14. Had A Connection With

14

HAD A CONNECTION WITH

“ L ooks like you’ve got a problem,” Laurel said on Friday. She’d knocked on the backdoor as Easton had told her to do. When he shouted to come in, she did and saw the water on the floor, the dishwasher door open and paper towels everywhere.

“You think?” he asked dryly.

“Do you need help?”

“I don’t want you to get your shoes wet,” he said.

“It’s fine,” she said. Her boots had rubber soles on them, the heel not too big. They were more on the chunky style and she found they were fun to wear. She rolled her jeans up some, thankful they were looser on the bottoms. No reason to get them wet though.

She started to pick up the wet paper towels. They were nothing but a soggy mess on the floor.

He had a garbage bag in his hand and she was filling it. “I went up to shower and came down to this mess.”

His hair was a little damp. She’d bet he was one to just run a towel through it and then comb it. He didn’t have a tight short cut like she’d expect some attorneys to have and she had to remind herself that there was no reason for her to keep going down that road.

But he did have a style like that on the website he showed her, so she had to remember that looks meant nothing.

He was the person she had a connection with and that was all that mattered.

“Not a good way to start the night,” she said. Once she had the paper towels picked up and he was throwing more towels on the floor, she moved over to look in the dishwasher. There was still a bunch of water in there.

“I’m sure it’s clogged,” she said.

“That is my thought.”

“Get me a cup and I’ll start to get the water out and we’ll see.”

“No,” he said. “We can let it go and I’ll take care of it when we get back. I just can’t leave all this water on the floor.”

“Nonsense,” she said. “I know how to fix a dishwasher. I’ve done it a few times.” He started to laugh at her. “I’m serious. Or is your manhood going to be insulted if I can do this?”

“Nope,” he said. “I’m pretty sure you can do anything you put your mind to.”

“Then I’m going home to change and you can order pizza. Date night.”

He just stood there staring at her. “You’re joking, right?”

“No, I’m not,” she said. “Shit happens in life. This is one of those times. We can go out to dinner another night. I’ll fix this for you and we’ll clean this mess up. There is no reason to go out and have you distracted over this. It’s not your house and you’ll be bothered.”

He let out a sigh. “Thanks,” he said. “I will. Not so much about the dishwasher being broken, but the water damage and if more leaks out while I’m gone. Back home, I’d just call maintenance.”

“Maintenance?” she asked. “You rent?”

“Go get changed and come back to help me, then we can talk about it more.”

“Sure,” she said. She went back out the door, dashed across his lawn, his driveway, her driveway and into the backdoor that she rarely used.

She ran to her room and was already pulling her shirt off on the way.

To her, this was more fun than going to dinner anyway.

In two minutes, she was in leggings, sneakers and a T-shirt. She grabbed a sweatshirt to put over it when she was done digging around in the dishwasher. If she had to change her clothes again after, not a big deal.

She grabbed her pink tool bag on the way out too.

When she returned to Easton’s place, he took one look at her and what was in her hand. “Now I’m insulted. Don’t tell me your tools are pink too.”

“They are purple and they work the same as those you’ve got over there. But some of them fit in my hand better.”

The toolbox on the counter looked to be fifty years old and she’d bet it was Easton’s uncle’s that was handed down to Abe. She found that as sweet as she did that her father bought her some of these tools when she was in high school and taught her how to fix things herself.

Easton rolled his eyes. She moved closer and helped him continue to get the water out of the dishwasher with a cup.

“We are getting close to the bottom now,” she said five minutes later. “At least I don’t see a lot of food in there.”

“I rinse my plates for the most part,” he said. “Not completely clean. You don’t need to do that. Hell, you see on TV you can put them in there with all the food still on them.”

She started to laugh. “Yeah, because they aren’t paying the bill to fix your appliances when they break.”

“Good point,” he said. “But I do rinse them off. Not sure about Abe. He’s a pretty neat person, but I can’t remember his habits from years ago.”

“Doesn’t matter at this point,” she said. “Only that we fix it.”

He’d already pulled out the bottom rack, and she started to crawl in to get a closer look with the flashlight she’d taken out of her bag.

