The Independence My Alpha Regretted novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The Porch Light
"What I'm doing is drinking coffee," I said.
"You're drinking coffee on a porch at sunrise with burrs in your hair, after a run with a man you've sworn not to forgive."
I pulled a burr out of my hair and looked at it.
"The patrol has a pool going," Orson said. "Eleven of them think you'll shove him in the creek by spring. Four think you'll take him back by Easter."
"Which one did you bet?"
"I bet nothing." He sipped his own coffee. "I'm the landlord. I'm neutral."
"You're never neutral."
"I'm neutral about this." He turned the mug in his big hand. "Hazel, can I tell you something you won't like?"
"You will anyway."
"I will." He looked out at the yard. "I like being the one who opens the gate for you."
I said nothing.
"I liked the first night, with the eggs. I liked fixing the stove. It felt good to be useful to a woman who'd walked nineteen miles on a bad shoulder." He rubbed the bandage. "And I thought, if this goes on for a while, you'll start to need me. And I'll be the easy thing."
"Orson."
"Let me finish, I practiced this." He took a breath. "I am not that. I'll be your friend until one of us is a hundred. I'll bring eggs. I'll hold the door for your kid, and I'll teach her to throw a punch, and I'll be insufferable at her birthdays."
"Your arm is on fire, and this is the speech?"
"I'm getting to it." His mouth quirked. "But I'm the porch light. I am not the house. If you walk through my door because it's the nearest one, I'll walk you right back out of it."
My eyes stung, and I looked at the pines.
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