“I know.” I returned her hug and held her tight before letting her go. “It’s just hard sometimes, you know?” After wiping moisture from underneath my eyes, I took a deep breath. “But this isn’t a pity party. Moving is a good thing. Let’s not get wrapped up in memories right now.”
“You got it.” She moved back to my closet and carried on taking clothes off the hangers to fold, placing each item gently in the box behind her once she was satisfied. “So, since we’re back on the topic of the move, what do you think Taydom is going to be like as a landlord?”
I shrugged but my teeth sank into my lower lip for a second. “I haven’t really given it much thought. The cottage is at the back of his property and the main house is more to the front. Unless he’s swimming or entertaining, I don’t know if I’ll be seeing much of him at all.”
“You think?” She frowned. “If I was letting someone stay on my property, you can bet your ass I’d be checking in on them more regularly than normal for a landlord.”
“I don’t know. I mean, he’s got to work a lot. To get to where he has, a person can’t just twiddle their thumbs at home.”
“Sure, but he’s in the property game. His company offers management services as well, so he should be well versed in being a landlord. Plus, this isn’t any old property you’re renting out. It’s his property.”
“I didn’t think about any of that,” I admitted. “I probably should have, but if you see the place, you’ll understand why I didn’t. It’s just so charming and perfect. The community is gorgeous, safe, and so well located. I’m willing to put up with a lot from a landlord if it means getting all those perks.”
“Yeah, but,” she gestured toward my closet floor, “what if he gets mad at you for not keeping the place clean? Which, if we’re being honest here, seems to be the case more often than not.”
“Whatever do you mean?” I asked, blinking innocently. “The floor of my closet is where the shoes go. Don’t even try to tell me yours looks any better.”
“It doesn’t, but my landlord hasn’t come by to do an inspection once since I moved in. He gets paid on time and I get someplace to stay. It seems to be working well for us.”
“What makes you think it won’t be the same with Taydom?”
She shook her head. “It’s not that I don’t think it won’t be the same. We just don’t know if it will be, and I wanted to make sure you’d thought about all these things.”
“I get it. I would have wanted to make sure you’d thought it through as well. As much as I haven’t really thought about the finer details of having him as a landlord, I’m not too worried.”
A loud ripping sound tore through the air between us as she taped up another box. Between that and grabbing a new one to start on, she glanced at me.
“That’s good to know. You know him better than I do, after all. If you’re not worried, I’m sure I’m overthinking it.”
“I don’t think that you are. I really should have thought about it, but the truth is that I still would have taken him up on his offer. He’d have to end up being a really shitty landlord before I’d throw in the towel. Besides, thanks to him, I’m not locked into a contract. I’ll be able to leave if he gets terrible.”
Her spine straightened suddenly, eyes lighting up as she chuckled. “Yeah, I guess I’d put up with a lot to be able to live with a guy who looks like him too.”
“I’m not going to be living with him,” I grumbled. It wasn’t the first time this was coming up. “Just like you don’t live with your landlord.”
“Mine is a seventy-year-old man with a beer belly who definitely won’t look as good in his underwear as Taydom probably does.”
I rolled my eyes at her and tried to ignore the picture of Taydom that my mind helpfully conjured up. “I wouldn’t know what he looks like in any state of undress and I’m not going to find out.”
“If you do, please take pictures,” she joked. “Like, seriously, even if you see him in his swimming trunks. Record that shit and share it with your eye-candy deprived soul sister.”
I snorted. “How are you deprived of eye candy? Just last week, you told me that there are at least three guys who frequent the truck that are, and I quote, to die for.”
She sniffed and shot me a look with her brow furrowed. “None of them come to grab their lunches in their swimming attire, you know? All I get are nice smiles, pretty faces, and a glance at their hands when they reach out to take their hot dogs. It’s not exactly great inspiration.”
“Hey, hands can be sexy.” Taydom’s, in particular, definitely were. They were big, with long slender fingers that still managed to look strong—like they’d be able to crush anything that needed to be.
Even his fingernails, short, round, and clean, added to the appeal of those hands. They didn’t look manicured necessarily, but he definitely took care of himself. Yet, despite how graceful and refined they seemed, I still got the feeling he wasn’t all polished.
At lunch the other day, I’d noticed an assortment of small scars on his hands. Nothing so bad to indicate that he’d been cut up or something, but his hands definitely had stories to tell.
I liked that, and Beth seemed to notice.
“Let me guess,” she said, her eyes alight with amusement. “You were thinking about a certain landlord to be when you made that comment?”
Blood rushed to my cheeks, but I lifted my shoulder in a small, nonchalant shrug. “Maybe, but he does have nice hands.”
“I hadn’t noticed.” She laughed, but her face grew serious again soon after. “Which brings me to another point I was wondering if you’d considered. How are you going to feel if he brings girls home?”
“Fine.” My stomach churned on the blatant lie, but I was determined to get over this ridiculous little crush I had. “We don’t have that kind of relationship, so it wouldn’t be a problem.”
“What if he gets freaky with someone in the pool and you see them?” She wagged her eyebrows at me. “Other than remembering to snap a pic of his firm butt for your bestie if you can tear your eyes off it for a second, what will you do?”
“Not take a picture of it for you,” I said, my tone snippy. “Or ogle him myself for that matter. The man deserves his privacy in his own pool and I won’t invade it that way.”
“I guess I’ll just have to come to visit you often while it’s still summer,” she joked. “But okay. Again, I just wanted to be sure you’d thought about it.”
“I’m not concerned about that kind of thing. Like I said, we don’t have that kind of relationship. I don’t think he’s interested in me that way and I won’t interfere in his private life if there’s someone he does feel that way about.”
Beth made a sound that made it clear she didn’t agree with me, but I ignored it and went back to my packing. It would suck to have him parade an endless amount of women around the pool my new living room looked out on, but if that happened, I could simply keep the curtains drawn.