Page 18 of I Need You Tonight
Chapter 8
Mason
“I was thinking we could hit the hardware store next,” I said, after paying for my purchases in the clothing store Nicole had taken me to, “so I can get moving on some projects around the house while I’m here.”
“You don’t need to do that. You’re supposed to be taking a few days off to relax, not work.”
To hell with relaxing. I did more than my share of that while stuck on the tour bus for all those long hours. There wasn’t much else you could do while traveling between gigs, unless you were planning to write the next great American novel.
“I don’t mind,” I said. “I used to help my old man around the house as a kid. My talents go beyond being a drummer extraordinaire.” I winked at her, doing my best not to think about how her lips had felt against mine not that long ago.
Doing my best not to think about how she would taste if she kissed me again—only this time deeper, longer, harder.
“I feel bad letting you help me with house-related projects,” she said.
I pulled open the store door and waited for Nicole to exit, then followed after her. “Like I said, I don’t mind at all. And after the hardware store, how ’bout we get some ice cream?” You could never have too much ice cream.
The supermarket-sized hardware store wasn’t too far away. “What are you looking for?” she asked as we wandered down an aisle, with me pushing the shopping cart I’d insisted we would need. Various styles of sliding bolts and locks adorned a section of the wall.
“You need a new latch for your back gate.” The other one was missing. All that was left were the holes from where the screws had originally dug into the wood.
“I don’t need a new latch.”
“Do you know where the old one is?”
She considered it for a second. “There wasn’t one when I moved in.”
“Well, there will be by the time I’m finished. It won’t keep anyone out, but if you ever have kids, you’ll thank me.”
She laughed, and God, I couldn’t get enough of the sweet sound. “I’ll be sure to send you a thank-you card once they arrive.”
“You do that,” I said with a snicker. I surveyed the assortment of iron sliding bolts and selected the hardiest one. By the time I’d finished hunting for everything, the shopping cart was filled with an odd assortment of home improvement supplies—everything from lightbulbs to tools to a new showerhead, which she’d insisted she didn’t need. I’d used her shower this morning, so I had to disagree with her there.
“How attached are you to the wallpaper in your kitchen and hallway?” I asked as we strolled down the paint aisle.
“Why?”
“I was thinking of removing it.” I would leave Zack the pleasure of removing it from the guest room.
Nicole folded her arms, head tilted to the side. “Do you have something against my wallpaper?” She tried to sound offended, but the humor in her eyes said otherwise.
“You mean beyond the part where it’s goddamn ugly?”
“It’s not ugly.” She laughed at my expression, which clearly said,You’ve got to be freaking kidding me.“Okay, it’s ugly. I’ll give you that. But won’t it be hard to remove?”
I had no idea, so I Googled the instructions for it on my phone. “It says it’s not hard, just time-consuming. But from the looks of things, we could finish it in a day. Then we’d just have to paint the walls afterward.”
“Are you sure? It’s not really necessary.”
I snorted. “I’ve seen your walls, Nicole. It’s necessary.” It just meant staying in Desert Springs one day longer than I had originally planned. No big deal.
“I don’t know….”
“It’ll be fun.” All right,funmight be a stretch, but it would give me something to do while waiting to get back on the road again with the band. I needed to do something physical, and you couldn’t get any more physical than this—if you didn’t count sex.
Nicole deliberated for a moment before finally agreeing to it. A short time later we had all the tools we needed, as well as cans of gray-blue paint, similar to what she had used in her bedroom.
“You shouldn’t be paying for this,” she said when I produced my credit card and handed it to the cashier before she had a chance to do the same. “It’s my house and my responsibility.”
