It felt pointless to point out the truth of that statement.
“But that’s fine, we don’t need his help.” She held her hands up high for me to slap, and I responded with a yawn.
“Sorry. I really am tired. And the AC went out at the garage.” I took the roller she offered and started in on the top half of the wall while Claire began cutting in along the baseboards.
“I thought you looked extra flushed earlier.”
Yeah. That was why. Claire was sitting and bent low over her brush, so I spelled out Sean’s name in big letters then rolled over it. “You remember my neighbor?”
Claire looked up in time to catch a drip from my roller on her nose. “Nice, Jill. It’s supposed to go on the wall, you know.” She wiped it off with her thumb. “The guy from the roof? Yeah. Why? Did you catch him going crazy again?”
I was up on my tiptoes trying not to hit the ceiling. “I’ve been hanging out with him a little.”
Claire made a noncommittal sound and kept edging.
“He’s actually kind of cool. He’s from Philadelphia. I don’t know him all that well yet, but he’s pretty cool so far. He’s got this really cool old Jeep.”
Claire stopped painting. “Uh-oh. You just said ‘cool’ like three times.”
I kept painting. “I did not.”
“Uh, yeah, you did.” I heard the smile in Claire’s voice without even looking at her. When I had to bend down for more paint, she pulled the tray away. “Define ‘a little.’ Exactly how much have you been hanging out with Neighbor Guy?”
“His name is Daniel. And just a couple times.” I leaned around her and reloaded my roller. A few more drops landed in Claire’s hair but she ignored them.
“Okay, go all the way back and tell me everything.”
Claire bit her tongue no less than four times while I was talking, but she didn’t interrupt me, something I was supremely grateful for.
“You should have seen his face when I told him how old I was.”
Claire let out a sigh that made me frown. “That’s a good thing. If your age didn’t bother him we’d have a whole different kind of problem.”
“We’re not going out or anything.”
“But you want to.”
“Just forget it.” My arms suddenly felt like I was carrying bowling balls as I looked at Claire’s two remaining unpainted walls. “Do we have to do this right now?”
“Talk or paint?”
“Both.” I nudged the paint tray away with my foot.
“You always do this.” Claire set her roller down in the tray. “Why did you bring him up if you didn’t want to talk about him?”
“’Cause I wanted you to know what was going on, not so you could lecture me about it.Youalways do that.”
“What am I supposed to do when you tell me you’re hanging out with a much older guy you barely know, who may or may not be a violent criminal?”
I made a sound of disgust. “He’s not a criminal, violent or otherwise.”
It was Claire’s turn to roll her eyes. “You know I have been on board with Jill&Sean4Ever since the beginning. You and Sean make sense to me. You and older-dangerous-guy-I-don’t-know? You’re gonna have to give me more than the one night on that one, okay?” When I didn’t respond, she added, “Is this about Sean and Cami? ’Cause you know that’s never gonna happen.”
“No, I don’t know that,” I said, a little harsher than I meant to. “And you don’t either. And it wouldn’t be the end of the world. At least we like Cami.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Nothing is ever going to happen with me and Sean.”
