“Here’s my stuff,” Leah said.
Eli turned to watch his sister coming toward him with her painting supplies in hand. He couldn’t wait to see her reaction when she saw Anna.
“Go ahead and put those on the counter. I’ll do them when Anna is finished cleaning up her things.”
Leah’s steps slowed, and her brow furrowed as she looked at Anna. Eli could see the battle within her. She didn’t want to have to clean up painting tools, but at the same time, if Anna was doing hers, Leah probably thought she should clean hers too.
In the end, however, Leah’s dislike of cleaning up the paint brushes and rollers overrode her desire to show Anna up. She plunked her things on the counter then turned to Eli.
“I’m going to clean myself up and see if Mom needs help with supper,” she said. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
Once it was just the two of them, silence fell, interrupted only by the soft music playing in the background. For some reason, Eli didn’t feel pressured to make conversation with Anna as he cleaned up the paint cans and the drop clothes spread throughout the cabin, even though he had a million questions for her rolling around in his head.
By the time he finished, he returned to the kitchen to find that Anna had gone ahead and begun to clean Leah’s stuff.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Eli said.
“It’s no trouble.” Anna shrugged. “It has to be done.”
“Well, thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, giving him a wide smile before turning her attention back to the brushes in the sink. “I’m almost done.”
“Dinner will be in about an hour, so you’ll have time to head to your cabin before we eat.”
“That will be good. I think your mom would appreciate it if I cleaned up before sitting down at her table.”
“True.” Eli leaned against the fridge and folded his arms. “So exactly how much painting have you done that you’ve gotten this good at it?”
“I like to switch things up in my apartment, so I’ve repainted the rooms there on several occasions. I find painting to be relaxing, to be honest. Also, I’m accomplishing something, and yet I can still think about other things since it doesn’t require too much concentration.”
“Well, I will admit that I didn’t have the highest of hopes for your abilities when you offered to help out, so I apologize for doubting you.”
“No apology necessary. You didn’t know me, so you didn’t know what I could or couldn’t do.” She glanced over at him, a teasing glint in her eye. “I won’t hold it against you. Too much.”
A bark of laughter escaped before Eli could stop it, and Anna once again smiled as if she realized exactly what she’d managed to accomplish. Outside of his family, not many people could make him smile, and even fewer could make him laugh.
Eli wasn’t sure what it was about Anna that seemed to draw him in. It wasn’t like there hadn’t been women interested in him over the years, but after Sheila’s disappearance he’d felt no inclination to get involved with another woman. It hadn’t been a conscious choice. It wasn’t as if he’d still loved Sheila, but there were a lot of negative emotions tied to being in a relationship for him.
Anna was the first woman to make him look twice, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. For a whole host of reasons. The main one being that her life wasn’t in New Hope and his was, so even contemplating anything beyond a friendship would be flat out stupid of him.
“Well, I think that’s the last of it.” She reached for the towel that rested on the counter. After she dried off her hands, she said, “I’m going to head home to clean up a bit. I’ll see you at supper.”
Eli nodded, then watched as she walked out of the cabin. He stayed where he was for a minute before jerking into action. Though he didn’t doubt she’d done a good job, he took the time to make sure that the rollers and brushes were all clean before grabbing his jacket. He noticed at the same time that Anna had left hers so after the briefest hesitation, he picked it up and carried it out to his truck with his.
He left it on the seat when he got to his place, planning to give it to her at supper. The evenings were cool so unless she wore another jacket to the lodge, she would probably want one when it was time to go home.
When he found himself trying to figure out what to wear for dinner, Eli had to give himself a mental shake. He wasn’t dressing to impress Anna, so what did it matter at this point? She’d seen him at several meals in jeans and a T-shirt. There was no need for him to suddenly be considering pairing a sweater or polo shirt with his single pair of nice slacks instead of his usual more casual attire.
After mentally lecturing himself, he grabbed a clean pair of jeans and a dark green, long-sleeve T-shirt. He combed his still damp hair but left off his ball cap like he usually did when going to dinner at his mom’s.
It didn’t take him long to get to the lodge, but even so, Anna had beat him once again. This time, she wasn’t helping, but she sat at the counter, talking to his mom.
“It sounds like you had a very productive day,” his mom said, glancing at Eli as he walked in.
“I think we did,” Anna said. “But Eli would probably be the better judge of that.”
At his mom’s questioning look, Eli nodded. “We did. I think we’ll be done with that cabin tomorrow. Then you can do your thing decorating it, and we’ll move on to cabin two.”
“I’d like to help out again, if I can,” Anna said, a hopeful look on her face.
“I think we’d be foolish to turn down your help now that we’ve seen how well you tape and paint,” Eli said.
Her smile was instant and bright, and by the looks of things, contagious. His mom was smiling happily, the stress of the renovations seemingly gone now that she had seen how smoothly things were going. Though she had been the one to press for updating the cabins, she’d also been stressed about it. Eli had assured her that they could handle it. After all, they weren’t tearing down walls or adding onto the buildings, just painting.
