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“Slept like an Ork-Orokish valley bear in winter!” I exclaimed, even though it wasn’t true. It spoke to her kindness that she was worried about my rest. But she needn’t have been. My tiredness had entirely evaporated at the sight of her. Instead, anxious energy flooded my limbs. My fingers twitched, ready to grab onto something to haul it over my shoulders. It would keep my fingers from doing what they actually wanted to do.
Which was to skim across the curves of Maggie’s cheekbones.
“Just tell me what to do,” I said, placing my needy hands behind my back.
“Well, I figured we’d clear out all this rubbish first.” She jerked her chin towards a large pile of debris near the front area of the shop. “Then we can start painting. If you guys have time to stick around for that, that is.”
“I do,” I said quickly. The Middle’s Guardianwas, as Penny had requested, well-staffed today. They’d get by the first chunk of the shift without me.
Maybe X will need to go to work soon. Maybe then it could be just me and her...
“I can stay, too,” came the rather infuriating growl from beside me, dashing my fantasy to little bits.
Ah, well.Three of us would make the work go faster. Maggie needed this place ready before Christmas.That’s what’s important here.
It was then that I noticed the hover-cart in the air behind Maggie. She stepped aside to give us a better view.
I felt my brows rise in shock at the sight of the paint supplies she’d brought.
No doubt X felt the same way.
“Didn’t even know they sold paint tech as ancient as this,” he said.
The cart was piled with cans of paint as well as brushes and rollers.
Maggie sighed. “Yeah. Would be faster and easier to use the nano-tech. But even just to rent the bots for it was pretty pricey. This was the most economical solution.”
I nodded. Most paint jobs these days were done by small robots that roved over the walls, their internal nano-bots laying a perfect, even layer of paint as they went.
“You know Sophie and I would have pitched in for the cost,” X said from beside me, more gently than I would have assumed him capable of.
Me too! I would have pitched in! I’ll go buy you a hundred robots if you need them!I longed to say the words. But when I saw the way Maggie’s mouth thinned into a line, I was glad I hadn’t spoken.
“That’s OK. Thank you. But you guys are already doing enough,” she said firmly. A wave of admiration for this determined human woman rolled through me. She was going to make this work on her terms, and I couldn’t have been more impressed.
Her iron will lent me a stout limb-hardness. I leaned down beside her, catching a whiff of the sweet scent of her. I grasped a roller and a can of paint, hoisting them up into the air with a wide smile.
“I’m ready. Let’s go!”
