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It was his turn to relax from the stress of the situation he’d created. “And I’ll come out to say good morning before you leave for work.”
“You’d better,” she said, before dropping a quick kiss on his lips and hopping off his lap.
He stood and tucked himself back into his pants. “Do you want me to help you clean up?”
“No. Washing dishes is a good thinking activity. Go. I’ll be all right. We’ll be all right. And we’ll see each other in the morning.”
He followed her to her front door. “Good night, Mina.”
Before he stepped out the door, he grabbed her by the back of her head and pulled her toward him for a kiss, putting as much passion and desire into that kiss as he could. He must have succeeded, because she melted into his arms, and they sank against the doorjamb in a pile of arms, legs and lips.
“Tease,” she said, as she finally broke away.
He smiled, nodded and closed the door softly behind him.
* * *
“GOOD SHOWER?” MINA asked as Levi walked into his kitchen pulling a T-shirt over his head. She had texted him to say she was coming over with dinner. She’d brought the makings for stew, and she was browning beef in a big pot.
“I feel better,” he said, dropping a kiss on her upturned cheek. He was so happy to see her, he wouldn’t have cared if she’d brought over bags of fast food, so long as he got to spend the evening with her. Though there was something especially satisfying about seeing her in his kitchen, a wooden spoon in her hand, a smile on her face and the smell of meat wafting through the room. He could get used to sharing a home with Mina really quickly.
“You still look exhausted. What would you have done for dinner, if I wasn’t coming over?”
“God, I don’t know. Frozen pizza? Grilled cheese?”
“Good thing I’m here, then.” Her cute grin was nearly a satisfied smirk. “What about work was so tiring?”
He shrugged. “Right now, everything. After years of no one spending money on their house, now everyone wants to renovate, and we took on one more project than we should have. I spent the day tiling a bathroom. I hate tiling, especially a mosaic pattern like the one I did today. All those tiny little pieces...” He trailed off as she hopped between the cutting board and the pot. “Can I help you?”
She set the knife down. “Oh, God, yes. Can you cut the onions, carrots and celery into precise quarter-inch pieces?”
His mouth fell open. He didn’t realize she was teasing him until she laughed.
“Hand over the knife,” he said, his hand out and a smile on his face. “What size do you want them cut?”
“Nice and chunky. And the potatoes, too. You can peel if you want, but I usually don’t.”
He looked over at the mound of red potatoes on the counter. “Peeling sounds too much like work.”
“More tiling tomorrow?”
“Yeah. The guy who normally does our tiling should be done with his other project, but it’s better if I finish the job I started. We’ll put him to work on the tiled backsplash for the kitchen.”
“How’d you get started in contracting anyway?”
The knife seemed to drop extra hard as his shoulder fell from a shrug. “When I was working in the mines, I did construction and other handyman projects on the side. For extra money.”
He’d been saving for the trip of a lifetime for him and Kimmie. A trip where she’d need her passport and they’d both laugh as they struggled with a foreign language because neither of them had paid much attention to their language tapes.
“When I moved to Missoula,” he continued, “I got in touch with a guy Dennis and I went to high school with. He gave me work, and I’ve been slowly buying into the business as he’s been not-so-slowly turning into a ski bum. It’s good work.”
Sometimes he wondered what this brilliant woman with a PhD who could call herself Doctor and did get called Professor was doing with him, a man who had barely finished high school and had only had jobs that involved his hands and back.
But when she looked at him like that, with admiration in her eyes, he didn’t wonder. Not that he understood why, but when she had that look in her eyes, he decided understanding was overrated, and appreciating her affection was the best route.
