he was. “I appreciate the thought, Mr. Callaghan -“
“Kieran,” he corrected immediately.
“Kieran,” she said, only to appease him. “It’s not that we want to appear ungrateful, but we can’t accept any of that. ”
“It’s all in the agreement,” Shane interrupted smoothly.
“It is?” Faith blinked. She had read the contract six times, each and every legal word of it. What exactly had she missed?”
“It is,” Shane assured her. “Page seventeen, Clause four, subclause B. ‘It is the Seller’s responsibility to ensure that the residence is habitable and up to code.’ I’m paraphrasing, of course, but that’s the gist of it.”
“Oh,” Faith said, her brows knitting together. “I’m afraid I don’t remember seeing that.”
“No?” Shane asked with a bemused expression. “Hang on – I’ve got the papers in the truck.”
Faith shifted uncomfortably as Shane jogged outside. “I wish I could offer you something,” Faith said to Lacie and Kieran, feeling somewhat embarrassed, “but I’m afraid I haven’t had a chance to get to a store yet and our electricity was just turned on this morning...”
“It’s fine,” Lacie assured her with a smile that was as genuine as it was warm. “We weren’t expecting you to be here, so we brought a couple of coolers with us.” She looked around the decent sized kitchen with appreciation. It had definitely been built at a time when the kitchen was the hub of all family activity. “This is a great kitchen, by the way.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Faith agreed. Real wood cabinets, carved from what looked like dark cherry wood. Authentic marble countertops. A double basin stainless steel sink. The appliances – a gas stove and a refrigerator – were close to being considered of historical value, but they were sturdy and appeared to be in working order.
Like the rest of the house, it just needed some TLC. From the first moment they’d pulled onto the property, it felt like home.
*