he assured herself hastily. She still thought Kara was nuts to have left everything familiar to embark on a crazy quest with a man she hardly knew. Serena was perfectly content with her own life just the way it was. Except for Kara’s dog, of course, she added with a dark look at the goofy mutt.
“Funny about this town,” Sam mused as they went through the back gate into the big yard that was almost filled with the garage, the guest house and Marjorie’s rose gardens. “Within a five-mile radius, you’ve got woods, neighborhoods ranging from tiny tract houses to upscale homes to trailer parks, a lake and a business section. It’s like a microcosm of a society—like one of those toy play sets.”
“Haven’t you ever spent any time in small towns? They’re all pretty much like that.”
A funny expression crossed his face. “I guess I haven’t.”
“You guess? You don’t know?”
Seeing that Serena had the gate secured, Sam set Walter on the ground. The dog bounced around their feet for a minute, then headed straight for the hole where he’d gotten through the fence before. Sam caught him, then pushed him into Serena’s arms. “You’d better put him in the house while I fix the fence or he’ll be out again.”
“You don’t have to do this, you know.”
“I don’t mind helping out.” He shrugged. “It gives me something useful to do. Actually, I’ve already offered to do some yard work and maintenance around the place, but your mother insisted I wait until I’ve been out of the hospital for a week before starting. That week is up tomorrow.”
Again, he surprised her with his determination to pull his own weight. Not even Dan could accuse him of taking advantage of anyone so far. Sam worked to repay every favor that had been done for him. Marjorie claimed he was one of the best employees she’d hired in a long time. Thinking of his uncallused, neatly manicured hands, she wondered again what kind of work he usually did to support himself. She still found it hard to believe he’d spent much time at manual labor.
By the time she returned after locking up the dog, Sam had fetched some tools and several extra boards that had been stacked in one corner of the garage. She noticed that he wielded the hammer rather awkwardly, reinforcing her suspicions about his lack of experience as a handyman, but he repaired the fence more quickly than she could have done it. The hammer slipped only once, landing squarely on his thumb and causing him to mutter a curse for which he immediately apologized.
“Is your thumb okay?” she asked, stifling a smile.
“Yeah. If it’s stupid enough to get under a hammer, it deserves to be flattened,” he quipped with a crooked grin.
Since she already knew he didn’t respond well to direct questions about his past, she tried to slip one past him disguised as an offhand comment. “I bet you were a business major in college.”
His hands stilled for only a moment and then he returned to his task. “Why do you say that?”
“Just a guess. Am I right?”
“What makes you think I even went to college?”
“It’s obvious that you’re well educated. Did you go to a university in Texas?”
“I’ve taken a few classes here and there. Nothing particularly useful—like fence mending. I could use a class in that right now,” he commented ruefully, studying his purpling thumb.
The guy was a master of answering questions without actually saying anything. Lindsey had been quite indignant when she’d told Serena about Sam’s refusal to even consider an interview for the newspaper. “You really don’t like to talk about yourself, do you?”
Examining the fence for more problem areas, Sam shrugged without meeting her eyes. “Not much to talk about.”
She tagged after him as he moved away. “Somehow I find that hard to believe. Someone who’s traveled as much as you have must have some interesting stories to tell.”
“Not really.” He pulled a weed from between two fence boards and tossed it over to the other side.
“Have you ever been married?”
“No. Have you?”
“No.”
He tested a loose board, then pulled a nail from the pocket of his jeans. “Why not?”
“I just haven’t met anyone who—wait a minute, I was asking you questions.”
“I thought I’d answered them all.”
“Hardly. Don’t you have any long-term goals? Any plans for your future?”
“At the moment, my goal is to finish repairing this fence.”