"I like watching you work," he said.
"But I'mnotworking. I'm visiting." Still, I turned and opened the front door, expecting to see a pizza delivery person.
No such luck.
What I sawthistime was the neighbor guy, the one I'd accidentally insulted several weeks ago. He didn't look any happierthistime than he had thelasttime I'd talked to him.
At the sight of me, his face scrunched in confusion. "What areyoudoing here?"
I sighed. "It's my house, remember?"
"Yeah, but I didn't think you were living herenow."
"I'm not."
"So why'd you answer the door?" His eyes narrowed. "You didn't break in, did you?"
"No. Of course not. I'm here visiting." I looked to Bryce who was standing just a few feet away. "Don'tyouhave anything to say?"
He chuckled before joining me at the door. He looked to the neighbor and asked, "Can I help you with something?"
The guy grimaced. "Actually, you can. I'm wondering if you've got a space heater I can borrow."
As we listened, the neighbor guy – whose name I suddenly recalled was Gordy – told us that his furnace had gone out an hour ago, which would have been bad enough on its own, but was now a huge emergency because tonight was the night of their housewarming party.
He concluded by saying, "And the wife's ready to lose it."
I winced. "Gosh, that's so awful."
"Yeah, tell me about it. But I figure if I can get enough space-heaters, maybe the guests won't freezesobad."
My heart went out to him. "Any chance of you postponing the party?"
"Not a chance. It's supposed to start in twenty minutes. We've got tons of food and people coming from an hour away." He gave a sad shake of his head. "No way to stop it now."
"How many heaters do you have?"
"Two so far." His brows knitted. "Maybe enough for the living room?"
Next to me, Bryce asked, "How's your electrical system?"
Gordy shrugged. "Decent, I guess. Why do you ask?"
"If you start loading up a single circuit, you're gonna blow a breaker."
With a quiet curse, Gordy grumbled, "Yeah, well, I hope people dressed warm."
A few minutes later, he left with my own little space heater, one I'd originally purchased for the coffee truck but had eventually replaced when the tiny heater had been unable to keep up.
Would it help?I wasn't so sure. But I would've loaned himtenheaters if only I'd had them.
While snagging the heater, Gordy had also mentioned something about his wife's cousin, who was apparently working on the furnace.
But Gordywasn'toptimistic. And the more I thought about it, neither was I. Unless somebody worked a miracle, their party would be totally ruined.
I hated that.
Chapter 31
