Page 26 of Come in with the Rain
“You don’t have to come Saturday night, if you don’t want to.”
Something pinches in my stomach. “You don’t want me there?”
A paint scraper falls out of his hand and clatters to the floor. “I didn’t say that. I just don’t want you to feel obligated because Ford…” He picks up the scraper and motions with it to the spot where Ford was standing a moment earlier.
I bite back a smile. Is he jealous of the way Ford seems to effortlessly flirt with everyone? Does he think I want to flirt back? Sure, Ford is gorgeous in an almost supernatural way, but I’m not interested.
“I don’t feel obligated. I’d like to see the gym the two of you are always talking about.”
He tucks his scraper in his back pocket and nods down at the floor. “Great. I’ll see you tomorrow, Stella.”
When he finally closes the door behind him, I can feel the blush that’s painted all along my skin.
CHAPTER27
ADAM
Friday morning, I’m standing in Stella’s bedroom. Under my boots, the floor I put in yesterday is gleaming. The condo is silent except for the sound of my breathing as I stare at Stella’s bed. It’s pulled into the center of the room, away from the walls I’m about to paint.
Yesterday, Ford was with me, pulling up carpet, so I was distracted enough by the work and the conversation not to be thinking about the way Stella’s bedroom smells like her, the scent of lavender and coconut. But today, it’s just me and the room, no distractions. I scan the room, looking for bottles of body spray or body lotion, but get caught on everything else—her oval-shaped hair brush, the stack of books on her nightstand, a pair of sky blue socks left by the foot of the bed, even a guitar on a stand in the corner of the room that I wonder if she can play.
Her dresser, pushed up against her bed, has one drawer hanging open, and even though I know it’s an invasion of privacy, even though I know on some level, this makes me the very worst kind of person, I step forward and peek inside.
And almost swallow my tongue. Panties. Lacy red and pink and blue things with matching bras, all spread out like they’ve been thrown in in a hurry. One pair is white silk with a little bow over the apex of the crotch. I slam the drawer closed when I see it, even as I know I’ll be thinking about that bow until the day I die.
The front door opens, and I rush to grab the paint sprayer up off the tarp where I left it. I’m spraying sunshine yellow paint on the accent wall behind her bed when she calls out my name.
“Adam?”
It’s too much for me. The domesticity of her keys jangling as she tosses them onto the table by the door, the way she immediately checks for me, the way she comes into the room in her slacks and vest. It’s enough to make me stop and stare. It’s enough to make me wish it could last forever.
She opens her mouth to say something, but then her eyes go to the wall behind me and her whole face lights up. I’m so lost in the way her eyes are shining that I forget about the sprayer in my hand entirely.
“I love it,” she breathes, and in that second, it’s all worth it: the fact that I’m going to go broke for this project, going home completely dead on my feet at the end of every day, jerking off to fantasies of her every night and every morning because I can’t go anywhere near her.
I turn back to the wall. “Figured I’d get started on painting while the floors set. And then—” I stop because every time the thought crosses my mind, I have to, like my brain blinks off and back on again. “And then, once the painting is done, I’ll be finished.”
There’s a long silence, and then she says, “Finished?”
I stop spraying and turn to face her. She looks like a kid in a grocery store who can’t find her parents. “Yeah,” I say. “Job’s almost done.”
She’s all the way across the room, but I hear it when she takes in a sharp breath. She starts to worry her hands, and she’s looking down at them when she says, “And then what?”
I set the sprayer back down on the tarp. “Photos. Sprucing up the website. Maybe a virtual walk-through.”
“And then you’ll be gone.” The words come out a whisper, and I take a step toward her. I feel like there’s a string tied between the two of us, always tugging me closer to her, but I stop myself. I have to. Because the way she said that, like it’s going to kill her as much as it’s going to kill me to walk away, it’s enough to make me want to reach for her. I want to bury my face in her hair. And maybe bury some other parts of me in some other parts of her.
But she needs a friend. And I need to be that for her right now. “It’ll be great to have me out of your hair, right?”
“Adam?” Her lips part, and as I watch, entranced, her tongue peeks out to wet the bottom one. I want to chase it with my own. I want to know what she tastes like. “This place will feel empty without you here.”
There are a million things I could say.
I don’t say any of them.
I go back to the sprayer, but when I pick it up and look down at it, it’s like I’ve forgotten how to use it. It feels odd in my hand now, like none of the joints under my skin fit together anymore. I grip it tightly and face down the sunshine wall, but I can feel the heat of Stella’s gaze right between my shoulder blades. I turn back to her, but she looks away.
CHAPTER28
