CHAPTER 18
My ex has three spirit animals: lion, ass, cheetah.
-Text from Iris to Callum
SHINE
“Hey, Lindy,” I heard Iris’s voice as she walked into the house, acting for all she was worth as if she had every right in the world to walk in unannounced.
Not hearing Lindy’s response, I started to grin.
That grin got huge when she made her way into the kitchen where I was standing barefoot, drinking a cup of coffee.
She returned my smile as she said, “Hey, did the exterminators make it out yet?”
There was a long silent pause and then, “What do you mean exterminators?”
During our dinner two weeks ago, Iris and I had tried to come up with a way to get Lindy to take me up on Iris’s offer to switch houses.
It’d been mentioned that Lindy was deathly afraid of scorpions, but hadn’t actually mentioned it to anyone. I’d mentioned how, one time while at the zoo, Lindy had not only shied away from the reptile room, but had gone sheet white at the mention of scorpions.
Which had made Iris’s wheels turn.
However, Lindy had been gone the last two weeks visiting her parents in Florida, leaving us unable to implement our plan until today.
I’d texted Iris last night—she’d been on a red-eye flight working a pickup flight that would hopefully keep her off for two weeks now—and she’d decided to come over the moment she woke up.
Which, apparently, was now.
“Yeah, we saw a couple of scorpions the last couple of days,” Iris said conversationally. “He was calling the exterminator today.”
“I did call,” I said as I saw Lindy’s face go white like it did that one time at the zoo. “They said there was nothing they could do for scorpions. That they came in when it was extremely wet outside. They said that likely, there’s some way into our house that we don’t know about, and they’ll probably show up randomly until the rain stops. Said, since we have a field outside our house, he was surprised we weren’t seeing mice as well as scorpions.”
Lindy swayed on her feet, her eyes scanning the floors frantically.
“But don’t worry, we haven’t seen any upstairs,” Iris said. “I think that’s why I haven’t seen any at my place. I have a big porch they’d have to go up to get to my place.”
Lindy took a step out of the kitchen. “W-where did you see them?”
“Kitchen, my bedroom, and the laundry room,” I answered.
Which happened to be right next to Lindy’s room.
“Oh, gosh,” she whispered quietly, likely not for us to hear.
My lips quirked behind the coffee cup that I’d lifted to my mouth.
After taking a sip, it was to hear Lindy say, “Hey, I was thinking. You want to go ahead and switch like you talked about? Move in with Callum? Let me take your place?” She looked as if she was trying to come up with something convincing. “I, uh, was informed that my job was liquidating, and they were going to let a few of us go. I want to make sure that I can afford my place on my own salary.”
I didn’t believe her for a second.
She worked for a good firm that was close to her family. There was no way she would be one of the ones being let go.
“Oh,” Iris said, “well, sure, I guess. I was having a problem with my ex anyway. I just found out that he slept with my sister.”
Lindy showed her the appropriate amount of disgust, then said, “When do you want to do the switch?”
“Right now if you want,” Iris said. “I’ve been living in Callum’s room anyway.”
She had. When she was home. Which hadn’t been much since she’d been working so much over the last week.
A week ago, I’d asked her if she wanted to go on a family vacation with me in a few weeks, and she’d said yes, and immediately started to make plans to have those days off, which included switching flights with friends to enable herself to be off for a week and a half.
Lindy backed out of the room and said, “I’ll go start packing.”
We waited for her bedroom door to close before Iris all but tackled me.
Luckily, I’d expected the move, and set the cup of coffee down before she hit me.
Her arm wrapped around me and she pulled herself up until she was all but using the counter behind me to hold herself up.
Then she was kissing me like her life depended on it.
“Missed you,” I said, placing my hand on her ass and pulling her in tight, using the other hand to fist her hair and hold her where I wanted her.
Movement out of the kitchen window caught my attention—the neighbor mowing his lawn—and I shifted so that Iris’s back was to the counter.
I picked her up then and sat her ass on the counter, my hands skimming up the outsides of her legs, starting from her calves and ending at the outside of her hips.