Page 23 of Finding Basil
When Basil arrived to find Herb still cleaning from the night’s mess, he came in and dragged him from his hands and knees to his feet. “Are you okay?”
“Pretty discouraged. I have enough falling apart on this house without someone helping it along.”
Basil took him in his arms, holding him gently. “I can bet you are, but I really don’t want you to leave.”
“Why would I leave? Besides my house falling apart, I really like it here.”
Basil pulled back and asked coyly, “I hope I’m one of the reasons for that.”
“You are all the reasons for that.”
Herb kissed him sweetly, not lingering, as much as he wanted to. Moving fast, moving slow, they seemed to do both, strangely enough.
“Well, if you’re up for it, I thought we’d try getting some plants going in your greenhouse after we get the glass up. Would you help me?”
“Of course. Let me call the contractor and Gentry. I want the reno work done soon, so these things stop happening.”
Basil looked up and said, “That’s a bad hole. In a way, though, maybe the water leak was lucky.”
“Lucky? How do you figure?”
“That piece of the floor shouldn’t have given way with just a few hours of water. It would have gone sooner than later, regardless. Now you know where it needs fixing the most urgently.”
He hated to admit the sabotage was lucky, but it was true. “You’d have gone through it, probably when you were alone, and been stuck, or in the living room with a broken leg or something.”
“Well, I’m now having all the floors replaced, like all the plumbing is being replaced, and after that, the electricity is getting replaced.”
Basil chuckled and then bit his lips.
“It’s funny, I know.”
“Sorry. It…it’s like one of those funny movies. I’ve never seen anyone with such bad luck with a new house.”
“Now you have.”
When two crews showed up, Gentry bringing his two cousins and his teenage son, Basil took Herb outside to start on the greenhouse. “We need to get all the old glass out of the frames first. Be really careful. It can cut the hell out of you, and you are…not having the best luck right now.”
“I’m very lucky. I met you.”
That blush was the prettiest yet as Basil ducked his head to try to hide it. “Stop.”
“Not a chance.”
Basil tossed a pair of gloves at him. “We’re working.”
“Working. Right, boss.”
They got the glass from one side of the greenhouse free on one entire side that day, and they enjoyed a glass of tea on the newly fixed porch after they finished for the day.
Herb didn’t get one cut, so he hoped that meant his luck with the house was changing.
Basil seemed concerned about the break-in, the damage it had caused. Herb, however, wanted to forget it. “You didn’t call the police?”
“No. I don’t have proof that anyone did it. Well, except for the hat.”
“What hat?”
Herb went into the house and retrieved it from the sofa where he’d thrown it and brought it out to Basil after turning on the porch light. “This one.”
