Page 8 of Teach Me to Laugh

“You want to keep it light and evenly spread.” I continued. “You can’t just slap it on and hope it spreads nicely. You don’t want to choke out the wall.”

“Choke out the wall? You picked purple paint.”

“Raspberry Fuzz,” I corrected. “It’s light and refreshing.”

“It’s purple.”

I rolled my eyes, fixing the last of his mess. Then I turned to him. “Did you see what I did?”

“You rolled paint on a wall.”

I was going to wring his neck. “It’s a little more complicated than that.”

“Clearly.”

“Like art.”

“Evidently.”

“Beckett.”

“Peanut.”

“Gorilla!” I snapped. His brows inched up and then he tipped his head back and howled in amusement. The long cord of his throat was—well, I won’t even say. Attractive isn’t even a worthy word, and regardless, I shouldn’t be thinking such things.

But sweet lord . . . the man was attractive.

“I saw what you did. Cover in paint, roll paint off in plate and then gently glaze over the wall.”

“Sounds about right.” I said, trying to ignore the ever-present grin on his face. “Think you can manage now?”

“I guess we’ll see.” He reached for his roller and against all my better judgment; I released it to him for a second chance. It wasn’t lost on me that I was giving Beckett something I very rarely gave anyone. It was a big deal, even if it was only with paint.

It was later when the room was finished (it looked amazing, I’ll add) and Beckett popped the plastic lid off the cake to set it between us on the island counter, that I realized I’d had fun with a man.

“You need a kitchen table.”

“Why? The counter works fine.”

“It’s only big enough for two.”

He raised a brow, “You want more roommates?”

“No!” For the love of sanity, living with one person was enough. “I was thinking more about when Raina and Kaiden come over for dinner.”

“We can go to their place for dinner.”

“You can see their bathtub from the kitchen table. It’s weird.” It was true.

I’d lived with Raina in a sweet little apartment we paid way too much for, but it had separate rooms for everything. When Raina and Kaiden got serious, they decided they wanted to save as much as they possibly could, and they moved into a studio apartment that didn’t even have a door for their shower. It was horrible! Honestly, having everything out in the open like that, I couldn’t imagine liking someone I lived with enough to deal with a space like that.

Every time I went over there, all I could see was the clear shower curtain Kaiden had demanded—and Raina had caved into hanging. Seriously, I’d always known Kaiden was a bit of a perv, but at least he was perving on Raina and only Raina.

Still, that didn’t mean I wanted to see the evidence right there while I was eating dinner!

Beckett chuckled, “That shower is awesome.”

I harrumphed, “You’d think so.”

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