“Thank you, Lady.”
“You’re welcome,” she quipped.
I scratched her belly and glanced up to see Rufus staring at me. Heat immediately flared in my neck, creeping up to my cheeks.
He smiled and glanced at the floor. A little bit of red tinged his cheeks, too.
“So,” I murmured. “Are you ready to get to work?”
“There’s no need to ask me twice,” he said.
He rose and reached for my hand. My palm slid over his, and Rufus hoisted me to my feet. I used a little too much energy to help him and wound up flying onto his chest.
“Oh!”
Rufus pressed his hands to my shoulders, steadying me. Heat dotted where he touched me spread through my shirt, and danced over my flesh. I tipped my face toward his as he stared down.
My heart clattered into my throat, and I swear it was only beats away from jumping out.
“Steady,” he murmured.
“I’m steady. Thank you for catching me.”
“Thank you for nearly toppling me over,” he joked.
I could stand like this forever, with him touching my shoulders and my face inches from his. Things here would either become indecent quickly (which I wasn’t ready for), or they would peter out.
Probably it would be best for the moment to peter.
I stepped back, out of his hold. “Weren’t we supposed to be getting to work?”
With the spell broken, Rufus brushed hair from his face. “Yes, I think we were.”
“Then let’s do it.”
It took a couple of hours, but finally we managed to get the boards out and replaced. Lady supervised, of course, telling us all the things that we’d done wrong and how we could have done our jobs better.
In the end, all that was left was to paint. I had some left over from when I’d done the porch originally, and seeing as how we only needed to shellac a few boards, we decided to go ahead and tackle the last part of the project, too.
“So Tuney Sluggs didn’t think it was arson,” Rufus asked, eyebrow lifted.
“No.” I dipped my roller in fresh paint and applied it to the new pine. “He thinks Crystal is an angel and that she’d never do anything like that. Just figures. I’m on my own with this. But hopefully we can stay out of each other’s ways. Because if something like this happens again…”
“You’re going to have to take her out?” Rufus joked.
I laughed. “No, but there will be a come-to-Jesus on her end of things. Not mine. I’ve already come-to-Jesus.”
“Well, let’s pray that doesn’t happen.”
“John,” I said quietly.
“Yes?”
“So, there’s this thing tomorrow.” Suddenly I was very nervous. What if he didn’t want to go? What if he already had plans? Ugh. I did not want to look stupid and ask him out only to be told that he was busy.
Calm down, Clementine. He likes you as much as you like him.
That was true, wasn’t it?
