Читать книгу Love On Her Terms - Jennifer Lohmann - Страница 11

CHAPTER THREE

MINA ONLY REALIZED that she had a doorbell when she heard it ring for the first time. She wasn’t that surprised that she had been too distracted to notice a small white button in the white siding next to her door, but she was surprised to see the outline of her cranky neighbor through the frosted glass window.

“Hello, Levi,” she said as she opened the door. “I didn’t expect to see you standing on my doorstep.”

Inwardly she flinched at the slight implied by her words, but her neighbor didn’t seem to notice. Or, if he had any reaction, the permanent shadow on his face from his stubble hid all the visible signs.

“I got some of your mail.” He handed over a stack of envelopes, most of which looked like they would be junk and she’d be throwing them out anyway. “I saw that you were home and thought I’d bring it over, rather than leave it in your mailbox.”

“That’s nice of you. Thank you.”

They stood on her porch as she waited for him to say something. The change of venue from his front door to her front door didn’t make him any more loquacious. But he was here, and he’d done a nice thing, so she gave him a smile and took the reins of the conversation. “Does the mailman often put mail in the wrong box?”

Inane chatter. She could do better, but his silent presence seemed to knock all cleverness out of her. Between this and her babbling on his porch, he was going to think she was an idiot.

Levi looked relieved rather than dismissive. “No. But this house was empty for two years. He’s probably not used to delivering mail here.”

“Lucky for him, I doubt I’ll get much.” She held up the roll of advertisements and credit-card solicitations. “This looks like a lot of junk.”

“There was an ad for Palmer’s Drug in mine. Best drugstore in town. I tossed everything else.”

“Oh. That’s good to know, actually.” Local pharmacies were often also compounding pharmacies and sometimes she needed the specialized service. Levi’s visit was proving to be more than just an opportunity to appreciate the rough angles of his face and feel like a babbling fool.

“Any other best-in-town places I should know about?”

He shrugged, then looked around, probably at the disrepair of her porch. “I always go to Ace Hardware. Good people over there.”

She laughed. “Will they come over and fix things, too?”

“Nah, but they give good advice. And this house has good bones. You take care of it, and it will take care of you.”

Before she could say anything else, Levi nodded once, then turned on his heel and walked off her porch.

Mina stood in her doorway, watching him until he’d crossed over her lawn and onto his own. His butt looked nice in his jeans, but that wasn’t the only reason she couldn’t take her eyes off him. She also watched him because he was a puzzle of a man. If asked, she would have sworn that he was not a man to take such an ordinary task as returning a neighbor’s mail and make it a personal gesture complete with recommendations. Not when he could have silently stuck it in her mailbox.

* * *

A WEEK LATER, Mina stood on her front lawn cursing her lawn mower. It was new and fancy, and the man at the hardware store Levi recommended had sworn it was easy to use. When she’d gone to the store, she’d “just been looking” and hadn’t yet done any research into brands or reliability. But the salesman had promised next-day delivery and a thirty-day guarantee. He had sounded so reasonable, and she really had needed to mow her lawn or hire someone, so she’d plunked down her credit card.

Now she was the proud owner of a machine that wouldn’t start. Silence was probably not what the man had meant by “runs quiet.”

The lawn mower was electric, so it didn’t need gas, but no matter how many times she followed the directions and tried to start the damn thing, it wouldn’t run.

“Al sell you that?”

Mina jumped at the gruff voice behind her, releasing her hold on the mower and nearly falling backward. She turned to find Levi standing behind her, his arms crossed over a heathered green T-shirt.

“He should know better,” Levi continued, his pink lips barely moving as he spoke; but the disapproval in his voice was clear, despite his quiet tone. “That brand is notorious for having bad starters and needing repair straight out of the box.”

She exhaled a long puff of frustration. “It was cheap.”

He nodded. “They are cheap, and, when it runs, that machine will be as quiet as Al promised. But you can pay a little bit more and get a quiet mower that will run every time.”

“What do you know of lawn mowers? I’ve only ever seen you use a mower that looks like you made it in shop class from spare parts.”

His shoulders bounced as he chuckled. “That’s not far off. But fixing that thing has taught me more about lawn mowers than I ever wanted to know.”

“Why don’t you buy a new one?”

“Because Al has been trying to get me to buy a new one for years,” he said, his voice flat, like she was silly for asking that question, but his eyes had the barest gleam. Her neighbor might have a sly sense of humor hidden under his stony facade.

“You could go somewhere else.” She’d gone to the hardware store he had recommended because she wanted to support a small business, a decision she was rethinking right now.

“I could. But Al knows more about what’s in his store than all the clerks at the other stores combined.”

“He sold me a bum machine.”

Levi bent his head in acknowledgment. “He also sometimes wants a bad decision off his lot so quickly that he forgets he wants customers to return.”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked up at her oddly unhelpful neighbor. “Well, you can call him and tell him to come pick up the lawn mower. I want a refund, and I’ll buy my new machine somewhere else.”

