AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’d know better than me.” He knelt where Shane had been and dipped the paint brush into the paint tin. Then, touching the tip of his tongue to the roof of his mouth, he concentrated on distributing the paint evenly. At some point, Shane moved away. As he worked, the drone of background noise faded out until all that remained was a distant hum. His back ached, but he hardly registered it. Before long, he’d painted the skirting board on one wall and moved around to the next. As he glanced back at where he’d been, a sense of achievement filled him. It looked neat. Not professional, but decent. By the time he came back for round two, he’d have mastered the technique.
“What’s that silly grin for?”
He looked up at the sound of Kat’s voice. “Nothing. Just, this isn’t so bad.”
Her eyes twinkled. “Fancy that.”
She tucked her hair behind her ear, drawing it off the slender column of her throat, and heat punched him in the gut. He forgot about painting completely. A pulse throbbed beneath the skin at the base of her neck, and he wanted to latch onto it and suck. The urge was so unexpected he made a low humming noise. She tilted her head quizzically and her hair fell forward again, hiding the patch of skin he’d been staring at like a freak.
She drew in a breath that rattled past her lips, almost as though she were as shaken as he was. “Once you’ve finished the first coat, we can nail down the floorboards in the center of the room. Hine and Michael have nearly finished cutting them to size.”
“Why is there a gaping hole in the middle of the floor?” he asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Long story. Suffice it to say, there was a large piece of rock, a crazy bull mastiff, and a well-intentioned member of the Bridge Club.”
He winced, unsure whether he wanted to know any more details. “Oh.”
“We had to do base repairs to the joists and supports beneath the floor first, and had to consult an engineer about it. That’s why work has been going on around the edges of the room in the meantime.”
“Fair enough.” Though he didn’t understand why they hadn’t shifted to another room and come back to this one. “Hey, Kat,” he said as she turned away.
“Yeah?”
This was the perfect opportunity to take another shot at persuading her to sell. Point out that she could live somewhere without holes in the floor, crazy dogs, and scheming octogenarians. Suggest that she buy a modern stone building where she wouldn’t need to host regular DIY sessions with amateurs to make the conditions livable. But he found that he couldn’t. He had no enthusiasm for it anymore. His tongue stuck to the inside of his teeth.
He swallowed, and like a wimp, said, “You’ve got something special here.”
A winsome smile transformed her face. Her mouth relaxed, eyes crinkled, forehead smoothed. Being on the receiving end of that smile, he felt like he’d won the lottery, and he didn’t regret delaying his next business move one bit.
“I know I do,” she replied. “I appreciate it every single day.”
He could tell she spoke the truth, and, just like that, he wished he had something he could be thankful for every day. Sure, he had a great job, reasonable financial security, and two close friends, but when was the last time he’d woken in the morning feeling grateful for any of it? The fact was, his goal of becoming wealthy enough to never have to worry had lost its shine.
Huh.
Something else he’d learned about himself: he needed a new life goal. Without something to aim for, the earth might shift out from beneath him and send him into free fall.
