Lakeside Romance. Lisa Jordan

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       Chapter Three

      If Sarah didn’t need Alec’s help so badly, she’d turn around and walk out the door. When he’d suggested cooking lessons in exchange for preparing his uncle’s house to be placed on the market, he hadn’t mentioned she’d be walking into an episode of Hoarders. Maybe for good reason.

      And now he stood behind her, blocking her escape.

      She set her bucket of cleaning supplies on the floor by the door and moved deeper into the abyss, wrinkling her nose. The air settled around her with the odor of mildew and vapor rub. The wooden floor creaked beneath her flip-flops as she stepped carefully onto a bare spot on the worn area carpet. She balanced herself on one foot while she searched for another space to step.

      The image of jumping from rock to rock to cross the stream behind her childhood home slid out from a closeted corner in her mind. Finding there was no free floor space to move to, Sarah put her other foot down almost on top of her first, stayed put and turned in a slow circle to take in every angle of the cluttered living room.

      Her gaze roamed over the rows of books spilling from the natural oak cases built around the door frame. Mismatched framed watercolor paintings in various sizes hung on the faded floral-papered wall behind a couch buried under throw pillows and knitted afghans. Towering stacks of magazines and newspapers lined a narrow path that led into another room. Heavy drapes concealed the sunshine that peaked through the gap and begged to light up the room.

      She tried to keep her jaw from gaping like a trout, but she doubted she’d succeeded. A shudder shimmied down her spine.

      She wasn’t trying to judge, but she just couldn’t wrap her head around the chaos. Sure, she needed things organized and put in their places. Otherwise, her brain simply couldn’t function. And obviously not everyone had to be like her, but still... Seriously, how did people live like this?

      She dragged her fingers through her hair, then waved a hand over the room and looked at Alec. “I’m not gonna lie—I expected some light housekeeping. Maybe some basic organization. Or even some staging. But this...”

      Even as her voice trailed off, the knots in her stomach cinched tighter. She needed the outreach program to be a success, but if those teens depended on her to help them cook, they were all in trouble. Somehow she’d have to figure out how to tackle this job.

      Did Alec hope she’d take one look at his uncle’s house and bail? Set her up to fail so he could get out of helping her? If so, why even bother extending the offer? But he seemed so sincere, almost desperate.

      He stuffed his hands in his pockets and pushed away from the wall separating the entryway from the living room. “I know. Uncle Emmett was a bit of a pack rat.”

      “Pack rat?” She laughed and shook her head. “Alec, I’m sorry to say, but this borders on hoarding.”

      “Oh, come on. It’s not that bad.”

      “Okay, maybe not, but there’s no way I can have this house ready quickly, especially with everything else going on at the moment. Has it always been like this?”

      “No.” Alec moved behind her into the living room. “After my aunt Elsie died and my cousin Gideon moved into Jacob House, Uncle Emmett couldn’t bring himself to cancel her magazine subscriptions. And she wasn’t here to pick up after him or nag him to get rid of things. Little by little, things piled up. He surrounded himself with memories of her.”

      “How long were they married?”

      “Forty-eight years.”

      “That’s a long time.”

      “Yeah. Emmett is actually my great-uncle. His wife was my grandmother’s oldest sister, but we’ve always been close.”

      Yeah, she could see that. “Where’s your uncle right now?”

      “Visiting his son, Gideon, at Jacob House, but he moved recently to the Lakeside Suites. Those apartments are small, so he had to downsize drastically.”

      Sarah moved to the couch and sat on the edge. She rested her elbows СКАЧАТЬ