“Good. Now let me clean up some of this dust so Dean isn’t here longer than he needs to be.”
My allergies were going to hate that. There was a reason I avoided the basement.
“I’ll do it,” I said. “I have a duster I brought down here and forgot about.” Wren sighed and let me get it. But then she stole it when I walked past her. “Hey!”
“Too late! It’s mine now.” She got to work with a smirk sent in my direction.
My body went tight, and I wanted to find a way to steal the duster back so I could do this myself. Every cell in my body demanded me to move, to not need the help in the first place, but I did. I already felt sneezing fits coming on, and I wasn’t sure if I could even take allergy medicine if I pushed myself.
I was still struggling with it when Dean finally came down the stairs to work on the problem.
“Did you get lost?” Wren asked. “I had time to dust the whole basement.”
“A little, but it’s good now.” He held up a toolbox. “Now let me get to work. And you ...” He turned to me just as I was about to sneeze again. “Get out of the dust. It’s killing you.”
My cheeks burned, but he was right. Since when did he care if I was sneezing? I was so shocked about what he’d said that I didn’t fight it. I slowly went upstairs and let them do what they needed to.
I wound up washing up before Dean came back up the stairs and told me everything was done. Wren said she would leave to get a shower and thankedmefor letting her help. It felt wrong to even accept it, but at least I had working heat.
I went to bed, promising myself that I would get it together and not need it again.
I didn’t even realize the loose step was fixed until the next morning.
12
DEAN
Dad Company (But Sometimes Good Advice)
Dean Briggs:Hey, guys, it’s me again. While the mother of my child is pregnant and I’m helping her, how do I prevent attachment? I don’t do that kind of thing.
Comments:
Robert Colt:??? You don’t do attachment? You’re gonna be a dad. That comes with some element of attachment.
Dean Briggs:Yeah, I know. I’ll deal with that later. One day at a time, right?
Ryan Kim:You might wanna look inward on this one. Attachment isn’t inherently a bad thing.
Graham Hamilton:Hey, maybe he’s been hurt before. Just help from a distance and watch out for her hinting at child support and wanting money from you.
Ryan Kim:Child support is very common, Graham.
Graham Hamilton:Some women are only in it for the money.
Robert Colt:And he broke rule one again. Can someone delete that?
“You’re not slick,you know that, right?” Wren said it to me the second I walked into our next job. She’d given me work on the apartment above the coffee shop. I was looking forward to starting on it.
“I promise I won’t start drama with dinner.”
“That was your normal thing.” She waved her hand. “I mean, what you did outside.”
I shrugged, choosing to play dumb. “I didn’t do anything.”
“You fixed that loose plank.”
“What loose plank? I don’t think there’s one there now.”