Page 12 of The Fall Fix Up

Janae nodded. “That sounds great. I’ll be in my studio. It’s the room over here with the double doors.”

Aiden gave her a final dimpled smile before walking into the dining room. She decided to save what little was left of her pride by making herself scarce. It wasn’t until she was in the safety of her sunroom that she let herself breathe. Her heart was beating double-time. If the offer hadn’t already been out there, she would have withdrawn it.

“What the hell was I thinking?” she whispered to herself. She stared at the blank canvas in front of her, hoping it would have answers to all her burning questions. Namely, how in the world she was supposed to survive having Aiden down the hall.

Janae tried to tell herself she was being practical. This was about survival and getting through the next few months without crashing into the crawl space below the house.

But as she leaned her head back against the door, she caught herself smiling—unprompted, unguarded. And that smile lingered, no matter how many times she tried to remind herself that she wasn’t looking for anything more.

Chapter 5

The last smear of sunset had faded from the Georgia sky by the time Aiden roared back up in his motorcycle later that day. Janae’s old craftsman sat at the end of the long gravel driveway flanked by pecan trees. His headlights caught on the porch where a couple paint cans and tarps had been left over from the contractors. Aiden had talked to a couple of them randomly at Thomas’s diner after he had left the house that afternoon, and he knew they were good guys, so they probably felt terrible about having to put different projects in town on pause. Still, it was more advantageous to everyone to get the apartment rebuilt as soon as possible, so he understood.

He turned off his engine and sat there for a moment, listening to the soft whistle of wind through the trees. His chest felt tight, the same way it always did when something started to feel a bit too much like optimism. He was torn between that and not wanting to get his hopes up, especially after having had another fruitless conversation with his dad not even an hour before. It pissed him off that things still hadn’t been resolved, but when the porch light flicked on and Janae opened the door, Aiden pushed thoughts of his dad and his fucked-up credit out of his mind. For now, he had a place to stay, and that was what he was going to focus on. He pushed up from the seat and grabbed his duffel bag, making his way to the house.

Janae waited for him in the doorway in a soft-looking sweatshirt and sweatpants. Her curly hair was pulled back with only a few stray curls falling over her face. It made his fingers twitch with the desire to brush them away, but he knew better. He kept his hands at his sides and smiled. She nodded as he walked up.

“Hey.”

“Hey, Janae,” he repeated, curling his shoulders in slightly to hopefully seem nonthreatening. “Thanks again for inviting me to stay.”

She shook her head before gesturing for him to come in. “No need. You’re really helping me out more than anything. I hadn’t really moved anything into the house yet, so . . .” She trailed off, and Aiden immediately understood. He hadn’t bothered to drive back here in his truck because other than a small duffel, he didn’t really have much to bring with him.

“I probably should have asked about a bed and things,” he said as she opened the door wider and let him in. The moment he’d crossed the threshold that morning, he’d understood what she meant when she said the place was half done.

The living room still smelled faintly of sawdust and primer, and the floors, while there, were old and scuffed and probably needed to be sanded and buffed. Sheets of plastic hung over one of the doorways, fluttering when the wind slipped between unseen cracks, as well as a window that he knew was more for show than for keeping anything insulated. There was a couch among the mess, plastic still overtop of it, and a single armchair surrounded by boxes labeled Art Supplies in dark red marker.

“It’s still pretty bad, isn’t it?” Janae asked, her smile a little crooked as she watched him look around. “I tried to put away some things after you left, but I didn’t get very far. I just don’t know what to do since everything is still under construction for the most part. It seems ridiculous to put things away when I’m probably going to have to box them up again to get them out of your way.”

“Well,” he said, going through the list of things that needed to be done immediately in his mind. “Like I said this morning, the bones are here, which is great. Most of the heavy lifting has been done already, minus the windows and floors.”

Janae nodded before a grimace split her lips. “You say that now, but you haven’t really gotten started yet. Are you sure I can’t pay you for this?” She walked toward the kitchen and Aiden followed, shaking his head.

“Truthfully, I’m probably getting the better deal out of all this,” Aiden said. “The contractors really did get most of the big stuff finished before they had to stop.”

The house creaked around them, and Aiden was glad that it was only one level. Basements weren’t really a thing in Peach Blossom, which also made things easier. They walked through the dining room that seemed to serve as another storage for labeled boxes. It was colder in here than it had been earlier. The more he was here, the more it made sense why Janae had been so quick to offer for him to stay. Georgia wasn’t known for cold falls or winters, but every now and then the state decided to have a true freeze, and all signs were pointing toward that happening this year.

“Do you have the heat on already?”

“Sort of?” Janae said, making it sound more like a question. “The central unit is ancient, and I’m pretty sure something must not be connected because it seems like the air barely gets warmer than it is outside. I was going to turn on my space heater, but I’m a little afraid, given the circumstances.”

Aiden nodded. “That explains why I can see myself breathe in here,” he said, deadpan. When Janae raised an eyebrow at him, he held his hands up and smiled. “I’m just saying.”

“It’s better than outside, even if it’s not by much.”

“You’re not wrong,” he agreed. Barely, he thought, keeping that to himself. He didn’t want to sound ungrateful when he’d not even seen the room he was going to stay in. Earlier, he’d only seen a couple rooms before being called away to the shop for a delivery. Still, shivering all night long wasn’t any more fun on a bed than it was on a cot, so he resolved to go out and actually purchase some warmer clothes.

Janae led him back down the hallway, the wooden floor creaking beneath their feet. Two doors stood open, one revealing a small bedroom with a neatly made bed and stack of blankets folded on top.

“This one is yours,” Janae said as she nodded. “I know it’s not much, but I put some extra blankets in there until we figure out the heating situation.”

Aiden gave her a quick smile before stepping into the room. The walls were half painted a soft blue, like someone had started and then, not sure about the color, had stopped and never picked the paintbrush back up again. There was a single nightstand by the bed, with a small lamp on it. It wasn’t much, but it looked cozy and, best of all, didn’t smell like smoke or motor oil.

“It’s perfect,” Aiden said, and even more, he meant it. It was warmer than the shop and the bed looked comfortable, like he wouldn’t wake up with his back already aching. There was a dresser across from the bed, though he didn’t have much to put in it. “Thank you.”

Janae’s expression softened. “You don’t have to be polite. I know it’s kind of bare in here.”

“I’m not,” he insisted. “The room has everything I need: a nice bed and a door. That’s more than I’ve had since . . . you know.”