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I stared at her. “That is absolutely not what happened, you liar.”

Lacey shrugged. “Huh, weird. Agree to disagree.”

She just kept eating her breakfast with a satisfied grin on her face and I didn’t know what to make of her being this way while we were working.

Lacey’s brighter mood seemed to carry into the day as we finished the cabinets and the living room painting that we had skipped yesterday. We also went through the rental furniture and I put sticky notes on everything so we’d know which room it was supposed to go in.

“I need to go shopping for sheets and so forth too,” I said as we ate lunch on the porch.

“I’ll go with you. Bring the truck to haul everything,” she said, handing me my bag of chips.

“I’m not getting that much that we’d need the truck for, but it would be nice to have someone to push the cart.” That made her glare at me.

“Is that all I am to you? A cart pusher?”

“Well, your arms are longer than mine, so you’re better at reaching the paint roller to the higher parts of the wall. So there’s that,” I said, knowing that would annoy her.

“Okay, okay, I see how it is. Maybe I won’t come and help you carry the sheets and push the cart.”

“Fine by me,” I said, pretending to be nonchalant.

Lacey scoffed. “You’d be so bored without me.”

She really had turned over a leaf as of yesterday. As if I was finally seeing her for real. The person she was under the walls of protection and the grief and all the other things she’d put in between her and others to protect herself. If I had a family like hers, I didn’t know that I wouldn’t have done the same thing. She was dealing with all this shit by herself, with no help from anyone. No wonder she had issues trusting people.

“Fine,” I said with a dramatic sigh. “I guess you can come. As long as you push the cart.”

Lacey burst out laughing and I ached to kiss her smiling mouth. Her being more open with me was only making me want her more.

Fuck.

* * *

We goofed and joked the rest of the day, and I lost count of how many times she laughed.

“I can’t believe it’s finished,” she said when we were rinsing the brushes out in the sink.

“The living room is finished. And the cabinets are finished. We still have to do the dining room and the office and the upstairs and then touch ups and the bathroom…” I trailed off.

“Fuck, this is never going to end,” she groaned, resting her head on her arms.

“It will end,” I said, washing my hands and turning off the water. “It will end, and it will get done and then it will be over, and you’ll never have to do it again. Hopefully. But if you do, then I’ll be back, and I’ll help you again.”

She raised her head and nodded. “If I have to do this again, I’m not going to be involved at all. You’re going to be completely in charge.”

I pressed my fingertips together as if plotting something evil. “That’s exactly where I want to be.”

Lacey stood up and snorted. “You’re a much bigger dork than you look.”

“Shhh, don’t tell anyone else,” I said.

Lacey scrubbed her hands and then dried them. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“Yeah,” I said, gathering up my stuff and moving toward the door. Lacey left behind me, locking up and gazing at the clouds.

“Got a hot date tonight?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes. “No. More like dinner with my sister and her girlfriend and then reading.”