3
Kyle’s cupboards weren’t filled with the ingredients he felt he needed to make a meal for Lourdes Bennett—or any other woman he would’ve liked to impress. He hadn’t been to the grocery store in over a week, which meant he was down to some condiments, some frozen meat, a few eggs and half a loaf of bread.
As he stared into his refrigerator, trying to figure out what he could make, his unexpected houseguest wandered around his living room. At least the teenage girl he paid to clean his house and offices had come yesterday. He’d never been happier that he’d let Molly Tringette talk him into giving her a part-time job so she could save up for college.
“You must like old houses,” Lourdes said.
Giving up on the fridge, he moved to the pantry. “I do. But it’s not as if I set out to buy any. This place happened to be on the land where I built my plant. Made sense for me to live here.”
“Looks like it’s been recently updated.”
“Yes. I used to live in a smaller house even closer to the plant—for fifteen years, ever since I graduated from college. I rented this one out for quite a while.”
“That’s when you opened your business? Fifteen years ago?”
“I was set on manufacturing solar modules from the beginning.”
“You must have rich parents to start such an expensive business right out of college.”
“No. Not at all.”
“Then how’d you get into it?”
Canned goods. Crackers. Oatmeal... Nothing jumped out at him. But he supposed he wasn’t going to find a Caesar salad, bacon and cheddar-topped potatoes and filet mignon in the pantry. He’d have to make whatever they ate, and he didn’t have a lot to work with. “Somehow I convinced the president of our local bank to give me a loan. What with all the new regulations, I doubt the same scenario could happen these days. He lent me that money based solely on his confidence in me.”
“I can only imagine what you must’ve been like—so young and full of ambition.”
“I was certainly driven. But solar was a gamble back then. When I think about it, I’m still surprised he did it.” Giving up on the pantry, he returned to the fridge—as if he might see something different when he looked in it a second time.
“Why was solar such a gamble? Most people see it as the wave of the future.”
“That long ago, the ‘wave of the future’ was too expensive for all but the richest people. That made it hard to sell.”
“I would’ve bet on you, too. In a heartbeat.”
He turned to look at her. “To what do I owe such a compliment? My trustworthy face?”
“I’d credit it more to your inherent confidence. You believe you can do...whatever, so the people around you believe it, too.”
How had she come up with that? They knew virtually nothing about each other. “I had no idea I was so confident that complete strangers could tell.”
“I’m good at reading people.” She gestured around her. “So...you fulfilled your obligation to the bank, and then you remodeled?”
He wondered whether she’d mind if he ran to town to get dinner. He almost suggested it. But she’d said she was hungry, and he guessed she’d prefer not to wait. “I wasn’t in a hurry to put any money into the house. The business has always been my top priority. But last year when I bought the property with the house you’re renting and decided to clean it up, I figured I might as well update this one, too, and move into it.”