I wasn’t sure I believed her, but I didn’t want to push this on her either. Besides, the longer I stayed, the more rent I could help out with.
“Well, you can’t paint by yourself. Fumes are terrible for pregnant women.”
“I’m just putting a few small samples on the wall.”
“Still, it’s not right. I’ll paint them and then you can tell me what you like. Then I’ll go down to the store and pick up what you’ll need.” I would also be paying for it. I knew for a fact that I brought in more money than Joe. This was the least I could do to help out.
Two hours later, I was pulling into the hardware store parking lot, Sofia in tow. She insisted on coming down with me, even though I told her I could handle it. She wanted to be part of the process. She dragged me over to the paint section and had me help pick out the colors, asking for my advice when she thought one shade of blue was “too blue” or looked more gray than blue. It was exhausting.
“Look, you want this blue,” I said, snatching a color card off the wall. “This is a good color for a baby. Joe would agree with me. You have to keep it masculine, but also something that you like. Trust me, he’ll like this color. And for the living room…woman, you can’t paint the damn living room yellow. I’m sorry to say it, but no man wants to live with yellow walls.”
She chewed her lip as she thought about this. “What about in the kitchen? That’s a woman’s domain.”
“Not in our apartment. Besides, yellow will show all the smoke marks every time you burn something. Go with something else, a neutral color that can easily be painted over year after year.”
She eyed me with a smirk. “And you promise to come back and help me paint the kitchen year after year? Because otherwise, I’ll just go with what I like.”
Damn, I had walked right into that one. If I said no, Joe was going to be subjected to the color yellow for the rest of his life. But if I said yes, I was going to have to make sure that I came back to paint the damn kitchen every year.
Sighing, I nodded. “Yes, I’ll come back and paint for you.”
She smiled and wrapped her arms around my neck, squealing slightly as her small belly pushed against my stomach. “This is so exciting. Who knew picking out paint would be so exciting?”
“Don’t overdo it,” I said, bracing like something terrible was about to happen. “Too much excitement is bad for the baby.”
She rolled her eyes and turned back to the counter, telling the very bored looking store clerk about everything we were getting. While she waited, I took a step away and looked at the shelves behind us where all the paint supplies were, grabbing what I would need.
“I should have asked you for help picking out my colors,” a female voice said from behind me. I spun around, only to come face to face with the one and only femme fatale, Lorelei. I felt like I had swallowed my tongue. She was even more gorgeous in person. Her long, dark hair hung down her back and over her shoulders in silky waves. And those big, brown, gorgeous eyes stared at me like they held all the secrets of the world. I was mesmerized. She had this adorable nose that was so cute and small, but it was her lips that really drew me in. Soft, plump…desirable. Holy fuck, she was my wet dream, standing right here in the flesh. I was sunk.
“Uh…” Finally getting my brain to kick in, I shoved my hand forward and introduced myself. “Andrew.” Then I internally smacked myself. I was investigating her. I couldn’t introduce myself to her. Then she would know who I was. Except, she wouldn’t know who I was because she didn’t know who I was. I was just a guy in the hardware store. Unless she really was a black widow, and she was scoping out her next target. What if I was her next target?
Oh shit, I started to sweat, the beads forming on my forehead and under my pits. It was an unnerving thing to not know if you were the next target or just a rando that she met in the store.
“Is that your wife?”
I glanced back at Sofia and briefly thought of saying yes just to throw her off my scent, but then what if that put Sofia in danger? What if she wanted to do away with her to get me to herself? Fuck.
“No, that’s my brother’s woman. I’m just helping pick out paint for our apartment.”
“Your apartment? You all live together?”
“Well, it saves money. I could move out, but I want to help them out while they get ready for the baby to come.”
I closed my eyes, irritated that I had just let it slip that I had money. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
“That’s so sweet. You’re a very nice brother.”
“Yeah, one of seven.”
“Seven? Wow, your parents must have been either very excited to have kids or—“
“Don’t say it,” I cringed. I had already heard it before, how they were so horny. I didn’t need to hear it again.
“I’m—“
“Lorelei,” I said, before I could think better of it.
Her eyes went wide and wary and she pulled her hand back. “How did you know my name?”
Shit, how did I know her name? Goddamnit, I sucked at this in person investigation stuff. That’s why I stuck to computers. I was good with the virtual world, but I sucked at the in-person investigations. I should have had one of my brothers here. They would know what to do.
“Eric!” I
