Page 58 of The Fall Fix Up

But now that she was home, she couldn’t help but see the little touches that weren’t just her and weren’t just Aiden but were a combination of them both. He had a sweatshirt tossed on the back of the couch. She knew if she lifted it to her face, she would smell her own perfume since he’d lent it to her last night when she was curled up reading. On the coffee table, Aiden had spread out a Lego set he was constructing from memory, something that Janae found fascinating. She could aesthetically kind of see where the pieces might fit, but he was clearly constructing it without directions. It made a little more sense to her now how he saw cars. When she heard the crunch of tires on gravel, she tried to hide the way she moved into the kitchen to be there when the door opened. Still, when she came face-to-face with Aiden and he gave her that wide smile that seemed to say “I’m so glad you’re here,” she couldn’t be mad at herself for giving in to the desire to be there.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself,” he said as he toed his shoes off and put them in the foyer. It still amazed her that he did that without her having to ask. “Ready to get out a little frustration with sharp pointy objects and carve some pumpkins?”

She snorted at his description but nodded. “Sounds like you had a rough day.”

They walked back into the kitchen, and she grabbed the newspapers she had gathered for this endeavor. Originally, they’d intended to do this outside, but Aiden mentioned the pumpkin innards might attract wildlife and she wasn’t trying to walk out her front door and come eye to eye with anything that had more than two legs. So, the kitchen table would have to do for now.

After they got their pumpkins on the table, Aiden turned to her with a grin. “Perhaps we should make a little wager on whose will come out looking the best.”

Janae raised an eyebrow. “Are you really challenging an artist in a creative task?” When he nodded firmly, she smirked. “You’re on, but we need some impartial judges to choose a winner.”

“We can text the pics to Vini and have her ask her family. We won’t tell them which one is yours or mine. That way, they can choose me without any biases, since mine will be best.”

“Oh, is that so?” she asked. Aiden’s cocky grin had her stomach fluttering, but she was also competitive. She wasn’t going to hold back, and she would use every trick in her book to win. “Fine. What are we wagering?”

Aiden pursed his lips for a minute. “I don’t know. Oh, how about if I win, you have to take some basic maintenance lessons with me. If you win, I’ll take some art classes with you.”

That didn’t sound half bad, but before she could agree, something devious took hold. “Or, if I win, you sit for me so I can paint you.”

Aiden’s eyes widened. “You want to paint me? Like a French girl or . . .” His voice trailed off, and Janae chuckled.

“Do you want me to paint you like a French girl?”

Aiden shook his head and then paused and seemed to change his mind before nodding. It had her laughing. “I’m not trying to take advantage and be creepy so just a shoulder-up portrait. What do you say?” She held her hand out and didn’t have to wait long for Aiden to shake it. His hand was larger than hers and so warm. She almost didn’t want to let it go, but she had a pumpkin to carve and a wager to win.

“I look forward to capturing just how many freckles you have when I win.”

“Oh, you are so on,” he replied, eyes gleaming.

They stood side by side, both laughing as they butchered their pumpkins, seeds and guts somehow finding themselves on the floor despite the bowl on the table. Aiden was dramatic as he announced his intentions for his masterpiece while she tried not to cackle at his crooked lines. Hers were cleaner to the point that she wondered if he were purposely throwing the contest until he declared that there should be a second category for pumpkin personality. That sent her into a fit of laughter that resulted in very shaky pictures that she then sent to Grace to spread among them for voting.

Her pumpkin was so strangely symmetrical, with its round eyes and perfect triangle nose that she almost called it Ma’am unironically. Pumpkins were her medium of choice, so she had gone back to the basics of carving out just the right shapes. Aiden’s pumpkin, on the other hand, looked like someone who had all the confidence and none of the dexterity, which was strange for someone who could no doubt build a house from scratch. One eye was rounded, but the other was prune like, complete with wrinkles as if it had been carved drunkenly with safety scissors instead of a knife. Its mouth was wide and gaping, like it had started laughing and gotten frozen mid-guffaw. Still, it had its own charm, and when Aiden smiled and held it up, pride oozing out of his pores, she couldn’t help but be charmed as well.

“Okay, I suppose your pumpkin is decent,” she said as she walked to the sink to scrub under her nails, making sure she had cleaned all the pumpkin bits.

“Decent?” Aiden asked, voice sounding scandalized. “I’ll have you know, Peter the Pumpkin is a cool ass dude.”

Janae froze at that name, but quickly recovered and pasted a smile on her face. “Is that really what you named him? Peter?”

Aiden laughed. “It was the only P name I could think of right then.” He cringed when he moved his hand and something splatted on the floor. “I’m going to go clean up and then I’ll help with the kitchen. Do not clean this all up by yourself.” He pointed at her with a very serious expression and Janae held her hands up with a sheepish smile.

“Fine. I’ll even be a good person and not start dinner so you can do it.”

“That’s all I ask,” he said before leaving the room.

Janae shook her head but couldn’t help but be charmed by his antics. She heard the shower turn on and then a knock. It took her a moment to realize the sound wasn’t Aiden and was someone at the door. She looked at the mess on the table for a moment before deciding to ignore it for now. She wasn’t sure who would be knocking at this hour. It wasn’t super late, but it was almost dinner time, and most people would either be at home or settling into diners by now. When she pulled the front door open, there was a woman standing there that Janae didn’t recognize. She blinked a few times before speaking.

“Hi. Can I help with something?”

The woman looked her up and down for a moment before her hazel eyes went to somewhere behind her. “I was just coming to speak to Aiden.”

Janae frowned. She looked vaguely familiar, though she didn’t understand why. She didn’t recognize her from town, and new faces were usually part of town gossip nearly as soon as they arrived. So why was she here now looking for Aiden?

“He’s in the shower, but he should be out in just a minute if you want to wait for him.”

The woman shook her head and gave Janae a half-hearted smile. “Just tell him Rowan was here and to give me a call. I’m staying at the Blue Bell Bed and Breakfast for another couple days. A room opened up a day or two ago, so I decided to stick around in case he wanted to talk.”