“No, this would be a great blog post,” she muttered to herself, completely unamused, before sliding into the passenger seat.

“What’s that?”

Flames, instant and searing, shot into her face.

Just like wanting Idris Elba in your bed didn’t actually mean he would be in your bed, not wanting someone to hear you wasn’t the same as them not being able to hear you.

“I hope we can do it fast,” she hurried to clarify. She kept her gaze out the windshield as they drove off. “Paint the room, I mean. I hope we can paint the room fast. I get kind of cranky when I have to paint things. Once I had to do this six-foot-tall heart for a wedding, and let’s just say it was an absolute disaster.”

“I can’t believe Roger is letting us do it at all. I mean, you aren’t close friends or anything, and yet he gave us a key to his house and doesn’t care if we come and go as we please? That’s taking southern hospitality a little too far, in my opinion.”

So they weren’t going to talk about the kiss?

Okay, Sloane could work with that. Bury it deep. Deny it ever happened. Blame the spider and hormones. That was the smart play.

Pretend to have lost it over each other. Not lose their good sense and their clothes.

Sloane could do that.

Done and done.

“I think it’s more stress than anything.” She actively rolled her shoulders back, trying to get rid of the tension. “He was always an anxious guy in school, and now he’s got a kid on the way. If Zelda was in town, though, probably not.”

“I’m just saying, it’s still weird.” Out of her periphery, she saw him shrug. “Though I guess I’d rather us be alone than have someone hovering over us while we work. At least this way we can’t get caught in another conversation that lasts an eternity.”

Sloane agreed, all mature, her mind not at all trying to pick her own adventure and continue what they’d been doing in the kitchen with a slew of imagined what-ifs.

“Yeah, it should make things go a lot faster for sure.”

Brady nodded.

Then she heard the smirk when he spoke again before she even had the time to whip her head around to see it.

“Just as long as you don’t throw yourself shirtless at me again, we should be fine.”

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve