“Sly said the house looks amazing.” Aunt Regina takes the cups and pours everyone a drink. “Maybe I can come over and take a look this afternoon? You know I’m dying to see it.”
“Mm!” I shake my head, covering my mouth as I quickly chew and swallow my bite. “I’m finishing up the master suite now. I’ll give you the grand tour when it’s all done.”
She exhales a frustrated noise, but she’s smiling as she leans back in the chair holding her sandwich.
Sly trades the double plate for Ollie with Scout. “Thank you.”
“For what?” He takes the plate, grabbing a sandwich and eating almost half of it in one bite.
“Making him smile. And laugh!” She leans forward, and the little boy squeals, taking the sandwich and studying it. “Try it. It’s cheese. You’ll like it.”
He takes a hesitant bite then eats more. Clearly, he worked up an appetite.
“Scout has always been great with kids. Remember when he protected you from that Shetland pony, Daisy?” Aunt Regina laughs. “What was that silly horse’s name?”
“Whistle Britches.” Scout chuckles.
“Yes! I think they called him that because he had the vapors.” My aunt covers her mouth as she laughs more. “You were so scared of that pony, Daisy.”
Scout’s dimple appears, and his eyes sparkle as he looks at me. It makes my stomach all fizzy and hot.
I look at my sandwich. “Shetland ponies are known to bite.”
“You weren’t much bigger than this guy.” Scout’s voice is warm, and his hesitation is gone.
Oliver looks up with cheese on both his cheeks. “Do you have a pony?”
“I don’t.” I smile at him, taking the last bite of sandwich. “I’m sorry, but I’d better take off if I’m going to finish that wallpaper.”
“So soon?” Aunt Regina frowns, and I walk over to kiss her head.
“I have less than two weeks left.”
Oliver climbs into Sly’s lap, and she rubs his back. “Somebody’s ready for a nap.”
“Here.” Scout’s on his feet, collecting everybody’s plates. “I’ll walk you back.”
“Oh, no. You don’t have to do that. I’m just hanging wallpaper.” Holding out my hand, I take a step backwards and my heel slips off the brick pavement. “Oh, woah!”
I throw up a hand and almost fall. Scout lunges towards me and almost drops all the plates, but I catch them and his arms.
“Yes, you’d better go with her, Scout.” Aunt Regina’s tone is wry as she stands and takes the plates from Scout. “I don’t like her over there working alone. If something happened, it would be a while before we knew.”
“That’s really not necessary. Nothing’s going to happen.”
“Come on.” He catches my arm, and I’m very aware of his strong grip on my skin.
“Fine. You can sit and watch as I hang wallpaper.”
“Make sure she doesn’t fall off any ladders,” Sly quips.
“On it.”
I roll my eyes and stomp off towards the street. My family is so ridiculous, and now I have Scout with me for the rest of the day. It feels even more dangerous than falling off a ladder alone in the house.
Six
Scout
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” Daisy says the words, standing on a step ladder and holding the top half of a strip of self-adhesive wallpaper to the line at the ceiling.
I guide the bottom half to meet the wainscoting, so it doesn’t curl and stick to itself.
“It’s a nice one, but it’s so overused.”
I’m glad we’ve made it past the potential awkwardness after last night. When I saw her at her aunt’s house, I could feel her pulling away, and I hated it. I knew it was my fault. I’m sure remembering Whistle Britches the flatulent pony helped.
Last night, after jerking off in the shower, I fell asleep to visions of her cute little ass in those cutoffs. Today, she’s all covered up in gray sweatpants and Sly’s ancient high school PE uniform shirt, and she’s still cute as hell.
Searching for a distraction, I told her I’d always wanted a motto or guiding principle, but I’d never been able to find one. We’ve been testing out different ones, but none feel right.
“An optimist believes the future is uncertain.” She tries again.
“What does a pessimist believe?”
She snorts. “He will never find a motto.”
“Gah!” I lift her off the step stool, and she falls over my shoulder laughing.
“Stop, you’re going to mess up the wallpaper!” She slaps my back, and I take a turn before putting her back.
“Maybe we should give it a rest.”
She runs the plastic, half-moon-shaped tool down the length of the wall, smoothing out any bubbles. “You said you’d check in today.”
It’s not really a question. In fact, I’d almost think she was offended if she had a tone.
“I was on my way here when Sly stopped me. I didn’t know she was back in town.”
“She just got back this morning.” Her eyes meet mine briefly, and she steps down from the stool to get another strip of wallpaper.
It’s a minimalistic design, blue line drawings on an off-white background. It reminds me of those Asian vases everybody has.
“She didn’t know what to do with Oliver, so I ran back to grab one of the footballs Dad has for Jesse.”
“J.R.’s little boy? He’s only a toddler.”
“Gotta start ‘em young.” I give her a wink, and she rolls her eyes as she climbs on the stool, ready to press the paper against the wall.
Tearing my eyes away from her ass, I catch the bottom of the strip. “I’m sorry about last night.”
“It’s okay. You probably would’ve been disappointed anyway.”
That pulls me up short. “I seriously doubt that.”
“I’m not very good at it.”
Cutting my eyes at her. “You mean you’re not a virgin?
