“No,” Eleanor said calmly. “It was contingent on residence and improvement. I have the papers.”
He looked at her more carefully then, recalculating. “Mr. Boone wants the place back.”
“He should have thought of that before he lured a woman across the country with promises he didn’t intend to keep.”
Roy took a slow step closer. “You’ve got two weeks before I return with a court order.”
Eleanor climbed down the ladder, every inch of her steady despite the sweat cooling on her spine. “Tell Silas the roof’s already in better shape than the character he left in it.”
Roy’s eyes narrowed.
For one fleeting second, she thought he might smile.
Instead he mounted and rode off.
The moment he disappeared over the rise, Eleanor sat on the porch step because her knees had suddenly lost interest in pretending. She counted sixty heartbeats before she stood up again.
Then she picked up the hammer and went back to work.
