29

“Alaric?!” Layla gasped, rubbing her eyes to make sure that her sleepy brain wasn’t forming images. Nope, she wasn’t dreaming. Alaric was standing at her door.

‘What is he doing here at this time?’ She thought, smoothing the creases that had formed on her top while she napped.

“May I come in?” Alaric asked, wearing his usual smile.

“Of course!” She stepped out of the way and allowed him to come in.

“I see you cleaned and did a little renovation of the place. Good job.” He said, inspecting the place, and her cheeks flushed at his compliment as she shut the door.

“Thank you, but I just cleaned. I didn’t do any renovations.” She replied, taking off her bonnet so she could look more presentable.

He was flattering her. There was obviously still a lot of work to be done. A lot. The roof, the floor, the door, the bathroom… There was no part of the cabin that didn’t need to be worked on.

“Whatever you did, you did it well. You managed to make a dead place homely.” Alaric nodded at her, and sh