That same settled expression on his face. She was starting to read it a little, not well, but slightly. The set of his jaw that meant he'd noticed more than he was saying. The way his eyes moved without appearing to move when he was taking in a space. "Does it bother you? " she asked.
"Him not liking me. " "Yes. " "No," he said simply. "Most people would I'm not most people," he said. "Not arrogantly, just accurately. " They walked back toward the shop in a silence that had become over the course of the morning less like absence and more like presence, like a third thing walking with them. At her door, he stopped. Same time Thursday, he said.
She looked at him. In the morning light, his eyes were darker than she'd realized, and there was something there she couldn't name yet. Not the almost smile, something quieter, something that she recognized the shape of without knowing its content. Thursday, she said. He came back Wednesday, not to walk.
He appeared at the back of the shop in the late afternoon with a length of new rope and fixed the pulley system on the storage loft that Harold had juryrigged years ago. And Clara had been meaning to have properly repaired for 2 years. He didn't ask permission. He arrived, assessed the problem, disappeared to get what he needed, and fixed it. "You didn't have to do that," she said, coming up the back steps to find him testing the repaired pulley.
It was going to drop something on someone eventually, he said. That's still I know. He climbed down from the loft, brushed the dust from his hands. Is there anything else around here that's about to fail? She looked around somewhat helplessly.
The hinge on the front door has been stiff for months. I'll bring oil next time. You don't Clara. He said her name with a particular patience. The same patience she'd watched him use with the gray horse.
Not condescending, just steady. I'm here. There are things that need doing. I'll do them. She looked at him for a moment.
Why? She asked. He picked up his hat from the workbench. Considered the question with what appeared to be genuine seriousness. Because it's useful, he said.