“No more than I am.Why don’t I call the takeout place?We can work on the dresser while we wait for the food to come.”
“Sounds good.”
“Do you like burgers?There’s a local diner that delivers.”
“Great.”
They decided on a couple of burger platters and she placed the order.Once she was done, she gestured at the stairs leading to the upper floor.“So, the bedroom’s just upstairs.”
Nick grabbed his toolbox from where he’d set it by the door and followed her upstairs.Once again, he made sure to keep his distance.It couldn’t be easy to let a strange man into her bedroom.Now that he was here, he felt like an intruder and hoped he hadn’t strong-armed her into accepting his help.
“Right this way,” she said, at the top of the stairs.She led him down the hall toward the master bedroom at the back of the house.
Nick paused at the entrance of the room.Claire hurried over to the opposite corner, where a couple of lacy bras had been thrown over the back of a chair.She collected them and shoved them into a drawer.Ignoring everything else in the room, including the king-sized bed in the middle, he walked over to the partially assembled Hemnes.The side panels had been put together, and a few other bits, but several pieces still lay strewn on the floor around it.A layer of dust had collected on them.
She hadn’t been kidding when she’d said it hadn’t been touched.Even the instruction booklet lay on the floor next to the Allen key, open to the last page they’d consulted.The pages had yellowed around the edges.
She stood before the dresser, her arms stiff at her sides, staring at the pieces.Everything in her face was tight.
Nick longed to ease her shoulder muscles with a backrub, and to be able to whisper in her ear,It’ll be okay.
Instead, he sat cross-legged on the floor, grabbed the instructions and quickly confirmed what still needed to be done.“Okay, the side panels are done.That’s good.”He grabbed the box cutter that Arthur had left behind.“Is it okay if I open up what’s left of the boxes?”
“Right.I guess that would be the first step.”Claire made a face and joined him on the floor.“I promise I’m capable of doing things.I guess I’ve just been in a rut.”
Something in the vicinity of Nick’s heart melted.Once again, he was stricken with the urge to touch her.An innocent graze of her elbow or a quick squeeze of her arm.But he refrained, out of respect, or whatever damn emotion was riding his chest.“Claire, it’s okay.We’ve got this.”
She let out a sigh, so quiet it was barely audible.But Nick heard it.
How could he not hear it?He was too focused on her, on her breathing, on the shape of her lips.
He shook his head.What the hell was happening to him?
“It’s just a dresser,” she said.“How could I have let it sit here like this so long?”
“After tonight, it won’t be a problem anymore.You’ll be able to cross it off your list.”
“Oh, Nick.If you only knew how long my list was.”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Claire.We all have things we put off, things we can’t face head on.If you only knew how many times I’ve gone out of my way to avoid people and situations.From where I’m standing, you’ve done some great things.I admire you.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly, her face full of softness.
Nick smiled to encourage her.Little by little, they assembled the final parts of the dresser.There was a bit of cursing along the way, mostly when they both became convinced that Ikea had neglected to include two of the screws necessary.However, Claire found them tucked into one of the small plastic bags she’d thrown to the side.When it came time to match up with screws with the various holes, Claire let out a couple of F-bombs.
Nick laughed.“Yep.This is usually the part where most people start damning Ikea to hell.”He lined up the holes and gently forced the pieces together, careful not to cause a breakage in the panel.
“Why didn’t we pay for assembly?Honest to God.What a pain.If Arthur had had his way, we would have, but I was trying to save a buck.”She grew pensive.“I yelled at him before he died.”
“Oh?”Nick stopped what he was doing.He glanced at one of the photos of Arthur on the wall behind Claire.In this one, Arthur was holding a tiny ball of feline fur, possibly a young Mortimer.His face radiated love and an otherworldly charisma.He couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to yell at that guy.
“The bills had been piling up and the stress was getting to me.I loved Arthur, but he was terrible with money.I’ve always been better with it, but it never seemed to help.Between the house and the sanctuary, we pretty much blew through his inheritance, even though I tried to sway him with my frugal ways.Anytime I brought it up, he just said, ‘Don’t worry.The universe provides.’”She rolled her eyes.“He was a bit of a flower child.Never bothered, never stressed.He thought everyone was good, and everything was right with the world.When we first met, I loved his idealism, but toward the end, well, I kind of felt like I was in it alone.He just couldn’t understand why I’d let a phone bill or a cable bill upset me.I think a part of him would have liked to live off the grid altogether, growing all our own food.He was such a dreamer that way.One day, I just snapped.I told him I wasn’t interested in whether or not theuniversewould provide.I just wanted my husband to take some responsibility.He died a couple of days later.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No,I’msorry.You didn’t come over here to listen to me moaning about my dead husband.”She pointed at the dresser pieces.“You came over here to build the unbuildable.”
“That sounds like a dare.”
