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“Good.” Seth glances at Mazzy. “So, what paint colors did you ladies decide on?”
“I helped them,” Ella exclaims. I think it distracts her from what she’s doing, because Mazzy winces when my daughter pulls a hair. “Did you know that?”
Seth smiles. “I did know that.”
Mazzy exchanges a glance with Alessia, and she’s grinning when she responds. “Do you want the interior or exterior colors?”
“Uh, let’s go with exterior.” Seth’s expression isn’t giving many of his feelings away, but I hear the hesitation in his voice.
“Okay. We’re gonna paint the exterior sort of a beachy blue,” Mazzy says, chin tilted up confidently. “And to go with it—Actually, Alessia, why don’t you finish?”
Alessia’s eyes widen, and she pokes her glasses into place. “Oh, uh, well, to go with the blue we were thinking we’d paint the door and the frames of the windows…yellow?”
All three guys stare at us in silence, varying levels of shock on their faces. It’s extremely hard not to burst out laughing right now, especially because my delirium is really kicking in as it gets later, and everything is ten times funnier than normal. I’m guessing all of us anticipated a reaction like this, but it’s still funny. Even Seth, who’s usually better at schooling his emotions, looks dumbfounded.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” The legs of Colin’s chair finally drop to the dock, and he looks at Seth. “Please tell me we’re not actually going to use those colors.”
Mazzy grins. “Technically, blue is a guy’s color. You know, pink for a girl and blue for a boy.”
“Yeah, but notbeachy blue,” Colin retorts dryly. “I mean, come on. Why not gray or white? They call those neutral colors for a reason, people.”
“It’s a lake house,” Alessia says, and her confident tone shocks me. Maybe she’s got more of a backbone than I originally gave her credit for. “Basically, right on the lake. Whynotdo beach colors? Whoever buys this place will probably use it as a vacation home. Might as well make it magazine worthy.”
Mazzy sits up straight, then regrets her choice when Ella keeps hold on her hair. I can see it in the way her face tightens. She scoots back a little, but the enthusiasm is still in her voice. “Hey! These people in the coffee shop the other day were talking about the houses around the lake and something about magazines. What if, when we get it finished, we take pictures and find a magazine to submit them to?”
“There’s the one in town that comes out annually,” Seth says, clearly having recovered from his initial shock. “It’d be too late for this year, but we could submit something for next year’s edition. And I get where you’re coming from with the blue. But…blue?For the whole outside?”
I offer a sweet smile. “Not all. The door will be yellow as well as the window frames. It’ll be such a nice pop of color, though! Like Alessia said, it’ll probably be a vacation house. Think of someone coming here to their happy place and being able to decorate with adorable lake-y things from the outside all the way through the house.”
Seth narrows his eyes, Colin’s in the background shaking his head, and Luka’s looking like he has no idea what to do or say. I can’t blame him. Some guys just don’t understand us ladies. It’s okay. We don’t always understand ourselves. That said, we generally know when we’re right.
And I promise you our exterior paint color choices are 1000% right.
“We have a blue door,” Ella says, her voice as serious as a five-year-old can get. “My mommy loves it. It’s kinda pretty.”
She’s right. My front door is a beautiful pale teal color, and I do love it.
Surprisingly, all four teens smile at Ella’s declaration. Even Colin, who would probably sacrifice an entire hand before painting with the colors we’re suggesting.
“Please?” I shamelessly bat my eyelashes at Seth. “I promise what we picked will look amazing. You’ll just have to trust us.”
“They do kinda have a point.” Wow! Luka still knows how to talk. “Whenever my family goes to Florida to see my grandparents, all the women in our family go crazy for the—” he makes air quotes “— ‘aesthetic looking’ houses. This isn’t the ocean, but who knows? Maybe it would stand out to the eye more.”
I knew there was a reason, other than his super-cool Jeep, why I liked Luka so much. I scribble one brownie point into his score on my mental board.
Seth releases a sigh that feels a little bit overkill. “All right. Fine. We’ll go with the blue and…yellow for the exterior.” He says the wordyellowlike it’s a swear word. My yellow-loving heart is offended. “I’d ask if you decided on interior colors, but I’m scared to hear those.”
Unable to resist, I lean over and whack him on the shoulder. We agreed earlier this afternoon to keep our relationship—at least, I think that’s what it is—on the down low for now around the teens. I feel like my shoulder-punch was just under the territory of friendly annoyance, though. It’s not like I kissed him or something. I mean, we haven’t even kissed yet, so I obviously wouldn’t (probably) do that. I know we’re going slow with everything.
All I’m saying is that, based on how the man dances and teaches how to make pancakes and kisses my forehead, well, I have a hunch our first kiss won’t be one to forget. And honestly, if someone were writing a novel about us, I’d say our romantic tension is on point.
Except that this is real life, so I’m the figurative heroine and, I mean, whenever Seth decides he’s ready to kiss me, I will be here for it.
“Well, we were thinking of doing the kitchen cupboards the same yellow as the frames of the windows,” Mazzy says, deadpan. “And then—”
“No.” Colin shakes his head vehemently. “Absolutely not. Nobody wants to walk into a house and have their freaking eyeballs assaulted. If they wanted to have their eyes burned, they’d stare at the sun. Seth, please tell me you’re not going to say yes to that.”
Seth looks at me. “Is she serious?”
