“Here, have some tea.” I gave her a warm cup to distract her. “I feel like we haven’t gotten to talk all that much since you moved here.”
That was enough. Wren loved to fix things, but I had a feeling that deep down, she liked people more.
And thank fuck for that.
“Thanks,” she said. “And you’re right. I wanna try to get to know people around here more.”
“Well, you know my house is a bit of a mess. But I do know most of the people in town. So I can exchange some details if you keep this between us.”
“Deal,” she said, and then leaned over. “What’s the deal with Hugh? Does he hate me?”
“He probably doesn’t. He’s just like that.”
“Dean seemed to get along with him.”
“Dean has one of those personalities.”
Wren raised an eyebrow. “But you do too, don’t you?”
“I like to know people and I’m good at it. I know that Hugh seems like a dick, but he just wants someone to listen to him. Kerry wants to know everything she can because she’s bored during the day when her son’s at school.”
“That’s definitely deeper than Dean goes. I’ve worked with him for years and I barely know anything about his personal life.”
“He’s shallow. It’s ... pretty typical for a playboy.”
Wren nodded with a sigh. “Luckily for me, I don’t need to know him too well to work with him. It’s just so different to how people are here. I like that they all wanna get to know me.”
It was one of the things I liked too. Sure, people could be annoying, but they cared.
Sometimes I forgot other peopleweren’tlike that.
“Speaking of the devil,” she said. “He got here fast.”
Headlights came down the driveway and his older truck pulled in next to Wren’s.
Would this be a sight I saw often as we traded our kid back and forth?
I shook myself out of my thoughts and went to meet him by the door. That was ... way ahead of things.
Dean was heading up my porch and tripped right where everyone else did.
“Sorry,” I rushed to say. “That plank is loose.”
“Yeah, no kidding.”
“I’m working on it.”
Dean met my gaze, eyebrow raised. I had no idea what that expression meant. I hated that I didn’t know.
“We’re here for one thing,” Wren reminded him as our eyes remained locked for far too long. “You need to look at this electrical panel.”
“Right,” he said, shifting his focus away from me. “Where is it?”
Wren took over, showing him what she’d found. From how they talked, I knew Dean was an expert. He muttered things about the wiring of the whole house and something about the brand of the breakers.
I both loved and hated experts. Usually their experience came with a price.
“It looks like it just needs a new switch,” Dean informed me.