Aiden didn’t wait for an answer. He walked in, nudged me out of the way and pushed the couch across the floor, Chaucer and all. At the doorway, he tipped my dog out and looked at me. “Can you get the other end, help me get it out?”
As long as he was going to do all the heavy lifting, fine by me. I climbed over the end, leaned down to grab the couch arm and yelled, “Pivot!”
Staring at me a beat, he shook his head. “I can’t decide if you’re insane or...”
I raised my hand in the air. “Oh. Oh. I know!”
Rolling his eyes, he shoved the couch out the door. He pushed it all the way down the porch steps, dragging it up into the bed of his truck. When he was done, he jogged back up the steps and picked up a mattress, shouldered it back to the truck and tossed it in.
I watched as he did the same with the other mattress and the bags of chewed-up linens. When he went for the rat box, I felt the need to advise caution. “You’ll want to be very careful with that box. You may hear squeaking and scratching. Ignore it. And for goodness’ sake, do not open the lid!”
When he studied the box warily, I knew we were on the same page. He glanced at me and then at his truck bed. “Is this all of it?”
“Nope.”
“Then why are you just standing there watching me?” He placed the rat box securely in a corner, where it wouldn’t be jostled. Smart man.
“It’s fun to watch other people work. Duh.” I walked back in the house to see what I had missed.
“Insane!” he shouted from the front yard.
“Pfft. As if.” I walked through the living room, dining room, kitchen and bath on the first floor. I would need to mop the floors again, but just about everything seemed to be cleared out.
“Are we done?” Aiden was back in the doorway, looking at the empty rooms.
Pointing at the squashy chair, I said, “I haven’t had the nerve to check that yet.”
He strode over to the chair and cautiously lifted the cushion, looking underneath. When he jumped and threw the cushion, I screamed and ran for the porch. I was hiding around the corner when I heard his booming laugh. Bastard.
Strolling back in, my arms crossed, I said, “Hilarious.”
Chuckling, he put the cushion back. “Good news. You have somewhere to sit.”
“Yay, me.” I looked around the empty rooms, wondering if I’d be able to sleep in that chair. “I couldn’t lift the box springs upstairs. Getting the mattresses down just about killed me.”
He looked me up and down. “How did you get the mattresses down the stairs and out the door?”
“Terror is a great motivator.”
He jogged up the stairs. “Okay. Two box springs coming down.” When he returned a few minutes later, he said, “You’re going to want to pick up some traps. Oh, and don’t go in the bedrooms for a few minutes.”
“What? Why?” It’d probably be easier to just sell the house and start again.
“No reason.” He tossed a box spring onto the tower of crap in his truck. When he came back in, he detoured by the dining table, picked up two empty garbage bags and checked the gun in his holster.
“What the hell is up there?” That settled it. I was living in my car.
He trotted down a few minutes later, two big bags held tightly in his hands. I swear I saw one of them move.
“What is it?” I backed away as he went out the door, placing them gently in the back of his truck, before holding them down with a box of shredded books. “Seriously, Aiden. You have to tell me. I’ll never sleep again. And how do you know there aren’t babies or eggs or some other smaller version of those things that are going to grow up and bite my head off?”
He watched me panic, backing farther away from the house. His lips twitched, and I stopped. What. The. Hell. He turned his back on me, shoulders shaking.
“You’re screwing with me?” I screeched. I stalked across the yard and proceeded to smack every inch of him that I could reach. “You ass! I was planning to spend the next few years living in my car because of you!”
The bastard was laughing so hard, he had a difficult time fighting off my slaps. Finally, he grabbed both wrists and held them together in front of me. “This position probably feels pretty familiar, huh?”
I glared. I couldn’t move my arms, so I kicked him.
“No kicking. Or slapping. You already have a record of accosting police officers. I’d hate to have to lock you up again.”
As a child, he’d been a hero, facing down bullies. As an adult, it looked like he’d become one. “That hurts,” I said, voice low and expressionless.
He loosened his grip immediately and began rubbing my wrists with his thumbs. I could feel tears gathering. I wouldn’t look at him. I pulled my arms away and strode back into the house, slamming the door after me. I realized too late that Chaucer was still sitting on the porch. My dramatic exit lost a few points when I had to open the door and call him in.
Aiden
I KEPT CHECKING my rearview mirrors to make sure nothing was slipping off the truck. I couldn’t believe it had never occurred to me to check inside Nellie’s house. Pops hadn’t stepped foot inside since she got sick. I doubt he’d change that status today, but I didn’t want him to know what we let happen.
Walking through the place, it didn’t feel like Nellie’s anymore. Her furniture was missing. Her walls were dirty. The paintings and photos had been taken down. It was a shell. Nellie was absent, and the loss of her hit hard.
Honk. I turned to see Nancy driving in the other direction, waving at me. I lifted one hand in acknowledgment. Nancy was a mistake. I’d been paying for that lapse in judgment ever since I’d slept with her. Once. Almost year ago now. She wouldn’t leave me alone. Every time I turned around, there she was, talking too close and touching my arm. I needed to figure out what to do.
And why was Katie back in Bar Harbor and sleeping in her car? When I saw furniture piled up on the porch, I’d thought Nellie’s place was being robbed. It wasn’t until I’d driven close enough to see her trashed BMW that I’d remembered.
I was sorry to have scared her, but why wasn’t she at a hotel? That house wasn’t going to be livable for a while. The floors would need to be stripped, sanded and resealed. The walls and ceilings would need to be painted, furniture replaced. But before any of that could happen, she’d need an exterminator. I saw enough movement walking through that house to know she had a major infestation problem. I heard scratching in the ceiling, too. She probably had raccoon or opossums living up there. What’s she going to do? Sleep on the floor through all that? Nah. She found herself a rich husband, trashed his $60,000 car and then made jokes about being arrested. It was all a big joke to her. She’d figure things out.
A twinge of regret poked at me. I didn’t mean to hurt her wrists, though. I was just playing around.
Huh. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d played.
She was fighting back tears at the end. Was I being a dick, or was she just not used to being teased? Oh, hell. It was done, and I wasn’t seeing her again, hopefully. What difference did it make?
Still. Even after all these years, looking at her took my breath away. Four in the morning, hair sticking out in every direction, scared out of her wits, blanket pulled up to her nose, and I wanted to drag her into my arms and kiss her senseless. Oh, fuck me.