“It’s not much, I know—”
“I think it’s great.” I didn’t want to hear a hint of shame come out of his mouth. I was the one who’d basically invited myself over—it was too late in the game to get prissy just because his bottom floor was a work-in-progress. Besides, this little room was totally fine. “It looks homey. Gives me an idea of what the place will look like once you’ve finished it.”
“Thanks.” He grinned, relaxed again, and he looked so damn handsome that I couldn’t resist reaching out and taking his hand. I tugged him in close to me, my touch light and unassuming, and smiled when he came right along.
“I would really love to kiss you right now,” I said, completely honest.
“Maybe you should, then,” he replied.
Yeah, maybe I should. I grinned and leaned in, Dominic’s lips parting in readiness, and we—
Something crashed from down the hallway. We froze, then Dominic groaned and said, “Oh man, not again,” pulled away and headed toward the living room. I followed him back down the cold hallway and to the front room and found him crouched down, staring into a corner that was filled with stacked floorboards and edging. “They’re back,” he said quietly. “Damn it.”
“Who’s back?” I asked, bending down next to him.
“The raccoons.”
“You have rats and raccoons?” I was on the verge of laughing at the weirdness of it, but I refrained when I saw Dominic’s embarrassed look.
“Yep. I evicted this family a week ago—believe me, it was not easy—and spent an entire night covering all the holes I could find that they might have crept in through.” He frowned. “I must have missed one.”
“I don’t see—oh.” No, wait, there was the glow of an eye. And another eye. And another… “How many are there?”
“Three, all juveniles.”
I snickered. “Are you going to arrest them, officer?”
“I’m going to serve them with an eviction notice,” he replied. “The problem is getting them to run outside instead of deeper into the house.”
I could see that. Nobody wanted one of these little guys to make it upstairs. “Okay, I’ll go open the front door and block off the hall. You uncover them and encourage them to run for the nearest exit.”
“Got it.”
Operation “Raccoon Eviction” was pretty successful, if I do say so myself. After Dominic shoved the boards covering them away, all three of the home invaders scattered. Two of them did cut for the stairs, but a few steps in that direction from me made them rethink it. As soon as one finally ran outside, the other two followed.
“Okay,” I said once Dominic had shut the front door, holding the freezing wind back once again. “Well, I think I know what we’re doing tonight.”
Dominic blushed. I don’t know where he got the heat for it—I was so cold I couldn’t even feel my hands. I’d have to get the gloves I borrowed from Hal on in a hurry. “Patching holes?”
“Patching holes.”
We spent two more hours out in the main rooms of the house, looking for crevices that were open to the outside and—sure enough—hanging drywall over the spots where he’d already laid insulation. By the time we finished, I was tired and Dominic was clearly exhausted.
“I should get going,” I said, oddly reluctant to leave even though I knew anything athletic was out of the cards for tonight. “Do you feel up to driving me back?”
“I…could,” Dominic said judiciously, glancing out the window by the front door, “but I think you better take a closer look outside right now.”
“Why?” It was dark—it had been dark when we arrived. I came over to stand beside him, and he flipped on the porchlight.
“Son of a—” The snow had somehow doubled from when we’d arrived, deep enough to risk getting buried up to my knees if I walked out there. “Wow. That was fast.”
“They did say it would get worse before it got better,” Dominic said then looked at me. “Do you want to spend the night? Just—just to sleep, I mean, we’ve been hauling crap around this house for the past two hours, and it’s dusty as hell, and—”
“That’s fine.” I didn’t need him to justify it to me. Actually, the thought of just sleeping next to him felt really…nice. “I’d love to stay.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Dominic paused then reached out and took my hand. It was slightly awkward with our bulky gloves on, but when he squeezed, I squeezed right back.
“Thanks.”
I didn’t quite know what he was thanking me for, but if it put that look on his face, I’d take it.
Chapter Six
Dominic
I woke up to the familiar whir of my space heater and the unfamiliar slow breathing of a person sleeping deeply next to me. With my heart ready to jump out of my chest, I spun around too fast and almost fell out of bed. It took a few seconds to understand who was in my bed and to remember why.
It was Max. Of course it was Max. And I was okay. He’d spent the night because of the snow. We’d gone to bed and laid awkwardly next to each other for a while, but later, a sleeping Max had slid over and pressed his back against my side. It had been like a teenage fantasy come true, except with no boners or action because we were so tired.
I held back a groan and glanced at the clock. Barely seven—no wonder Max was still asleep. He didn’t look like he got the chance to sleep in much with his job. Part of me wanted to stay and watch him for a few minutes, but a bigger part urged me not to be a creeper and to see what the snow was like outside.
I eased out of bed and grabbed my coat off the floor then let myself out into the hall. Shit, it was cold out here. Better than it could have been, but I seriously should have gotten the insulation all done first thing instead of dicking around with the floor. I shuffled to the front room and looked out the window, only to be met with a monochrome of white. It wasn’t falling much anymore, but what had already fallen was deep, almost up to the door of my Jeep.
I could shovel out and chain up, but until the streets were plowed, it was going to be rough going, even with four-wheel drive. We might be stuck here today. I wondered how Max would take it, if he would stress about work again. I was somewhere between excited and nervous myself, but I didn’t have a huge presentation to prepare for, either.
I shuffled back to the kitchen and made coffee then assessed breakfast options. Hmm…I had eggs, I had butter, I had bread for toast…we’d survive. I poured two mugs of coffee, made one of them up the way I’d seen Max take it yesterday morning and kept the other black for me, then headed for the bedroom.