Train and Rider lifted down a brand-new sink and toilet to Drake.
“How much am I going to owe you for your generosity?” he asked skeptically.
“Nothing. I’ll be glad to get them out of the garage. Train keeps complaining they’re taking up space when he’s working on the bikes.”
“Move, Greer. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Tate had him moving to the side as the men came in, carrying the toilet and sink.
Willa went to the dining room table to set the food out. “Evie and I thought we would bring something for the men to snack on while they paint. She wanted to come, but she didn’t want to be around the fumes of the paint with her being pregnant.” The pastor’s wife gave Dustin a brief hug before asking where the coffee pot was.
“I don’t need your help …”
Viper took one of the paint cans that Drake had handed him, setting it down on the tarp that Cash was spreading out.
“Funny thing about help, you never know where it’s going to come from.” Using a pocket knife, he opened the paint then used a painting stick to stir it.
“You have that paint left over, too? It’s funny as hell how it matches my walls.”
Viper kept stirring. “Coincidences happen.”
“How much did you have to pay to open the hardware store? I’ll be paying you back, and for the other things you brought.”
Viper stood up. “I won’t touch a dime of your money. You may not take my thanks for saving Aisha’s life, but I’m not giving you the choice of not taking my help.”
“I didn’t do a thing—”
“Where are the paint brushes, Cash?” Viper turned, giving him his back.
Greer knew when he was dealing with someone as stubborn as he was.
“Got another one?”
Viper held out the assortment Cash had given him.
“This doesn’t mean we are best bud’s or anything, right?”
“No, Greer. Friendship isn’t what I think when I think of you.”
He grinned, taking the roller and leaving Viper with the small paintbrush. “Asshole come to mind?”
“I was thinking fuckwad, but asshole will do.”
22
Holly rolled over in her bed, nearly falling off when she came into contact with a body lying next to hers. She would have run from the room screaming if the morning sun hadn’t allowed her to see Greer’s sleeping face.
Angrily, she grasped her pillow, beating him with it.
“Get out!” she hissed.
“Woman, I’m trying to sleep,” he grumbled, rolling onto his side away from her pillow beating.
“Then go home and sleep in your own bed!” she whispered furiously.
“I can’t.”
She dropped the pillow, leaning over his side to see his face. “Why can’t you sleep in your own bed?”
“Had a painting party last night. The whole place stinks.”
“You took off last night, didn’t call me to tell me what was going on, leaving Dustin in a panic when it was a false alarm, and you’re telling me now you had a party last night to paint my house and I could have gone!”
“Pretty much,” he mumbled, pulling his pillow over his head.
She gave Greer a hard shove, trying to knock him off the bed. When he didn’t move, she turned her head and body sideways, using her legs and feet to shove him off the bed.
Greer tumbled of the bed like a giant log, glaring at her when he managed to get out from the blankets and pillows.
“Woman, you make it hard for a man to love you.”
“Do I?” she snarled, getting to her knees. “Then let me make life easier for you.” She lifted her hand, tugging at her engagement ring.
“Woman, you better not.”
She mockingly took it off, dropping it down on the mattress right in front of his nose. Then she turned to crawl toward the other side of the bed, only to find her feet grasped, swiping her knees out from under her.
“I warned you!”
She felt him getting on the bed, holding her down as he climbed on top of her, pinning her into the mattress.
“You big oaf, get off!”
“Is that any way for you to treat your fiancé?” he sternly hissed in her ear.
“I don’t have one anymore. I told you I didn’t want you staying the night when Logan is here!” She tried to turn her head to look at him, but his jaw against her cheek prevented her.
“I locked your bedroom door, and Dustin is sleeping in Logan’s bed. He won’t let Logan come downstairs until I’m gone. Satisfied?”
“No.” Her heated anger might have gone down, but she was still mad. “You could have called me last night or let me come out and paint my house.”
“It’s not your house until that ring is on your finger, and you took it off!”
Gritting her teeth, she raised her left hand, and Greer slid her ring back on. Before she could blast him with her angry words again, he settled more comfortably on her. His breathing escalated, blowing tendrils of hair across the side of her face.