“Next one,” I say, pleased to see her genuine smile aimed at me for a change.
She’s quicker with the next set. Finishing the first piece of plywood quickly, as she gets used to the feel of the gun. After the first board is done, we make quick work of moving to the next, following the same process of fitting it into place, double-checking the level, and Katie powering through, punching the nails into place. After twenty minutes or so, the wall is finished. I mean...aside from the drywall, plastering, primer, and painting. But hey, the first item was ticked off the list.
Katie takes a step back from our handiwork, her hip cocked with the nail gun hanging loosely in her hand by her leg. A toothy grin fills her face, and I stand next to her, holding out an uncapped beer for her to take. She grabs the bottle, and I clink the glass against hers, a satisfying clunk ringing out between us.
“Thank you,” she murmurs before taking a pull of her beer.
“It was worth it.”
“To get me to call you ‘sir?’” she smirks, turning to me now, but I keep looking at the wall.
“Nah.” I pause, swallowing. “I just haven’t seen you smile like that in a long time.”
She watches me, perhaps trying to check if I’m being sincere. But I keep staring at the damn wall, thinking about what we need next, avoiding the suspicious look in her eye. Placing my beer down, I set about looking through her other materials. As expected, most of it is in logicalorder, piled together in the next steps we need. It’s when I feel Katie come up behind me cautiously, wrapping her arms around me, her cheek flat against my back.
I place my hand over hers, squeezing her fingers before turning to face her. Her forest-green eyes, framed by her long lashes, swim with cautious optimism. Her red hair is almost golden in the late afternoon light shining through the window.
“You’ve helped me a lot in the last week or so,” she whispers, tilting her chin up toward me.
I shrug as if it’s nothing, but it’s not true. The last ten days have happened so fast. I don’t know what I’ve been doing all these years, wasting my time aggravating her when I could have been making things easier for her. It kills me that I’ve been adding to her stress. “It’s nothing. I’m glad I can help.”
She scowls a little. “It’s not nothing to me. I’m grateful, and I’m...I’m glad you’re working this case with me.” Her lip quivers before she bites down on it, my hands roaming up the backs of her arms.
“Did you ever think we would be here?” I ask, unsure of how to ask what I really want.
“You helping me build my wallandhelping me solve a murder?”
“Murdersnow.”
She laughs, placing one hand on my arm and another on my chest.
Holy shit.
Katie is touching me of her own volition.
She’s smiling.
She’s happy I’m here.
The eight-year drought of Katie-smiles is over, and now I’m being rained on. Thank God. It’s like I’ve been in a desert, desperately searching for an oasis. Licking up drops of her where I can get them, mostly in the form of snark and spite. But now, the smiles are coming, and it’s like a dam has burst.
I cannot mess this up.
I can’t do it. I’d die if I lost her friendship again.
Her tongue darts out, running along her bottom lip, and she whispers, “Jacob...”
“Yeah, princess?” My voice is breathy. Dangerously close to begging her to call me by my first name again.
“What are we doing?”
I swallow. If I tell her I want to fuck her so bad my balls are aching, she’s going to retreat behind enemy lines. If I tell her I want to kiss her so much I’d throw on a tool belt and fix up the rest of her house with her just for a taste of her lips, she’d run again, and I’d be playing Scrabble with some new stand-in schmuck at the next dinner club night. I need to get a handle on this situation.
“You told me the other day that I couldn’t give you what you need. What did you mean bythat?”
Her face falls before her lips flatten into a straight line, her lush, breathy pout long gone, and internally, I’m kicking myself.
She steps back, but I tighten my grip, my fingertips digging into the fleshy part of her arm.
