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“If I’m still working for him, if he makes it that long, I’ll try to keep him behaved.”
“Good luck,” Damon said, laughing.
I’d need it.
We had finished the living room and kitchen by the time the dumpsters were dropped off in front of the house, and it surprised me that little went into them. The rest was packed in boxes in the back of Noah’s truck or Damon’s. Noah said he had someone willing to clean everything so they could donate it to several places.
I did find one thing that I held onto, though. It was an old hairbrush, the kind that was made of oak, big with a squared head. I had it in my hand and thought of all sorts of wicked things I could do with it. After stashing it in my room, I went back downstairs to help.
However, before starting the rest of the house, we had coffee and sat around the primarily empty kitchen. There was the table left, enough cooking items, plates, and utensils to get us through until we could get more updated articles. We’d kept all the big, thick mugs the previous owner had.
Theo wasn’t drinking coffee with us, content with his water bottle while staring at Eli.
“This place is bigger now that it isn’t full of junk,” Damon observed. His brown eyes moved from floor to ceiling as he warned, “Burky’ll want to come to give you cleaning and decorating advice.”
“I’d need it,” I admitted. “For the decorating anyway.”
“I could do it,” Theo said in a huff. “I doubt any stores here would have what I’d need.”
Everyone mostly ignored him, but Joel was plastered to Damon’s side, his head behind his cowboy hat, and every once in a while, he’d peek up at Theo, his brows drawn hard. It was as if he couldn’t figure the guy out, and I was right there with him.
“Speaking of which,” I started, to lighten the sudden darkened mood the last comment placed on the room, “where do we buy bathroom fixtures? We need a toilet, sink, and tub for at least one bathroom.”
Noah was the only one that knew the town from top to bottom, so he answered, “Around here, there’s no such place, but two towns over, they have a bigger hardware store; they’ll have all you need. Reasonable prices for this area, too.”
“Thanks. If we’re here longer, we’ll likely do more than one bathroom, but for now, Theo needs his updated.”
“It’s vile,” Theo drawled. “Your house, where I stayed,” he said to Burke, “was pleasant.”
“Thanks…” he said, staring, obviously shocked at the half-compliment. “We just had them redone.”
“I could tell. The place reeked of paint.”
I’d make him live in a ball gag if he were my submissive.
Burke’s hazel eyes darkened considerably as he stared at Theo. I had a feeling he thought the same and was, at that moment, picturing him with a ball gag.
It made me laugh, and Eli asked, “What’s funny.”
“Nothing, nothing, just…thoughts wildly flying through my head about…ball gags.”
Eli smiled and started to laugh, which got everyone laughing except for Theo, who was staring around the room at all of us in turn. “What’s funny about that?”
We started in the downstairs bedroom next, which was used for storage. It was packed from floor to ceiling, and the door barely opened. We used a bucket method until more than one person could enter at a time. I handed boxes to Joel, who gave them to Burke, and so on, until the last couple ran them to the porch.
Once we emptied that room, we sat outside to go through them and found some treasures. Photo albums of the house in earlier years, along with the family that lived there before us, crystal vases, a set of beautiful China, and silver picture frames.
Noah explained, “Old Flynn, he fell apart when Martha passed. He cared for the pigs, and that was about all. Me and a few buddies, we’d come by once a week to check in on him, make sure he was eatin’ and such. It was probably the best thing for him to leave this place.”
“This stuff is very personal,” I told Noah. “I’d like him to have it.”
“I’ll call his son. Pete has pretty pissed his father sold the place, but I think he got a million from it, which lessened the blow.”
Burke laughed, “That would do it for me.”
“Good. Thanks, Noah. It would be good for at least the albums to stay in the family.”
“Nice of ya.”
