Her Halloween Treat

“You literally made the bed?”

“I literally made the bed. Impressed?”

“I am. Are you trying to impress me?”

“I don’t know. It is working?”

“It’s sort of working.” It was definitely working. “So...you want to get a drink later? My treat.”

Kira would be so proud of her, asking Chris out for a drink two days after being dumped.

“You betcha.”

She was officially back in Oregon. You betcha? When was the last time she heard that?

“But I have to finish up the master first.”

“Can I help?”

“You want to help?”

“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t. What are we doing?”

“Painting. I finished painting the ceiling. Gotta paint the walls now. It’s all taped off already.”

“I can paint. I’m good with the trim.”

“You start the trim, I’ll roll the walls. But you’ll need to take those clothes off.”

“Chris, we just, I mean—”

“You’ll get paint on your clothes, Jo.”

“Right. Paint. I’ll...just get my stuff out of the car and change clothes real quick.”

“Take your time. I’ll finish wiring the ceiling fan.”

“Did you make the ceiling fan, too?”

“No. But I did put on the stairs and the stair rail. It’s all pine.”

“You’re really good with wood.”

“You did that one on purpose, didn’t you?” he asked.

“Let’s pretend I did.”

Chris didn’t laugh at her but she caught him smiling as he left her alone in her new room. Well, not her room but the room that would be hers while home for the wedding. She hadn’t taken a vacation in a couple years. After everything that had happened with Ben she was tempted to take it all at once and not go back to work until after Thanksgiving. In fact, she was sorely tempted not to go back to work ever. Not there, anyway. Not if she had to face Ben.

Except she’d promised Kira she wouldn’t make any major life changes for six months. It was good advice, very wise. She had to go back to work, didn’t she? Of course she did. She was in the right and Ben was in the wrong. She wasn’t about to let him win by quitting and slinking away with her tail between her legs.

No. Stop. Joey refused to think about Ben or work or anything else as she hauled her suitcase and overnight bag up the reclaimed pine wood stairs and into the bedroom. Funny—she’d been looking forward to a quiet night alone in the cabin before facing her brother and parents and giving them the news about her and Ben. She wanted the one night to pull herself together, to figure out a story to tell her family about why she broke up with Ben that wouldn’t make her look like the worst person on earth and/or the stupidest person on earth. But hanging out with Chris and working on the house seemed like a far better way to get her head together than sitting alone in an empty cabin and ruminating on every clue she’d missed, every blind eye she’d turned. Better to work, do something, distract herself, stay busy. Painting the master bedroom with Chris actually sounded sort of fun.

She pulled on an old long-sleeved T-shirt that she slept in and tied a red bandana around her hair. When she went into the master bedroom she found Chris had finished up with the ceiling fan and was pouring a warm brown paint, the color of milk chocolate, into a large plastic tub. He was whistling.

“Is that ‘All Apologies’?” she asked as she selected a two-inch paintbrush from his kit on the floor.

“It is.”

“You’re whistling Nirvana while you work. You know most people whistle happy tunes.”

“So ‘Heart-Shaped Box,’ then?”

She pointed her paintbrush at him. “You’ve changed completely, but you haven’t changed at all.”

“I could say the same to you,” he said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eyes. She was ninety percent sure he’d just checked her out. Good. She’d been checking him out since she walked in the door.

He handed her a small roller tray filled with paint. She dipped her brush in the tray, soaked it with paint and coated the wall by the doorframe with a smooth line of warm mocha.

“Wait, not that wall,” Chris said, his voice full of pure panic.

Joey gasped and spun around “What? Sorry. Did I—”

He grinned. Broadly.

“Oh, you asshole,” she said. She brandished her paintbrush in his direction and he ducked.

“I’m not sorry but I want to be sorry.”

“I’m going to paint now, and if you scare me like that again, I’ll paint your flannel.”

“But this is my dress flannel. I wore it to my father’s funeral.”

“Please tell me you didn’t wear a flannel shirt to your dad’s funeral. Please.”

“I didn’t. But only because Dad’s still alive.”

She sighed, shook her head and got back to painting while Chris returned to his whistling and rolling. He was the same Chris even if this Chris had short hair, a perfect beard and clothes that actually fit his body. His distractingly good body. She made herself focus as she painted. It was nice transforming the dingy beige walls a cozy chocolate color. It was the perfect color for this room. A forest color. A homey color.

“You picked the color?” she asked.

“I did, yeah.”

“I love it. I wouldn’t have thought a color so dark would look good in here but it does.”

“Dark warm colors work best in low-light rooms.”

“Did you learn that in trade school?”