Page 16 of Collin, Episodes 7-9 (The Residency Boys #3)

Mr. Reevesworth studied the room. “You didn’t say anything about work on the way here.”

“Oh.” Collin lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Just some cleanup, you know. Normal house stuff.”

Mr. Reevesworth pressed his lips together. “You’re still recovering, Collin. Cleaning up dust is the last thing you need to be doing for your lungs.”

“It’s…” Collin’s shoulders slumped. “I could wrap a scarf around my face.”

Mr. Reevesworth’s lips thinned. “If you insist that this is customary, then we’ll go back out, get a proper set of masks, and clean. Do you think there’s anything else we’ll need?”

“I should check. Mom doesn’t always get the shopping done.”

“If it’s been a long time since the cleaning tools were used, some of them may need replacing. Does she have a canister vacuum or a bag vacuum?”

“Canister. Alice won that argument.”

He had to remind himself to not take off his shoes as he moved deeper into the house.

A check on the cabinets and refrigerator proved that Dr. Ryker was probably living off of takeout.

He tossed half a dozen take-out boxes and some unidentifiable produce, then started checking the dates on bottles.

There were two open things of milk: ne was fresh.

One was green and black. He went through the cabinets and jotted down a list on the paper pad on the counter: coffee, coffee filters, cereal, breakfast food, kitchen trash sacks.

Just in case, he checked the laundry room. They were out of detergent. Not cleaners though. Those looked like the same bottles he’d bought last time. He ducked back into the kitchen. Mr. Reevesworth was standing there, hands in his pockets.

“I’m just going to check the back, sir.”

Mr. Reevesworth nodded.

Collin ducked into the first bathroom. There was enough money in his account to buy a new shower curtain and there was no way he was getting the mold off of the one that was there. He’d get a new bath mat, too. Looked like they were doing a full run.

He jogged downstairs to the basement and checked the second bathroom. Same thing, but less dirty. More dust.

Seriously, he needed to make it home more often. He should have made time before the semester started. Gut tight, he opened the back door and checked the yard. Completely overgrown. Not that there was much grass. The place looked abandoned.

Collin sighed and shut the door. Dragging his feet, he moved back through the house and opened the doors to the downstairs bedroom.

At least the primary bedroom looked somewhat clean.

He ran up to the converted attic. His and his sister’s bedroom was one large space with a flimsy divider in the middle.

The attic space was supposed to have been renovated into two separate bedrooms and a bathroom, but again… that hadn’t happened.

Sometimes things got trapped in time.

The area needed a good sweep and clean, and the beds certainly needed refreshing.

He could smell the dust. Now that he was looking at the space, there was no way he could ask Mr. Reevesworth to sleep twenty feet away from Alice with only a sheet hanging between them.

A sheet that was see-through, now that he took a second look at it.

Had they replaced it since they put it up all those years ago? Probably not.

Funny how the solution his dad had said was “just for a few months” back when he was a preteen was still in place now that he was in his twenties.

Feeling the weight of hours of work ahead, Collin tramped back down the stairs. Mr. Reevesworth was standing in the middle of the living room, looking at his phone. He put it away as Collin approached.

“Do you think the security guys would mind a shopping trip?”

Mr. Reevesworth’s brow creased in the middle. “Mind? They’re here to follow us.”

“I mean…yeah, you’re right. Well, actually, I was really asking…do you mind? This isn’t something you usually do because, well, you have more important things to do.”

“I have specialized things to do, Collin. Not necessarily more important things. Cleaning is essential. And I’m not shopping. I’m being with you. So if what you need right now is a shopping trip to do cleaning, then I, and the security guys, will do that.”

Collin dropped his gaze. “Yes, sir.” His stomach still squirmed. He should have thought of this, should have said something, maybe arranged to come out on his own a day ahead and cleaned up, something …

The store was large, and the lights were annoying.

Collin kept his head down and moved by rote through the aisles, grabbing the cheapest brands and running the total in his head.

It was nice to know he could pay for everything this time.

In the drinks aisle, he grabbed Alice’s favorite soda and his preferred sparkling water.

Before he would have bought hers and not his.

And instead of trying to convince himself he could bleach the bath mat clean, he chose a new one and picked up the matching shower curtain.

The hall closet had been running low, so he stocked up on toilet paper and paper towels while he was at it.

