Page 20 of Need Me
“I can’t help it,” Chase said. “He freaks me out. Can you please get him offme?”
Robert picked Sketch up. “I’ll put him in the laundryroom.”
“Thanks.” Chase picked up the bags he’d dropped and headed for themudroom.
Keeping a tight hold on Sketch, Robert snagged a couple of bags and followed him. Chase put his bags on the table and turned to give Robert a hardlook.
“What?” Robert asked,perplexed.
Chase pointed at Sketch. “Put that thing where it goes and get back here. We got work to do. You ain’t cleaned oranything.”
“Cleaned?”
Chase rolled his eyes. “How long has it been since you had a woman over for a romanticnight?”
Robert shrugged. “I don’t know. Lastyear?”
If it hadn’t been so embarrassing, Chase’s shocked expression would’ve made Robert laugh. “You haven’t had sex since lastyear?”
Robert felt like his face was sunburned. “No! I’ve had sex this year, but not here. We went to herplace.”
How had he forgotten that no subject was taboo as far as Chase wasconcerned.
“Oh. Alrighty then. Go put him away and then get back here. Where’s your cellphone stereodock?”
Robert walked down the hallway. “It broke last month, and I keep forgetting to buy one,” he yelled back toChase.
“Good Lord! Okay, okay. I gotcha covered. Noworries.”
Robert took Sketch to the laundry room, where the skunk’s litter box and food was located. “I think I’d rather stay in here with you,buddy.”
He sat Sketch down, took a calming breath, and went back to the kitchen. Chase was just coming in the door with two boxes and a backpack, Chase’s idea of abriefcase.
“Chase, what is all this?” Robert asked. “I thought you were just going to give me arecipe.”
Chase looked around the kitchen. “From what I understand, just giving you a recipe wouldn’t do much good. Get out the cleaning stuff, and I’m gonna put on sometunes.”
“I thought we were going tocook.”
Chase arched an eyebrow and put his hands on his hips. “Son, we ain’t even close to cooking. I don’t cook in a dirty kitchen. Let’s get toit.”
Irked, Robert said, “The kitchen isclean.”
“You have cats. Do they get up on thecounter?”
Robert smiled. “It’s hard to keep cats off the counter. I can’t watch them twenty-four-seven.”
Chase nodded. “Which is why we’re gonna clean the counters and stove before we start,okay?”
Robert saw his point. “Okay.”
He opened the door under the sink, and got out his cleaning supply caddy. Chase whistled and hummed while he set up a portable Bose sound system on the table and plugged it in. In a few moments, Keith Urban’sEven the Stars Fall 4 Ustarted pumping through thespeakers.
Chase, at home anywhere he went, opened a door in the kitchen and said, “Bingo!” He grabbed the broom out of the closet and used it as a guitar as he started singing along. Robert’s irritation was forgotten as he watched Chaseperform.
Halfway through the song, Chase tossed the broom to Robert. “Sing it,bubba!”
Robert caught it and laughed. “No, no. I suck atsinging.”