“Let’s sit up at the table,” his mom said.
Eli let out an appreciative sigh when he saw the chicken, rice, broccoli casserole his mom set down on the table. It was a favorite of his—he had so many when it came to his mom’s cooking—and a meal he could pretend was healthy because of the broccoli, ignoring the cream soups and cheese his mom had added to it.
After he said a prayer for the meal at his mom’s request, they ate in silence for a few minutes before Sarah began to talk about the project she was working on. Almost immediately, Anna engaged with her, asking questions about the client and about the project itself.
Eli was amazed at how Anna managed to make any attempt at conversation seem so genuine. He didn’t know for sure if she was really interested in what Sarah did, but if her questions were anything to go by, it appeared that she was. That was another thing that he was coming to appreciate about her. She had made an honest effort to connect with each of them.
It really made her feel less like a paying guest and more like a new-found friend.
Though Anna offered once again to help clean up, this time his mom declined her offer firmly, insisting that she’d done quite enough that day. In the end, Anna decided to call it an early night, and when Eli offered her a ride home, she took him up on it.
“Oh, I thought I’d left it at the cabin,” Anna said when he opened the door of his truck, obviously spotting her jacket where he’d left it earlier.
“I figured you might need it tonight or tomorrow morning,” Eli told her as she climbed up onto the seat.
When he pulled to a stop in front of her cabin a few minutes later, she said, “Would you mind coming in and showing me how to light a fire? Your mom told me how, but I’m afraid I learn better from seeing someone else do it first.”
“Sure thing.” Eli put the truck in park and turned off the engine.
He followed her into the cabin, checking to see if there was still wood in the bin beside the fir
eplace. They had been clearing it out of the other cabins, but his mom had either filled it up again, or it had never been emptied because there was still plenty in there.
“So you want to do it yourself?” Eli asked as he gathered what he needed.
“Yes, I’d like to learn,” Anna said. “I have an electric fireplace in LA, and usually only use it for ambiance, not heat.”
“Well, it’s not too difficult,” Eli said, looking over when he felt movement beside him to see that she’d joined him in front of the fireplace.
Slowly, he walked her through the steps of building a fire, starting with positioning the kindling and wood and making sure the flue was open. They knelt side by side in front of the fireplace, their arms brushing against each other as they worked together to get the fire going.
As the flames took hold, Eli put the screen in front of it then glanced over to see Anna sitting cross-legged on the floor a few feet behind him.
When he settled back on the floor beside her, he told himself it was just to make sure that the fire was going well before he left. Not because he found himself reluctant to leave her presence. He’d been in and out of the cabins his entire life, but he rarely spent any length of time in them except if he was helping to clean or do repairs. It felt weird to be there with a guest. Though in all honesty, he’d never had a guest feel less like a guest than Anna did.
“Thank you so much for helping me with that,” she said as she faced the growing flames. “Hopefully I’ll be able to do it myself next time.”
“If you’re uncertain, just let me know, and I can come help you out again,” Eli told her, pulling a leg up to rest his arm on it. “I don’t mind.” Then, worried about how that might sound, he added, “It’s the least I could do after all you’ve done for us.”
They sat in silence for a moment, but just as Eli was contemplating leaving, Anna asked, “Do you have a girlfriend?”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Eli looked at her in surprise. “A girlfriend? Why do you ask?”
“When I was in town the other day, I kinda got the feeling…”
“Let me guess,” Eli said with a sigh. “While you were at the bakery?”
Anna laughed as she nodded. “I guess you know who I’m talking about then.”
“I do, and for the record, Cecelia’s not my girlfriend.”
“I got the feeling that if she wasn’t already, she wanted to be.” She drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around them. “I just wanted to be sure because I didn’t want to cause any issues for you for no reason. She didn’t seem too happy about the idea of me staying here.”
Eli wasn’t sure if he was disappointed that she wasn’t asking for a different reason or not. Conventional wisdom—which he usually adhered to—would say that due to the obvious differences in their lives, he was better off not even thinking along those lines. But for the first time in a long time, he considered throwing caution to the wind.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” he asked then paused, a bit surprised that the words had actually come out of his mouth. “Uh…you know, just so there aren’t any similar issues for you.”
She looked over at him, her expression pensive for a moment before she gave him a smile that faded quickly. “No. No boyfriend.”
They fell silent again, and when Eli looked over at Anna, she was staring at the fire, her profile to him. He didn’t want to overstay his welcome, so he got to his feet. When Anna glanced at him, he held out his hand. She hesitated for but a moment before sliding her hand into his and gripping it tightly as he helped her up.
The movement brought them close. Close enough that Eli could see the light from the fire reflected in her eyes. Close enough that he could smell the subtle scent of her perfume. Close enough that he felt her fingers tighten briefly around his.
When she took a step back, Eli loosened his grip on her hand. Her fingers softly slid across his palm before the feel of her fingertips on his skin was gone completely.