Mr. Reevesworth dropped a box of cleaning gloves into the cart without a word and then returned to his phone. “Do you think your mother would be offended if I took you all out to eat tonight? Or if you took us all out to eat tonight?”

“I think…it would be better if I did it. But she’d be okay if I pushed her to let me.”

“Do you have a preferred spot?”

Collin shook his head. “It’s been forever since I ate out around here.”

“Then I’ll have my assistant choose and make reservations in your name. Something that you could reasonably afford on your salary.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course.”

The cart was completely full when Collin pushed it up to the checkout.

He avoided the self-checkout and got through without issue.

Mr. Reevesworth helped him load the car, and they sat in the back while one of the two security guards drove.

Collin let himself close his eyes and lean on Mr. Reevesworth’s shoulder.

They didn’t have privacy, but he could do that much just for a moment.

Like last time, the security guards stayed outside when they returned to the house.

Collin hauled the shopping bags in with Mr. Reevesworth’s assistance.

With the door closed, Collin stripped off his suit jacket and started unbuttoning his shirt.

He tossed open his suitcase and picked his most ragged clothes.

He’d managed to convince Mr. Moreau to let him bring two sets of his old clothes, and now he was very grateful he’d won that battle.

Mr. Moreau had found them offensive, but to Collin, they were protection.

He was not subjecting his nice clothes to this.

Mr. Reevesworth joined him in stripping. “Do you perhaps have a large shirt I could borrow?”

Collin blinked. “Sir?”

“I’m afraid I didn’t pack for this. I have workout pants, but if you have a shirt that you don’t mind getting ruined by bleach, I’ll use that before I sacrifice one of my undershirts.”

Collin held up a defunct band shirt with a flaming skull on it. “Um…this is the only other work shirt I brought.”

Mr. Reevesworth’s lips twitched toward a smile. “Collin, in my world, the shirt you just took off was a work shirt.”

Collin blushed. “I promise not to pretend you don’t work, sir.”

“How kind of you.”

Collin snickered. “Are you slumming it, sir?”

“This is hardly the slums, but I think rolling with the dust mites might be fitting.” Mr. Reevesworth opened up the pack of masks Collin had selected. “Now would probably be the wrong time to say I also have a dust allergy.”

“Do you have meds?”

“Already took them while you were making the shopping list. émeric made me pack them.”

“Do you think he’ll spank me if I call him Mommy Emmy?”

Mr. Reevesworth started to chuckle behind the mask, but it was too much for just a chuckle. He doubled over, one hand on his stomach, and eventually bent his knees, laughing, one hand over the mask. Tears appeared on the edge of his eyes.

Collin couldn’t help it. The hilarity was infectious. He ended up on one knee, hands over his face, giggling till his stomach hurt.

“I don’t know if he would know what to do with you, but I can promise you it will be something.”

Collin snickered one more time. “So, if I ever want to encourage him to get inventive…”

“Do, please, and save it for when I’m present to watch.”

Flushed with good humor, Collin snapped a mask over his own face and added sealed goggles, which Mr. Reevesworth had insisted on for both of them. Knowing now that his dom had allergies, that made sense. And his doctor would probably appreciate Collin being careful.

After starting sheets in the washing machine, Collin hit the bathroom, leaving the vacuuming in the front to his dom.

He’d cleaned this bathroom so many times over the years.

With the cracked grout, there was only so much that could be done.

He stripped out the old shower curtain, bundled it up with the mat, and tossed them both in the outside trash, then drenched the bathtub and counter with bleach.

With that soaking, he changed to a second pair of gloves and stripped the bad food from the refrigerator, set aside what little was still good, and sprayed down the inside to soften the grime.

Some of the sticky grim was going to need coaxing off.

He turned off the cooling function and left the door open then jogged back to the bathroom to scrub the shower.

He was ass up in the air, scrubbing the bottom of the tub, when Mr. Reevesworth came looking for him.

“Perhaps I should have you clean at home,” Mr. Reevesworth murmured.

Collin startled. “Sir!”

Mr. Reevesworth looked like he was smiling, but the mask and goggles were still on. “I’ve opened every window in the front, vacuumed all the furniture, floors, did the ceiling, and moved all the furniture that I could. What rooms will we be doing next?”