Read Online Saving Tatum (Trace + Olivia #4) by Micalea Smeltzer - Free Book Online Page B

felt weird to call Jude by a name that wasn’t his.
    “That he does,” Jerry agreed, leading me through the house. “I raised him better than that. Sometimes, you do all the right things, and they turn out to be the wrong things.”
    I nodded in agreement, mulling over his words. “That’s very true.”
    “I grew up in this house, and my father before me,” he said, looking around with nostalgia written on his face. “It’s been in my family for generations.”
    “It’s a beautiful home.” Despite the fact that it was falling apart, it had good bones. With enough money and manpower, it could sparkle like new again.
    “I wish Andrew thought that. He hates this place. He can’t wait to get away,” Jerry rambled. “He doesn’t want to live a farmer’s life. I can’t say I blame him. It’s hard work.”
    “I’m sure he’ll change his mind,” I assured Jerry.
    He shook his head. “No. Once Andrew sets his mind to something, he doesn’t change it.” Smiling at me, he added, “He’s like me. Stubborn to a fault.”
    I couldn’t help laughing. The same things had been said about me more times than I could count.
    “I should stop rambling about Andrew and show you the place. This is obviously the living room.”
    I’d already seen this room when I was with Jude, but I didn’t say that. Instead, I looked around and told him how nice it was. “Do you play the piano?” I asked, nodding to the upright in the corner.
    He shook his head. “That’s Mae’s. My wife,” he added. Looking around, he said, “I haven’t seen her this morning. I wonder where she is.”
    “I’m sure she’s around here somewhere,” I patted his arm. Jude hadn’t mentioned a grandma, so I assumed she was gone. It broke my heart that Jerry was so clearly stuck in the past—in a time when his wife was alive and his son was still home.
    He led me upstairs, showing me the bedrooms and bathrooms. The upstairs was a little more updated than the rest of the house.
    The last room he showed me was ‘Andrew’s’ but from what I saw in there, it had Jude written all over it.
    The walls were painted a dark blue and the furniture was old and well worn. The bedspread was blue and gray stripes and gray curtains hung beside the windows. A calendar with scantily clad women hung on the wall. There were some clothes strewn around and enough odds and ends to tell me that someone still occasionally used this room.
    Jerry took me downstair s again and showed me a sunroom. I was sure it was beautiful during the daytime.
    “Huh,” Jerry tilted his head as he looked out the wall of windows, “it got dark fast. I forgot lunch…and dinner.”
    I frowned, but didn’t say anything.
    “Are you hungry, Julia?” He asked me.
    I shook my head. “No.”
    “Well, I am. I’m going to make something for Andrew and me to have when he comes in. You can stay out here if you want. Or go out on the porch. There’s blankets in a basket beside the couch in the living room.”
    While he went back in the kitchen, I decided to listen to his suggestion to sit out on the porch. I grabbed a blanket, which was right where he said it would be, and found a rocking chair on the front porch.
    It was completely dark now, but there were small solar lights dotting the walkway leading up to the front of the house. They provided enough light to illuminate the fence and some of the animals.
    I shivered and wrapped the blanket tighter around my body.
    Today was shaping up to be interesting. I didn’t know quite what to make of it.
    Jude was beginning to break down the wall of cinderblocks I’d built around my heart and myself. I didn’t want to be his girlfriend, or even his friend, but he was weaseling his way into my life and I didn’t like it one bit. Or maybe I did like it and that’s why it scared me so much.
    “I thought you might want something to drink.”
    I jumped at the sound of the voice. Jerry stood beside me with a glass of water. I hadn’t heard