effort, he looked away, turning his attention to Mooch. “Dog, you catch me looking at her like that again, bite me. Hard.”
The dog’s tail thumped on the ground. His excitement warned Nick that Callie was already on her way back. It was obvious that Nick wasn’t the only one who felt the pull of Callie’s warm smile.
He opened the passenger door for her and stood back while she and Mooch clambered in. By the time Nick reached the driver’s side, the two of them had staked out their territory. She was sitting flush up against the far door with Mooch sprawled half in her lap, half on the seat.
As Nick started the engine, he had to wonder if it was wrong to be jealous of a dog.
Chapter 3
C allie’s parents would have a hissy fit if they ever found out she’d invited a total stranger to spend the night in their house with her. They’d be only marginally happier to learn that Nick was camping out next door. She didn’t care. Meeting Nick was like reconnecting with a little piece of Spence, and she wasn’t ready to let him drive away. Not yet.
He’d seemed reluctant to take her up on the offer of a free room, and she felt as if she’d bulldozed him into accepting. It was only for a night, maybe two. It hadn’t occurred to her to ask whether he had someplace he had to be. He hadn’t yet explained why he’d come in the first place.
Yes, they had both been friends with Spence, but it wasn’t as if their paths had ever crossed. If Nick had simply wanted to offer his condolences, surely mailing a sympathy card would’ve been easier than a trip across country. In truth, she should’ve been the one sending the card. After all, Nick had spent far more time with Spence over the past few years than she had.
“The driveway is just past the trees. It’s pretty overgrown, but you won’t have any trouble navigating it with this truck.”
He turned onto the gravel road, the truck lurching and bouncing along the rutted ground. “The place has been pretty much vacant since Spence enlisted. My dad used to keep the lawn mowed, but it got to be too much for him.”
She was babbling, but the silence in the truck was heavy rather than comfortable. The house was set back some distance off the road on an acre lot. The driveway curved around a small island in front that used to be filled with rosebushes. Only a few of the most hardy had survived years of neglect.
“You can park anywhere. There is a garage off to the side, but it’s full of stuff.”
Nick pulled past the steps and stopped. She opened her own door and climbed down with Mooch right behind her. Nick stood back and studied the house, starting with the front door and then gradually tilting his head back to check out the second and third floors.
“Wow, I knew Spence owned a house, but he never said anything about it being this big.”
No surprise there. She also doubted he’d shared how miserable he’d been living there once his parents had been killed. Not only did it contain memories of how happy he’d been when they were alive, but it also reminded him of what a hell his life had become after his mother’s brother had moved in to take care of him. His uncle had been a real bastard. Still was.
“There aren’t many of these old beauties left in the area, but I’ve always loved this house.”
That was true, but then those bad memories had been Spence’s, not hers. “Shall we go in? I’ll show you where everything is and then get out of your way.”
She headed up the steps to unlock the door. When Nick caught up with her, Callie held the door open and let him enter first. Once inside, she flipped on the living room light.
“The kitchen is straight back. The appliances are old, but they work. There’s a bathroom on this floor and another on the second floor next to the master bedroom.”
She led the way upstairs, turning on more lights as she went. With the gray, rainy day, the house needed all the help she could get to banish the shadows.