Darryl looked up at the tall blonde holding on to the ladder and he couldn’t help but laugh. He didn’t want to be mean, but it was a little comical. By her body language she looked like she was scared out of her wits, but as he had walked down the road, he had watched the woman apparently conquer her fear and start up the ladder anyhow. Then she had looked down and he could see the terror in her eyes. He couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him.
“Do you need some help Miss?”
“No, no, I just need the world to stop spinning for a few moments.”
That got another chuckle from Darryl and he waited patiently for her to get it together. She back stepped down at a snail’s pace, never once looking down at him. It was only when she was back on the ground and had settled for a minute that he was finally able to see her face.
“Hi,” she said.
So simple the words, but he could not respond. His heart leapt in his chest and he was fixated on her hazel eyes. They were green based with flecks of brown and gold that seemed to reflect in the sun like diamonds. His nostrils flared for a moment and he looked at her with a new interest.
“Hi.”
The words seemed ridiculous as a response. Darryl finally realized that he was staring at her by the strange, cocked look that she was giving him. She waited for him to say more, but the one syllable was all that he could manage and even then, it had come out like a croak.
“Sorry,” he said, catching himself … "do you uh, need help?”
Aria looked at him for a moment and was about to refuse on premise when she caught herself. Normally it might have been alarming to have a stranger show up like this in what still felt like the middle of nowhere to her. His easy demeanor however, put her at ease. Besides, she didn’t want to go back up there. She didn’t even know if she physically could go back up there at this point. She shook her head as she looked back at the tall, muscular stranger. He had on a jacket, but she could make out the tops and bottoms of several tattoos on his arms and neck. The man was huge and he looked slightly out of place, though just as wild as the surrounding woods. Maybe he looked perfectly in-place. She couldn’t decide, but there was certainly something different about him…besides the fact that he was hot as hell, that is.
“Yes please, actually I do need help I guess, thank you. I started the chimney on fire last night and I am thinking I just need to clean it. That is what this is for, right?”
Aria held up the brush looking contraption and he took it from her hand. He smiled again and went to one of the nearby cedar trees and pulled a long branch off of it. He handed her the makeshift tool and started up the ladder without another word. After he was on the roof and moving towards the chimney, Aria started to chatter, unable to take the silence.
“So my name is Aria, what’s yours?”
“Darryl.” He called down, without looking away from the task at hand.
“Well thank you Darryl. I guess you must live around here?”
“Just up the hill. Only house up there.”
“Oh, well that makes sense. I’m sure glad to have such a helpful neighbor. You will have to come by for dinner once I am a little more settled in. As a way to thank you, I mean.”
“That’s not necessary.”
By this time he had finished the task and Aria watched him descend the ladder. He jumped down the last few feet and came to stand before her once more.
“I insist. I promise I am a better cook then I am a maintenance person.”
“Do you mind if I take look inside? I just want to clean it from that side as well.”
Aria followed the man into her house and he cleaned the other side of the chimney with the bough. He moved away with soot on him and Aria held back a giggle.
“Here let me find you a towel.”
“Thanks…yeah, I half expected that the problem was that you had left the flue closed…but I didn’t give you enough credit,” he said as he showed her the old bird’s nest he had knocked down. “This must of been ‘installed’ over the summer months and Martha hadn’t cleaned it out yet for the winter.”
She searched in the kitchen for the towel but came back empty handed. “Sorry, I have only just arrived and don’t know where anything is yet.”
“I think Martha kept them in the bathroom.”
She looked at him quizzically, even as she headed to the bathroom in the back.
“I guess you knew her pretty well then, I mean…being neighbors and all.
“Yea, that, and she’s – she was - a family friend. She knew my father well.”
Aria handed him a washcloth that she had dampened slightly to wash the black dust off his face. There wasn’t much she could do for his clothing though.
“I’m sorry you are covered in ash.”
“It’s fine. It had to be done. Just remember that you have to do it at least once a year, sometimes twice to make sure it is totally clear. Most important is to check it before it gets too cold moving into fall and winter.”
“Thanks I will. You must come back and have dinner though. I never met my great aunt and I would really like to hear more about her. The least I can do after she left this for me is honor her memory. She seems fascinating from what I’ve heard so far.”
“She was. She will be greatly missed.”
Darryl looked solemn for a minute. He looked back at the woman as she pushed her dark brown locks back from her shoulders. She was no uneasy on the eyes.
“So have you lived here your whole life?”
“Yea. I was raised here, me and my brothers. My family has lived on this mountain for a long time. Your house is actually the only one not owned by one of my direct relatives.”
“Oh. Why is that?”
“Well, our families are still connected in a sort of way, so it was never a thing.”
The answer was vague and apparently not really meant for her to fully grasp. Rather than pry, she just nodded her head, although she definitely wanted to learn more.
“So are you here to stay, or what’s your plan?”
“That’s the plan. I mean, we’ll see what happens, but I am planning on making a go of it in Alaska. I did just spent everything I had to get here you know.”
Aria laughed, though she wasn’t really kidding. She had to make it work there or ask for her family’s help to get back to her old home. Just the thought of having to return with her tail between her legs was enough to make her sick.
“Bold move. What made you do it?”
“I don’t know really. I guess I felt drawn here in a way. I mean, I was as shocked as anyone when I heard about it from the family lawyer, but I felt like it was a sign. Silly huh? I know most people don’t believe in signs and stuff like that.”
“Oh I do. I believe in destiny too. I actually believe that it’s the signs that lead you to your destiny.”
Aria nodded and wondered how he could have known the very thing she had been thinking.
“So what do you do around here? What does anyone do up here? I mean for work, you know.”
“There is plenty to do, believe me. But let’s start with you. What do you do?”
“Well I used to bartend some and actually garden too. I figured I could get something up here doing that sort of stuff as well.”
Darryl looked at her and smiled.
“You know your aunt used to have a greenhouse, but she tore it down before last winter. She was planning on building another one. Maybe you should.”
“That’s a good idea. I was wondering what that patch of dead grass was over by the outhouse.”
“I have been looking for a secretary of sorts for my company. Would you be interested?”
Aria thought for a moment and then agreed. Darryl was turning out to be quite the lucky charm. He was helping her knock out one problem after another. There was also the fact that he was gorgeous, even with soot covering his whole front. The tiny glimpses of his tattoos had her curious. She wondered what kind of business he had.
“Well come down to my office on Monday and we’ll get you started.”
Darryl handed her a card and walked outside. He told her he had to go for a meeting and then headed back up the hill a ways, before he got into a pick-up truck that had almost magically appeared around the bend. The side of the truck had the name of Vern Holdings, but she was not sure what that meant as far as what kind of business he was in. Too bad she had no internet up here...she would have to look into that…it must be possible, she thought. But for the moment she would be in the dark about what his company did. But he had saved her hide in a few ways already, she decided she could put a little more faith in him.