Page 18 of I Found You
I wanted to keep working, plus stay out of Maeve’s way while she was getting ready, so I set up Jane’s bouncy chair on the front porch in the shade and got to work.
The late-July sun was causing me to sweat from every pore on my body, and it wasn’t even ten o’clock in the morning. I took my hat off and, lifting my shirt to use as a rag, wiped the moisture from my face and neck. The curtain in Maeve’s front room swayed, and two minutes later, she opened the frontdoor. Her hair was wet, and she wore one of those short, flowy dresses again. This one was dark blue with flowers printed on it. The neckline was elastic, like she could stretch it to fit around her arms instead of on her shoulders. I immediately started making that adjustment in my imagination. Thoughts of how her soft skin would feel under my rough hands flitted through my mind.
“You really don’t have to do this,” she told me, again.
“It’s fine. I want to. Besides, whoever did this work before did a shoddy job of it.”
She glanced at me with a guilty look on her face before she broke out into a grin.
I shook my head at her, chuckling. “You can’t paint over the old paint just as it is. There’s prep work that needs to be done to condition the surface. Come here.”
She came toward me but still positioned herself a few feet away from me. “Closer. I promise, I won’t bite. Not right now, anyway,” I said, shooting her a wink. I was definitely fucking thinking about taking a bite out of her. She looked delectable and smelled like coconuts.
I showed her how easy it was to peel off the current paint, explaining that without a clean, dry surface, the paint wouldn’t adhere properly.
“Actually, I have a pressure washer with me that will make this go even faster. Let me grab that,” I told her. My dad had lent me his pressure washer for my own house weeks ago. I’d been meaning to return it. Looked like it worked out better that I hadn’t.
I went to my truck to offload it and mix up a couple of gallons of the solution. I grabbed a white protective suit that I had on hand from my work in the garage and put it on overmy clothes. It wasn’t the best weather for this task, but I didn’t want to wait for a cooler day.
After hearing Maeve’s story about her childhood the other night, I wanted to do something nice for her. It was all I could think about yesterday while I worked in the garage. She was someone who could have fallen down a different path in life, but somehow, she came out of her childhood a better person. She was caring, and selfless, and smart. She took on the responsibility of a baby she had no relation to, just because that little girl needed her. She deserved to have someone do nice things for her too.
I still didn’t have her phone number to warn her I was going to come by today, but I liked to see the surprised look on her face when she saw me here.
Everything was set up, and the hose was attached and ready to go. “Are you ready for me to get started?” I asked her.
“Yup!” she replied excitedly.
“Are all your windows closed?”
Her eyes doubled in size. “Oh, no. I’m sorry. I should have thought of that and closed them while you were setting up. I’ll go through the house and close everything up now. Just give me five minutes.”
Shaking my head, I followed her inside to help go through the house. She must not have realized how close I was because she gasped and nearly jumped out of her skin when I leaned in from behind her to whisper in her ear, “I thought we talked about this, doll. Stop apologizing for things that need no apology.”
I watched her as goose bumps spread across her arms, not missing the way her breath caught and her skin pinked, starting on her chest and rising to her cheeks.
She giggled a nervous laugh and took off like a rocket up the stairs to her bedroom without responding. I couldn’t help the smirk that crossed my face.
The rest of the day went by pretty quickly. Maeve’s house didn’t have any central air-conditioning—being so close to the ocean, it wasn’t really necessary—so she took Jane to run some errands for a while to get out of the heat. When they got back, she made us sandwiches and brought me lemonade like I was in some kind of wholesome family chick flick. I fucking loved it.
“Thanks. That looks great.” She had made club sandwiches piled with turkey, cheese, and bacon. I set the power washer down so I could sit and eat for a few minutes, joining Maeve on the front porch.
“Thanks for spending all day in the sun for this. You can stop whenever you want. You don’t need to do the whole thing. Heck, you didn’t need to do any of it.” She paused, smoothing her dress down with her hands. “But I appreciate it. Thank you,” she said again. Her eyes darted up to mine quickly before she looked back at the porch floorboards.
“I like to stay busy.” I shrugged, downplaying the effort this was taking. “Plus, I get to share a giant sandwich with beautiful ladies. My day’s getting better and better.” I smiled. She kept her head down, but I could see her cheeks grow rosy. A lock of her hair fell across her face, and I had to stop myself from tucking it behind her ear so I could see her better.
“I’m sure this is exactly what you want to be doing on a Saturday afternoon.”
“Hey, don’t judge my hobbies,” I teased, kicking her foot gently. “I just really love pressure washing other people’s houses.” She bit her plump bottom lip to stop from smiling. Iforcefully dragged my eyes away from her mouth before she caught me staring.
“What would you be doing right now if you weren’t here?”
“Honestly, probably still be at the garage. This summer has been crazy busy, and the guy I hired a few years ago to help out quit a few months back to travel with his lady. Now, it’s solely me trying to get everything done.”
It was nice to get out of the garage occasionally though. Even though I was still working all day, it was different. I was telling the truth when I told her that I liked to stay busy. And working in the sunshine was hot as hell, but it good for my mood. Unless that was just hanging out with Jane and Maeve.
“My brother and I are heading out at Harpoon’s tonight. You should come.”
“I have Jane,” she stuttered.
