Free Investment in Love (Contemporary Romance) by Emily Walters Page B

here in Great-Aunt Loretta’s room.”
     
    She felt herself soften at this. “I don’t mind helping. That’s what friends are for.”
     
    Quiet reigned for a moment and she spoke again, awkwardly toying with the strings of her sweatshirt hood. “We are friends, right?”
     
    “Of course,” said Calvin, coming to stand next to her with a warm smile. Light from the window flashed in his blue eyes, and Ellie thought wistfully for the millionth time about how handsome he was. For a moment, he looked at her quietly, but then he cleared his throat and kept talking. “So since I’m done here, feel free to work on whatever you need to. I’m just going to finish in here and tidy things a little more. That way Kathy can look through them easily.”
     
    “Oh, that sounds great,” said Ellie.
     
    But the problem was that it didn’t. She didn’t want to go back to work in a different room. She wanted to spend another day working and laughing alongside Calvin. Biting her lip fretfully, she peered around the room. “You know, I could do the measurements in here,” she offered, trying to sound casual. Maybe it was stupid to go pining after some stockbroker from a big city across the country, but he had said himself that he wanted to give the women of Carterville a chance. Maybe he would change his mind about her.
     
    “Sure,” he said over his shoulder, heading back over to the closet. “You must be about done with the other rooms, right?”
     
    “Great!” answered Ellie, and this time she really meant it. “I am pretty much done with the things I can do alone—after this I’ll hire a few laborers to come in and start taking out the old curtains, while we finalize the designs for each space. Then we bring in movers to take the old furniture out, tear up the carpets, replace them, and repaint the walls. And then you’ll have your new stylish house.”
     
    Calvin just smiled and nodded before ducking back into the closet.
     
    As he started filling boxes again, she stretched and cracked her knuckles, looking around at the room. She realized that she’d forgotten her measurement tools in the car, so after a quick jog downstairs, she was back with trusty tool belt and notepad. This time, Calvin wasn’t in the room to absorb her attention, so she had a chance to really take in the space. Loretta Meyer had been an enigma to the townspeople of Carterville the entire time Ellie was growing up, and it was strange to stand inside the woman’s inner sanctum.
     
    Ellie walked over to the table beside the bed, trying to imagine a woman that neither she nor Calvin had ever really met living in this space. “Hey,” she called to Calvin, “did you ever figure anything out about the contents of that decorative chest?”
     
    “Nope,” he said, voice muffled in the closet. “Other than the pictures of my family, I have no idea what those things are or why she had them. Guess even my reclusive great-aunt had a life and secrets of her own.”
     
    For some reason, that thought made Ellie smile. It was comforting to think that even Loretta Meyer, who never left her house, could have had secrets and loves and dreams. “I guess even the simplest seeming life,” she mused out loud, “must have its own moments of joy and sorrow.”
     
    Calvin poked his head out again, brow furrowed. “You sound really serious suddenly.”
     
    Ellie blushed, caught in her moment of introspection. “I guess I relate a little bit to your great-aunt,” she said. “It’s comforting to think that even she had things in her life that we don’t know about.”
     
    He quirked his head. “What do you possibly mean? You’re young and vibrant and outgoing—hardly an old recluse.”
     
    “Well,” she said honestly, “I don’t see much in my future except my same old life in Carterville. I already know everyone here, so it’s not like I’m going to run into anyone and have a Cinderella story. I’ll probably grow old here with the