Page 25

25

Evan

I was so pleased we could get the room painted before lunch. I was always good at painting walls. Heck, my grandmother had changed the color of our trailer house, inside and out, about as quickly as it took the paint to dry.

I volunteered to put down painter’s tape while Cary fixed lunch. My thoughts strayed from the task at hand to other things, specifically Cary. We worked together companionably. He’d caught me singing when he came in earlier and hummed along as we worked. My family were musical people. Not especially talented, but we could carry a tune.

I’d tried joining the choir and even acted in a couple of musicals in high school, but it hadn’t come to much, and my ex even told me I sounded like a beached whale. I tried not to think about that. I loved to sing, and I knew I wasn’t that bad .

I enjoyed working alongside Cary. I remembered the days when I’d help my dad paint wherever we ended up. We never had enough money for nice digs. In fact, more often than not, our family of three settled into an old trailer. Sadness swept over me as I thought of them. I hadn’t had that same feeling of family and connectedness since they’d passed.

Cary somehow made me feel that way again. I shook my head. It did no good getting attached to someone like Cary Beacroft. Handsome, smart, skilled, and a spellcasting witch, for goodness’ sake. He probably had ulterior motives for being nice to me, but right now, for whatever reason, I needed nice.

We could deal with the consequences later. I hoped when the other shoe dropped, which it always did with me and a man I liked, I could at least pretend I wasn’t seriously disappointed.

I finished putting down the painter’s tape and went downstairs to the kitchen, where Cary stood shirtless with his back to me. Dang, I thought I was wrong. I would get my heart crushed by that man… and right now, it totally seemed worth it.