Luckily for him, the man guiding Ford now knows very well how to take an inch and make a few good miles out of it. And with luck, he knows how to take a token protest and make that work out for himself, too. The fact that his motives are mostly generous here does not make those skills any less useful, and Stanley does not think twice about using them. He walks them slowly through the house, looking for any change in Ford's manner as they pass the different rooms. If he does see anything - a softening of that tension, maybe, or even just a moment where Ford looks a little less worried - he'll try and lead Ford toward whatever made him do it.

"Then hurry up and tell me why you don't want me here. Then you can prove that whatever it is is right, like we agreed, an' then you can just tell me to scram."

He clears his throat. His comfortable, just-us-guys tone fell off a little at the end there. Or a lot. That's fine, that's okay. Keep talking.

"So what, you think I'm gonna' mess up whatever you got goin' for yourself here? Am I close?"