“Thank you so much for helping me with the fire,” she said as she crossed her arms, tucking her hands into the sleeves of her sweater.
“Let me know if you have any issues lighting it again in the future.”
“I will,” she said with a nod then followed him to the door. “I think I got the hang of it, but you never know.”
Eli pulled the door open, and a rush of cold air greeted him, a reminder that fall was well on its way. The cold air felt good on his cheeks, and he wasn’t sure if they were heated because of the fire or because of Anna’s nearness. “See you tomorrow.”
“Yep. I’ll be ready to work once again.”
Eli gave a nod then said goodnight before heading down the stairs. As he passed her car with California license plates—the one that probably cost more than he made in a year or more—he was reminded of why it wasn’t a good idea to entertain any sort of interest in Anna. But it was hard not to want to since this was the first time in a long time that he’d felt more than a passing interest in a woman.
Women had expressed interest in him plenty of times, which he wished they wouldn’t because it just made things awkward when he didn’t feel the same way. It seemed very possible that the shoe would now be on the other foot. His interest wasn’t likely to be returned. After all, her life wasn’t in some small town in Washington. She was just passing through.
He’d do well to remember that.
Back at his own place, he changed into his work clothes then made his way to his workshop to put in a couple of hours before calling it a day. He still had some orders that needed his attention even while he was spending time working on the cabins.
***
Arianna changed into leggings and a large sweatshirt then retrieved her laptop and settled into the chair nearest the fire. Though she should have been used to the coolness of the evening given that she’d experienced winters in New York City growing up, it appeared she no longer was. But she didn’t mind. There was a coziness to having a fire going that appealed to her.
Instead of opening the laptop right away, she sat for a few minutes with it resting on her lap, staring into the flickering flames. She knew she needed to check through her emails and see what had come in during the day, but she didn’t want to. Unfortunately, it was how she’d told her team to contact her, so she couldn’t very well tell them that then not respond to them if they sent her an email.
While she may have wanted to just sit cozily in front of the fire and think about the fun she’d had that day spending time with Eli and his family, Arianna knew she couldn’t. She wanted to close her eyes and think about how it had felt to sit next to Eli in front of the fire. How his hand had felt in hers as he’d helped her up. But daydreaming had to come later, after she’d followed through on her responsibilities.
With a sigh, she opened the laptop and braced herself for a flood of emails. She could have checked them on her phone, but knowing she’d probably have to respond, she preferred to use the laptop.
When she saw the number of emails in her work inbox, Arianna was glad she’d turned off her email notifications or her phone would have been chiming all day. Knowing that most of the emails were probably conversations between members of the team, she made sure she started with the original in each thread.
Time slipped away from her as she read through each message, holding off on her response until she got to the last one in each series of emails. She jotted down notes in the notebook she’d placed on the table beside the chair earlier. Thankfully, once her mind shifted into work mode, it was easier to stay focused.
When she finally reached the last email, she arched her back to work out the tension that had knotted there, then looked at the fire, saddened to see that it had burned down to just embers. She glanced at the clock on her phone, not too surprised to see it was past midnight.
Her back wasn’t the only place she had tension following all that. A headache had blossomed behind her eyes, and she knew it was partly from the work, partly from the content
of the emails. Several of them had contained pointed requests—demands, really—for her to return to LA.
Arianna wasn’t in the mood to entertain those requests, and every day that she spent away from LA, she wondered if she would ever be excited to return there. The breath of fresh air that was New Hope Falls had her considering a change that she never would have thought she would. Anytime she’d pondered a move—which had been rarely—she’d always thought it would be back to New York.
Now she wasn’t so sure.
Pushing aside those thoughts for another day, Arianna closed her laptop and put it aside. Though she would have liked to stay curled up in the super comfy chair, she got to her feet, stretching her arms above her head. After going through the steps that Eli had given her to bank the fire, she headed for the bathroom to go through her nightly routine.
It was a routine she’d had for years, but that night, she was tempted to just crawl into bed without removing the little makeup she wore, let alone cleansing her face then applying her night creams. She didn’t though, because of habit, and because she really didn’t want to have to deal with a breakout while she was there.
There was a slight chill in the room now that the fire had gone out, so once she was done in the bathroom, she turned on the electric heat that Nadine had showed her when she’d first arrived. She didn’t turn it up too high, though, because she didn’t want to wake up in a sweat since she planned to keep all the lovely blankets on the bed to cuddle under.
The next morning, her alarm woke her just after eight. Arianna stayed under the covers for one snooze cycle, enjoying the feel of the weight of the blankets without feeling overly hot. She wasn’t a morning person by nature, but she’d become one over time. Still, she didn’t rush out of bed most mornings.
This morning, however, she had a place to be, so she didn’t want to dawdle. When her alarm went again, instead of adding another few minutes to her time in bed, Arianna shut it off and slid from beneath the covers.
A Love So Real: A Christian Romance (New Hope Falls Book 1) Page 10
