Page 13 of Andy

“And I want to get to know them all. Come on inside. Once I’m clean, I’ll show you around. Then we can go grab something to eat and see where the day leads us.”

“Oh, darn it.” She turned back to her car. “I forgot to eat anything this morning. Let me grab my toaster pastry from the front seat.”

He followed her out to her car. “I don’t have much in the refrigerator. But if you need more, you’re welcome.”

She shook her head. “No, the pastry should be enough since we’re going to go get something to eat.”

“Good. I’ll be out soon.”

Mel followed him inside and called out as he was heading upstairs. “I did bring my bathing suit just in case we wanted to go to the beach.”

“That’s an option. We can decide once I’m done. Help yourself to anything you want,” he called out just before she heard a door shut upstairs.

She could hear the shower running and had to stop thinking about him naked. She imagined that he looked good. Instead of thinking about him without any clothes on, she opened the package for the toaster pastry and looked around the kitchen. It was nice. Not too small, just right. She opened the cabinets, and they were mostly empty, though he had a few pots and pans. Andy had white dishes, which she liked. They were plain, but that was good. She moved to the slider and looked out at the back yard. It wasn’t too big, but it had potential.

“Ah, the back yard. So what do you think?” Andy asked as he came down the stairs.

She hadn't heard him finish his shower or any other noise upstairs, so she whipped around, shocked he was downstairs. She took in his T-shirt that fit him nicely and the shorts he wore that showed his muscly legs. He looked good.

“Um, it’s nice. Quiet. Our upstairs neighbor can be loud. I didn’t even hear you walking up there.”

“My mattress was delivered to Wild’s place yesterday. I slept here last night. I probably would have slept here without the mattress, but it was great not having to deal with thin walls and loud neighbors.”

“I want to see the rest of the place.”

“Sure. It’s really nice. I mean, it’s a little older, but not too bad. I have some work I want to do on it, but I got a great price, so there’s that.”

He showed her the downstairs, then they went up the stairs, and he showed her a bathroom that was in pretty bad shape. The shower had a few holes in the walls, and the floor needed to be redone.

“The previous owner started renovating but never got past this part with the bathroom,” Andy said.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ll rip this shower out and install another one. It will probably take a while, but I’m okay with that. I’m looking forward to making it my own.”

She stepped into the room and looked around. It was small, just big enough for the pedestal sink, the toilet, and a shower stall.

“What colors were you thinking of doing in here?”

Andy shrugged. “I don’t know. I want something happy, not depressing. No gray or beige.”

“Sea-foam? Or maybe yellow?”

“I like yellow, but not too pale because then it’s beige.”

She nodded. “I think a happy color would be great in here.”

His lips tipped up in a smile, sending warmth through her. For a second she thought he might kiss her. Then he backed away.

“So there is a bedroom here. It’s a good size. And then a smaller room here. It’s not a great size or a great color. I’m going to have to do something happy to freshen it up.”

“Oh,” she said as shock pulsed through her. The room was painted with red and black jagged stripes. It looked like an angry attack was about to happen from the walls.

“Yeah. I’m going to have to put down a layer that will block that.”

“Dang. Yeah, you’re going to have to do something about this.”

He chuckled. “When I first saw it, I had the same reaction. It’s different, but nothing paint won’t fix.”

---