He turned his wrist to glance at the fat silver watch that hung there, drawing my attention to the exquisite dark hairs on his forearms, patterns I wanted to trace with my tongue.
“Someone who can start today would be good,” he said hopefully.
“Hell, I’ve got some good news for you. My next three days are wide open.”
Wide, wide open, I thought to myself. Nothing wrong with fantasizing for a few days, even if the fact of Franklin’s marriage meant nothing could happen. I’d had my share of older married men come on to me, and I was definitely smart enough to avoid anyone that untrustworthy again.
“Perfect!” he said as he stood up. “There’s a lot to do, but maybe I could show you the first task? I can pay twenty-five dollars an hour, and I can give you cash at the end of each day.”
“Oh!” I said, jumping up to join him. “Sure, that works.” I paused, cracking my knuckles as I considered my next move. I was in no position to turn down work, but I didn’t want to get myself in over my head, either. “Just one thing. You’re looking for someone who is good with his hands, right? I’m very handy…” I paused, then felt a thrill when Franklin’s tongue darted across his bottom lip. “But I’m not a trained carpenter or anything like that.”
Franklin chuckled. “Well, I gave thought to working with Legos, considering that’s where my own building experience begins and ends…” I laughed along with his joke and felt another tug at my heart when his cheeks pinked, and he glanced away. “But you shouldn’t need any training for this job, no. Come with me. You’ll see.”
I followed him into the dining room, where the exceptionally large wooden table was dotted with stacks of paper and a couple coffee mugs, and through a small hallway to a backroom. The rest of the house was cluttered. Not messy, exactly, but filled with artifacts of the life Franklin shared with his husband. I trailed my hand along the wallpaper as he led me, the faint dream of having a marriage like that flickering at the edge of my mind, even though I knew that wasn’t the kind of life I was cut out for.
“This will be our niece’s bedroom, you see,” Franklin explained as he flicked on the light. “So…”
I let out a surprised grunt. Shelving filled every available inch of wall space, stuffed with what looked like barely organized papers and action figures. In the middle of the room was a desk, and directly across from the desk was a couch. The desk was covered with more paper, and the couch was spilling over with some large cardboard boxes, making them unusable. When I turned back to the shelves, I spotted a few spaceships made out Legos and realized that probably really was his main building experience.
I pulled an item off the shelf, fishing it from a row of what turned out to be comic books.
“Young Avengers,” I said, reading the title, then flipping through a few pages. “These all comics?”
“I own a comic book shop,” Franklin explained. “But that, actually, is a good reason to keep all of this mess out of the house!”
“I’ll be moving all of this, I take it?”
I stuck the comic back on the shelf. Franklin swallowed, sending his Adam’s apple bobbing, then reached across me to remove it and place it back in its presumably correct spot.
“I’ll be moving all of this,” I corrected myself, “and keeping it in order?”
“That’s right.” Franklin nodded. “And I’ll be helping, too, of course.”
I scanned my eyes across the room. It wasn’t exactly the kind of high adrenaline work I was used to, of course, but why the hell did I move back to Seattle unless it was to get out of that life? My back could handle this job, and a few long days with Franklin by my side sounded fun.
I could get him talking about comic books, I figured. Get him excited and worked up about something he loved.
“I’ve read some comics,” I said distractedly. “Not since I was a teenager. Ghost Rider is a badass, though. I love that guy.”
Franklin’s eyes lit up, sending another jolt of desire through me. “An antihero, yes!”
I shrugged. “I just think the flaming skull is cool.” I glanced around the room one more time, assessing the job. “Shouldn’t take more than a day or two to take care of this,” I said. “We’ll just have to figure out what supplies we need to get started. Boxes, stuff like that. And I’ll have to scrub the room down once we’re done…”
Franklin dropped his mouth into a grimace, the light in his eyes disappearing. “That’s true, although the work doesn’t end here.”
“No?”
“There’s a large shed in the back that perhaps hasn’t received my full attention over the years. My husband thinks it might be a safety hazard, which I think is a bit much, but I do agree that the space would be useful, and the leaks in the bathroom upstairs…”
“Leaks?” I asked.
“You can do a little plumbing, perhaps?”
I chuckled. “I can do a little bit of everything, just about.”
“Good with your hands,” Franklin said. This time, it was up to him to leave an awkward pause while his eyes got wider. “I should have all the supplies we need,” he added quickly. “So with any luck, that will save us some time.”
Before I could continue, I heard the front door open. A man’s voice called out, and a dog yipped a few times.
