That, on the other hand, did not feel safe.
I picked my sponge back up, weighing the pros and cons of pushing the couch over to the door and locking it that way. Even if I did, the guys could just get in through the garage.
Theoretically, they were supposed to be decent people, but I didn’t know them. I didn’t even really know Teagan and Ebony. And if there was one thing life had taught me, it was to expect the unexpected from people you were supposed to be able to trust.
I glanced down at the wolf up against my legs. “If your buddies try to come in tonight, will you eat them for me?”
He looked at me with a very serious expression, and nodded twice.
Strangely enough, I believed him.
“Then I guess I’ll survive. Tomorrow, I’ll go buy new locks.”
The wolf shook his head and gestured to my phone, where it rested on the counter.
“What is that going to do as far as the keys go?” I checked.
He gestured to the phone, and then to the door.
“Call the door?”
He scowled, pointing to the phone with his nose before padding over to the door and poking the lock with his nose. Then, he walked over to one side of the house and poked that with his nose, then crossed to the opposite side of the wall and poked that one too.
Walking back to my phone, he emphatically gestured to it with his nose again.
“You want me to call your buddies?” I guessed. “And… key them?” I bit my lip, mind turning. “Oh. You want me to call and ask for their keys.”
He nodded his head, face relaxing when he realized I’d figured out what he was trying to say.
“Wouldn’t that be rude, though? I don’t want to offend them.”
He rolled his eyes. I’d never considered what it might look like when a wolf rolled its eyes, but it made me snort.
“I’ll figure it out tomorrow,” I told him, scratching his head. “Let me finish up in here, and then we’ll tackle the upstairs.”
He licked my arm, and I went back to scrubbing the sink. My music was still playing pretty loudly, which I hoped wouldn’t bother the other guys, but I left it on. The next time I wanted to listen, I’d put on headphones. This time, while everything was packed up, I’d listen out loud.
I finished scrubbing the sink and stove, then dropped the sponge in the sink and rinsed my hands before tackling the microwave. I’d looked around already to determine just how dirty the countertops were, but I’d quickly realized that the papers were the only mess on the counters and table. They were all in stacks, too, though the stacks were pretty damn messy. They seemed to be worksheets and essays and shit from the history classes he taught, and only about a tenth of them looked graded. Which meant dude-Rocco had a hell of a lot of grading to do.
After drying my hands, I went from stack of papers to stack of papers, straightening them. After digging through the drawers, I found a box of paperclips, and used those to keep my neat stacks of papers together.
When everything was straightened and paperclipped, I piled all of the paper stacks on one end of the countertop, rotating between setting them short-wise and long-wise so they’d be easy to pull apart.
With all the papers cleaned up, the kitchen looked pretty damn spotless. I was proud of that, too.
I grabbed my sponge again and wiped the counters and table down though, just to make sure everything was really clean.
When that was done, I looked back at the living room.
The stacked furniture boxes, and toilet paper, and other toiletries… yep, wow, there was a lot.
“Clean, then organize,” I mumbled to myself, scratching Rocco’s head absentmindedly. “Let’s check out the upstairs.”
The wolf licked my arm—shocker—and we headed up the stairs together. I was damned glad Elliot had made a path through all of my shit, because I definitely would’ve managed to fall on my ass if I tried to climb over everything. Since I couldn’t leave any of my stuff at my parents’ house—they had sold their house and donated every penny they had to some weird charity that revolved around pecan trees—everything I owned was currently on the floor in Rocco’s house.
That was fine, though. At least it wasn’t in my car. I’d been worried about trying to shove everything in there as well as live with it all that way. Now, there was no need to worry.
At least not about my living situation.