What The Heart Finds (17 page)

Everything was neat and
simple. No art on the walls. No carpet on the floors. No knick-knacks
on shelves.

“Why don't you make
some coffee?” Eric said, dropping her bags beside the front
door. “I am going to run and straighten up the bedroom. Change
the sheets. I'll be right out. He turned into the bedroom, sticking
his head back into the hall. There's cream in the fridge and the
sugar is above the sink.”

Cream and sugar. He had
paid attention. Sometimes it was the little things that counted.
Knowing how you took your coffee. Remembering to change the sheets.

Lena walked over to the
kitchen, finding not a simple drip coffee machine, but a drip machine
on the side paired with an espresso machine and a frother. “Do
you want a shot in yours?” she asked, putting the coffee
grounds into the machine and reaching for the bag of espresso beans.

“Two,” he
called back.

She heard him scurrying
around, making far too much noise to just be stripping the bed. Maybe
his bedroom was where all his junk was. Where he kept his magazines.
Threw off his shoes. Where his porn was stashed.

She moved over toward the
living room, thumbing through the records which seemed to be mostly
the classic rock she always heard him listening to. Singing along to.
There was something unexpectedly sexy about a man who sang. And the
sexy factor wasn't exactly in the fact of whether or not they
actually had a good singing voice or not. It was in the utter lack of
self-consciousness that allowed them to belt it out regardless.

His movie collection was
overwhelmingly action movies. A few of which she noticed. Most which
she did not. With cheesy, cheap looking cases and absurd plotlines.
Apparently he had a thing for b-rated movies.

She heard water running
and the sound of a spray bottle squirting and realized he had moved
on to the bathroom.

It was actually kind of
charming that he was putting so much effort into it.

The coffee machine beeped
and she made her way back to the kitchen, searching for mugs. She
went into the fridge to find the cream and found it almost completely
empty save for the cream, a bottle of ketchup, a stick of butter, and
a small assortment of yogurt.

“What do you eat?”
she called, shaking her head.

“I order out most
of the time,” he said, coming back into the kitchen, looking a
bit disheveled. He walked behind her, putting a hand on her hip for a
second as he moved past. He walked over to the machine, pouring the
espresso and a bit of coffee into a mug. “Seems like too much
work to cook for myself every night.” He took a sip of his
coffee, watching as she made hers. “You alright?”

She glanced over at him,
sending him a tight-lipped smile. “Yeah,” she lied.
“Eric...” she said, feeling awkward. “thank you so
...”

“Stop,” he
said, shaking his head. “don't thank me. Go take a shower....”

“Oh my god,”
she groaned into her coffee mug. “a shower.”

Eric laughed. “Yeah
those inn tubs leave a lot to be desired,” he agreed. “Take
a shower. Relax.” He looked at her for a moment. “How
long were you out front?”

Lena looked down at her
coffee cup. “I got kicked out pretty much as soon as you
dropped me off.”

“Baby why didn't
you ring the doorbell?”

Lena shrugged a shoulder.
“I wasn't in the best shape last night,” she admitted,
feeling silly about how much she had actually cried.

Eric put his cup down on
the counter, moving to close the space between them. He stood in
front of her, putting his thumb under her chin and making her face
him. “All the more reason you should have rang,” he said
softly.

“I'm here now,”
she said carefully.

“Mmmhmm,” he
said, leaning down and kissing her on the cheek. “So you go
ahead and settle in. I am going to work on that ridiculous car of
yours for a while.”

“Okay,” he
said, smiling a bit. “Thanks, Eric.”

“Anytime baby,”
he said, grabbing his coffee cup and moving toward the door.

She heard his footsteps
on the stairs and then his radio going on. She finished her coffee,
washed her cup, and made her way to the bathroom. It was small and
plain with white tiled floors and blue walls. The shower was the most
welcome sight she had seen in ages.

She quickly stripped out
of her clothes, and climbed into the shower, enjoying it more than
she had anything in a long while. She slathered her hair with his
shampoo. Which also happened to be a conditioner. And a body wash.
Lena laughed, shaking her head. Only a man would buy something that
claimed to be three things in one. And likely failed being at at
least two of them. But it was soap. And she needed to scrub her awful
night away.

Besides, it smelled like
him.

After her shower, she
rummaged around through his bathroom cabinets, finally finding a
boxed toothbrush. She wiped the condensation off of the mirror and
looked at herself, her hair tied up in a towel. “Oh god,”
she said, looking at her swollen eyes and splotchy skin.

She shook her head,
brushing her teeth quickly. He had seen her like that. She looked
awful. A complete, ugly mess. And he had seen that.

She made her way to his
bedroom, wrapped in a towel and realizing she actually didn't have
any clean clothes left. Because that would be a little too easy.

His room was large,
dominated by a massive kind sized bed with deep gray sheets and
blankets. The walls were painted a light gray and there was another
massive television on the wall across from it. She walked over to his
closet, deciding she was just going to have to steal something from
him until she could wash her own.

Opening it, she found
that he had shoved all of his shoes to one side, in a haphazard pile
and he had pushed all his shirts on hangers to the same side. He had
made room for her to hang her clothes. Because he had seen she had
hung her clothes up at the hotel. She didn't think she had ever met a
man who paid such close attention to the little things. Maybe it came
from his extensive history with women. Leaning that, for most women,
it was all about the little things.

She flipped through his
clothes, deciding on a black t-shirt that would fit her like a dress.
Rummaging through her bag, she found clean panties. Which,
thankfully, she had packed more than enough of. She slipped out of
the towel and into her new clothes and made her way toward the bed.

