Cain snorted. “No kidding.” He slid his tape measure from his tool belt and walked to the wall. Holding the end of the tape against the wall, he waved the tape measure’s silver container at Billy. “Take this to the other end of the wall.”
Billy sighed, but took the tape box and did as Cain requested.
“What’s the length?”
“Ten feet.”
“Exactly ten feet?”
“I don’t know.”
Exasperated, but not about to let Billy know that and give him leverage to be a pain all day, Cain said, “Okay. Let’s try this again. You hold this end against the wall. I’ll get the number.”
Without a word, Billy walked the tape back to Cain and they switched places.
He measured the length, told Billy to let go of his end and the tape snapped back into the silver container. He reached for one of the long pieces of trim he’d purchased the day before. It bowed when he lifted it and he motioned with his chin for Billy to grab the other end. “Get that, will you?”
Billy made a face, but picked up the wood.
Cain carried it to the miter box. The tools he had in his truck were from nearly ten years before. Though they weren’t the latest technology they still worked. And maybe teaching this kid a little something today might be the best way to get his mind off Liz. About the fact that he didn’t just want her, he was doing crazy things for her. About the fact that if he didn’t watch himself, he’d be in so far that he’d be vulnerable again.
“You know, eventually you’ll have to go to somebody for a job. You’re not going to get through school on your good looks.”
Adjusting the wood in the box, Cain made his end cuts. He gestured for Billy to help him take the piece of trim to the wall again. He snapped it into place and secured it with a few shots from a nail gun.
“I was thinking maybe I’d try the bartending thing like you did.”
Surprised, Cain glanced over. He cautiously said, “Bartending is good when classes are in session and working nights fits into your schedule. But summers were when I made my tuition. To earn that much money, you have to have a job that pays. Construction pays.”
Billy opened his mouth to say something, but snapped it shut. Cain unexpectedly itched to encourage him to talk, but he stopped himself. If the kid wanted to talk, he’d talk. Cain had no intention of overstepping his boundaries. He knew that Liz had set Billy up with him to be a good example, but he wasn’t a therapist. Hell, he wasn’t even much of a talker. He couldn’t believe this kid had gotten as much out of him as he had.
“My dad was—is—in construction.”
“Ah.” No wonder Liz thought this would be such a wonderful arrangement.
“Look, kid, you don’t have to be like your dad. You can be anybody, anything, you want.” He glanced around the room. “Doing stuff like this,” he said, bringing his words down to Billy’s level, “gives you a way to test what you’re good at while you figure out who you are.” He paused then casually said, “You mentioned that you wanted to go to med school.”
“It’s a pipe dream. No way I’ll swing that.”
“Not with that attitude.”
Billy snorted. “My mom can’t help.”
“Hey, I made my own way. You can, too.” Motioning for Billy to pick up the next board, he casually eased them back into conversation. “Besides, it’s a good life lesson. The construction jobs I took to pay for tuition pointed me in the direction of what I wanted to do with my life.”
Seeing that Billy was really listening, Cain felt edgy. It would be so easy to steer this kid wrong. He wasn’t a people person. He didn’t know anything about being raised by an abusive father. There were a million different ways he could make a mistake.
“I think I want to be a doctor, but I’m not sure.”
“You’ll work that out.” He motioned for Billy to grab the tape measure again. “Everything doesn’t have to be figured out in one day. Take your time. Give yourself a break. Don’t think you have to make all your decisions right now.”
Oddly, his advice to Billy also relaxed him about Liz. Every decision didn’t have to be made in a day. That’s what had screwed them up in the first place. They jumped from seat mates in a plane to dating to sleeping together in a matter of days. Melting and doing her bidding just because she turned her pretty green eyes on him was as bad as working to seduce her the first day he’d met her.
Somehow he had to get back to behaving normally around his wife.
Ex-wife.
Maybe the first step to doing that would be to remember falling victim to their sexual attraction hadn’t done anything except toss them into an unhappy marriage.
Just outside the door, Liz leaned against the wall and breathed an enormous sigh of relief. Two minutes after she suggested Billy help Cain she remembered they’d be using power tools—potential weapons—and she nearly panicked. But it appeared as if Billy and Cain had found a way to get along.
She and Amanda began painting the dining room but at eleven-thirty, they stopped to prepare lunch. At twelve they called Cain and Billy to the kitchen table and to her surprise they were chatting about a big project Cain’s company had bid on when they walked to the sink to wash their hands.
They came to the table talking about how Cain’s job is part math, part hand-holding and part diplomacy and didn’t stop except to grab a bite of sandwich between sentences.
Liz smiled at Cain, working to keep their “friendship” going and determined not to worry about her secret until the time to tell him materialized, but Cain quickly glanced away, as if embarrassed.
When they’d finished eating, Billy and Cain went back to their work and Liz and Amanda cleaned the kitchen then resumed painting.
At five, Liz’s muscles were pleasantly sore. She did manual labor for a living, but the muscles required for painting were different than those required for washing windows, vacuuming and dusting. Amanda planned to take her kids out to dinner so Cain and Liz had decided to leave to give them time to clean up before going out.
Still, as tired and sore as she was, she couldn’t let Cain go without telling him she was proud of him. Billy needed him and he had cracked some barriers that Amanda had admitted she couldn’t crack. After his wary expression when he glanced at her at lunch, she had to tell him how much he was needed, how good a job he was doing.
Leaning against the bed of his truck, waiting as he said goodbye to Amanda and Billy, she smiled as he approached.
“I’m not sure if you’re embarrassed because you didn’t want to help Billy or embarrassed that you did such a good job.”
He tossed a saw into the toolbox in the bed of his truck. “He’s a good kid.”
“Of course he is. He just spent the first sixteen years of his life with a man who gave him a very bad impression of what a man’s supposed to do. You were a good example today.”
“Don’t toss my hat in the ring for sainthood.”
She laughed.
“I’m serious. If Billy had been a truly angry, truly rebellious teen, I would have been so far out of my league I could have done some real damage.”
She sobered. He had a very good point. “I know.”
He made a move to open his truck door and Liz stepped away. “I’m sorry.”
Climbing into the truck, he shook his head. “No need to apologize. Let’s just be glad it worked out.”
She