from my stupor. I clear my throat. “Precisely.”
“I really would be a disaster in the medical field.” She cracks a huge grin. “Or, could you imagine…me as a teacher?”
“A lawsuit waiting to happen,” I agree.
She shrugs. “What can I say? Gotta have gumption to work here.”
“Gumption…” I hold out one hand. “Balls,” I say, holding out the other while tipping them side to side like a teeter totter.
“Huh?”
I can’t help but chuckle at the recent memory. “A very wise beyond her years six-year-old once told me that not everyone has the balls to work in a funeral home.”
Her jaw drops. “She didn’t?”
I wave away her mortification. “She was really trying to be sweet.”
Her eyes roll. “Sounds like it.”
“She was attempting to sooth my ego when I declined her invitation to assist in an embalming.”
“She did not!”
“Oh, yeah.”
“I joke about it all the time, but I really should enroll that child in etiquette classes.”
“Don’t you dare.” I shudder at the thought. “She’s perfect.”
Her lip quirks with uncertainty. “Thanks for saying that.” But she doesn’t look at all like she believes I’m serious.
“I mean it.” I move to my workstation to put away some of my tools. “Anyway… What can I do for ya?” My hand involuntary moves back to the egg-sized lump. “Or did you just drop by to enjoy the view of my backside?” I glance over my own shoulder, toward the ass in question.
“I did actually come by to ask for a little favor…” She fans her long lashes up at me while pinching two fingers together, leaving only the teensiest sliver of space. “That,” she says, following my line of sight to my ass, “was just a bonus.”
To say I’m shocked by her flirty demeanor would be putting it mildly. “What’s that?” I ask, cupping a hand around my ear. “Did I just hear you say you stopped by to arrange another date?”
“Tell you what,” she says, taking my hand and starting for the door, “you help me with this chore, and I’ll owe you two.”
I should probably be more concerned with the nature of the task at hand, especially since she’s readily offering up an extra date, but I’ve lost the ability to think rationally. My head is suspended in the clouds as I allow her to lead me out back across the yard to the crematorium, only stopping to question her when we’re a few feet from the door and deep-seated fear starts to outweigh the looming reward. “You’re not gonna ask me to burn a body, right? Cuz you could literally strip down and offer yourself on a silver platter as a bribe, and as much as it’d kill me, I’d have to respectfully decline.”
She drops my hand to cover the laugh that bursts forth from her chest. “You have to have a license to cremate people.” She’s looking at me like I’m positively ridiculous.
“Right…”
“Come on, scaredy cat.” She jerks my arm, but my feet stay rooted to the soil. My heart is beating out of control, my earlier excitement quickly being overtaken by panic.
“I’d prefer to know what this task entails first.” The prospect of what lies on the other side of that door has me breaking out in a sweat.
“Prissy was right,” she taunts. Her sapphire eyes drop briefly to my crotch before lifting to meet my gaze.
“Ouch,” I say, “Low blow.”
She shrugs, and when I don’t budge, blows out a long breath. “A customer requested some of her husband’s cremains be placed in an odd-shaped container.” Her voice wavers. There’s a whole lot she isn’t saying…intentionally. And I’m not sure I want to find out what that something is. “It won’t stand on its own… I just need you to hold it so I can fill it. Easy peasy.” She twists a key in the lock and pushes the door open.
Immediately I’m hit with an odor I won’t soon forget—like a pig roasting over an open flame, combined with burned leather and an acrid, sweet scent so strong I can practically taste it. The worst part is knowing exactly what that smell sitting on the tip of my tongue is.
“You coming?” she asks, staring back at me like I’ve lost my marbles. “There’s nothing in here but ash, I promise.” She crosses a finger over her heart. “I wouldn’t trick you like that.”
“Fine,” I say, lifting the neck of my T-shirt to cover my nose and mouth. “Let’s make it quick.” I follow her inside the dimly lit building, noting the walls