Page 15 of Crash and Burn

He didn't step over the threshold, but glanced at her up and down. For a moment she thought if she'd known he was coming over, she might have put some makeup on, or maybe not worn these shorts. The jeans were fraying with a few strings hanging down her thighs. Not her best look. But if you showed up unannounced, you got what you got.

Sebastian saw the coffee mug in one hand and the hammer in the other. With a grin he asked, “Weapon or home improvement?”

She laughed, “Home Improvement.”

He hooked the thumb over his shoulder toward where his car was parked. Then he said maybe the best thing he could.

Chapter Fourteen

Sebastian walked the hardwood floor in a grid pattern checking for other squeaks. He shouldn’t have shown up and offered to help. But it wasn’t as if Rex could take the day off and do it. And Sebastian was finding it hard to stay away.

So he lied to himself about small town charm and being neighborly and he showed up on her doorstep. He’d now put the missing floorboard back into place. Patching the hole made the room look less sinister, and he hoped it gave Maggie a little peace of mind.

When he didn’t hear anything this time around, he wanted to believe he’d gotten all the squeaky boards.Only fifteen more rooms to go. That would be a lot of time around Maggie … if he could handle it. He looked across the room to find her peeling back the paper on yet another wall.

“Wow, that’s impressive.”

Her sincerethank youmade him smile, probably a little broader than he should have. She was using a steamer and a wide scraping tool to pull off the layers in gooey sheets. It shouldn’t have been attractive.Damn Rex. And damn himself for not asking her out sooner.

“Sebastian, come look at this.”

“What is it?” He was afraid it was another hidey hole with another sinister surprise, but thankfully it wasn’t.

“Look at this,” she said holding up a layer of wallpaper she’d peeled away. She’d revealed the layer of white wallpaper with burgundy colored line drawings of French families playing in the countryside.

“There are a lot of layers on this wall,” he commented. “I didn't know there was a toile under here.”

Maggie raised one eyebrow at him, seemingly surprised he understood. His mother loved the stuff, that’s how he knew what a toile was, but he didn’t say anything.

“It's not that it's toile,” she said, and pointed at several different spots. “Look closely. It has monkeys. This ismonkey toile.”

“Is monkey toile even a thing?” He’d not seen it with anything other than people and a few birds before.

“I guess it is. Someone clearly manufactured it.” She shook her head at the wall as though it were misbehaving. “It still has to go.”

“If you want to peel the layers separately, you can frame a square of it to keep if you want.”

“Look at you, Mr. Home Improvement,” she teased and turned back to working on the wall.

He watched her stand on tiptoes in those short shorts, her legs stretching as she reached up high. Her shirt pulled up when she moved her arm over her head, revealing a slice of smooth skin at her waist. It was all making Sebastian a little crazy.

Rex should be here, not him.

He understood that Rex couldn’t be here and he wasn’t going to encroach on a fellow firefighter’s girlfriend. But Maggie needed a hand and a spare set of eyes on the lookout. If anyone saw him looking at Maggie's ass, well, he’d have to figure out something to say for that, too.

In an effort to shift his thoughts, he shifted the conversation. “How has it been here at night?”

He’d driven by himself at least once each night, wanting to keep her safe, and also trying to respect the choice she'd made not to have him stay over. She’d gathered plenty of information, and she convinced herself—and mostly him, too—that she was safe enough. Her burglar had gotten inside the house and hadn't found what he wanted. He'd been actively chased off and he shouldn’t have reason to come back.

“I’m doing better,” she said, as she kept working. “The police are driving by a little more. I’ve heard them passing at different hours some nights.”

He didn’t comment that she might have heard him checking on her, too.

“Have they gotten back to you?” He was curious what the results were from all the jewelry in the box.

“Nope,” Maggie shook her head, seeming happy. “I figure that has to be good news. If that box was full of serial killer trophies, someone would know, and we would have heard before now.”

Sebastian nodded along. That reasoning made sense. Plus, he and Marina Balero had dated for almost six months—nothing hot and heavy, and when they had broken up it had been relatively amicable. He wanted to believe she would tell him if there was something he needed to know.

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