Chapter Two

After wiping down the counters, removing the bait traps, and scrubbing the kitchen walls, I felt as though I hadn’t made any progress. I decided to start with the kitchen since it was where I’d spend most of my time. It had a nice little island in the middle with two bar stools that probably would’ve made better kindling than anything else. The kitchen also seemed to get the most light as the front windows were blocked by a pair of tall trees that had grown far too close to the house.

Those were out of my control, but the inside was definitely something I could handle, even if it did take a little while.

With one of the only stations playing on the radio, I moved into the hall bathroom, wiping off the counters and the tops of the shower doors as I went. I’d always loved to clean, but after a while, you keep your space so organized that there isn’t much left to clean at all.

Mom insisted I would’ve made a wonderful cleaning lady, but to be honest, I have a much better time cleaning out my own space compared to when I do it for someone else. I never liked sifting through Greta’s things. I had no idea how to sort them or even where half of them went.

But inside the rancher, with a space that would someday be my own, I hit my happy place and slowly moved from one room to the other.

I was about to venture back into the bedroom when someone knocked on the front door. At first, I thought it might’ve been the wind or that the branches of the trees had brushed against the roof as they’d done so before. However, when the sound came again, I realized that wasn’t the case.

Wiping my hands off on a fresh rag, I stopped in the kitchen to turn off the radio, then went to open the door.

A woman around my age stood on the front porch, her dark hair pulled back in a high ponytail.

“Hello,” I said, keeping the screen door closed between us. “Can I help you?” I craned my neck, but if she had a car, she parked it out of view.

“Good morning,” she said in a voice that was a lot lighter than I’d expected. “I was actually coming over to ask you the same thing. I would’ve dropped by last evening but thought it best to wait.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, then played with the end of her sleeve.

It amazed me to see someone all the way out here wearing a thin jacket and jeans. Maybe it was because I was so new to the area and hadn’t adjusted yet, but either this woman enjoyed the cold, or she’d only expected to stand outside for a few minutes.

Then, realizing she’d known about my arrival last night, I said, “I didn’t wake you, did I?” I didn’t have the music up that loud.

“Not at all,” the brunette assured me with a swift shake of her head. “I could see your high beams from my front window,” she explained. “I live just down the way, so it looks like we’re going to be neighbors.”

I frowned, then opened the front door so I could look the way she came. No car. Squinting through the trees, I couldn’t see her house, either.

“Don’t worry,” she said with a touch of laughter in her voice. “It’s there. It’s just hard to spot through all of the trees.” God, even her laugh was cute. “Anyway, my name’s Brianna, or Bree, whichever you prefer.”

“Carley,” I said as I held out my hand.

She hesitated a moment, then took my hand and shook it before letting it drop to my side again. “I have a small property that I share with my brother, Jackson. He’s off on a job right now, but you’ll see him around. I just didn’t want to alarm you if we happen to cut through your yard. It’s usually the fastest way for us to get from place to place. If that’s a problem—”

“No problem at all,” I said. “I’m just surprised to see someone else living out here. I thought I was the only one.”

“Not quite,” she said with a smile that did funny things to my stomach. “Anyway, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that the roads out here aren’t the best.”

I nodded at that. The number of potholes I had to drive around were some of the worst ones I’d seen.

“Of course, most of the roads in Pennsylvania could use some work,” she said when I didn’t say anything. “In any case, we tend to walk whenever we can.”

“Even into town?” The closest town, if I could even call it that, was at least five miles away.

There was that smile again, and bless her, it reached all the way to her hazel eyes. “Sometimes when the weather’s nice and if we don’t need more than a few things we will, though that usually isn’t the case.”

I could understand that. “I’m sorry again if I woke you.”

She waved my comment away. “It’s no trouble at all. Sadly, we’re the only two houses out here, so I’m afraid there isn’t much else to share. Though you might want to get that roof looked at in the spring.” She gestured at the roof covering the old barn off to my left. I hadn’t even bothered looking at it yet, but sure enough, many of the rafters were in desperate need of repair.

“I will,” I promised. “I’m mostly concerned about the house.”

“Don’t let it sit too long,” Bree said as she eyed the tall structure. “The cost of repairs can go up astronomically if it’s rotted through. Looks like it isn’t there quite yet, but considering the wet winter we’re about to have, you should get it looked at in the spring. To be honest, I’d probably tear it down and put in a garden unless you’re planning to keep horses, but that’s just me. Extra maintenance, you know?” She shrugged and left it at that. “Anyway, it was nice to meet you.”

“You too,” I said as I shook her hand again. “And thanks.”

“For what?” she asked, pausing on the front step to look at me again.

“For the kind welcome and the warning.” I gestured at the barn for good measure. Clearly, I had my work cut out for me.

“Anytime.”

With that, she turned on her heels and headed back the way she came. For a brief moment, I stood on the front porch, watching her until she disappeared behind the trees. If she had a house down the way, I couldn’t see it.

Just wait until the spring. I laughed at that.

If I thought it was hard to see her house now, it’d be impossible once the trees were in full bloom.

With the chill air biting at my skin and a storm on the horizon, I retreated back into the house to finish what I was doing. All the while, I thought of the mysterious woman and the house she claimed to have down the street.

This is going to be an interesting year.

 

 

I saw her again after that, always with her brother as they cut through the front yard. They never got close to the house, skirting the area and walking far around the barn until they were out of my line of sight.

Most folks would’ve complained or asked them to stop, but not me. Considering how isolated we were out here, seeing someone aside from myself or the bit of wildlife that happened to drop by was kind of nice.

