Running the Numbers by Roxanne Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

ambition to strive for it, loses sight of their values.”
    The stricken look on Blake’s face made her want to recall the words. She hadn’t meant it as an attack. A little paler than he had been a second ago, he nodded but said nothing. His awed, happy expression darkened.
    Sadie felt it right in the gut. “Look, Blake, I didn’t mean—”
    “Who were you going to call?”
    She bit her lip. Blake had revealed depths she wouldn’t have guessed at. A past riddled with regrets and loss. She wanted to pry him open and steal his secrets; make him sing like a canary. But not today. She’d unwittingly compelled him to close the window, and now she’d have to wait for another opportunity to delve into his layers.
    “The landlord.” Sadie hooked her thumb toward the sign. “There’s a number scrawled across the bottom.”
    The wait for the old man who’d answered on the first ring was one of the most uncomfortable stretches of time Sadie had ever suffered through. Blake’s mood had fallen into dismal territory, and Sadie had no idea what to say to fix it. Finally, a dusty little pickup meandered up the hill and pulled in behind her Ford.
    A round, gray-haired man with a tremendous scraggly beard and thick glasses approached. “Dale,” he grunted by way of introduction. “You want to see inside the place?”
    Since he’d addressed Sadie, she pointed to Blake as he rounded the far side of the cabin, having inspected the whole exterior. “He’s your guy.”
    Dale followed the line of her pointing finger. His face fell a little.
    Sadie didn’t blame him for doubting the sincerity of a renter who looked like Blake. With his perfectly smooth face, stylish salon-grade haircut, and jeans that looked like they were purchased brand new this morning, he looked like money itself. The smooth vanilla type usually preferred the landscaped yards of the Aspens, an upscale community of condos near Teton Village, or a swanky downtown loft.
    She waved Blake over. Dale launched into an introduction and unlocked the cabin for him to have a look around. “Two small bedrooms. Partially furnished, so you’d probably want to pick up a few things. Dishes, things like that. Kitchen’s there.” He pointed to the left. He stood just inside the door and let Sadie and Blake move past him into the cabin.
    It wasn’t so bad. Cupboards lined the far wall, and a small square table was shoved into the corner next to the fridge. Not much counter space, but did Blake cook? Probably not. He struck Sadie as a takeout kind of guy. A faded green sofa backed up to the kitchen, serving as a barrier between it and the living room. Which was tiny; just large enough to squeeze in near the only heat source Sadie had spotted so far.
    She smoothed a hand over the uneven mantle fixed over the wood-burning stove, pleasantly surprised when her hand came away clean, and turned to Blake, who was opening cupboards in the kitchen. “You’ll need firewood to get through the winter.”
    On the right, two identical doors led to the two bedrooms, also identical in both size and shape. The sofa faced the bedrooms, which left just the small stretch of wall between the two doors to stick a television set if Blake were so inclined.
    She expected the inside to be a let-down. Sparse hardly covered it. “What do you think, Blake?”
    He’d moved over to study the wood-burning stove. When he faced her, she was struck by the simple happiness there. Her mind whirled back to Nina’s first description of Blake. So very good-looking. And so, he was. More so without inner troubles clouding his face. For now, he seemed to have escaped their grip.
    This close to him, the individual colors in his eyes stood out with the starkness of a child’s crayon drawing. Green like summer grass at its lushest, with a swirl of amber dancing through the middle. The lines at the corners spoke to his age, as well as the scarcity of his smiles. A lively twinkle replaced his usual somber stare,