Right Where We Belong (Silver Springs #4)(30)

“So what will you do?”

“Pray it isn’t mine.”

“And short of that?”

He frowned. “Marry Heather myself. Surely, I’d make a better husband than he would.”

Concern darkened Eli’s face. “Even if you don’t love her?”

Gavin didn’t have an answer for that.

*

It was almost midnight when Savanna drove her “new” 2016 Ford Fusion, a $14,500 purchase with forty-seven thousand miles on it, past Gavin’s house. She wanted to show him her car, but she was exhausted, and the kids were asleep in the back. She hesitated to wake them. Hearing Gavin’s voice might get them excited, which could make it hard for them to go back to sleep. So she continued across the temporary bridge and parked, even though she saw a light on at his house.

After she woke Branson, who stumbled sleepily inside, she carried Alia in, which wasn’t easy. Her daughter was getting big—she took after her father—and Savanna was only five-four.

The moment she stepped inside the house, she knew something was different. Better. Her house was warm. If she listened carefully, she could hear the hum of the heater, which meant her HVAC system was working. How, she had no clue, but she felt a huge wave of relief. What with all the additional fees and taxes involved in buying a car, she’d realized that her money wasn’t going to last as long as she’d initially thought.

It wasn’t until she took Alia potty and tucked her in, and checked on Branson to kiss him good-night, that she noticed there were other changes. The broken windows had been boarded up, and her back door was fixed. It now locked! She could see the square piece of plywood that had been used to reinforce the broken part. It wasn’t beautiful, but it made the door functional, which was the most important thing. She felt safer already. Not only that, but there were two boxes of cold cereal sitting on the counter, and when she looked in the refrigerator, she found a gallon of milk.

Gavin. He had to have fixed the heater and done all the rest. Maybe Eli had helped him...

There were no flowers, no Welcome to Your New Home card or treats, like a woman might think to add. His contribution had been entirely practical. But as far as she was concerned, no one had ever done anything nicer.

As she sagged to the floor, she felt tears of gratitude well up. What would she have done without her neighbor? He’d gotten them to a motel when they first arrived and made it possible to drive the moving van across the creek so they could unload the next day. He’d helped her empty the van of furniture and boxes, even put the beds together. Then he’d unloaded the heavy fridge, which she couldn’t have budged on her own. And while she was gone today, he’d done enough around the house to make her feel as if she had a warm, safe place for herself and her children.

Blinking away her tears, she used the counter to help her back to her feet. She told herself she’d have him over for dinner sometime to thank him, but she didn’t want him to have to wait that long to receive the acknowledgment he deserved. So she went into the bathroom to fix up a little, pulled on her best pair of jeans and a V-neck T-shirt and walked over to see if his light was still on.

Sure enough, it was.

She felt oddly nervous as she approached his front porch and knocked. Was it too late to bother him? Should she hold off until tomorrow, after all?

When he didn’t answer immediately, she turned to go. But the door opened before she could travel more than ten steps, and she could tell by the way he was still messing with his shirt that she’d once again caught him half-dressed—only this time he’d hurried to put on something.

“Hey,” he said. “You’re back.”

“Yeah.” She tucked her hair behind her ears as she returned to the stoop. “Sorry to bother you so late. I wanted to thank you for...for fixing the heater and the windows and all the other stuff you did. I can’t tell you what a surprise that was.”

“You’re welcome.”

She loved his smile. “I hope you don’t come to regret that I moved in next to you. Now that I have the basics, I’ll try not to be such a nuisance.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I fix stuff for a living, so it wasn’t hard.”

“I saw the cereal and milk, too. That’ll make tomorrow easier. I meant to pick up a few groceries, but then the kids fell asleep in the car and I forgot.”

“No problem. Did you get an SUV?”

“Those in my price range had too many miles on them. But I got a car.” She gestured toward her house. “Would you like to see it?”

“Sure. Let me grab my flip-flops.”

Since he left the door standing open, Savanna couldn’t help peering into his living room while he was gone. She’d seen it before, when she was there with the kids while he booked her that motel room, but now that she knew him better, she was a little more interested in taking note of the details. His place was clean, manly and decorated in neutral colors. She remembered that. What she hadn’t paid much attention to before was the fabulous art hanging on the walls.

When he returned, she gestured toward a big canvas depicting a forest of redwoods centered above his couch. “That’s a cool painting. Where’d you get it?”

“My brother’s the artist.”

“Eli?”

“No, Eli helps our mother run New Horizons. It’s my other brother Seth.”