Worth Every Cent (Worth It 2)

And then I felt like shit. I called the landlord and left a voice message on his answering machine, letting him know that if there was anything I could do to let me know. Anything to get Michelle out of Cecily’s place faster.

Getting Anton’s house showroom ready wasn’t going to take as much work as I thought. Between Michelle and I, we would easily knock it out on Thursday. I made a list of everything that needed to be done in between texting back and forth with her. Dusting. Vacuuming. Arranging books on some shelves. I had arranged for someone to come in Thursday afternoon and professionally clean down the furniture to really make it look nice in the space. We needed to go into the attic and shove some things around so they could see the storage space in the house. The lawn needed to be mowed and weeds needed to be pulled. Even the trees out back could use a decent trimming.

So how much work are we looking at for tomorrow?

I smiled down at Michelle’s text as I drew in a deep breath.

Nothing you aren’t already familiar with. Some trimming. Weeding. Mowing of the lawn. Dusting. Rearranging. I’m having the furniture professionally cleaned tomorrow afternoon as well.

Then we should dust and all of that beforehand. It doesn’t make sense to clean the furniture if we’re going to kick up dust after.

I’ve got a few places where we could kick up dust without getting the furniture dirty.

I grinned as I sent off the message and waited for her response. And it was one that suddenly had me counting down the minutes until I could see her again.

That a command, Bossman? Or simply a statement?

It seemed as if my innocent little Michelle enjoyed playing with fire. And luckily for her, I was a blazing flame.

Chapter 16

Michelle

I didn’t want to admit it out loud, but I missed Grayson. Even though we’d only seen one another two days ago and had been texting non-stop, it wasn’t the same as being there with him. Feeling his warmth. Watching him smile and hearing his voice in my ear. And some of our conversations had me riled up and aching to straddle his lap. I was very excited to see him on my day off, even thou

gh we would be cleaning and organizing Anton’s house.

Any time spent with him was worth it.

I sat on the Cecily’s couch, waiting anxiously for him to arrive. I heard her slamming things around in the kitchen, mumbling and cursing to herself. I really hoped my potential landlord contacted me today. It pained me that his wife was in the hospital, but waiting until the end of the week was killing me. Things with Cecily had gotten more and more tense. We weren’t talking. She was intentionally taking opposite shifts from me so we would never run into one another.

Moving out of her place was a priority, and I really hoped he would contact me soon.

My friendship with Cecily had deteriorated quickly. Ever since that incident with Andy and Gray standing there at the door, things hadn’t been the same. I honestly wasn’t sure she even considered me a friend any longer, despite the fact that I was on her couch. I had no idea what I’d done to piss her off so badly, but she spent most of her time attempting to avoid me.

And at that point, I no longer cared.

All I cared about was getting out and never looking back.

The sound of a car pulling up forced me off the couch. I jumped to my feet and grabbed my purse, ready to rush out the door. I didn’t want to listen to Cecily destroy her kitchen a second longer. All I wanted was to be in the presence of Grayson. I slammed out of the house without even trying to say goodbye to her, and I rushed to his car. I hopped in and buckled my seat belt, then quickly leaned over and kissed the cheek he offered up to me.

He smiled a warm smile that churned my gut, filling me with a happiness I couldn’t explain.

“So, what do we have to do first?” I asked.

“Dust,” Gray said. “Then we’ll vacuum. Then we can start rearranging the rooms before the furniture cleaners get there.”

“You know, I was thinking last night on how to arrange the rooms. Half of his things have already been given away, which makes some of that furniture a little pointless. You know, like dead space.”

“I was actually thinking the same thing,” he said.

“What if we dug some of that stuff out of the attic to fill the empty space? Mindless decorations. That would clear the attic space so the realtor could showcase the storage space of the house, and we wouldn’t have to spend hours moving furniture into a storage shed or something.”

“I knew I hired the right woman for the job,” he said with a grin.

I smiled proudly as I sat back, feeling the warm summer air whipping through my hair. We pulled up to Anton’s place and made our way inside, then we got to work. We walked room to room, dusting over empty countertops and tables and knocking stuff off the fans and the blinds. I climbed up a ladder and went to dust the top of a fan before I sneezed. The ladder teetered and I cried out, just knowing I was going to fall.

Until Gray came out of nowhere and caught me in his arms.