Page 72 of Refuge for Flora

What’s new about that? It’s pretty much all she does, Flora told herself as she headed out the front door. Barrett was sitting in the truck, and she climbed in.

“She gonna be okay here by herself?” he asked Flora as soon as she had the door closed.

Flora rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah. She announced that she’s going to nap. Like that’s something new. Told her I’d bring her a plate. She wanted to know if you have any candy.”

Barrett laughed loudly. “Well, yeah! I’ll give you some to take back to her. That should make her happy.”

“Bonus points if it’s chocolate!” Flora announced, laughing.

“I’ll remember that. So Conor will be here in about two hours. Think we can get the place whipped into shape by then?”

“Barrett, your house is not a mess. It’s pretty damn neat and tidy. We can scrub the bathrooms, clean around the sink, and make sure the laundry isn’t piled up, and it should be perfect. Got any of those nice candles?”

“No.”

“Oh, well. At least you’re not one of those stinky guys,” she said and made a face.

“Stinky guy?”

“Yeah. Some guys are stinky guys.”

The truck rolled to a stop in Barrett’s driveway and he turned to look at her, his brow furrowed. “Stinky guy? What’s a stinky guy?”

“You know. Stinky feet. Stinky shoes. Doesn’t bathe often enough. Hair smells funky. Fingernails are dirty. Dirty clothes everywhere, dirty dishes, garbage can running over?”

“Did you just describe Darryl?”

Flora chuckled and hiked up her eyebrows. “You know, I think I did!”

“That’s what I thought. Come on.” He was headed to her door to open it, but she’d already hopped out. “Please let me open doors for you and pull out chairs and stuff like that. Makes me feel useful.”

“You’re already useful, sweetie.”

“And not stinky,” he reminded her as they climbed the porch steps.

“Exactly.”

An hour later, she looked around at what they’d done. “Hon, this place is really in good shape.”

“I’m putting the last of the dishes away. Oh! I need to go through the refrigerator and throw stuff out!”

“Then let me finish with the dishes and you do that.” Flora pushed him out of the way and reached into the dishwasher. “So you’ve met Conor before when Martina’s daughter was missing.”

“Yeah. He’s a great guy. He’s one of those people I could be good friends with if he lived here. I could see us hanging out together, me, him, Zyan, Kirby…”

“Kirby’s a nice guy.”

“Yeah. He is. He really is. You haven’t met Jonas either.”

“You should’ve invited him yesterday.”

“I did, but he was working. We’ve never worked the same kind of shift, so we never seem to be off at the same time.” There was a sound like the front door opening and Barrett murmured, “Who the hell is that?”

“Barrett? You home?”

He shook his head and sighed. “Jesse.” In seconds, the man appeared in the doorway. “What are you doing here?”

It was obvious to Flora that Jesse was surprised to see her there in the kitchen. “I, uh, hadn’t seen you in a bit. Wondered how you were and all. Thought maybe we could… hang out or something.”