Levi’s lips twitched, and Mina wondered if he was going to smile, and, if so, was he smiling at her or at Al? Imagining him smiling at her didn’t make her feel any less angry, though it meant she wasn’t only angry with Al.

“You can do that,” he said slowly. “Or I can help you pack it up, and we can return it. And see what discounts Al will give you in an attempt to keep you as a customer.”

Mina gave the man standing in front of her a long, slow once-over. She’d seen Levi tinker with his lawn mower and glimpsed the expansive set of tools in his shed. Either he knew what he was talking about when it came to lawn mowers—and Al—or he spent a lot of money to look like Mr. Fix-It. Given the grease stains on his jeans and the slight bit of dirt under his fingernails, she decided to trust that he knew his stuff.

“I need an edge trimmer, too.”

A slow smile crossed his face. “Al has lots of nice trimmers, and I’m sure he’ll give you a good deal.”

“Okay. I’ll give Al another shot.”

Together they got her lawn mower into the back of Levi’s truck. Mina grabbed her purse from inside her house, then climbed into the passenger seat. As Levi shifted into Reverse, she asked, “Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?” he said, looking over his shoulder at the road and not once looking at her.

“Being neighborly and helping me out. When I stood on your porch and introduced myself, I was pretty sure you’d rather I hadn’t bothered.”

“Maybe I’m not helping you out. Maybe I’m helping Al out.”

That cryptic statement silenced Mina the entire drive to the store.

* * *

ON THE WAY home from the hardware store, new lawn mower in the bed of Levi’s truck, Mina asked the question that had been plaguing her the entire time they’d been shopping and Al had suddenly become informative, not just helpful.

“Am I coming home with a better lawn mower because you helped me and Al knows you, or because you helped me and you’re a man?”

Levi’s lips twitched, but he didn’t turn his head to look at her. An annoying habit of his, and one that added to her sense that she didn’t have a good read on him. Grumpy loner? Stoic, independent-minded Westerner? Helpful neighbor? All of the above? None of the above?

“Probably both. Al’s of the generation that thinks you should be inside making pie while your husband is outside pushing the mower. And you’re a city girl, so he’s doubtful that you’ll mow your lawn, so why sell you a nice product when you’re only going to hire someone anyway. But had you come into the store with a different man, Al might have flat-out given you a lawn service recommendation.”

She grunted. His response wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but at least it was honest. And it was along the lines of what she’d expected. Al had looked like a modern mountain hermit, with a grizzled face and coarse white hairs that stuck out of his face and head like electrical wires. “What about you?”

Levi flipped on his blinker and turned down the street leading to their neighborhood. “What about me?”

“What generation are you of?”

“One older than you.” He must have noticed her roll her eyes because his lips curled in what was clearly a hidden smile.

“Do you think I should be inside making a pie while my nonexistent husband is outside mowing the lawn?”

“Does my opinion matter?”

Did it? She hadn’t started teaching yet and was slowly making friends with her colleagues. So right now, Levi was as close to a friend as anyone else in Montana. “I guess I still don’t understand why you’re helping me.”

“Huh,” he said, and Mina realized he didn’t understand why he was helping her, either. He probably saw himself as the cranky loner she had understood him to be during their first meeting. “I guess you should make a pie if you want to make a pie and mow your lawn if you want to mow your lawn. I won’t be surprised if you end up hiring someone, but that’s because mowing your lawn is a pain in the ass, not because you’re a woman.”

She laughed. “Will you come with me next time I need to buy an expensive piece of home equipment from Al?”

“Nah. You won’t need me. Al may be from an older generation than both of us, but he’s not so stupid as to drive a customer to one of those giant home-improvement stores more than once.”

* * *

AFTER THAT TRIP to the hardware store, where Levi had caught himself watching Mina’s hand instead of the road while he was driving—hoping her palm would suddenly rest on his thigh—he shoved his curiosity about her art and her cheer out of his mind and renewed his plan to avoid all thoughts of her. But catching glimpses of her outside had him reconsidering his stance on avoiding relationships because he was too old to risk heartache again. If he wasn’t careful, he’d be shaving every morning just in case she touched his cheek—and double-checking his throat for patches of missed stubble.

But his resolve must have worked, because he didn’t run into her again until Thursday, at the hardware store. She was in earnest discussion with Al over a cordless drill, asking him questions, and—as far as Levi could tell—Al was giving her good advice, rather than simply trying to sell her something.

Mina gave him a wave, and Levi raised his brows in return. When Al noticed, he looked over his shoulder and nodded. Levi nodded back, then caught Mina’s secret smile at their shared joke.

Once Levi got home, he made sure all the blinds were shut on Mina’s side of the house. He’d played friendly neighbor long enough and would have no part of whatever she was planning with her new cordless drill.