“Mrs. Baranov, what are you planning on doing?”

I eyed Keenan, who was eyeing me with the ladder in hand. “I’m painting this ugly-ass wall. What else would I be doing? Silly.”

He coughed down the squeak of surprise. “Couldn’t you have requested someone to come and paint it? Professionals and…”

“While Marek is gone? Hell no. They would have had to go through background checks, and then a whole slew of people would need to watch over them. They would come in and paint, and I ...