She laughed and tried to shove him away. “You’re a penis, all right. A big walking, talking penis.”
He kissed her again, this time until she surrendered and wrapped her arms around his neck. There were only a few more days of kissing her in his future, so he intended to make it a priority.
“Okay,” she whispered when he was done. “You can drive. But I get to pick exactly what part of me you’re massaging.”
“I can live with that.” He slapped her on the butt when she climbed into the truck, and then laughed as he walked around to the driver’s side and caught her flipping him off through the window.
He’d make her pay for that later.
Chapter Eighteen
“I needed to grab another box of screws but, when I got to the truck, I realized I’d left my wallet in my tool bucket. When I went back around the house to get it, she had my plans open and was double-checking all my measurements.”
Emma’s cheeks burned when Gram laughed at Sean’s story but, since she couldn’t deny it, she stuck her last bite of the fabulous steak he’d grilled into her mouth.
“That’s my Emma,” Gram said. “I think her first words were ‘if you want something done right, do it yourself.’”
“In my defense,” she said when she’d swallowed, pointing her fork at Sean for emphasis, “my name is on the truck and being able to pound nails doesn’t make you a builder. I have a responsibility to my clients to make sure they get quality work.”
“I do quality work.”
“I know you build a quality deck, but stairs are tricky.” She smiled sweetly at him. “I had to double-check.”
“It’s all done but the seating now and it’s good work, even though I practically had to duct tape you to a tree in order to work in peace.”
She might have taken offense at his words if not for the fact he was playing footsies with her under the table. And when he nudged her foot to get her to look at him, he winked in that way that—along with the grin—made it almost impossible for her to be mad at him.
“It’s Sean’s turn to wash tonight. Emma, you dry and I’ll put away.”
“I’ll wash, Gram. Sean can dry.”
“I can wash,” Sean told her. “The world won’t come to an end if I wash the silverware before the cups.”
“It makes me twitch.”
“I know it does. That’s why I do it.” He leaned over and kissed her before she could protest.
“That new undercover cop show I like is on tonight,” Gram said as they cleared the table. “Maybe Sean won’t snort his way through this episode.”
He laughed and started filling the sink with hot, soapy water. “I’m sorry, but if he keeps shoving his gun in his waistband like that, he’s going to shoot his…he’s going to shoot himself in a place men don’t want to be shot.”
Emma watched him dump the plates and silverware into the water—while three coffee mugs sat on the counter waiting to be washed—but forced herself to ignore it. “Can’t be worse than the movie the other night.”
“That was just stupid,” Sean said while Gram laughed.
They’d try to watch a military action movie and by the time they were fifteen minutes in, she thought they were going to have to medicate Sean if they wanted to see the end. After a particularly heated lecture about what helicopters could and couldn’t do, Emma had hushed him, but he’d still snorted so often in derision she was surprised he hadn’t done permanent damage to his sinuses.
“I don’t want you to think that’s real life,” he told them.
“I promise,” Gram said, “if I ever want to use a tank to break somebody out of a federal prison, I’ll ask you how to do it correctly first.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Thanks, Cat. At least you appreciate me, unlike Emma, who just tells me to shut up.”
“I’d appreciate you more if there wasn’t salad dressing floating in the dishwater you’re about to wash my coffee cup in.”
“According to the official guy’s handbook, if I keep doing it wrong, you’re supposed to let me watch SportsCenter while you do it yourself.”
“Did the official guy’s handbook also tell you that if that happens, you’ll also be free to watch the late-night sports shows while I do other things myself?”
The tips of his ears turned pink as he cast a sideways glance at her grandmother, but Gram just laughed.
Emma couldn’t put her finger on exactly when it happened, but at some point the time she spent with just Sean and Gram had become her new normal. And she liked her new normal.