As she was pulling out the last nail, her front door opened and a blast of cool air swept in, along with her whirlwind of a daughter. She sure didn’t get that high energy, chatterbox thing from her.
“Hey, Mama! We got pizza for you!” Jordan yelled.
The step stool swayed as she turned around. She twisted in attempt to right herself, but it tipped, her body over-balanced, and she fell.
Instead of hitting the floor, she found herself in Theo’s arms. His heart beat as rapidly as hers.
“Don’t scare me like that, pixie,” he growled in her ear, his arms crushing her close to his solid chest. “You’ll take ten years off my life.”
“Sorry,” she muttered, her nose squished into the great-smelling fabric of his shirt. Pine and outdoors. Could she stay here forever? His embrace felt heavenly.
Gently lowering her legs to the floor, his eyes swept over her. “Are you all right? You didn’t re-injure those scrapes, did you?”
The side twinged, but she wasn’t about to go all dramatic on him. “I’m fine. Thanks for saving me.”
“Let’s see if I can save the pizza now.”
The large, flat box was on the floor. Oh, no.
Theo lifted the cover and nodded. “All good.”
“Are you sure? I can run out and get another one.”
Picking the box up in one hand and hooking her elbow with the other, he led her into the dining room. “We need plates. Do you have those?”
“Yes, I’ll get them.” This week, she’d spent a lot of her time cleaning out the kitchen cabinets, washing all the dinnerware and cooking pans, as well as wiping out the mouse poop that had accumulated over the years.
When she came back in with the plates, Jordan had Bandit next to her and was patting his head gently like her father had taught her.
“Um, Theo, I was wondering…”
His smile warmed her to her toes. “What do you need, pixie?”
“Those mouse traps you put all over the place…”
His eyebrow raised.
“A bunch of them went off. I know I should be able to empty them, but I…can’t.”
His grin grew. “Did you want me to do something?”
“Empty them,” she said, biting her lip. “Please?”
He yanked on her hand until she sat next to him. “I’ll do it after we eat. What happened here?” His eyes focused on the cuts on her thumb and palm.
“The old hammer I found has a broken handle. The metal part underneath keeps jabbing me.”
His fingers gently traced over the wounds, causing more trembling inside.
“I’ll fix that after we eat, too.”
As usual, Jordan kept the conversation going. When would she and Theo get back to the carefree way they’d been when they’d first met? Not that she didn’t love hearing her daughter chatter away, but she’d love to be able to talk to Theo about things, too.
Once the pizza was gone, Chelsea dragged the kitten box into the living room and brought the dog in, too, so Jordan could play with them on the floor.
“I’ll see about those traps while you two are occupied.” Theo winked. “Unless you want to help me.”
Her face scrunched up. “No, thanks.”
