Page 35 of Cold Foot Komodo

“Nope, I’m taking my lunch break here. King and Cash are here too. They’ll bring you everything.”

“We’re about to head to the furniture store.”

“Yep, do your thing. Just leave the back door unlocked so they can get in there. The flooring needs to acclimatize to the room, so we’ll have to leave it in there for a bit.”

“Are you some kind of superhero?” she asked.

He chuckled. “Not at all. I would be labeled the villain. You just have shitty survival instincts.”

She busted out a laugh as she climbed into the passenger’s seat of Timber’s truck. “Um, am I going to see you tonight?”

“Do you want to see me tonight?”

“Fishing,” Katrina sang.

“Damn right I am,” Reed muttered. “I’ve been in prison. I need a complete self-esteem rebuild, so hell yeah I’m going to fish for compliments and also reassurance. Fight me.”

Okay, he was easy at joking, and funny. And also confident, so she didn’t really believe he needed help with the self-esteem side of his life.

“I’ve got to work late tonight, but I’ll check and see what you’re up to when I get off.”

“Okay, I have to get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight. It’s my first day at the new job tomorrow.”

“Oh my God, this is like watching two old people flirt,” Timber said. She wrenched up her voice, “I need to be in bed by eight p.m., so if you work too late, no booty calls for you.”

“Timber! This isn’t a booty call!” Sasha looked down at her phone, mortified. Reed had turned his head to the side as he was walking through an aisle of what looked like screws. He was laughing as quietly as he could. “Reed, it’s not a booty call. My sister is just being atrocious.”

“I’ll let you get back to the girls. Do you have a preference on paint colors?”

“Browns. Not too light, not too dark.”

“Medium brown. Sounds perfectly boring.”

“I have an aesthetic in mind!”

He was still chuckling as he got off the phone. The next several hours flew by. They got food quick, and shopped at the furniture store. They had several pieces available from the warehouse in the back of the store, so they got to fill the back of the truck and tie it all down. It took three trips to that store to get it all hauled to her house, and the next two hours were spent ripping up the nasty carpet and the carpet padding underneath. King and Cash were there to make sure every nail was trimmed down and picked up, until all that remained was the sub-flooring beneath.

“No bare feet on here until we have the flooring in,” King told her.

“When would be a good time to do the painting?”

“Before we put in the floors. If you drip on the sub-flooring, it doesn’t matter.”

It was 7:00 p.m. by the time she organized the painting supplies the boys had picked up on a plastic drop cloth that she’d spread out in front of the fireplace.

Katrina and Timber helped while Raynah took the truck and picked up hamburgers from a local drive-through. The boys stayed busy cleaning out the garage.

You home?Reed’s text made her so happy. She loved the comfort with which he talked to her.

She sent him a selfie of herself holding a paint roller. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun, and there was a streak of medium-brown paint across her cheek.I’m at the house!Send.

I saved that picture. You look pretty today.

The butterflies were filling her up, and the stretch of her smile across her face felt so damn good.If that’s true, then why didn’t you kiss me this morning when you dropped me at my door?Her finger hovered over the send button. Oh, screw it. This was fun. Send.

I was trying to be a gentleman.

She texted,Zzzzzz, like she was snoring, and then a laughing-face emoji.

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