Chapter 7 #2
Scrape, scrape, scrape. Her ears picked up on the gentle sounds of someone working inside the house.
It was too dark still to see more than a few inches in front of her face.
Yet, the scraping continued. Slow and steady, it was almost smooth enough to be ignored.
Except there was something else beckoning her out of bed.
Stuffing her feet into the house shoes Dee-Dee gave her, she hugged the throw blanket around her shoulders.
The flannel pajama bottoms fit fine, but they didn’t have much in the way of tops that fit her chest. Whoever Fel was, they were broader in the shoulders, so while their outer clothes fit fine, there were no comfortable shirts.
Thus, she was in one of her sleep tank tops from the ship.
The kind that were satiny and breezy, but her nipples definitely popped out and they didn’t leave a single thing to the imagination.
On the ship, she always wore her flight suits till she was climbing into her bunk, then she only wore panties and the tank tops.
Here, she was curled up in the scratchy but warm thrown blanket.
Daisy shuffled through the hall, following a bobbing amber light that wasn’t strong enough to pierce the shadows of the house.
Rounding the corner of the hall, she stopped before running into Ryzer’s back.
He was sanding the door frame, wood putty by his hooves.
He turned to address the other side to find her haunting his halls. He barked, “Fuck!”
“Sorry!” she hissed under her breath. He clamped a hand over his eyes, the other curled into a fist and pressed to the wall.
The sandpaper fell like a leaf in the wind to the floor.
Daisy tiptoed closer, listening to his ragged inhales then calculated exhales, and picked it up.
When he straightened, his face was pulled in a deep frown.
But there she was, standing a few inches from him, holding up the sandpaper.
“Still getting used to tuning out all the noises.”
“Yeah, well, you need to make more noise when you walk,” he grumbled.
“Can I help?”
“Not really a two-person gig, Sweets.” He plucked the sandpaper kindly out of her palm.
Returning to his task, he began the rhythmic stroke up and down across the frame.
He’d already put the wood filler in, and let it dry, which made her wonder when he started.
Ryzer chuckled, “Not to worry. I filled in the cracks before I went to bed. Knew it’d be dry by the time I got up. ”
“How’d you know I was worried?” She arched a brow at him.
He spared a hand from his project to poke at the wrinkle in her brow. “You scrunch this when you’re thinking too hard.”
“Yeah, well, at least I don’t swish my tail when I’ve got a good hand in poker.” She smirked proudly as he slowed to a stop in his movements. He stood up straight and turned to look her dead on. His face was blank. Ryzer blinked at her once.
“That’s my tell?”
“Yup,” she wiggled her brows. “A quick left-right swish, every time you think you’ve got the winning hand.”
“Damn,” he exhaled.
“Don’t worry, when Dallen’s got a bad hand, he toys with his nose ring right before he bets.” Daisy adjusted the blanket around her shoulders before leaning against the nearby wall.
“Why didn’t you say nuffin’ during poker night?” he scoffed.
“Cause you and Dallen actually care about winning,” she laughed, swatting at the air in front of him.
“Jones plays cause he likes playing, not that he wants to win. Eddy likes being included, but I’d say he’s only slightly better than me.
Dee-Dee…well, Dee-Dee doesn’t want to win, she’s just there to make sure you lose. ”
“Yeah,” Ryzer rolled his eyes. He returned to smoothing the frame with steady movements. “That tracks for her.”
Daisy couldn’t help the grin on her lips. He was so focused, eyes narrowed slightly and shoulders engaged. It was strange to lean there, studying him. She’d not realized her lower lip slowly getting worked between her teeth until he glanced up from his work.
“You got something to say?”
“Oh, I got a tell for wanting to say something now?” she retorted, pushing off the wall with her shoulder.
“Call it intuition.”
“I’m fine,” she scoffed. Daisy twisted an inch, deciding it was smarter to head back to bed while she could still get some rest in.
The last thing she needed was to stay here and watch him like some love-sick puppy.
Fawning over everything he does, as if that would change anything. Daisy was his employee now. His burden.
“It yer ma?” His words stopped her. Her cheeks heated.
“Pardon?” she blurted out.
“Is that who you don’t want to talk about but do want to talk about?” He glanced back to his work, as if to give her space. It felt kind in the simplicity of him not staring right at her as she scrambled for what to say.
“Oh, no. I mean, yes. I don’t want to talk about her.
I don’t want to talk about how the last time I spoke with her was weeks ago and my first thought was she would be upset to not see the money and not that she would be worried about me.
Because I’ve somehow equated my position in this family as only a means for producing income…
and not the daughter she begged not to fly that ship because she was worried about this exact situation.
Well, not this exact situation,” she babbled ceaselessly, unable to help slipping the blanket off her shoulders.
Instead, she worried the scratchy fabric between her hands as she spoke.
“I don’t think either of us anticipated me crash landing on a farm. ”
“Quite the shock to me too,” Ryzer snickered.
Daisy scoffed, swatting at him with the blanket. “Anyway, no, that’s not what I wanted to say.”