Page 40 of A Lesson for Laurel

She ran to her room and was already pulling her shirt off on the way.

To her, this was more fun than going to dinner anyway.

In two minutes, she was in leggings, sneakers and a T-shirt. She grabbed a sweatshirt to put over it when she was done digging around in the dishwasher. If she had to change her clothes again after, not a big deal.

She grabbed her pink tool bag on the way out too.

When she returned to Easton’s place, he took one look at her and what was in her hand. “Now I’m insulted. Don’t tell me your tools are pink too.”

“They are purple and they work the same as those you’ve got over there. But some of them fit in my hand better.”

The toolbox on the counter looked to be fifty years old and she’d bet it was Easton’s uncle’s that was handed down to Abe. She found that as sweet as she did that her father bought her some of these tools when she was in high school and taught her how to fix things herself.

Easton rolled his eyes. She moved closer and helped him continue to get the water out of the dishwasher with a cup.

“We are getting close to the bottom now,” she said five minutes later. “At least I don’t see a lot of food in there.”

“I rinse my plates for the most part,” he said. “Not completely clean. You don’t need to do that. Hell, you see on TV you can put them in there with all the food still on them.”

She started to laugh. “Yeah, because they aren’t paying the bill to fix your appliances when they break.”

“Good point,” he said. “But I do rinse them off. Not sure about Abe. He’s a pretty neat person, but I can’t remember his habits from years ago.”

“Doesn’t matter at this point,” she said. “Only that we fix it.”

He’d already pulled out the bottom rack, and she started to crawl in to get a closer look with the flashlight she’d taken out of her bag.

“Do you need a towel or something on the floor?” he asked. “It might be a little damp there still. I mopped when you ran home.”

“A towel would be nice. Did you order pizza yet?”

He stopped from walking out of the kitchen to turn. “Not yet. I wasn’t sure what you wanted.”

She lifted her eyes and looked him up and down. “Are we talking about food?”

He laughed. “Right now,” he said. “And if you keep looking at me that way the food and dishwasher are both waiting.”

“But you’ll be distracted and I don’t want that. Get me the towel and then you can order food. I’ll eat any meat or toppings but onions and nasty slimy tiny fish.”

“Got it,” he said.

He came back a few minutes later with two big beach towels in his hand. She was bending over on her hands and knees and her butt was in the air. “If you slap my ass while I’m in here and make me jump, I’m going to smack you with this wrench.”

“I wouldn’t think of it,” he said.

She turned and looked at him. His eyes were on her ass and he was grinning. “Good,” she said. “If you want to do it later, that’s fine, but not now.”

“I didn’t know the light was turning green so quickly.”

“A little bit of flirty and playful affection is still only a yellow light.”

“Noted,” he said.

He laid the towel down, and she got off her knees and was on her hip and side while she removed the cover. There was still some water in there, but she had to get this off to find out what was going on.

Once the cover was off, she got a look at nasty build-up and slime that was clogging the drain.

“This is gross.”

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