* * * *
Next door, Jesse pitched his voice over the whine of the electric screwdriver.“A pushup bra, Knox.”
Knox grunted, his shoulder wedged under the cabinet Jesse was unscrewing from the wall.“It doesn’t mean anything.”
“I swear, I don’t know how you ever got laid before I came along.”Tossing the screw aside in disgust, Jesse moved on to the next.“No woman just hanging out at home with pals puts on a pushup bra.I’m telling you, that was for our benefit.”
“You’re talking out of your ass, and this thing is cutting into my neck,” Knox complained.“Hurry up.”
“Last one,” Jesse said and set the screwdriver whirling.When the screw fell away, they lowered the cabinet to the ground.“These cabinets are ugly, but they’re solid wood.Somebody will be able to use them.”
“Let’s get the countertop up, then we can get the lower run and load them up into Sam’s truck.He said he’d drop them by Habitat for Humanity on his way home.”
In concert, and with the ease of long practice, they moved to tackle the ancient laminate.“A pushup bra,” Jesse said again.
“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“It’s a sign.”
Knox whacked his mallet into the underside of the counter.“Maybe it’s a sign that her other bras were in the laundry.”
Jesse snorted.“You don’t know shit about women.She wanted her tits to look good, and that was for our benefit.”
“Then why didn’t she come looking for us?”Knox demanded, giving the laminate another whack.
“I don’t know.Maybe she was going to later.It’s still early.Grab that side.”
Knox got a solid grip on the edge.“Got it.”
They lifted together, and the counter came up with a wrenching crack.They carried it over to the hall, set it down, then went back to remove the lower cabinets.
“We’re really not going to do anything about this?”Jesse demanded.
Knox scooted inside the lower cabinet and put his screwdriver to work.“She’s a client.”
“Mo and Carrie are clients,” Jesse corrected, his screwdriver humming alongside Knox’s.
“Same thing.”Shifting to the next cabinet, Knox examined the back wall.“Got some water damage here.”
Jesse wedged in beside him to look.“Looks like they had a leak at some point.”
Knox gave the drywall a testing poke.“We’ll have to take this down, make sure there’s no mold.”
“Bet there’s brick behind there, like downstairs.”
Knox thought he might be right.“Let’s hope it’s in good shape, or this just got complicated.”
They worked in companionable silence, taking apart the cabinets and carrying them downstairs to Sam’s truck.The forecast was calling for several inches of snow by early afternoon, so when they had everything loaded up they sent Sam ahead to drop off the cabinets—and make a coffee run on the way back—and went back upstairs to tackle the carpet.
Jesse eyed Chloe’s door as they walked past, slowing down a little, and Knox grabbed him by the elbow.“Don’t even think it.”
“You’re so stubborn,” Jesse muttered but stomped obediently into the empty apartment next door.“Do you ever take that stick out of your ass?”
Knox shot him an amused look.“You find one when you were in there last night?”
For a moment Jesse’s eyes lit with laughter and remembered lust, then he was frowning again.“She wants us, Knox.”
Knox sighed, knowing Jesse wasn’t going to let it go.“I know she does.”
