Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“Yeah,” I confirmed. “What are you working on?”
“The roof,” he said. “I started to paint, but then I saw a water spot above one wall in the living room, and I wanted to make sure we didn’t have a problem with the shingles. Which we do, and we’re going to have to replace it. I already called and got us on the schedule.”
Fucking figured.
My eyes went to the house that I’d really wanted, and I narrowed my eyes when I found July on her own roof.
“You’re kidding me, right?” I asked Able.
Able snorted.
“Told her to come down myself,” he explained. “As you can see, she ignored me.”
My jaw tightened and I turned around so she had my back.
“Do you want me to help you, or go do my own thing?” I asked him.
“Own thing,” he murmured.
I nodded and walked inside the house, thankful that he’d said he didn’t need help.
Because if I had to watch her work on the roof, I might very well have a fucking coronary.
I went to work on the kitchen island wall, tearing it out after ensuring that it wasn’t supporting the structural weight of the roof.
I’d gotten it down to the studs when three sharp taps from the roof had my eyebrows lowering.
Exiting the back door, I walked back into the yard until I could see on the roof and asked, “What?”
“Go take a look at what she’s doing,” Able said as softly as he could, which ended up not being soft at all.
I went up the back porch steps, through the gutted kitchen and living room, straight out the front door and down the front porch steps, only to come to a halt at what I saw her doing.
“You’re shitting me, right?” I asked Able who’d followed me over the roof.
“Nope,” he crossed his arms over his chest.
“What does she think she’s going to do?” I asked. “She can’t do that all herself.”
“She’s going to,” Able disagreed. “Watch her.”
I did watch as she was ripping off the shingles, one by fucking one.
“It’s supposed to rain tonight,” he told me. “There’s no way she’ll get that all done in one day.”
“She’s going to ruin the roof,” I agreed. “She’s going to end up fucking it all up if she doesn’t watch it.”
“What are you doing?” Able asked as I started towards her house.
“You know exactly what I’m fucking doing,” I grumbled, hurrying across her lawn before she could rip off any more shingles.
I didn’t bother to stop at the side of the house like most people would.
No, I went right up the ladder and stood behind her before I said, “You’re starting the roof now when it’s supposed to rain for the next week and a half?”
She gasped and whirled, lost her balance and would’ve gone straight off the roof had I not caught her.
“And you really shouldn’t be up here. You’re not even wearing the right shoes,” I muttered, looking down at her fucking Crocs.
She gasped and pushed away from me. Or tried to. I wouldn’t let her go.
“Get off me, goddammit!” she seethed. “What’s your freakin’ deal, anyway? I could’ve died, and it all would’ve been your fault!”
“No. Had I not been here, you would’ve gone down and died,” I corrected her.
“No,” she growled. “If you hadn’t come over at all, I would’ve never turned around so fast.” She glared, trying to untangle her body from my arms. “What are you doing here, anyway?”
“Telling you to stop taking the shingles off your roof before you get any more into it,” I informed her. “The roof is fine. I inspected this house myself before you stole it out from under us with whatever underhanded, sneaky Jedi shit you pulled with the realtor. It doesn’t need to be replaced. The sellers replaced it less than two years ago.”
“I want a tin roof, so it’s going. Now, if you’d kindly unhand me,” she squirmed against my hold. “I’ll get back to that.”
“You’re going to end up ruining it if you’re not careful,” I told her. “The felt underneath this would be in perfect working order to use underneath the tin, but not if you get it wet before they come and install it.”
“They’re coming tomorrow. I save two grand by removing it all myself,” she twisted her body again.
I held on tighter for a few long seconds, letting her know that I was giving her the distance and she wasn’t taking it, then reluctantly let her go.
She growled as she took two large steps back from me.
“They’re not going to be able to do the roof tomorrow,” I informed her. “Didn’t you check the weather?”
She narrowed her eyes. “No.”
It sounded like that one simple word was ripped from her, and I had to use all my willpower to contain the smile that wanted to slip out.
“It’s supposed to rain tomorrow from about mid-morning all the way until the end of next week. There’s no way in hell those roofers are going to be able to get the roof done before the rain comes in,” I said. “And that’s pushing it for the rain. You know the weather’s unpredictable.”