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“No,” she shook her head. “You’ll stain that white shirt of yours. Go have fun, I can do this.”
“Maybe so, but I’d much rather spend the rest of my night with you cleaning this than be out there getting hit on,” he chuckled.
Desi snorted out a laugh as he put a stack of plates on the counter beside her.
“Did you just snort?”
“Ahaha, yes!” she looked at him. “I must be more tired than I thought.”
Putting his hands on her waist, he set her aside, and said, “Here, let me wash the plates. You go do something else.”
“It’s fine, I—”
“Seriously, go collect garbage or something, I got this.”
She didn’t have to be told three times. Yawning, she gathered all the waste and tossed it into the garbage pail, next she took the cleanest of the dirty metal inserts from the buffet table and tossed all the silverware in it. Taking it over to the sink, she filled it with soapy water and set it on the counter. “Don’t do those,” she pointed to it. “They can soak overnight.”
He nodded but didn’t say a word as he scrubbed the plates.
Next, she took the kettle and filled it with water, and grabbed the dish soap. Heading back over to the buffet table, she poured water into each insert and added a squirt of the soap, then mixed it with her hand until she was satisfied with the amount of bubbles in each one.
“Now what? These are all done.”
Surprised, she turned around and looked at him and her breath caught in her throat. He never did finish buttoning up his shirt. It allowed her to catch a glimpse of that magnificent chest of his while he stood there with one hand on his hip, the veins on his forearms, standing out against his tanned skin. He couldn’t look sexier if he tried. Well, maybe he could.
“Ah... are you ready to throw in the towel? Because I’m leaving everything else to soak.”
He touched his tongue to his upper lip and nodded looking at the clock on the wall. “I am. I think 11:30 at night is a little late to be cleaning this mess,” he said.
Moving away from the counter, he took his jacket and put it on. Taking her sweater and his helmet, he walked over to where she was standing, sat the helmet on the table and held her sweater so she could slip it on. As she stuck her arms in the sleeves, he said, “Don’t you have a coat here?”
“No, I didn’t have time to grab one this morning.”
“Here, you can wear mine.”
Touched that he would give up his coat for her, she put a hand on his arm.
“No, you’ll freeze. I’ll just take one from behind the door. Kim always has spare coats hanging there.”
“That’ll work too,” he smiled down at her as he handed her the helmet.
Without a word, she put it on her head and started fumbling for the air pump to adjust the fit.
“Here. I’ll get that for you,” he said, finding it easily.
His kindness was her undoing; Desi snapped the visor down so he couldn’t see her tears.
“Is it better now? Wait, why are you fogging up there?” he reached to lift it, but she stepped back. Swallowing hard, she said, “I’m just hot.”
“You certainly are,” he grinned.
“Can we just go now, please?” came her muffled response to that. Walking around him, she went to the row of coats hanging behind the door. Taking one, she quickly pulled it on, then went down the hall to the front door only to be stopped by him.
“Ah... Desi, my bike’s in the back yard.” He saw her slump her shoulders in defeat and said, “Wait here, I’ll bring it around to the front. I’ll be right back.”
Desi waited until he disappeared down the hall then lifted the visor. She was standing there wiping the tears from her cheeks as best she could while having a helmet on her head when she heard people talking. Whoever it was, they were coming down the stairs.
Spinning around, she opened the front door and went onto the porch. She would wait for Lane there. And she waited. Pulling out her cellphone, she looked at the time. It was now midnight, and she was done waiting. Finding the valve on the helmet, she released the air, took it off, and set it directly in front of the door.
