Page 30 of Say Something
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“Come on in,” I said nervously as I held the door open. Danny slipped by me, his shoulder brushing against mine ever so slightly. The light touch sent tingles through my entire body. I’d missed that feeling.
“Wow,” he commented, taking a look around.
“I know,” I said, trying to see what he saw. The main living area looked gutted with the concrete slab exposed, patched walls, and stripped cabinets. It was hard to believe this was actually progress and not the starting point. “It’s rough,” I added, feeling a little embarrassed.
“Nah, it’s not that bad,” he said, setting down a box of what appeared to be more painting supplies on the floor. “If you want to see bad, you should see my place.”
“I’d like to,” I admitted, surprising myself, and him, yet again. I’d always loved his uncle’s property. The house was always just a house, but the land was beautiful.
“Yeah?” he smiled a crooked smile, and my heart skipped a beat.
I nodded, pleased I’d made him so happy twice in one day. Maybe I could do this friendship thing with him. Maybe.
“Well, all right then. So where are we working?” he asked, and I appreciated that he wanted to get down to business. He was probably as nervous as I was that we’d lose this easy...whatever it was…that was happening between us.
I’d thought about locking the bedroom door so he wouldn’t see the unfinished walls, but he’d already seen the paint in my hair, so there was no use. “Well, I need to finish the bedroom,” I said, pointing to the open door. “And this whole space is going to be that sage green color. Except for that wall,” I said, pointing to the wall that was shared between the kitchen and living room. “That’s going to be navy blue.”
“Navy?” he asked, his lip curling.
Ahh...navy blue was one of the colors of Oak Ridge’s rivalry school. Some things never changed…
I shrugged my shoulders. “I think it’ll look pretty.”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” he said. I would have been offended if I couldn’t tell he was hiding a smirk on his handsome face. He pulled some painter’s tape out of the box he’d brought inside and walked over to the far corner of the room. “How about I get started out here while you finish up in the bedroom?”
I felt myself relax. He was ignoring the whiskey-colored elephant in the room, er...house. Maybe it was just as curious to him as it was to me that I was painting my new bedroom that same color. Or maybe it was just too difficult for him to be in my bedroom with me, even without the bed. The bedroomhadbecome a very unpleasant place for us. What was once a place of rest and fun had become all business. A chore. An angry space.
“That sounds great,” I agreed and quickly disappeared into my bedroom.
***
Awkward...again. I’d just finished painting the last wall in the bedroom and was too scared to go out to the living room. I could hear Danny moving around the space, the beat of the country music he’d started listening to about an hour ago bounced through the walls.
“Hard to Love” by Lee Brice played, and the lyrics resonated. I had to have been hard to love, and yet the other day Danny had told me hestillloved me. How was that even possible after I pushed him away? After I’d treated him like he was invisible. The most wonderful man in the world…
Get out of your head, Jess, I warned myself.
I straightened my big girl panties and walked out of the bedroom before I could convince myself otherwise.
“Wow,” I said, coming to an abrupt stop.
He’d almost completed the three sage walls, and the room looked like an actual room.
“Amazing what a little bit of paint can do.”
“You can say that again,” I muttered, my eyes scanning the space, evaluating the work that remained. “Thank you so much,” I told Danny as I brought my paint roller to the kitchen to dispose of the cover.
“It’s nothing.”
I hated the way he downplayed the work he’d done. He’d been like that for as long as I remembered, whether it was giving rides to senior citizens or painting his ex-wife’s living room.
“It’s not nothing, Danny. This is huge.” I looked around the room. It would have taken me an entire day to do all this. “It’s such a big help for me, and you didn’t have to do it. You’re…” I sighed. “You’re something else, Danny Thompson.”
He gave me a small, one-sided smile. Memories of when I’d first and last name him rolling through both our minds, I was sure. They were always good times. Happy times. Sweet times. Sassy times.
“I’ll get started on the accent wall,” I told him, looking away and breaking the silent moment...the staring contest between the two of us. Gosh, it had felt good to just look at him, to take him in again. He was still so damn handsome. Hot even. Yes, definitely hot.
