Takedown Teague (Caged #1)(38)

Leaning back against the sink, I looked around and decided there wasn’t anything worse to clean up. I swallowed and sighed in relief.

I was never one to be overly concerned with spotlessness, but I probably needed to clean up my act.





Chapter 10—Accept the Arrangements


“Well, I feel a lot less like a mooch now,” Tria said several hours later. We had completely cleaned up the kitchen, living room, and bathroom. The only place we hadn’t touched was the bedroom, but I had just done laundry, and there wasn’t much else in there. All the trash had been gathered up, the CDs placed back in their respective cases, and the dishes washed. Tria handed me the last of the plates, which I dried carefully with a towel before placing them in the cabinet where they belonged.

“I think I’m pretty much feeling like the waste of space so far,” I agreed. “I made the mess, but you cleaned up more of it than I did.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you trashed the place just to make me feel better!”

We both laughed, and then Tria poured apple juice into two clean glasses and brought them over to the sparkling clean table.

“I’m really sorry,” I said after I took a sip. “I guess I never really thought too much about how this place looked. I should have cleaned it up before you got here.”

“It was all kind of rushed,” Tria said. “Don’t worry about it. It really did make me feel like I was contributing.”

“I don’t think this place looked this good the day I moved in,” I told her.

“How long have you been here?”

“Quite a while,” I said. “I moved here not long after I dropped out of school.”

“Were you going to Hoffman?” Tria asked.

“No.” I shook my head. “I never graduated from high school.”

“Oh…um…I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” I said. “It was my own decision.”

“Why did you drop out?”

“That is way too long a story,” I said. “It’s late, and I have to train tomorrow.”

“You’re right,” she said. “I’m sorry. I should have realized how late it was.”

“Well, we both keep pretty unconventional hours,” I said. “I do, at least. I try to get to bed at a decent hour when I know I’ll be training the next day. If I don’t, Yolanda will kick my ass.”

“I try to keep it normal so I can get to my classes,” Tria told me. “The earliest one doesn’t start until ten o’clock, at least.”

“That’s good.” I looked up at the clock on the kitchen wall. “We probably ought to turn in so you’re not late or tired or anything.”

We both stood, and Tria washed and dried the glasses quickly before putting them away. I had to smile because cleaning up wouldn’t even have occurred to me. On a good day, I might have put them in the sink.

I led the way to the hall and toward the bedroom door. As soon as we approached, Tria reached over and opened up the door to the closet, looking a little confused. That’s when a sinking feeling came over me. There was a major aspect of this whole arrangement that hadn’t even come to mind. Tria stopped and looked from one side of the hall to the other as she slowly closed the closet door.

“Ah…I…um…” Tria stumbled over her words. “I’ll just make up the couch, then?”

My arms felt like they were made of jelly as I realized what she meant. She had obviously thought the closet—which she hadn’t had in her apartment—was the second bedroom. Much like the mess, I hadn’t considered sleeping arrangements either.

“Take the bed,” I told her. I couldn’t believe how little I had actually thought about how this would all work out and was a little disgusted with myself. “I’ll stay on the couch.”

“No, Liam, no.” Tria held her hand out in front of her as if she was one of the Supremes and shook her head vigorously. “I am not kicking you out of your own bed. No.”

“I’m not letting you sleep on the couch,” I said emphatically. All I could think about was the stack of magazines I had hidden under there now.

“Why not?” She placed her hands on her hips, and I knew from the look in her eye this was going to be a battle.

“Because it’s a piece of shit,” I said. “It’s uncomfortable and nasty.”

And there’s a huge stack of porn underneath it.

“There’s no way I’m kicking you out of your bed!” Tria was equally emphatic, but I wasn’t going to budge on this one.

“You are not sleeping on the couch.”

“Well, what other options are there?”

Of course, there was really only one. I swallowed, glanced into the bedroom, and then back at Tria. After a long pause, I offered the only suggestion I had.

“It’s big enough,” I said quietly.

“Liam, I…” Her voice trailed off. She also looked from the small bedroom, which consisted of the bed and dresser, and then back to me. At least there wasn’t a shit-ton of dirty laundry around. There was only a small pile at the end of the unmade bed.

“I wouldn’t…” I started to speak but wasn’t sure how to end the sentence. I wanted to reassure her of…of what? That I wasn’t interested in getting into her panties? Because there was no way those words could pass my lips without having dead baby angels drop out of the sky.