RAISING SUMMER

CRYING OVER SPILT PAINT

I sat on the couch in my pajamas making faces at Summer and watching her priceless reactions. She watched my face in curiosity.

"Boo!" I took the hands away from my face. She started to frown in horror. "No, no, no it's okay baby, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to scare you." I picked her up as she cried.

"Nice one Jane!" Luke replied as he sat beside me on the couch. He reached out his arms to her and soothed her. I rolled my eyes at him and grabbed the remote.

"So what are you watching?" He asked as I ignored him. I was still really mad that he won my room. "Are you mad at me?" He asked. "Oh jeez is it that time of the month?" I turned around and punched him in the arm and left the living-room. He followed me attentively through the kitchen rubbing the sore spot on his arm. "Well don't make me feel bad." He replied looking at me desperately. As I continued to ignore his 24 hour steak was long over. "Okay how can I redeem myself?" He batted his eyelashes. "Are you listening?" He asked. I turned around in response, not saying a word leaning my back against the counter. "I feel bad for taking your room."

"So what?" I asked coldly.

"Well since we are living together and most likely for a while we need to figure this out. There's only 2 beds in this house. I doubt you want to share a bed although I wouldn't mind at all." He grinned looking me up head to toe.

"In your dreams." I scoffed.

"Ouch I'm wounded Janey." I placed his hand over his heart dramatically.

"Spit out your proposal Barrett." I rolled my eyes.

"Why don't we pack up Rachel's office? I can sleep in there so you can have your room back." He softened. "Obviously you and I don't want to disturb Rachel's room. Why don't we just fix up that room?"

"You want to makeover Rachel's office?" I suggested.

"Yeah, it could be fun. Right?"  He beamed.

"Easy for you to say you're not exactly the Ty Pennington of home makeovers." I claimed.

"Ty who-ington?" He asked.

"You know, Ty Pennington?" I said.

He shook his head.

"You know, MOVE THAT BUS!!!" I quoted. He looked at me oddly, trying to figure out what the hell I was doing.

"Extreme Home Makeover." I explained. His eyes became bright and he started to chuckle.

"Ohhhhhh." He continued to chuckle.

"You remember now?" I asked as he continued to laugh.

"Yeah." He shook his head.

"You don't remember, do you?" I deflated.

"Nope, not one bit?" He shook his head.

"Are you really up for this?" I asked him.

"Hell yeah I'm like Handy Manny, how hard can it be." He shrugged.

"You watch way too many kid shows." That explains a lot.

"I know."

"And you're more like Al Bundy from Married With Children." I opened the fridge with a scoff.

"How dare you relate me to Al Bundy." He replied as I walked out of the kitchen leaving him in there.
"I'll show you! We start tomorrow!"

"Of course you know that show."

"No worries I'll get the supplies, I just need a helping hand with the work." He smiled.

******
I sat Summer in her swing in the corner as she played with the buttons on my overalls. I placed the baby monitor next to her so I could watch from the office we were working on. Luke dragged the numerous cans of paint into the room. I started to cover all the flooring with multiple tarps. I walked back to my soon to be room and so did Luke. He turned on some music and walked next to me with a paintbrush. He placed a paintbrush in my hand.

"You ready?" He asked.

"Yep I packed most of her things away and put them in the hallway so you can move them in the garage. Summer looked peacefully asleep as I watched and painted from the office. Luke went to get us both something to drink. I moved the paint roller on the wall as my arms stung from all the work. I sat on the floor exhausted. We were almost done painting. I kept hearing a shuttering sound. I turned around to find Luke hiding behind a camera.

"I found Rachel's old camera." He snapped a picture.

"Would you stop taking pictures of me?" I asked.

"Never." He chuckled maniacally.

"Give me the damn camera Luke." I demanded and he continued to ignore me. I got up and started to walk towards him. My foot fell into a can of white paint. My foot sloshed around in the liquid as Luke looked at me wide eyed with his jaw wide open. I attempted to take my foot out of the bucket. Luke burst into laughter and snapped another picture. I pulled my foot out of the bucket forcefully. I picked up a bucket of paint.

"So you think that's funny Luke?" I asked.
"Fine! I'll show you something funny." I lifted the paint bucket over his head and flipped it. The white colored paint cascaded down his face as he wiped his face and mouth off.

"Oh it's on Anderson!" He gasped as he pulled out a paint brush and flicked it in my direction, splattering paint all over me. I turned back to a bucket to chase him with a roller. But he committed to the cause by dunking his hand in a bucket and picking me up from behind wiping the paint from cheek to collar bone. This was war. We both took turns back to back throwing paint at each other until we were barely recognizable. Almost completely out of paint on his side I backed him into a corner smacking the last bit of paint on his cheek.

"I won." I cheered as he grabbed my hand. My cheers caught in my throat.  I realized how close we had gotten.

"What if I let you win?" He smiled, leaning dangerously close.

"That would be a lie you never let me win anything." I froze.

"Well this got out of hand." He checked moving paint stocked dark brown curls away from my eyes.

"You really pull off the splattered paint look though." He was so close I could smell the paint fumes. I couldn't tell if I was getting high from the fumes but my stomach was fluttering as he stared at my lips.

"Good idea to put tarps on the floors." I kicked at the floor trying to break the spell. I most definitely won the battle. The baby monitor sounded as Summer cooed. We went to get cleaned up before tending to Summer. I layed down on the couch with Summer on my chest and fell asleep. I heard the snap of a camera above me and instantly woke up seconds later. Luke stood over me and Summer.

"Luke? What are you doing?" I asked.

"Nothing, I'm going out for a little bit, go back to sleep." He explained and walked out the door. My eyes became heavier and heavier until they completely closed and my mind rested for the night.