“A few months,” I decide right then. “You’ll like her.” My alarm on my phone starts going off. I pull it out of my back pocket and silenceit.
“What’s that?” Ginny asks. Always nosy asfuck.
“Just areminder.”
“Oh yeah? Forwhat?”
“Gotta go wake my princess up. Someone’s coming over to clean up forher.”
“Wait one damn minute,” Maya says. “You didn’t clean before she cameover?”
“Silas!” Ginny gasps. They don’t come over to hang out, but they’ve both been inside the farm house. They know the condition I keep itin.
“She’s not into me for mycleanliness.”
“I guess not,” Ginny says before she makes a gaggingnoise.
“I have to go. This all checks out. Do you need help with that barbecue sauce order?” Iask.
“Nope. I’m gonna get started in a few minutes. I’ll be in the thick of it when the afternoon tour comes through. I just need to pull the samples for Shawnie. A few were rank yesterday and you know how I hatethat.”
“Yeah, the customers hate it too.” I sign off on the week’s order and hand the clipboard back. “I’ll be back with Ebie in abit.”
“We get to meet her this afternoon?” Ginny says, perkingup.
“I said I was bringing herby.”
“Oh boy,” Mayasays.
“What?”
“Nothing.” She flashes me an evilsmile.
* * *
When I get backto the house I can tell Ebie is up. Even before I walk in the front door, something feels different about the place. You can tell it isn’t empty. Joe Namath is lying in the front hall, and he’s awake. I squat down and scratch his head. “You keeping an eye on things forme?”
He makes a weak attempt at licking my hand, then drops his head back down to the floor. I head to my bedroom. The door is closed and I can hear music playing inside. I knock once,hard.
“You decent?” Iask.
“No. Hold on.” I was too pissed last night to pay attention to her voice, but I notice it this morning. There’s something rough and sexy about it. I lean against the wall and wait. A few moments later the door cranksopen.
“Hi.” Ebie looks up at me and then opens the door the rest of the way. Her stuff is scattered around the bed, but the bed is made. Whatever soap or lotion she’s using is wafting out of the bathroom and filling the room. She’s wearing a pair of those skintight workout pants that show off every inch of her thick thighs and a loose v-neck t-shirt that does nothing to conceal how large her breasts are. She sits back down on the bed and picks up a pair of socks. I do my best not to look down hershirt.
“You risked theshower?”
“Oh, Mrs. Serea and her people already came by,” shesays.
“When?”
“A few hours ago? They said they had a cancellation so they thought they’d swing by early since you requested a deep clean. They did the bathrooms, the kitchen, and vacuumed and dusted the whole downstairs like you asked. I tippedthem.”
“Why didn’t you callme?”
She glances around. “Are youmadI didn’t call you? Did they fuck somethingup?”
I look around some more. My bedroom is still cluttered with all the crap I’ve been too busy to deal with, but it does look cleaner. The windows look clearer and the AC unit looks almost brand new, restored to its nearly white original condition instead of the dull, dusty gray I’ve been used to. Honeycrisp is back sitting in her chair, but she’s not sleeping on top of my sweatshirt anymore. It’s neatly folded on the back of the chair.“No. I—I didn’t want them to wake youup.”