Total pages in book: 198
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186242 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 931(@200wpm)___ 745(@250wpm)___ 621(@300wpm)
He’d changed from his uniform into jeans and another T-shirt. I wanted to whistle but didn’t.
He finally hopped down and turned, taking the can out from where he’d stashed it.
“Thank you for doing that,” I told him, eyeing the gray hair mixed in with the brown. It looked so nice on him.
Mr. Rhodes’s eyebrows rose a little bit. “Didn’t want you to give me that one-star review,” he deadpanned. Shocking the shit out of me.
First, he’d laughed earlier; now he was making a joke? Had he gotten kidnapped by aliens? Had he finally figured out that I wasn’t some creep?
I wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t like it mattered. I was going to embrace it. Who knew when the next time he was this friendly was going to be? “It would have been like a three,” I told him.
One corner of his mouth went up just a little.
Was that a smile?
“I was about to put up that bat house that almost killed you next,” he went on.
He was joking with me. My first changeling. I didn’t even know how to respond, he surprised me so bad. As I picked my jaw up off the ground, my mom’s voice spoke softly into my ear and I pushed my shoulders down. It was my turn to get serious. “Would you mind showing me how to do it instead?” I paused. “I’d really like to know how.”
He towered over me, watchfully, like maybe he thought I was joking. But he must have been able to tell I was serious because then he nodded. “All right. Let’s get you some gloves and what we’ll need.”
I brightened up. “Really?”
His eyes bounced from one of mine to the other. “If you want to learn, I’ll show you.”
“I really do. Just in case I ever have to do it again.” I hoped not.
He dipped his chin. “I’ll be right back.”
While he went inside to get the gloves, I grabbed my bags from the car and took them upstairs. By the time I made it back, Mr. Rhodes had lowered the ladder and moved it back to where it belonged on the other side of the garage apartment. He brought around the ladder that had tried to kill me and dipped back into the house to grab the bat house that he’d brought downstairs at some point.
“Take the house,” he said, holding it in his arms.
Take the house, please? Ooh.
I smiled and reached to take it. We headed off toward the same tree I had attempted to use the last time. How he’d pinpointed it, I had no idea. Maybe I’d left the imprint of a human body in the dirt around it. “Did you have a busy day?” I asked him instead.
He didn’t look at me. “I spent all morning on a trail because a hiker found some remains.” He cleared his throat. “After that, I took a golden eagle to a rehabilitator—”
I groaned. “It really was an eagle?”
“One of the biggest ones the rehabber has ever seen. She said she had to weigh close to fifteen pounds.”
I stopped walking. “Fifteen pounds?”
“She had a good laugh over you snatching it up and putting it in the crate like it was a parakeet.”
“Good thing I like bringing people joy.”
I was pretty sure he smiled, or at least did that thing that would only be considered a smile on his face, this mouth-twisting thing. “It’s not every day someone grabs a predator and calls it a pretty boy,” he said.
“Amos told you that?”
“He told me everything.” He stopped. “I’m going to set up the ladder right there.”
“Is he going to be okay?”
“She is going to be okay. The wing didn’t look broken, and the rehabber didn’t think her skull was fractured.” He moved around me and asked, “Have you used a drill before?”
I’d never even used a hammer until a couple weeks ago. “No.”
He nodded. “Hold it steady and press the button.” He showed me, holding up the black and green power tool. Mr. Rhodes’s eyes met mine. “You know what? Practice right here.” He pointed at a spot on the tree before setting up a screw on the tip.
I nodded and took it from him. I did it, screwing it in in about a split second. “Nailed it!” I glanced at him. “Get it?”
He didn’t do that partial smile that time, but you couldn’t win them all. “It’s a screw.” He gestured upward. “Get up there. I’ll pass you everything and talk you through it. I won’t be able to get up there since it’ll be over weight capacity,” my landlord warned.
I bet it would. He had to weigh over two hundred pounds, easy.
I nodded though and started climbing up before a touch on my ankle made me pause and glance down.
“If you can’t hold anything, drop it. Don’t fall or let it fall on you, understand?” he asked. “Drop it. Don’t save it with your face. Don’t break its fall.”