Dangerous Hearts

Sharing the Chores

Charlie's POV

We made it to my cute little house with an easy, companionable conversation after Stella's phone call. Alex parked behind my car in the driveway, and we both got out simultaneously. He leaned his arms on the top of it to look at me as I shuffled through my purse for my keys to open the house, "Okay, sweet girl, what are we doing first?" His deep voice had a small gasp escape me and me fumbling with my grip on the keys after a few moments of silence from him. I was so out of it that his voice literally freaked me out. Great job, Charlie. Now you look like an i***t; I scolded myself internally.

It was then I realized what he'd called me, and my head shot up, so I could look at him, "What?" Did he just call me a 'sweet girl?'

He chuckled and pushed himself off of the car and came around to where I was standing, "I panicked a little about what to call you for a second. I love your name, but I wanted a pet name for you as well."

Oh. Well, then. "A...pet name?" Stephen had rarely called me anything other than Charlie, after he'd started changing and showing his true colors, it was 'sweetheart' though, when he intended to show me how upset he was with me without letting anyone else know what was coming next. I don't think I could ever accept that as a pet name ever again.

"Yes, a pet name. An endearment that shows how much you mean to me," he said as he cupped my cheek and smiled softly.

I sighed softly, "Okay. Anything but sweetheart, though." I marched up to my front door then, having finally found my keys in the mess of my purse. I was going to have to do a thorough clean out soon. I realized that I was shaking slightly when I tried to put the key in the door. He was making me nervous now, with all his pet name talk. Also, with him knowing about my past with Stephen and me bringing up my aversion to that particular name, I knew he was wondering about it all and was bound to ask me about it.

I could feel his presence behind me, and I finally was able to turn the lock and open the door.

"What about baby doll? Or baby girl?" He asked as he shut the door behind us. I scrunched my nose as I thought. Those names actually made me want to squeeze my thighs together. I have no idea why it made me feel like that, but I definitely enjoyed that feeling.

I dropped my purse on the table and slipped my shoes off to give myself an excuse not to answer right away, so that I could contain myself from the excitement he'd just given me. I turned to look at him as he slipped his jacket on the back of my chair and crossed his arms.

"Either one of those would work for me," I finally told him. I gave him a soft, kind of shy smile, and he grinned like he knew about my reaction earlier. He looked so satisfied with my response that I couldn't help but laugh before turning away to pick up the list I'd made the other day on what chores I needed to do today. If I was by myself, I would've had to split it up into two days with the late start that we had today, but with the both of us here now, we could probably knock it out in a few hours.

I took it back to show it to him, and he looked thoughtfully at it before giving me a sly look, "You know, I do have people to do things like this, right?"

I rolled my eyes and grinned, "I'm well aware you do, but they wouldn't do them like we would, and I'd like to keep it that way."

He chuckled, "Alright. What would you like me to start with?" I glanced at the list to see which one would be the easiest for him to do first and decided on fixing the creaky bathroom door. It had been knocked off the hinges by Stephen after one of our conversations didn't go the way he'd wanted, and we hadn't had a chance to fix it yet. Stella isn't in any way capable of fixing things like I was, so I took on the task of being our fixer-upper person. After I showed him the door and where the tools were, he rolled up his sleeves and got to work.

I decided to start with painting the window sills around the house. Stella decided that we needed a new coat of white to match the garden that she'd started and gave up on it after a week, so I also had to water them today as well. After changing into some leggings and an off-the-shoulder t-shirt, I grabbed the paint and brushes and walked outside to start. It was still pretty early in the day, but I could tell by the heat creeping up with the sun, that it was going to be very hot in the next couple of hours. Hopefully, I had enough time to start mowing before it got really bad though.

I set everything up, got my music going, and went to work.

Once I got into a good groove, especially with some of my favorite music, the time went by so fast and so did the painting. Next thing I knew, Alexander had come out and tapped my shoulder to get my attention.

"Come on, let's get some water in you and maybe something to eat. It looks great, but I don't want you to get heat stroke." He grabbed my hand, which was covered in quickly drying paint, and pulled me back inside. I turned off my music and pulled out some sandwich stuff to make us some lunch.

"How much have you gotten to while I've been out there?" I asked softly as I smoothed some mayo onto the bread.

He grinned, "About half of the inside stuff. The door took me a bit to figure out, since I had to do some damage repairs, but the rest was easy. Your sink is no longer leaking, it was just a loose joint in the water pipes. I also did some cleaning in your hallway closet and a few of the other small tasks, while you've been sweltering outside." I giggled at him as I handed him his sandwich. I did have some sweat on my lower back right now that made me shiver from my A/C hitting it.

"I've been holding off on a lot of this stuff and I would've had to move some to another day if I was by myself, so I do appreciate you coming out to help me with it today."

He smiled as he took a bite from his sandwich, "I'm happy to help, but after we eat, it's my turn to do the outside. You're starting to get a little pink in the cheeks and I don't want you to get sunburned on your gorgeous face."

I'm pretty sure that the redness on my face was actually the blush that was brought on by his compliment, but I couldn't exactly dispute it because of how hot I still was from being outside.

I finished making my sandwich and took it over to the table before sitting across from him. Shrugging, I gave him a grin and said, "I appreciate that. I can start on cleaning out the fridge and cabinets after we eat."

"I'll also water the garden while I'm out there and when I'm finished, we can tag team the rest," He said gently.