“How many paint brushes are you planning onusing?”
“None.”
“What?”
“You’llsee.”
And that, apparently, was all I was getting. We sat cuddled up on the couch until Max and Jed came back from their walk, and then Max fed us enough Egyptian pasta to send me back to sleep. At least I tried to go back to sleep. Ash wasn’t having any of it. Max helped him carry the bench into the workshop while Jed madecoffee.
“There’s a couch in there, and the heater’s pretty good,”Jedsaid.
“I’m not worried about getting cold,” I repliedabsently.
“Then what are you worried about?” Jed slid me a mug and filled a Thermos that wasn’t anywhere near big enough to see me through an all-nighter. He didn’t look at me, but he was the kind of dude who didn’thaveto.
“I’m not worried about anything. It’s just—”Just what?I had no fucking idea what was going on in my head. My day with Max had distracted me from the realization Ash had dealt me, but the long night ahead of us would undoubtedly lead to more conversations that I’d spent too longavoiding.
Jed punched my arm and wandered off, and I remembered why I liked him so much. Back home, Danni would’ve pushed me to talk until I’d ripped her head off. Jed knew whentostop.
I retrieved my warm clothes from the bedroom and meandered outside, Zola trailing my every step. In the yard, huge puddles had formed from a rainstorm I’d clearly slept through. The little dog was going to drown, so I scooped her up and tucked her under my arm, much to Ash and Max’s amusement; Jed’s grin wassubtler.
I ignored them all and drifted to the box of paint cans in the corner that hadn’t been there this afternoon. All the cans had blank labels. I put my coffee down to pick one up, but there was no clue to what color it was. “What’s this? Amysterybox?”
Ash glanced my way. “Something like that. What’s the worst that canhappen?”
I had no answer to that, so Zola and I decamped to the cozy couch in the corner while he messed about with a pile of drop cloths. Max joined me, but I’d noticed he was having trouble sitting still, and it wasn’t long before he got up again. I wondered if it would be Jed’s turn to babysit me next, but Jed was hovering in the doorway, clearly trying to catch Max’s wayward attention. He failed and settled for a growl that made Ashjump. “Max.”
Finally, Max looked at him. Something passed between them, and Max was by his side in an instant. They bid us goodnight—after informing us that Zola would warn us of anyone approaching the workshop in the night.Huh. I took Jed at his word, but the twinkle in Max’s eye was hard to miss. What the fuck? The workshop was cozy enough, but it wasn’tthatwarm.
Besides, I knew Ash. Even if we were at home, once he had a paintbrush in his hand, fooling around was the last thing onhismind.
“What are you spacingabout?”
“Hmm?” I glanced at Ash in time to see him peel his T-shirt off and replace it with the black scrub top I’d swiped for him from the hospital. “I’m notspacing.”
Ash came around the end of the bench and stopped at my feet. “You can go to bed if you like. I won’t getpissy.”
I gently set Zola aside and sat up. “I’m not going anywhere. Not sure how much help I’ll be, though. I can’t paintforshit.”
“You can paintwalls.”
“This is abench.”
Ash shot me a withering glare. “Getup.”
Lacking any better ideas, I obeyed and trailed Ash to his box of mystery paints. He handed me a can, took one for himself, and we jimmied them open with a penknife. My can contained a murky brown that Ash was inexplicablydelightedwith.
“You’ll see,” he said. “Can you open the rest? I need somegreens.”
Green and brown flew in the face of the blue-grey-white color schemes he usually worked with, but what did I know? I opened the cans and revealed three more greens, a brown, a red, and a creamy white, and carried them over to Ash. “What brushes are youusing?”
“None. We’re going to use ourhands.”
“We’regoingto?”
“Yup. You said you’d help,remember?”
Opening paint cans and trying not to be too annoying was about as much as I’d psyched myself up for, but it was clear Ash had other ideas. He cranked up the heater and beckoned me over to the bench. “Wanna get your handsdirty?”
