Page 27 of The Write Track
“I have no idea, but I’m guessing that the conversation you want to have with me should be in private, and Hal has just talked me into a whole new unit. Given the heat…”
“Right.” She nodded. “You need to handle the AC first.”
“It won’t take long,” I promised. “I’m an impulse shopper. The first good thing I see, I buy.”
“You really shouldn’t say things like that out loud,” Bella said as she started up the steps, her voice carrying loud enough for Hal to hear. “That means he’s going to show you the most expensive unit first because he knows you want to get this over with.”
“That’s pretty insulting,” Hal said as he followed her up the stairs. “Are you saying I’m trying to swindle him?”
“No.” Bella’s smile was sweetly mischievous when she reached my side. “You’re obviously good at your job.”
“You don’t even know me,” Hal shot back.
“Maybe not, but I know Nathan well enough to grasp how he found you in the first place,” she replied, not missing a beat.
Despite myself, I was interested to hear her take on me. “Oh, yeah? What is it that you think you know?”
Bella leaned against the porch railing. “You typed in ‘heating and cooling repair near Savannah’ and pulled up those results,” she replied, sounding sure of herself. “You’re savvy enough to ignore the advertised results. Just because somebody can throw money at visibility, that doesn’t mean they’re good at their job.”
I smirked but didn’t say anything. So far, she’d pegged me exactly right. She hadn’t stretched yet though.
“You looked at the first five results or so,” she continued. “You ruled out anything that was attached to a big corporation, like the Home Depot repairmen and the few Sears offerings that are still around.”
Okay, that was more impressive.
“You’re a firm believer in trying to hire local, even though you act as if you’re above it all.”
Still, I said nothing.
“So with the four you probably had left, you read all of the reviews,” she continued. “This guy didn’t have the best reviews because he’s blunt. That appeals to you, though. So when you found somebody with reviews that only mentioned his personality being persnickety and his work being topnotch, that’s the guy you went with.”
I let loose a breath that was caught between a laugh and a snort. It came out sounding like a wheeze. “That’s pretty good,” I acknowledged as I held open the door for her. “That is basically how it went down.”
Her smile was sweet, and it tugged at something in the vicinity of my heart. “You’re not nearly the tool you want people to believe. As much as you don’t want to buy a new AC, you kind of like Hal and know he’s not bullshitting with you.”
I smiled down at her ridiculously adorable face. Up close, she had a light smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. “What other talents are you hiding, other than reading people, I mean?”
She shrugged, suddenly apologetic. “You’re not going to like why I’m here.”
I’d already figured that out. “It’s okay,” I assured her. “Let’s deal with Hal, then you can tell me the news.”
“Okay. I won’t let Hal swindle you.”
“Hey,” Hal snapped. “I don’t swindle anybody,ma’am.”
Bella giggled, and the exasperated look Hal shot her suggested she’d already charmed him too. “I’m just taking care of my friend.”
IT TOOK US HALF AN HOURto settle on the right air conditioner. Bella refused to let me buy the most expensive one.
“That’s never the best unit,” she assured me. “The cheapest one isn’t either. You always have to land somewhere in the middle.”
Once Hal was gone with a promise to be back in two days—that’s how long it would take for the unit to be delivered—I sat with Bella on my screened porch. My ceiling fan was valiantly fighting the heat, but the house would be warmer than normal until Hal worked his magic.
“Sorry about this.” I waved toward the ceiling fan. The heat wasn’t my fault, of course—things like this were out of any individual’s control—but I still didn’t like the idea of her beinguncomfortable. “The inspectors I hired didn’t mention anything being wrong with the air conditioner.”
“Isn’t that part of homeownership? Something is always ready to fall apart. That’s what my mom used to say, anyway. Luckily, we could make it through a Salem summer without AC if that became an issue. Getting through a winter without a furnace, though, that was another story.”
I wanted to know more about her. It was weird. “Did that happen?”
