As much as I’d hoped for this outcome for her, I wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon.
“Heather, that’s awesome. Truly. I’m so happy you’re gonna finally do it.”
Why does my chest hurt so badly, then?
“I just have to figure out the situation with my mother. I don’t want her living alone. I want to talk to my aunt who lives outside of Boston to see if she would be willing to move here, or take Mom in, or at least look out for her. There’s a lot to figure out before I can make this happen.”
“Does Alice know about Vermont?”
“Not yet. I haven’t told her, because I want to be completely sure it’s going to happen first. Part of that is seeing what the realtor has to say about how easily she thinks we can sell the property. Summer is a good time to put it on the market, and I’ll need that money to fund school. So, if she doesn’t think it will sell, then—”
“Don’t let that stop you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…I’ll lend you the money to start school.”
Offering Heather help was a no-brainer. I’d always been smart with my funds, even when I was traveling. I’d often stay in hostels instead of fancy hotels. The bottom line was, I could easily afford to lend it to her.
“I can’t let you do that.”
“I have a good amount of savings. It wouldn’t be an issue to lend you whatever you need to get started. You could always pay me back when the sale goes through. It’s not a big deal.”
“What if the house doesn’t sell?”
“It will.”
Her mouth hung open. “Well, I don’t even know what to say. I’m not too proud to accept your generosity if it comes to that, and I’m completely blown away that you would offer. Seriously, thank you.”
“It’s no skin off my back. The money is just sitting in the bank doing nothing.”
“I hope I don’t have to take advantage of it, but I really appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome.”
A mix of emotions ran through me. I was so incredibly proud of her for taking this step. I was envious of all of the people who had yet to meet her, envious of the lucky bastard she would choose to spend her time with there. Most of all, I knew I would miss her. I’d miss her smile. I’d miss talking to her. I’d miss everything about her and this place.
After her news, things were quiet for a while as we returned to work. Then Heather snapped me out of my thoughts.
“Hey, can we take a quick ride?” she asked, checking her phone for the time. “I didn’t realize how late it was, and I need your truck for something.”
“You need to pick something up?”
“Yes. I need you to take me to the pet store. I don’t have room in my car for everything.”
“Everything?”
“I’m sort of rescuing a couple of guinea pigs. They come with a lot of baggage.”
Chuckling, I said, “Guinea pigs have baggage?”
“Well, their cage is really big.”
“You’re seriously bringing them back here?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea if you’re gonna be leaving for school at some point?”
“We don’t have a choice. The pet store is closing tomorrow for good, and my friend Trish says if no one takes them, they could end up being euthanized. I’ll figure something out. But this will buy them more time.”
“There’s no one else who can take them in?”
“She said she can’t find anyone. Trish already has three of them at home.”
Heather’s life was about to be in limbo. She needed this like a hole in the head, but she had a heart of gold, and I knew there would be no talking her out of this.
Brushing the dirt off my hands, I said, “Okay, let’s go rescue some guinea pigs.”
***
An hour later, I was thinking I needed my head examined for agreeing to this. Those pigs took up way more space than I’d ever imagined.
I’d helped her bring the animals upstairs and set up their massive cage in the corner of her room.
It was my first time inside Heather’s bedroom, and it was just as soft and feminine as I’d imagined it to be. I was as tense being in here as I’d imagined I’d be, too.
My eyes wandered to the top shelf in her closet. There were bags upon bags of stacked candy corn packages.
“I take it you like candy corn?”
“Well, you have to stock up, otherwise you can’t find them all year. I can’t live without them. So I hit the sales at the end of Halloween.”
“And buy out the whole store?”
“Pretty much.” She laughed. “I never told you Halloween was my favorite holiday?”
“No. Although based on your penchant for horror movies, I should’ve known.”
She was clicking away on her laptop, trying to find information about caring for her new pets. Neither one of us knew a thing about guinea pigs.
“There’s so much I have to learn. It’s overwhelming.”
“Like what?”
“Well, for one…I don’t think we have enough hay. This says if they don’t have enough of it, it can lead to malocclusion.”
“Malo-what?”
“It’s a misalignment of their teeth. Without hay, their digestive tract also shuts down. They could die.” She buried her head in her hands. “Holy crap. What did I get myself into?” She seemed to be panicking. “They eat lettuce and kale? I don’t have any of that in the house. I assumed the pellets she gave us were their food. These guys are supposed to be eating good stuff.” She went back to the screen for a moment. “Crap. It says you need a lid for the cage if you have other pets. What if Teddy tries something? What if he accidentally murders them?”
As if on cue, the dog entered the room and began barking at the cage. The guinea pigs trembled. This wasn’t good.
“No, Teddy!” Heather shouted, steering the dog away from the cage. “I can’t believe I never thought this through.”
“You didn’t know how Fathead was going to react.”
She shook her head. “This was a mistake. I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”
Heather led the dog downstairs before returning to the room and sitting down on the bed.
She continued scrolling for information. “Their toenails have to be trimmed from time to time. It says here you could break a blood vessel doing it.” She kept reading, seeming unable to look away.
I must have been out of my mind, but I said, “Tell you what, I’ll take them over to the boathouse for tonight. That will solve the dog issue until we can get a top for the cage. I think I have a little romaine lettuce, too, that I use for my sandwiches.”
“I feel awful making you do that. We just set everything up here and—”
“It’s really no problem. I’ll move everything over. Tomorrow we can get more hay and buy some greens and stuff. They’ll be fine.”
Heather looked like I’d lifted a huge load off of her chest. “Seriously…I don’t know what I would do without you this summer. You’ve done more for me in the six weeks you’ve been here than my father has in my entire life. I feel like you keep saving my ass. I owe you so much.”
Saving her ass wasn’t exactly where my mind had been lately.
She stood up, walked over, and wrapped her arms around my neck. It caught me off guard, and my body stiffened. But rather than continue to tense up, I closed my eyes and let myself experience the comfort that holding her brought me. Nothing had felt this damn good in a long time. With my nose buried in her hair, I took a deep breath in. She smelled so good it was almost too much to bear. I knew she had to have felt my heart beating. Christ. Now I could feel my cock stiffening. This wasn’t good.
I pulled back. “I’d better get everything packed up.”
***
After I returned to the boathouse and got the guinea pigs settled in their cage on my floor, I decided to wash up after the long day of working outside.