Law cleared his voice and Nicky turned.
“Feeling better?” Law asked as he held Nicky’s laptop still open.
“I really didn’t mean to mess up our first date. I feel horrible.” That was such an understatement. He didn’t want Law to think that he wasn’t taking their new dating status seriously. “I was really looking forward to it. I already picked out my outfit and everything.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Law said, walking to the couch. He sat before patting the cushion beside him. “I’ve been looking forward to seeing you all day. I had several meetings that I had totake and interview a potential employee and yet all I could think about was you.”
Nicky found himself smiling, despite his worry. Law wasn’t acting like he was mad at him though. Nicky headed over to the couch. Sitting, he tucked his legs under his arms while waiting for Law to speak.
“I looked over your list,” Law said. “It is very thought out.”
“I like being organized,” Nicky replied.
“I can tell.” Law set the laptop on the coffee table. “Tasks, deadlines, even how long each item should take. Maybe I should hire you to put my schedule together.”
The praise warmed him. Nicky loved hearing the approval in Law’s tone.
“But I can see why you’re stressing out.”
Nicky nodded. He’d taken on too much.
“I also have a solution,” Law said.
“You do?” That would be awesome.
“I don’t want to overstep,” Law said. “We just discussed how your previous partners made demands that weren’t reasonable for you. Made demands that I don’t agree with. I don’t want to be like them.”
Nicky shrugged. “Just saying that means that you aren’t like them. I…I would like to hear what you think.”
“I don’t want you to think that you’re obligated to take my suggestions.”
“I’d like to hear them,” Nicky repeated. Everyone else he’d spoken to that day had given their opinions and they didn’t even know Nicky. At least Law would have Nicky’s best interests in mind. At least Nicky thought he would.
“First, I would say we should mark what tasks you want to complete yourself,” Law said. He picked up Nicky’s laptop again. “Like wrapping presents. I feel like that’s something that you would enjoy.”
Nicky nodded. “I have a craft room. I buy paper at the end of the season on sale. Or something catches my eye during the year. I like to wrap the presents so everyone has their own paper.” It was fun. Especially when he’d gone so long without having people to wrap gifts for.
Law highlighted that task in bright pink. “So that’s something that we should make a priority for you.”
“Okay,” Nicky agreed. Truthfully the entire list was a priority though.
“But here.” Law tapped the screen where Nicky had typedfinish buying presents. Nicky had ordered some things online but he still wanted to handpick special items for Liam and Jude. And now Law. “Isn’t this something that you could do with Liam? Make an afternoon out of it? That would make the task more fun as well and less like a chore.”
“I…I would like that,” Nicky admitted. “It’s just—”
“You have too much to do,” Law said. He dragged his finger down a couple of rows. “This is something that I or Jude could do.”
Replace all the bedding in the guest rooms to the holiday sheets.
“The sheets are clean,” Nicky insisted. “But they’ve probably been on there for a couple of months?” Nicky wasn’t really sure. It wasn’t like he had a lot of guests. “But I do have holiday bedding for the beds.”
“And Jude and I can make sure it’s done before everyone arrives on Christmas Eve,” Law suggested.
It wasn’t a job that Nicky enjoyed. “Yeah, sure.”
They went slowly through the list. Mostly Law’s suggestion was assigning one of the tasks to someone else or splitting it up. It made perfect sense once Nicky accepted that he didn’t have to do everything on his own.
Finally, after twenty minutes of negotiating, they came to the last item that Nicky had added just a few hours ago.
