Читать книгу Operation Soldier Next Door - Justine Davis - Страница 17

Chapter 9

When she caught herself contemplating buying more chicken at the market to make a larger batch of her four-cheese bake so there would be extra, Lacy grimaced and stopped herself. And wondered if the fact that most of her cooking lately had been aimed at easily reheatable things was for the same reason.

Her troublesome neighbor.

Not that he was troublesome in the usual way of some neighbors. No, were it not for the sound of tools when he was working on the repairs to the house, or the sight of a light on in the workshop at night, she wouldn’t even know he was there.

She wondered about that, the workshop. Rather, how much time he spent in there. Yes, the house wasn’t repaired yet, but surely in his time in the service he’d been in worse? And he could easily sleep in the living room, away from most of it. So why was he still sleeping out in the workshop? True, the nights weren’t that cold anymore, in fact, they were having a rather warm June, and besides, she knew there was a woodstove in the back of the shop, although she hadn’t seen any smoke rising from the metal flue above the roof. Not that she checked all that often, but—

Quit kidding yourself. You’re always looking over there. And now you’re standing here in the produce section with a no doubt idiotic expression on your face while you contemplate how much of your life has been sucked up by your new neighbor.

Forcing herself to move on, she quickly finished her shopping so she could stop at the post office and still make it home in time for her next session. She had two completion certificates pending and she wanted to get them in the mail today so her proud students could show them to parents who didn’t quite believe the good news. She was focused on that when she heard someone call her name.

“Lacy?”

She turned and saw Hayley Foxworth, headed toward the store she’d just left.

“No dog?” Lacy asked lightly.

“Too warm already, and besides, Quinn took him to the office. One of our guys is at our headquarters in St. Louis, and Cutter’s been worrying about him.”

Lacy smiled. She already knew the dog was beyond clever, but that seemed a bit much. “Worrying?”

Hayley laughed as they stepped out of the way of another customer going into the store. “Rafe left his car here, and he works a lot in the warehouse, where the backup generator and the helicopter are. Every time we get there, Cutter’s off to inspect both, to see if there’s any sign he’s been back.”

Lacy laughed in turn at that. “Okay, that’s pretty clear.”

“After that, he’ll finally settle down. Usually with a mopey sigh. He really does worry about Rafe.”

Lacy wondered what there was to worry about with this particular Foxworth guy. But she was even more curious about something else Hayley had said. “Headquarters? Helicopter? You guys must be big.”

“We’re growing.” Hayley’s smile turned satisfied in a very personal way as she went on, “We have a southwest office open now. My brother’s running it.”

“So, it’s literally the family business?”

“When family’s the best person,” she said. “Quinn’s loyal, but if he didn’t think Walker could do it, he wouldn’t have offered it.”

“So, what exactly does the Foxworth Foundation do?”

Hayley met her gaze levelly. “We fight for those in the right who can no longer fight for themselves.”

Lacy blinked. “I... That’s quite a mission statement.”

“Yes. And we mean it. Even if the person we’re helping doesn’t realize it.”

“So, you fight for the little guy?”

“Not always. Sometimes the little guy is wrong. We helped a fairly big company last year that was being sued over something that never really happened. Their attorneys wanted to give up the fight and settle. We helped their founder prove it was all lies.”

Lacy was really curious now. “How did he find out about you? I mean, you’re right here and I’ve never heard of you. No offense.”

Hayley laughed. “None taken. We don’t advertise. We run strictly on word of mouth and referrals. Often from people we’ve helped in the past, who come across someone in a similar situation. And who want to help someone else the way they were helped.”