Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 407(@200wpm)___ 326(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
“I came over to be your friend. Being your friend involves music, so if you want to talk about it, we will. But knowing you, I’m assuming you don’t.”
“Um…you must have me confused with someone else. I always talk about my feelings. Like, to everyone. All the time,” I teased, making a loud laugh jump from Law’s mouth.
“You’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking. Sometimes I want to be like, please stop telling everyone how you feel. It’s like I can never shut you up.”
I stood. My T-shirt was wrinkled, and for a moment, I looked at him. Law was always so put together, so different from me, and I felt odd, out of place, not enough, but this was me and that was him. It was who we’d always been. “Yeah, I know. It’s something I’m really working on. It’s just, I can’t help always feeling like the most important person in the room!” I meant it as a joke, to continue on with our conversation, but Law frowned, which he did often with me now. When I went to pass by him, he grabbed my arm.
“You’re as important as everyone else. When are you going to see that? And not because of your fucking voice or how you play the goddamned guitar.”
We were so close, his breath ghosted across my skin. His body was warm, warmer than the air around us. And familiar—the press of him, the touch of his hand, the scent of apples and words that always clung to his skin.
He dropped my arm and stepped back, not waiting for my reply. “What’s on the agenda for today?”
Whatever that moment had been, Law broke it. I was both thankful and upset by it, the two emotions battling for dominance. “We can start on the kitchen. The new cabinetry and hardware were delivered today. The dumpster is getting emptied tomorrow, so we might as well get this stuff torn down and out there. Then we can start putting the new stuff back on.”
“I can help you get it torn out, but that’ll be it for tonight. The rest I can help with tomorrow if you want. I’m heading to Griff’s to meet my buddies in a few hours.”
Which shouldn’t have come as a surprise. It didn’t, really, and why the fuck shouldn’t he, but then I thought about the beer I got for him that was in the fridge and all the stuff to make sub sandwiches because I’d planned on doing something to thank him for all this help. He wouldn’t take money. It had been stupid to make an assumption and then allow myself to be disappointed.
“You can head out now if you want. Really, I can do this by myself or we can do it tomorrow.” I’d spent most of the morning working on other tasks, and there was no shortage of things to do if it turned out I did need Law for this.
“Nah, I’m good. Let’s get this taken care of, and then we’ll have a jump start on tomorrow.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, plus Bear is already asleep on your couch. He gets grumpy when I wake him.” Law winked.
“We wouldn’t want that. Bear deserves his rest.” He’d made himself at home here quickly. The first time he’d jumped onto the furniture, Law had tried to shoo him down with, We don’t lie on other people’s furniture, big guy. But I’d waved off his concern. It felt homey having him there.
We pushed the furniture to the far wall, even though it was already pretty far away from the kitchen. Bear didn’t move, and I sure as shit wished it were that easy for me to sleep.
Once we had all our supplies together, we began taking off cabinet doors, dismantling and removing fixtures from walls.
“Can I play with the sledgehammer?” Law asked, waggling his eyebrows.
“Oh my God. You’re ridiculous. Have at it.”
He grabbed it from where it leaned against the wall. I made sure my protective glasses were on tight. He had his on as well, and then he swung, the hammer crashing through wood.
The door was open, and Bear jumped off the couch and ran outside, likely to avoid our noise.
“Holy fuck, that feels good. You want a go?” Law asked, and…I was pretty sure I did, which wasn’t like me at all.
I took the tool from him and swung. Wood splintered and fell apart, and I took another hit and then another one. We went back and forth that way until we were surrounded by nothing but a mess, both of us breathing hard, a smile on Law’s face, which made me do the same.
“You liked that,” he said.
“You did too.”
“Obviously, but you’re a little more surprising. I think there are parts of you that want to shake things up more than you’ll ever admit, Rem. One of these days, you need to let yourself do it, or you’re gonna explode.”