“Don’t look so worried, Ren,” Leo said with a smirk. “Major’s in the truck taking a call. He’ll join us in a minute.”
Thank goodness.
“I trust you, Leo,” I said, almost convincing myself that I was telling the truth. “I’m sure you can do the job.”
“I can, but you looked disappointed when you saw me,” he said with his typical bluntness.
“I’m not, I promise,” I said, now fully lying through my teeth. “I was a little surprised to see you, but only because I’d talked to Major and was expecting him.”
Leo shot me a disbelieving look.
I prattled on, overexplaining. “But he’s said nothing but wonderful things about your knowledge of the trade. In fact, I’ve cleaned up the area, so come on up and take a look.”
“Sure.”
He tripped up the stairs behind me, his boots landing heavily on the treads. “Hey, Mr. Paige,” he said when he entered the bathroom, tapping the urn that held the desiccated, judgmental remains of my husband.
It was the first time I’d smiled in days.
Leo took one look at the situation, with the tank lid upside down on the toilet seat and my phone on the counter, and turned to me. “YouTube?”
I snarled. “Yes. The bastards.”
“Why didn’t you call us to begin with?”
“I know how busy y’all get on the weekends,” I said, again lying through my teeth.
“Well, at least you’ve got the water turned off. That could’ve ruined your downstairs pretty quickly.”
I clamped my mouth shut, unwilling to confess that I had gotten my left and right confused again. That, by the way, was not a mark of my advanced age. I’d always struggled with right and left, despite my wedding ring.Make Ls with your hands, people told me… but they both looked like Ls to me.
Why, yes, I was a professor of literature who had mild dyslexia. How droll.
Leo bent over and peered into the tank, made a few adjustments, then flushed the toilet. I was somewhat relieved when he encountered the same problem I had.
As I looked on, anxiously twisting my wedding ring, a warm presence at my back signaled that Major had joined us in the tight space. I took a deep breath and let it out, my body relaxing for the first time in weeks.
CHAPTER 7
major
“That’s an interesting tank assembly,” I said, looking over Ren’s shoulder while trying and failing to ignore what his body did to me.
Or how good he smelled.
Or how his pajama bottoms rested on his barely there ass.
Or how his small feet and elegant toes made me want to fuck him raw.
Ren stepped to the side, letting me farther into the bathroom.
Get your mind out of the gutter, Major.
“I don’t think we have this assembly with us,” Leo said, straightening up to face me.
“You sure about that?” I asked, careful that the question didn’t sound like an indictment of Leo’s skills.
“I am,” Leo said, standing a little taller. “I did inventory a couple of weeks ago, and we don’t usually keep these in stock.”
