Page 10 of Heating Up (Nugget)
He looked at her. They were both adults; what kind of rules? “Like I said, I have twenty-four-hour shifts at the firehouse and I suspect I’ll be working a lot of overtime. You’ll mostly live here alone.”
“I just meant chores’ wise. Like who’ll be responsible for the yard work, cleaning out the refrigerator, that kind of thing?”
Great. He was living with a drill sergeant. “I’ll do the yard. We’ll split the indoor stuff.”
“And groceries? Should we divvy up the shelves in the cupboards and fridge?”
Jesus, anal much? “However you want to do it, Dana.”
“I’ll take the bottom shelves in the fridge and pantry because I’m shorter.” He nodded, trying to act like they’d resolved the next important thing to world peace. “I just need to measure my room. Which one is yours?”
“You can have whichever one you want.”
“No, you should have first choice. It’s only fair since it’s your house.”
“Then I’ll take the one that isn’t pink,” he said, and she laughed.
“It was Katie’s room. She’s Tawny and Lucky’s daughter.”
She’d had leukemia but was in full remission. Aidan knew all about her. It didn’t take long in this town to know everything about everybody. “You want me to paint it for you . . . unless you want to keep it pink?”
Dana was caught off guard by the offer. “I’ll do it. I’m a good painter.”
He got the impression she was type A enough to be good at everything.
“I’ll go measure now and get going.”
Aidan didn’t know why, but he followed her into the house. She stopped in the living room and gazed at the walls.
“What do you think about painting in here too? Something cheery, like yellow.”
“Whatever you want.”
She gave him a long perusal. “You’re awfully accommodating.”
Yeah, until his girlfriend wanted marriage. Then, not so accommodating. “It’s just paint.”
For the second time he noticed her eyes. Golden, fringed with thick, dark lashes. She had a cleft in her chin and shiny brown hair that fell to her shoulders. It didn’t look like she had much in the chest department, but it was hard to tell with the blouse she had on . . . and the fact that he was looking made this living-together thing an extraordinarily bad idea.
Clearly he needed to get laid. Six months was a long time to go without sex. Okay, there’d been that one time, four months after Sue had left him for Sebastian, when he’d gotten drunk and messed around with the bartender from Players. But it had never gone further than a few kisses and some over-the-clothes petting.
Someone knocked on the door and Aidan went to get it. Brady and his sister, who was holding a house plant, came in. They looked around the empty house and Sloane sighed loud enough for Aidan to hear. What did she expect? When his stuff got here, the place would look better.
“Happy housewarming.” Sloane shoved the plant at him and did a double take when she saw Dana. “I didn’t think you would be working today. We’re so sorry about your house, Dana.”
Brady tilted his head to meet Dana’s eyes. “You doing okay?”
“I think I’m still in shock.” Her cheeks pinked. Aidan assumed it was because she’d burned her house down and by now everyone knew about it. “I’ll be fine.”
“We were actually on our way to the Lumber Baron to leave something for you,” Brady said, and Sloane pulled an envelope from her purse.
“It’s a Williams-Sonoma gift card,” Sloane said. “We figured you’d need kitchen stuff.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Dana took the envelope and seemed a little bashful about it. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” She turned to Aidan. “I’ll just measure my room and let you all visit.”
“Take your time.” He watched her disappear inside the pink room and called, “You need help?”
“Nope. I do it all the time.” Right, real estate agent.
