Page 24 of Organized Chaos

Paint flooded across the cloth and splattered the base of the dresser in bright goldish yellow arcs.

Sarah stumbled, windmilling her arms. She threw her weight forward, and Phillip leaped to catch her.

His knee cracked against the edge of the dresser and knocked him off balance. Instead of catching Sarah, he wound up spinning sideways and landed head-first in the shelves. Paint rattled and fell in a cascade of noise that burst out like fireworks exploding. He groaned and pulled free of the shelving unit.

Sarah put an arm around him and tugged. “Are you okay? That sounded terrible.” She lost her balance, her back foot landing in the puddle of paint. One leg went forward while the other went backward.

Phillip tried to hold onto her, but her momentum carried her back and down. He fell with her. His palms landed on either side of her head, his fingers squelching in the yellow paint. Dots of color rained down around them. Phillip heard and felt them splatter across his back and let out a groan. “This was my good shirt.”

Sarah slid her head side to side in the thick paint. “Hey, look, I’m a paintbrush.” Her infectious laughter flowed out, easy and smooth. She gripped his forearms and pushed. “Watch this.” Sheshot out from under him and streaked across the drop cloth like a rocket. A streak of gold followed her.

Phillip’s shoulders shook as he tried to hold himself off the paint. He worked his feet forward and tried to stand, only to have his hands slide out from under him and send him face-first into the gooey mess. He raised his head and gasped a breath filled with the stench of paint fumes.

Sarah held her ribs and laughed so hard her face turned bright red. “I’m sorry,” she gasped out and held up a hand. “It isn’t funny.”

“Then why are you laughing?” He raised onto one knee, put his right hand on the dresser, and pushed to his feet.

Sarah slapped her thigh and snorted. “Okay, it’s a little bit funny.”

He tried to keep his scowl in place. He didn’t care for humiliation, but with paint dripping down Sarah’s hair and her clothes holding more paint than the can it had come from, he had to admit that the situation might warrant a smile.

“This video is never going to see the light of day.” He shook hair from his eyes. Paint trickled down his arm. He flexed his fingers then caught the handprint he’d made on the freshly scrubbed dresser.

The brightness in Sarah’s eyes made him glad that the recording was on his phone where he had control.

“I think you just picked our dresser design.” She reached down and ran her hand through the paint, then slapped it onto the side of the dresser below his handprint. When she moved away, a perfect handprint remained. “Come on. There’s a sink where we can wash up and get back to work.”

Get back to work? “How are we going to work in this mess?”

She rubbed her hands together, then held them up toward his face. “Great thing about paint, it washes off. As long as you get to it while it’s wet. We can clean up the spill and keep going.”

They’d only spent a day together, but it was such a Sarah thing to say. Just keep going. Nothing seemed to get her down…unless it was spiders crawling down the back of her neck. Phillip looked once more at the chaotic space. Maybe that’s why nothing was ever put away. This way, she was constantly having to move things, which meant spiders didn’t have time to make their own living space.

After cleaning up and retrieving his phone, they spent an hour removing the dresser drawers and cleaning them out before Sarah agreed to drive him home.

He needed to get back to real life. His life.

CHAPTER NINE

Sarah couldn’t believe he’d agreed to this. She watched Phillip from the side as she steered her truck into the parking lot and killed the engine. His buttoned-up life was going to cause him no end of trouble, even if he didn’t see it now. Yesterday at her garage, she’d been certain he’d leave and never speak to her again.

A giggle tickled her stomach at the memory of how he’d looked all covered in paint. If she had to name the look, it would be mortification. She’d talked the whole drive back to the ranch about coming out to the lake for a relaxing day of canoeing. He’d reluctantly agreed, and now, here they sat, side by side, staring at the clear water.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.” He adjusted his t-shirt and smoothed down his shorts.

Was it terrible that she ogled his legs? Just for a minute? They were nice legs. Well-muscled and tanned, which surprised her considering she’d pegged Phillip for the stay-in-doors type. Just showed she needed to stop making assumptions.

She hopped from the truck and stood holding the door open. “No backing out. We’re already here.” She waved for him to join her. “Come on. You’ll have fun.”

“I’m not sure your type of fun is the same as mine.” He grumbled but opened the door and met her at the back of the truck.

Her canoe poked out over the tailgate, the painted wood sparkling brightly in the sunshine. She’d kept the canoe as a reward for herself, and the purple glitter paint was too adorable to pass up. She released the rachet strap and Phillip grabbed the canoe. He pulled it toward him while Sarah hopped into the back and lifted the other end.

They made it several steps before Sarah hit the edge of the tailgate. “Hold on.” She moved to lower the canoe. Her shoelace caught in the gap between the truck bed and the tailgate, tripping her when she jumped.

Phillip shouted but it was too late. She landed hard on her palms, scraping them on the asphalt. The canoe wobbled as Phillip lowered it and ran to her side. He pried her shoelace loose and helped her to a sitting position. “Are you okay?”

She brushed her hands together and winced at the sting. “Fine. Let’s get in the water.”

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