He gave me a rueful smile. “You heard us, didn’t you?”
I nodded, and then placed a hand over his chest before running it up and down in order to let him know I was here to listen.
Myles sighed. “Remember the broad bookshelf I told you about? The one that’s supposed to be placed opposite the door?”
I nodded again.
“Yeah, so that’s not exactly coming along. We’re almost done with tiling the walls and finalizing the ceiling, but because the shelves aren’t ready, we can’t exactly do the floors, because we work in this room itself, and the new flooring could take serious damage due to the wood-work we still have to do. And…” He scratched the top of his head with a look of distress on his face. “The reason why we still haven’t finished the bookshelves is because we keep piecing the bigger one incorrectly, for some reason.” He took my hand in his and led me further into the room. He then waved an arm at the incomplete shelf that was standing against the front wall. It was as tall as Myles, made of bare wood and thick nails.
“See this?” he pointed at the shelf’s foot. “It’s always crooked, no matter what I do. This is the second time I’ve trusted a new company to send in a shelf, and because we’re already low on budget, I don’t wanna ask your grandfather for extra money for another shelf.” He looked at me. “I dunno what to do, Rina.”
Is it bad that it’s crooked?I asked him.I mean, it’s still standing.
“If I leave it as it is, there’s a strong chance it’ll fall off, especially if you put your books in it,” Myles told me. “And, there’s no point in keeping it crooked and continuing to build it when it can’t do the one thing it’s supposed to: hold books. It’s a liability, at best.”
“It almost fell on Myles the other day,” Taron said as he came to stand next to his brother. “Good thing Paul caught it before it hit him in the head.”
My heart started doing thatboom-boom-boomthing it does when I’m scared, because Christ, I wasterrifiedafter having heard that.
I stared up at Myles.What the fuck?I signed.
He gave Taron a glare before looking down at me. “I’m fine,” he assured. “It was nothing, babe.”
Nothing?I signed, then shoved him.Why did you not tell me?
“Rina.” He grabbed my wrists and pressed my hands to his chest. “It was nothing, Ipromise. I was simply sitting too close to it while working, and it just happened to fall while I was there. I’mfine, I swear to you.”
I realized I was breathing too hard, so I swallowed and began working on my self-control, because all it was telling me to do was to strangle Myles.
Stop working on this shelf, I signed to him, and then jerked my head toward the two dismantled shelves on the floor behind him.Work on those. And if they are just like this one, then I can simply get premade shelves from the store.
I had to spell the word ‘premade’ slowly so that Myles could understand.
He shook his head. “We’re low on budg–”
I shoved him again.No, I told him.It’s my room, and I get to decide what I want in it. I’ll not have you getting injured for a few shelves.
“Rina–”
I put a hand up to stop him.No, I signed.
“Uh-oh,” Taron quipped at Myles. “Looks like you’re in trouble, baby brother.”
Myles glanced his way with ice in his gaze.
Taron chuckled and stepped back, then motioned for Paul and Greg to follow him outside the room.
Once alone, I shoved Myles a third time. It was, after all, the next best thing to strangling him.
He sighed audibly. “I’m sorry, okay? I should’ve told you, and I didn’t. I apologize.”
It isn’t that, I told him.
“Then what is it?”
I stared at him briefly, then at the shelf, and then back at him.
Scared, I managed to sign, and swallowed.
