Page 62 of Love Me Again

“What do you think?”

Shayla looks at the wall and wrinkles her nose in distaste. “I am not loving it.”

I frown and look at the wall and then at her. “You said pink.” I remind her, and she lifts her jade gaze to mine and narrows her eyes.

“I thought it would look cute, but now that I see it, I hate it.” She utters with a shrug of her shoulders.

I exhale and frown thoughtfully. “Okay,” I bite my lip and look at her again. “I’m thinking, yellow?” I suggest, and she tilts her head to the side and looks around the nursery, and nods.

“Yellow might work. It will definitely brighten up the room.” She sighs, glancing down at the baby monitor to check on Alaia before she looks at the wall again. “Maybe we can do a feature wall with her name in the middle.”

I nod again and look at Shayla. It’s been two days since she and Alaia have moved back into our home. Shay’s been pissed about having to come back, but day by day, I’m hoping her anger will simmer, and we can finally start working on our problems. I couldn’t be happier to have them both under the same roof as me, where they belong. Shayla’s refusing to sleep in the same room as me, which is as I expected anyway. I was in no rush for that, and I’m confident it would come when she’s ready. We have our first court order counselling session later today— if we ever finish decorating this nursery, that is. “I like that idea. Let’s do that.”

Shayla smiles, nodding, and walks over to the tin of paint and pops it open. For the life of me, I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t let me get the decorators in to have it done, but I didn’t argue and just let her do what made her happy. If it meant we get to spend some one-on-one time together, I’d paint the entire bloody house with her. I kneel and watch her as she stirs the paint before she tips some of it out into the tray. “It’s a nice yellow, not too bright. What do you think?” She questions, looking at me. I smile and pick up my brush and dab it in the paint.

“Let me see.” I hum and swipe the brush over her forehead with a little paint and grin. “Looks real good.” I chuckle amusedly while she looks at me wide-eyed.

Her brow goes up, and she picks up her mini roller and rolls it down my nose with a satisfied smirk. “Yellow is not your colour, Lord Hoult,” Shayla mutters and picks up the pink brush and swipes that on my cheek before I can catch her wrist and move my face. “Pink looks good on you, though.”

“Oh, really?” I grab her face and rub mine over hers, smearing the paint all over her pretty face while she squeals, trying to push me off.

“Stop it. Cole! Oh, you’re so dead.” Shayla laughs, trying to paint my face with her brush, and topples over, landing on top of me. Laughing, I grab hold of her wrists and look up into her eyes while she holds my gaze, her smile slowly fading when my eyes lower to her lips before they meet her stunning eyes again.

“Oh my!” We jump back when we hear Shay’s mother's voice in the doorway. “I’m sorry, kids, I heard shouting,” Sara utters, flushing a deep red and averting her gaze. Shayla scrambles off me and clears her throat.

“We were just trying to decide on colours.” She lamely explains as I sit up and nod sheepishly.

“That we were.” I grin at her charmingly, “I think we decided on yellow?” Shayla nods, rubbing her paint-stained forehead.

“Uh-huh, yes, yellow is a good choice.” She mumbles and looks at her mother, watching us, amusement evident in her eyes. “Did you check on Alaia?”

Sara nods, “Yes, she’s asleep. I’ll leave you two to…carry on with painting.” She says with a smile and winks at me before she walks out of the nursery. Shayla looks at me when I chuckle while getting up to my feet.

“It’s not funny, Cole,” She complains, hitting my shoulder while clearly fighting the urge to smile herself.

“It’s a little funny. The look on her face when she saw us on top of each other was priceless,” I say, pulling a strand of her hair covered in paint off her face. Shayla slaps my hand away with a mock glare. “Ow, someone’s feisty today.” I tease, and she looks me over, slowly narrowing her eyes.

“I’m feisty always…you just don’t happen to remember, Cole Hoult.” She tells me proudly and jumps away when I swipe my brush on her nose.

“I’m looking forward to finding out Shayla Hoult.” I drawl, taking a step closer while staring into her eyes. I groan when she jams her roller into my stomach and steps away.

“Paint Cole, paint.” Shayla urges me as she starts rolling the paint on the wall. I laugh and follow her and begin painting the walls. While painting, we exchange flirty glances and touches as we pass by one another. I’ll break her soon. I just know it. How long can she resist me?

I watch her as she paints the wall opposite to mine, we had music playing from a Bluetooth speaker, and she was swaying her hips as she paints. I observed her every movement avidly, fighting off the compelling urge to wrap my arms around her from behind and bury my face into her neck. She’d probably kick me if I tried.

“I think we’re done,” I hear her sigh while looking around the room. I walk over to her and sling my arm around her shoulder as we admire our handy work.

“This does look better than the pink— it makes the room look fresher,” I voice, looking around, and she nods in agreement.

“Sure does. Jo is really artsy, so I’ll ask her to do the feature wall for us.” Shayla explains, and I nod.

“That’s awesome. You know, I never asked, what do the girls do for work?” I question, curious as I watch Shayla drop the roller in her hand in the tray.

“Uh, Aimee is a web designer, she’s crazy creative if you ever want to change up our website, and Jo works with Autistic kids.” She explains, and I nod, watching her.

“That doesn’t surprise me about Jo. It makes sense how patient she is with Sam; now I see why,” I rub my neck, following her out of the nursery. Shayla smiles and looks at me as she walks to the bathroom.

“Jo is a saint. Honestly, she’s the calmest person I know. I just pray my idiot brother doesn’t hurt her.” Shay sighs, unclipping the straps to her overalls.

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