Free Pure Lust (Lust for Life) by Jayne Kingston

he said.
    They’d been up a day and a half, had flown to Chicago where
Claire had truly had the night of her life, followed by the sex of her life.
    She pulled the pillow out from under her hips and gave it to
him to put under his head. He did, then opened his arm, prompting her to tuck herself
against his side.
    “Go right ahead. I think you’ve earned it,” she said as
lightheartedly as she could manage, then fell asleep right along with him.

Chapter Seven
     
    Later the next day, Claire found herself squeezed into her
small bathroom with Lin, both of them looking at the new sink and toilet she’d
installed. It had taken her from midmorning to early evening to do the work,
but she’d done it.
    “All right, are you ready?” she asked, her belly full of
nervous anticipation.
    Lin stepped into the bathtub and pulled the shower curtain
protectively over everything but her head.
    Claire snicked her tongue and rolled her eyes, then lifted
the faucet handle on the sink. Water flowed smoothly into the bowl and down the
drain, where it did not leak out of the new pipe underneath.
    “ Yay ,” Lin shouted, pushing aside the curtain and
throwing her hands in the air. She hopped gracefully out of the tub and reached
for the handle on the toilet. “May I?”
    “Be my guest,” Claire said with a whatever-floats-your-boat
kind of laugh.
    The water went down exactly the way it was supposed to.
    “I’m never calling a plumber again,” Lin declared.
    “Well, if you need a new sink or toilet installed, I’m your
girl.” Claire turned off the sink and leaned against the new vanity on her hip.
“I’m afraid you’re on your own with clogged drains and anything that might
require a plunger.”
    She’d gone onto YouTube for instructions on how to turn off
the water, remove her old sink and toilet and put the new ones in herself, and
she had to admit she felt just as surprised and impressed with herself as Lin
looked at the moment.
    Before she’d been married, Claire had lived in apartments
where maintenance people came in and fixed things if they broke. She and her
husband had bought a large, three-bed, two-bath house when they first got
married, but they’d hired a decorator and contractors to do any work needed
because they’d both been too wrapped up in their careers to take much interest
in where they lived.
    After his death, when Claire found herself kicking around
that huge, sterilely decorated house all by herself, she’d decided she wasn’t
going to live in any more space than she absolutely needed. On top of that,
she’d made a vow to learn how to be as self-sufficient as possible. She had to
admit, as she stood there with the sink and toilet both flowing smoothly, that
it felt pretty good.
    “So what’s left?” Lin asked, looking around the room, which
had been stripped of its old wallpaper and had parts of the floor pulled up.
    “Oh, lord.” Claire put a hand to her forehead and looked
around. “I still have to pull out the shelves in the linen closet, strip the
million layers of paint off and stain them. Ditto for the door and frame. I
have a new medicine cabinet that needs to go up. The floor is getting new tile,
and I found the most amazing clawfoot bathtub at that place downtown that sells
reclaimed house items.”
    Lin’s eyes had gone big. “Sounds like you’ve got your work
cut out for you.”
    “That’s why I took three weeks off,” Claire said with a nod.
“Let’s hope I get it all done in that time.”
    “Well if you need help…” They both started laughing before
she could finish. “Oh who am I kidding? I’d kill myself trying to use a
screwdriver, but if you need someone to keep your wineglass full and cheer you
on while you work, I’m your girl.”
    “Speaking of wine,” Claire checked her watch. “Would you
like a glass?”
    “Is that even a question?”
    Lin had come over after work to check out the new security
cameras and get the whole story of what Claire had found