Just Sex by Heidi Lynn Anderson Read Free Book Online Page B

all.” She slid out of last nights clothes, yanked an old T-shirt off a shelf, pulled it on and shimmied into worn yoga pants. “Okay, Alfred, we’ll see if your theory’s right.” She slid her feet into a ratty pair of sneakers.
    Kat stepped into her bathroom, tugged a brush through her hair, tied it up and wrapped an old silk scarf around her head. She splashed water on her pale face, squeezed toothpaste on her toothbrush and let her electric toothbrush do the work for her. “I’m too old to do tequila shots.”
    Water dripped on her T-shirt. She grabbed a discarded towel and patted herself dry. She opened her medicine chest and caught sight of her bloodshot eyes. She fingered her puffiness, grabbed antacids and made her way downstairs.
    The smell of paint warmed her heart. “Change is good,” Kat told herself. She spotted Patricia. “Looks like you have a plan.” She popped a chalky tablet in her mouth.
    “Are we all right?” Patricia asked.
    Kat slid her arm around Patricia. As fights with Patty went, this one was mild. “Always. We’re family.” She squeezed her small waist. “What’s the plan, boss?”
    Patricia leaned into her, “Nothing happened last night?” she asked.
    “I passed out.”
    Patricia chuckled. “You didn’t?”
    “Yes I did, and J.J. held me all night.”
    “How did that feel?”
    “Nice, after my head stopped spinning.”
    A man walked by with a pail of paint. Kat whispered, “It’s been a long time. I forgot what it was like to wake up engulfed in a man’s heat.”
    “That’s my favorite part of being married,” Patricia said. “It almost makes up for the toilet seat being left up.”
    “I don’t know about that.” She picked up a roller and sighed. “Are we starting in the kitchen?”
    Ron came up behind them. “Chop, chop, ladies, we don’t have all day for you to gossip.”
    “Yes sir.” Kat poured paint into a pan and rolled the buttery color on the wall.
    Patricia smacked a loud kiss on her husband’s lips, grabbed the small brush from his hand, pulled the six-foot ladder over to the wall, climbed it and started to edge the taped crown molding next to Kat.
    He shook his head and swiped the tape off the counter. “Women.” Ron stood next to Kat and taped the trim.
    She glanced over at him, “What did you and Sam do last night?”
    “That boy beat my ass at Kinect sports. He knows how to make me feel old.”
    Patricia laughed, “When I got home last night, he was passed out in the chair and Sam was asleep on the couch.”
    Kat stood back from her wall and smiled. The buttery color warmed the space. “What do you guys think?”
    “I love it,” Patricia said. “It brightens the space and makes you feel happy.”
    Kat dipped her roller in the pan. “That’s what I was going for.”
    Ron shrugged. “It looks yellow to me, but if you two are happy, then I’m happy.”
    She moved the roller over the wall. “Spoken like a well-trained man.”
    “I’m not stupid. I learned how to say ‘yes dear’ very early.”
    “Hey.” Patricia flung her brush at Ron. It landed with a thud on Kat’s back. Patricia laughed. “Sorry.”
    “It’s on now, bitch.” Kat chuckled, stomped over to Patty and ran the roller over her chest.
    “That’s it.” Patricia dipped her hand in the paint and smeared Kat’s face.
    Kat dropped her roller and pounced.
    Ron waded in and pulled them apart. Kat and Patricia attacked him for his efforts. “I think I dreamed something like this last week,” he said.
    “How did it end?” Kat asked
    “Better than this is going to.” He picked up the tray of paint and poured it over her head.

Chapter Six
     
    Kat rinsed yellow flecks of paint down the drain as she scoured her arms with an industrial-strength scrub brush. “God, what a mess.” She adjusted the temperature of the water to boiling in the hope it would remove all the caked-on paint.
    By the time she’d cleaned the huge mess in the kitchen and put Sam and his