Page 50 of Kiss Me, Darling

“I’m never painting a dark color ever again,” Scott laughed. He barely had any paint on him and he only dripped it in one place.

“Your painting skills have improved.”

He grinned. “Thank you! It only took five rooms for me to figure it out.”

“Hmmm. Maybe our house needs some freshening up, too.”

His eyes rounded. “Look, I’ve loved doing the DIY thing with you here. It’s been an excellent way for us to work through stuff and spend time together, but we’re hiring painters if you want to do anything more.”

“You’ve reached your limit?”

“Passed it two rooms ago. But since I love spending time with you,” he set his roller down and grabbed me by the hips, “I’ll agree to do pretty much anything.”

I laughed as he tried to kiss me. “Except paint any more rooms.”

“No more rooms! Why did we pick this color anyway?”

“I’ll show you!” I squirmed away from his kisses and arms, leaving the room to retrieve my special canvas. The spotted eagle ray came out a little differently than I first saw it in my head, but I was darn proud of the final product.

I came in and held it up against the wall. The colors went together perfectly. “That’s why.”

“Iloveit. This room will always have the memory of our day on the sandbar.” He wrapped his arms around me from behind and rested his chin on the top of my head. “I forgive you for picking this evil color.”

“Thank you. I was terribly worried about that.”

He spun me in his arms. “I have good news.”

I slid my hands over his shoulders, around his neck, and into his hair. “Oh? What is it?”

“For our last night here we have tickets to the theater.”

I was so excited I didn’t care what the play was at all. “When do we need to leave?”

“Family dinner is at five and we leave at six-thirty for the show.”

It seemed our last night on Calusa Key was going to be eventful. I was excited. I didn’t want to leave, but at least my final memories of this trip would be good ones.

“Oh, and one more thing.” There was a devilish sound in his voice.

“Yeah?”

“We have to pull off my biggest prank yet. Are you in?”

Was I in? What kind of question was that? “You and me babe. All the way. Where do we begin?”

13

I should probably ask…

Scott

My brothers started to catch on to my small game, but that was okay because I was ready to launch my final assault. The one they’d only find out about when it was too late. Lucy agreed to serve as the distraction. At five o’clock the family arrived at the house for dinner on the deck. Lucy served appetizers and drinks, telling them I was at the post office shipping something back to California.

But I was not at the post office.

Instead I snuck into London and Ben’s. I replaced their laundry detergent with sunflower seeds. I did the same to their cereal containers, pasta, rice, pretty much anything that could be bagged up (I’m not a monster! I didn’t waste food. Everything I took out was safely placed in a different container and stored in a closet I’d tell them about later.) I was most proud of taking the time to replace Ben’s nails and screws with sunflower seeds.

Then I did it again to Olivia and Chris. I made sure to prank Linc, too. I knew he’d be devastated if he were left out. So now his Legos were in a hidden bag and his bins were filled with sunflower seeds.

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