He released a half laugh. He didn’t know what else to do. God. If only his body could switch gears so freely.
“Let me know if you need anything,” she said. And then, looking toward the sky, “It’s getting colder out here.”
He didn’t reply. Cold was good. Cold kept his senses awake.
Even if cold also made his shoulder sore. Made the sinew of his thigh ache louder than in the summer.
She’d turned to go back inside when he asked, “Why did you knock?”
A month, and she hadn’t knocked on his door until yesterday.
She paused on the threshold, back to him. Her hair was up today in the high bun she often wore it in, soft tendrils that didn’t quite reach whispering over her exposed neck. The longer she stood frozen there, the longer he couldn’t stop staring at them. Something stirred in his half asleep body. This feeling that had been stealing over him more and more, whenever Mae closed her mouth long enough for it to grow. An awareness of what the creamy skin on that neck would feel like under his mouth. How easily his body would curve around the back of hers.
“I was going to invite you over for a mimosa.”
It took a second for her words to penetrate through his mind fog.
An obvious second too long, because she said, “It was silly,” stepping inside and closing the door before he could respond.
* * *
The next morning, Dell plunked a bottle of champagne onto the counter.
Mae blinked away from the computer screen.
He lifted his other hand and placed a bottle of orange juice next to the champagne.
“I’m going to finish a bookshelf today,” he said, voice gruff. His face looked just as rough as it had yesterday, eyes just as bloodshot. Any time she’d peeked her head outside after their morning conversation, he’d been puttering around the back deck, muttering to himself.
“The Gutierrez boys going to be done with the floors today?”
Mae moved her stare from Dell’s face to the champagne.
“Yeah. They only have two more boards to replace. Said they’d be done by noon.”
Dell grunted. “Good.” He turned to look at the room. “Where do you want it?”
Mae blinked again. “The bookshelf?”
“Yeah. Walls are done over there, yeah?” He gestured to his right.
Finally forcing herself to snap out of it, Mae stood, walking around the counter. “Yeah.” She only had a bit more wallpapering to do on the opposite wall. “I was thinking the first shelf could go…” She walked toward the door, pivoting on her heel in front of the window. “Here.”
Dell moved to her side. Grunted again. Stepped forward, withdrawing a stud finder and a tape measure from the bag stretched across his chest. Mae watched him take his measurements, the movement of his shoulders underneath his flannel. She should be excited to get back to the computer. She was about to pressSubmiton her first official book order. But yet…
Dell took a pencil from his bag and made a mark on her new beautiful wallpaper.
“Hey!” She stepped forward with a frown. Dell made another mark.
He walked away without another word, until he paused by the counter.
“When it’s up,” he said, nodding toward the champagne, “we’ll do that.”
And he was gone.
* * *
Mae put the champagne and OJ in the small fridge she’d installed in the office. The Gutierrez boys finished the floor. She submitted her book order.
