Ethan declared. “I’m not going to do any painting today. I have somewhere I have to be.” He ran a hand through his hair and checked his watch. “You’re not going to paint my house for me. You spent enough time here last night.” “Five hours,” she said with a disgusted snort. “I figure, at what, ten dollars an hour?—I owe you seven hundred, ninety-five more hours of labor.” He gasped. “What? You do not.” “Yes, I do. So you’d better let me get to work.” “Can we talk about this later? I hate to leave, because I’d really like to straighten this out with you, but I have somewhere I need to be right now.” She waved him off with an impatient hand. “Yes, go. You’re cutting into my time. If I start now, I should be finished by…” She did a mental calculation in her mind. “Okay, so it’s May now. Maybe, if I focus, I can have you paid off by … October.” “Yeah, okay,” he scoffed. “Why aren’t you at your store?”
