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I couldn’t help but be a little nervous to see Lacey when I showed up on Monday with our usual breakfast.

She came out and met me in the driveway and I could feel my cheeks getting pink as I looked at her. She wore paint-splattered shorts and a faded T-shirt that looked like it was ready to disintegrate. All it would take is a few tugs and it would just…rip right off.

“Good morning,” she said, interrupting my fantasy.

“Yes, hi, good morning,” I said, handing her breakfast.

“So, I came over this weekend and finished up the last room and the closet, so we can start with the paint today,” she said as we sat down together.

“You did?” I asked, surprised.

Her expression remained tight. “Yeah, just wanted to get it over with. So it’s done.”

Oh.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I said.

She shrugged and bit into her donut. “I know. But it was better to get it over with.”

I wasn’t going to argue with her because it was her house and the client was always right in this instance.

“Of course,” I said. “Looks like you got a head start on painting too?” I asked.

“No, these are just my painting clothes,” she said, plucking at her shirt and giving me a momentary glimpse of her stomach that made me inhale sharply.

If anything, being away from her this weekend had only intensified my crush on her.

“Oh,” I said, at a loss for words. I went back to my breakfast and hoped Lacey didn’t pick up on a weird vibe from me.

* * *

“I figured we could start in the kitchen,” Lacey said after we finished breakfast. She’d already moved the furniture out and had the cans of paint sitting in one corner along with brushes and other painting tools.

“Here,” she said, pulling a screwdriver out of one of her pockets and handing it to me. Why was that so sexy?

She pulled a second screwdriver out and started working on the cabinet doors. After a second, I joined her, attempting to shove my lust back down so it wouldn’t embarrass me.

Professional. I was a goddamn professional.

Lacey was more advanced with her screwdriver skills and was working on her second cabinet door while I was still fighting with the first.

“Did you want to get new hardware?” I asked. The knobs were brass and tarnished to hell, but that was an easy fix. They were simple and well-made.

“No, I think these are fine,” she said, setting the second door down on the floor on a sheet we’d put out.

I finally got the last screw and pulled off the door with a little grunt.

“Looks like that one put up a fight,” she said as I set the door down next to the other two.

“I won in the end,” I said, pretending to blow off the smoke on the screwdriver. Lacey let out a snort of laughter.

“I just need more practice,” I said, leaning down to work on another cabinet. “This is a new facet of my job.”

“You’re good at it,” she said, and I looked up to find her flipping the screwdriver with one hand and then catching it. Hot. She was so fucking hot.

“Thank you,” I said. “But you haven’t seen the finished house.”

Lacey shrugged. “I didn’t think I was going to be able to do any of this, so the fact that we’re even to the painting stage already is kind of a miracle.”