“Do you need a towel or something on the floor?” he asked. “It might be a little damp there still. I mopped when you ran home.”

“A towel would be nice. Did you order pizza yet?”

He stopped from walking out of the kitchen to turn. “Not yet. I wasn’t sure what you wanted.”

She lifted her eyes and looked him up and down. “Are we talking about food?”

He laughed. “Right now,” he said. “And if you keep looking at me that way the food and dishwasher are both waiting.”

“But you’ll be distracted and I don’t want that. Get me the towel and then you can order food. I’ll eat any meat or toppings but onions and nasty slimy tiny fish.”

“Got it,” he said.

He came back a few minutes later with two big beach towels in his hand. She was bending over on her hands and knees and her butt was in the air. “If you slap my ass while I’m in here and make me jump, I’m going to smack you with this wrench.”

“I wouldn’t think of it,” he said.

She turned and looked at him. His eyes were on her ass and he was grinning. “Good,” she said. “If you want to do it later, that’s fine, but not now.”

“I didn’t know the light was turning green so quickly.”

“A little bit of flirty and playful affection is still only a yellow light.”

“Noted,” he said.

He laid the towel down, and she got off her knees and was on her hip and side while she removed the cover. There was still some water in there, but she had to get this off to find out what was going on.

Once the cover was off, she got a look at nasty build-up and slime that was clogging the drain.

“This is gross.”

“Is that mold?” he asked. His tone of voice said he was just as wigged out as her.

“No clue and I don’t want to guess. Your cousin should use some cleaners in here now and again. Even vinegar would have taken care of this. Can you get me that garbage bag and a rubber spatula if you’ve got one?”

She heard him open a drawer and then another and then one came into her view, his arm reaching in to hand it over.

She started to scrape as much of it out of the drain and catch area as she could, the rubber bending and getting more than her fingers or another apparatus.

She brought out the first gathering and dropped the brown blackish mess into the bag and gagged at the smell.

“Damn,” he said. “I should take a picture of this so Abe knows not to do it again.”

“I want to say leave me out of the picture.”

“Oh no,” he said. “You’re going to be in it too and then I’ll tell you why. I won’t send it until you’re done and can see the pictures though.”

“If you say so,” she said.

She did three more sweeps and then even posed with a picture of it on the spatula and made an appalled look as she glanced at it. It was a funny shot when Easton showed it to her quickly.

“How is it coming?” he asked. “I feel as if I owe you more than a pizza.”

“No big deal,” she said. “I think we are done. Not sure if this is what caused the problem or not though. I could have just cleaned out the trap area for no reason.”

“It will help with the smell of the dishes at the very least,” he said.

She put the cap back on, then went over and washed her hands and filled up a cup of water and tossed it back into the dishwasher.

“I need to see if it drains and there isn’t much water left in there. I worked around what I could, but it might need more for me to see if it’s working.”

She added another cup for good measure and then shut the door and turned it back on and held her breath.

When the dishwasher started to run and then drain she did a little booty shake, but still opened the door to make sure the water was gone.

“Damn,” he said. “I’m pretty humbled.”

“I’m sure you could have fixed it yourself,” she said.

He lifted one eyebrow at her. “I would have tried and maybe been able to do it. Not positive. I’m better around the house in terms of outside and or hammering shit in place. My Uncle Kurt always said I didn’t have the finesse for detail work. I probably would have broken something trying to clean it out and would have had to call someone in or buy another part.”

“Then it’s a good thing you’ve got me next door,” she said, wiping her hands. She put them to her face to sniff. “Need to wash them again. Got anything stronger than this dish soap?” She gave a little shiver as the scent of God-only-knew-how-old food was lingering under her nails.

“I’ve got Irish Spring upstairs,” he said. “It’s pretty strong.”

“That will do. You need some stronger dish soap too. The cheap stuff only does so much.”

“It’s Abe’s. I haven’t bought much in terms of those things. It was in the pantry.”

“Not a big deal. We can send your cousin some pictures and tell him he needs to get his act together though.”

“He’s liable to say he’ll just call his neighbor if he can’t fix it himself,” he said.

“Look at the frown on your face. Are you jealous?”

He snorted. “I don’t know.”