The storm my sister had been so concerned about was nothing more than a dusting, and after a week of being cooped up inside the house and doing very little to the outside of it, I was running out of supplies. Greta would be pissed as I’d missed our call by one day, but seeing as I’d forgotten my charger…

“She’ll understand.” As soon as I reached her with one of the phones they had in town, all would be forgiven.

If they have phones.

I shook my head at that. In this day and age? There was no way they didn’t have an old pay phone somewhere.

The drive into town was pretty uneventful. Aside from a doe that decided to cross my path just as I was leaving the property, there wasn’t much to report at all. Unless you count the pothole that tried to eat my back tire, that is.

As for the house, it barely stayed warm, causing me to use even more electricity and fuel by running the heat most of the time. Money wasn’t a problem, but if I wanted to last out here for an entire year, I had to get used to it somehow.

I would’ve used the fireplace, but all of the wood I found was either too damp or rotted through much like the side of the building. I really should’ve checked the listing a little more, but even after a week of dealing with the draft coming in under the front door and along the windows, I was determined to make it work.

It was one of the main reasons I was going into town. That and my lack of food, of course.

Food and shelter. That’s all I needed, and if I could make it just a little warmer, that’d be even better.

Pulling into town, I frowned at the handful of buildings along the road. There was a small diner, a grocer with three gas pumps, a tiny post office, and what I could only assume was a mix between a hardware and feed store. In other words, there wasn’t much, and the only phone I could actually use was the one they kept inside the diner.

Talking to my sister in a room full of people wasn’t the best, but it was a lot better than having to drive another twenty miles to find another one.

“You’re late,” my sister said once she realized it was me. “I was about to send out the search party and everything.”

“Sorry about that,” I said over the clamor of voices behind me. “I forgot my charger.”

“Where are you? It sounds busy.”

“I’m using the phone at the diner,” I told her, plugging my other ear so I could hear her over all of the noise.

“Can you get a new one? A charger?”

I honestly had no idea as I hadn’t bothered to look. “I’ll have to check the grocer, but this entire area is on the bare essentials side of things.”

“And you still want to stay?” She sounded hopeful. Excited, even.

“Sorry Greta. My plan still stands. Besides, it isn’t too bad once you get past the culture shock.”

“So, how is it? What’s it like?”

“Well…” I rubbed the back of my neck, then stepped aside so someone could use the bathroom. “It’s different.” That was an understatement. Compared to the life we had back home, I was living on a completely different planet.

“Different how? Rural, rustic, or mountain man?”

I laughed at the last one. “Mountain man, I think. I actually have neighbors. They live down the road from me.”

“And?” my sister urged. “You wouldn’t have mentioned them unless there was something special you wanted to say.”

“Nothing special,” I assured her. At least not from what I’d seen. “But if you could see the brother, you’d be laughing as well. He totally fits the mountain man look.”

That got her attention! “Bushy beard, scruffy face, and a plaid shirt?”

Okay, so maybe he wasn’t exactly like one, but… “Beard yes, but it’s fairly short. No plaid shirt, either.” He seemed to enjoy his leather jacket just fine.

“And the other one? You said you had neighbors.”

“His sister. Bree.” Just saying her name forced butterflies into my stomach. It wasn’t that I fancied her, and I hadn’t thought about her all that much, but talking to my sister then, it was almost like—

“You like her,” Greta said before I could do the same.

“We’ve only spoken the one time,” I told my sister, bowing my head to hide the color on my cheeks from the other patrons inside the diner.

“Which is just enough,” my sister chirped. “We built an entire app based on instant connections. Maybe she’s yours. You know, your fated.”

I shook my head at that. As much time as I’d spent trying to find ‘the right one,’ finding her all the way out here wasn’t likely.

“She’s just a neighbor,” I said again, this time with a little more effort than before. A really good looking neighbor.

That was my sister talking, not me. I never cared about looks, only that she treated me right.

Greta swore I was too picky, but if I was going to spend the rest of my life with someone, I wanted them to accept all of me and not just tolerate me. There was a huge difference, and I’d had my fair share of flops to recognize one from the other.

It had to get better than simply settling for someone because I couldn’t find anyone else.

If not, I was probably better off on my own.

“Carley, you still there?” My sister was practically screaming now, breaking me out of my trance as my mind wandered off in another direction.

“Yeah, sorry,” I managed, coughing when my voice refused to work. “Look, can I call you later? I’m going to see if I can grab a new charger. It’s getting crowded in here.”

“Sure. Oh, and Carley?”

“Hmm?”

“I want to hear a lot more about this neighbor when you do.”

Leave it to my sister to make an even bigger deal out of things than they actually were. If I wasn’t nervous or thinking about Bree before, I was now. And not just because of her kind welcome, either. She and her brother went everywhere together, so whenever I saw them, I missed my sister even more.

Having finished with my call, I handed the phone back to the hostess and took a seat beside the bar so I could read over the menu. Nothing they had sounded all that interesting to me. They didn’t offer any fruit which was something I’d have to get while I was out.

I liked comfort food as much as the next person, but I couldn’t live off of it. If there was one thing I knew about going heavy on the carbs, it was the coma that usually came after the fact.

Undecided, and with my sister’s words swirling around in the back of my head, I ordered a short stack with a side of bacon and a small juice. Eggs weren’t really my thing, though I had a feeling I’d have to get used to them eventually. Especially with how cold it was.

If I wanted to keep my energy up, some things would have to change, starting with me.