I was still pacing—I really could not stop—when Linden spotted me. His expression shifted from pleasure to curiosity to concern inside a matter of seconds.
"Where's the fire?" he asked, a small box tucked under his arm and a ball cap on his head.
"No fire. I just left the toast in too long."
"Okay." He nodded but gave the kitchen a careful study before glancing back to me. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong," I said automatically.
"Then why are you wearing a hole through my floors?"
I dragged my fingers under the crewneck of my sweater. "It's nothing, really."
"Stand still and say that to me."
I shot him an amused glance before shoving my hands in my pockets. Thank god for skirts with real pockets. "I decided to start on Midge's room today. It seemed like it was time."
He set the box on the countertop, dropped his hat beside it. "Don't tell me you burned that down."
"There was no fire, okay?"
"It smells like there was a fire."
"I burned the toast. A lot," I added. "But no flaming fires."
He shrugged out of his coat and dropped into a chair at the kitchen table. "All right. No fires. What happened in Midge's room?"
I started pacing again. "I figured I'd begin with something small, you know? It's really emotional for me and I don't feel like I can part with any of her things yet but I figured I could make a small dent in her closet since I noticed she had a bunch of old shoeboxes in there. I don't know why she kept them but I decided to open them because I figured she might've stored old bank statements in there or, I don't know, more coupons for stores that don't exist anymore."
He nodded as he flipped open the buttons at his cuffs and it was inconsiderate of him to roll up his sleeves while I recounted today's trauma. Seriously inconsiderate. I loved those forearms. The muscles, the hair, the veins. It was so strange to love veins but Ilovedhis veins. And when he crossed his arms over his chest with his sleeves rolled up? My god. There was no saving my panties from that.
"And…what did you find in those boxes?"
I pressed my hands to my eyes and turned to face the windows because Linden's forearms could not exist in the same world as today's discovery. "Adult products."
"What? I didn't catch that, babe."
"Adult products," I yelled, my back still turned to him.
"What does that mean?"
Since he wasn't making this inference on his own, I said, "I thought it was a box of old broken chains. Like, bracelets or necklaces or something. I dumped it out because it seemed like that would be important. Come to find out, it was a comprehensive and varied collection of nipple clamps."
In the window's reflection, I saw him push to his feet. "What the fuck did you just say?"
A slightly manic laugh stuttered out of me. "You heard right. A whole box of nipple clamps."
Linden laced his fingers around the back of his neck. "Oh my fucking god."
Nodding, I banded my arms around my torso. "And I figured it was okay, you know, she was a vibrant woman. She was allowed to have an equally vibrant sex life. Who am I to judge any of that? Not my place. Not my business."
"Good for you," he murmured.
"But then I opened the box with the double-ended dildo which didn't take me nearly as long to identify becauseI have the same one."
"Holy fuck." He rubbed his eyes, asking, "So, what did you do with all that?"
"I shut the closet door, shut the bedroom door, and walked my ass out of there. I have to throw them away, right? What else can I do? They're not recyclable. It's not like I can donate them to needy kinky people."
