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She seems happier now and I smile as I follow her over to the couch. The sun is starting to set a bit and it's getting colder. When I look over at the fireplace, I can see that it needs to be cleaned before a fire can be made.
“Is the heat on?” I ask her and she shakes her head.
“No. There’s a hole in the kitchen drywall and one of the windows upstairs is broken too.”
I blink. Well, shit. We should have been working on those things first. I want to tell her that, but I bite my tongue.
"The steps seemed like the easier and cheaper fix until I could get those skills down," she explains with a shrug. Eden looks painfully vulnerable like she's bracing herself for me to reprimand her. I hate that I made her doubt me, and I hate even more that she seems to have had a lifetime of people yelling at her.
“I’ll clean the fireplace today,” I simply say with a nod. “That way at least the living room can be warmed by the fire.”
She nods, grabs a pen and paper, and starts to scribble stuff down. I head over to my place and grab my fireplace cleaning kit. She's still writing when I come back in and I smile as I get to work.
She joins me at some point and I ask her to sweep up some of the debris. I can see that she wants to argue, but when she sees how dirty I’m getting, she does as I ask.
I head outside, shivering slightly as I climb up onto the roof to finish the chimney. The wind is picking up and I know that even if she does light a fire tonight, she can’t stay in the house. It will be too cold for her.
My wolf howls inside of me, pleased with the idea of her sleeping in our home, preferably in our bed.
I finish up on the roof and climb down, trying to wipe off some of the soot clinging to my arms and clothes.
“All done?” she asks me, sweeping up some ash.
“Yep.”
“Good. I can’t wait to light a fire,” she says and I can see her shivering.
“You can’t yet. I should clean it one more time before that. Pack a bag. You’re staying with me tonight,” I tell her.
She frowns and I’m torn between continuing to be a jerk to keep her at arm’s length and apologizing.
“It will be warm at my place. You can get a good night’s sleep and then we’ll be back here first thing tomorrow,” I promise her.
“I don’t want to put you out. I can just sleep here,” she argues.
“And I could pick you up and carry you over to my place,” I remind her.
She huffs out a laugh and my wolf perks up inside of me at the sound.
Make her do it again,he demands and I shake my head.
“Alright. Hold on.”
She heads into the other room and comes back with a small bag. I want to tell her to bring all of her stuff, but she wouldn’t go for that. Besides, I shouldn’t want her to move in with me.
She can’t be ours,I remind myself and my wolf.
We head next door to my place and I try to take in my house through her eyes. I moved in a few months ago, but haven’t done much with the place since then. The basics are here, but that’s it. It’s a house, not a home.
“I like your couch. It looks comfortable,” she says and I nod.
“Come on, I’ll show you to the guest room.”
“Oh, I can just sleep on the couch. I’ll be out of your way and you won’t even notice me,” she offers and I shake my head. There is literally no way in hell I wouldn’t notice my gorgeous mate sleeping under the same roof as me.
“Come on.”
She follows me upstairs and down the hall. I open the door to the room next to mine and try not to think too hard about why I chose to put her in this particular room.
