Page 56 of The Snuggle is Real
I laughed. “It’s not that bad.”
“Just wait until you’ve lived through it twenty or thirty times.”
I opened a door on the right to show him the room I was attempting to remodel. “We’ll see how long the city wants to keep me around, I guess. There’s still a lot of good work I can do with the foundation.”
“You’re kind of amazing,” Ford said.
I blinked. “Sorry, what?”
“The way you help people.” He shook his head. “I know the job doesn’t pay that great, but you… You really care.”
“Of course I do. It’s not just a job to me.”
“I can tell.”
I waved a hand to the partially stripped walls. “Thankfully I’m better at running the foundation than stripping wallpaper.”
Ford chuckled as he walked closer to inspect a wall. “I can see that you’re struggling with it.”
“Let me guess? You’re handy as well as”—Gorgeous. Charming. Sexy—“a good dad.”
“Well, the jury is still out on that,” he said, “but I can show you how to strip.” He paused. “Uh, the wallpaper, I mean. I’m sure you know how to strip…other things.”
“Well, I could always use more practice,” I teased.
“I’m sure we all…” Ford trailed off and cleared his throat. “Yeah, anyway. Let me show you the technique that works best for me.”
A flustered Ford was adorable, even if I really shouldn’t be teasing the straight guy. Still, the appearance of his ex-girlfriend had reminded me that Elias was right. My crushwasharmless.
So for the next twenty minutes, I indulged in a little fantasy where Ford wasn’t just a dad I was helping out, but a guy who genuinely liked me. He demonstrated how much to dampen the paper, how long to wait before attempting to scrape it, and the best ways to wield the scraper.
Then he handed the tool to me. “Okay, give it a shot.”
I’d done all these same steps. I knew how to Google, after all. Though I hadn’t done them nearly as effectively.
I did my best to emulate him, and when he stepped in close to correct my grip on the scraper, then to angle my wrist just so, my insides fluttered.
“Like this?” I asked, peeking at him through my eyelashes.
“Yeah. Try it again.”
Sadly, he stepped away. I scraped the wall, using the tips he’d given me and was shocked at how much better it worked. Whereas before the wallpaper was breaking off in little pieces, causing me to scrape at the edges again and again, now it came away in a much longer strip.
“Wow, that was really helpful.”
“Should I be offended you sound so surprised.”
“I didn’t mean it like that!” I turned, nearly bumping into him. He was so close. “More that I…”
The words dried on my tongue as the warmth of his body washed over me. The curl of his lips drew my eyes. The silky softness of his beard. Those eyes, so dark but somehow layered with different shades.
“More that you?” he prompted.
“Oh, I’m just…not that good with my hands.”
“Oh, really?” He smirked. “Well, that’s a shame, Mason. All your boyfriends must be so sad.”
“What?” My words registered with me.Not that good with my hands. “No! With repairs, I mean.”