The sheets had the
lingering scent of disinfectant spray and she snuggled into them. It
was something her mother had always done when she had changed the
beds: sprayed the fresh sheets with disinfectant spray. It was an odd
habit she had never fully understood. But the scent reminded her of
home and she found it unbelievably comforting.

She wondered fleetingly
as she reached for the remote control if it was a habit Eric had
picked up from his own mother. Or father. Or had there been some kind
of aunt or cleaning lady. It certainly wasn't a thing a young boy
would have thought to do on his own.

Lena flicked mindlessly
through the channels, finding he had more than could ever be
necessary. She was tired. The heaviness weighing on her eyes, sinking
into her bones. But she laid there for a long time, half-watching an
old rerun and half contemplating what a strange thing it was what was
going on in her life.

She was staying in the
bed of a man who had made it very clear that he had it in his head
that he was going to sleep with her. Casually. Because he knew she
was bound to leave in a matter of days. But she was laying there
alone. And he had pledged to spend the next few nights in his own
house... sleeping on the couch.

It hadn't even occurred
to her to worry about the situation before. She was too wrapped up in
her work and banishment drama to consider what it meant that she
would be staying with Eric.

Because as history had
shown her, she had very little self-control around him.

Would he go out of his
way to just be cordial, to give her distance? Or would he be his
usual self? With all the touchy-feel-y stuff and his startling gazes
and his compliments, and his innuendos.

Somehow she doubted he
could turn all of that off. It was too much a part of him. He
couldn't exactly help it if he was a flirt. Any more than she could
help it that she was so uptight.

And now she had no way to
get away from him. No hotel room to lock herself away in. No windows
to shut in his face.

But, if she were being
honest with herself, she didn't want to run away from him. Because
she was starting to see the side of Eric that had made Anna consider
him. He was kind and thoughtful. He hadn't judged her.

And then, of course,
there was all the amazing, knee-knocking charm.

She couldn't imagine
spending several days in cramped quarters without something happening
between them. Without a slight touch to her hair or her hip turning
into a kiss. Which turned into touching. Which turned into rolling
around on his giant bed and...

Lena took a deep breath,
trying to push the image away. She curled up onto her side, clutching
a pillow to her chest, and closing her eyes.

The last thing she
remembered before drifting off to sleep was that she really sort-of
wished it was Eric she was cuddling with.

She woke up later,
something toying with the ends of her hair. Tickling. Annoying. She
swatted at it, grumbling. And then heard someone laughing. Her eyes
flew open as she scrambled up into a seated position, rubbing at her
sleepy eyes.

“Easy sweetheart,
it's just me,” Eric said, his voice amused. He sat down at the
edge of the bed. “You sleep like the dead. I was calling you
from the doorway for like five minutes before I finally came in.”

Lena pushed her damp hair
out of her face. “Yeah, I was beat,” she admitted,
looking toward the window. “What time is it? How long have I
been asleep?”

“Just a few hours,”
he said, reaching out and touching her toes. “It's about noon.
I just wanted to come up and tell you that I have to run out for a
few hours. One of the farmers needs his tractor looked at. Broken
farm equipment is a pretty huge deal this time of year. It really
needs to be fixed as soon as...”

“You don't have to
explain,” Lena broke in, realizing he was half-apologizing
because he had to abandon her car for a while. But he was right. If
the tractor was broken, the farms couldn't be planted, and an entire
family's livelihood could be threatened. “Go get their
equipment working again so they can get back to work.”

Eric smiled at her, his
eyes thankful that she understood. “Okay. I just wanted to let
you know in case you came looking for me.”

“Thanks,” she
smiled.

“Do you need
anything before I head out?”

“Nope. I think I'm
all set.”

“Okay,” he
said, getting up off the bed and making his way to the door. “By
the way,” he said, looking over his shoulder at her, his eyes
playful. “my shirt looks good on you,” he said and was
gone.

Lena's eyes went wide,
looking down at the shirt, bunched up around her upper thighs, almost
showing her underwear.

She climbed quickly out
of bed, grabbing a few items of her clothes, intent on hand washing
them if she couldn't find a washer somewhere in the apartment. She
certainly couldn't go around in Eric's clothes, half naked. It was
like asking for trouble.

Fifteen

An hour later, she had
her clothes hanging from the shower curtain rod, dripping into the
tub. Since there was no laundromat in town, she seriously wondered
how the man got his clothes cleaned. She couldn't picture Eric
scrubbing at his clothes in the sink. So what did he do? Convince
some poor widow in town to do it for him?

Lena wouldn't put that
past him.

She walked into the
kitchen, looking fruitlessly through the cabinets. Her stomach had
been growling angrily since she got up. She drank coffee until her
skin felt like it was buzzing to keep the hunger at bay... but she
needed to put some kind of food in soon.

But there was literally
nothing in the cabinets but sugar, baking soda, and vegetable oil.
And she had no idea how long Eric was going to be gone. And it wasn't
like you could just order take out in Stars Landing and have it
delivered to your door.

Lena sat down on one of
the island stools, trying to convince herself she wasn't really that
hungry. But it wasn't going to work.

Maybe the news wouldn't
have spread already. Maybe if she threw something decent on and
headed into town to grab a few things, she could get back before
Emily had a chance to fill everyone in.

Lena went back into
Eric's closet, searching for something to put on that wouldn't swim
on her. She eventually settled on one of his ribbed black tank top
undershirts and a pair of small-looking lightweight gray sweatpants.
It wasn't a good look, but it would have to do.

She slipped into the pair
of flip-flops she had packed for the inn shower, grabbed her purse,
and headed downstairs before she could think any better of it.