Page 12 of Done

“I’d never!” He laughed, then let her go. “But don’t tell her too many stories about me, either. That’ll make her run for sure.”

Ms. Ellison laughed and swatted his arm before turning to wave goodbye to me. I gave her a small wave back, but I was too stunned by their interaction to knowwhatI was doing.

“Mornin’,” Easton nodded as he approached the front of the house. “Is the little guy awake?”

“Um,” I nodded, too focused on his backward hat and how his arms bulged from his plain white t-shirt. “He’s eating.”

“You okay this morning?”

His head tilted, and a look of concern flashed in his eyes. He started to take a few steps forward, and that was all it took to snap me out of it.

“Of course,” I waved at the yard and backed into the door, trying to get away. “Have fun out here. I have to work.”

Slamming the door, I leaned against it and took a deep breath. Max was waving his spoon around as he waved at me from across the room, and I smiled, giving him a small wave back. When I pushed off the door, I was calmer, focusing on the only man I needed to think about in my life.

“All done?”

“I done,” he said in his sweet voice. He spoke so few words that I savored those small glimpses he gave me, and I closed my eyes, memorizing how he sounded when he said the worddone.

Truthfully, I didn’t have to work. My entire day was going to be spent making sure Max was happy. The move had been a lot for him, and although the plan was to find him a preschool once we were settled, he wasn’t ready yet.

Or maybe it wasmethat wasn’t ready. In his three short years, we had barely spent a moment apart.

“Okay, buddy. We need to clean you up.”

As I lifted him from his safety seat, I heard banging outside, and Max turned his head toward the window. “Fire truck!”

Looking out, I realized there was a direct shot of Easton hammering at the fence posts in the corner of the front yard, and Max remembered exactly who he was.

“Yes, fire truck. His name is Easton. He’s going to fix up the yard so we can play outside,” I explained as I started up the stairs. Fire truck was one of the few words he said frequently, knowing exactly what it was, and apparently knowing how to dial one up.

Although his call that night was a mistake, he and I had spent a little time chatting about not touching mommy’s phone. We also talked about how much I needed to finish setting up his room, so he didn’t have to sleep with me every night. But hisspecial bed I had ordered wasn’t going to be in for a few more weeks.

By the time I got Max cleaned up and back downstairs, I turned on his favorite cartoon and set him up with crayons and a coloring book at the coffee table. My plan was to clean up where he had been eating, but a soft knock made me turn in that direction instead.

Opening the door, I saw Easton with his head down, and an arm on each side of the frame. Sweat had already formed over his body, creating a pattern on his white shirt that almost had me hypnotized.

“Everything okay?”

“Can I use your restroom?”

“Um,” I looked back at Max and then at Easton. “Sure.”

Max was too distracted to see Easton, and I was too distracted to be more polite. Luckily, Easton seemed to know where the bathroom was without me having to tell him, and quickly disappeared behind the closed door.

“Sheesh, Jesse, get it together.”

Swiping my hands through my hair, I went to sit with Max while Easton did whatever he had to do. He was quick and came out wiping his freshly washed hands on his jeans to dry them.

“Oh no, there wasn’t a towel in there, was there?” I stood back up, slightly embarrassed.

“It's all good,” he laughed. “I honestly only washed my hands to impress you. Had you not been here, I’d have just gone behind the fence out back and—well, never mind.”

His face turned a cute shade of red, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I wasn’t sure I had ever seen a man that looked as good as Easton be both cocky and unsure of himself at the same time.

“How’s it going out there?”

“Not too good,” he huffed, making the smile fall from my face. “It's not as bad as I had hoped, so it's not taking as long.By lunchtime, I may have to think of another excuse to come back. How are the faucets? Or the baseboards? Any trees in the backyard need to be taken down?”

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