So he drove to Amanda’s and offered Billy a job, which Billy happily accepted, especially after Cain mentioned his salary.
High on the success of the first part of his plan, Cain called Liz the minute he returned to his house.
She answered on the first ring. “Happy Maids.”
“You really should have a personal cell phone.”
“Can’t afford it. What do you want, Cain?”
“Is that any way to talk to the man who’s offering you a ride to our job site on Saturday? I’m already stopping for Billy—one more will fit into the truck.”
“You got Billy to take a job?”
“I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”
“That’s great! Amanda will be so thrilled.”
“I’m glad to be able to do it.” He paused. “So what do you say? Want a ride?”
“I haven’t even agreed to work with you yet.”
He could have threatened her with calling Ayleen and forced her hand. He could have said, “Please,” and maybe melted her the way she could melt him. Instead he said nothing, letting the decision be her own, following his own directive that this relationship would be totally different. Fresh. New.
“Okay. But I’ll meet you there.” Her answer was cool, businesslike, but he didn’t care. They’d had a crappy marriage. He’d hurt her. But more than that, he’d pulled her away from her dreams. He had to accept that she’d be wary of him. Then he had to prove to her she had no reason to be. They were starting over.
Peggy Morris had chosen not to be home when Cain and company did the work on her house. Liz had said she would get the keys and be there when Cain and Billy arrived. As Cain opened the back door into the kitchen, she turned from the sink. When she saw the picnic basket Billy carried, she grinned.
“Your mom’s a saint.”
Billy frowned. “Why?”
“For making lunch.”
“I made that,” Cain said. “Well, actually, I had Ava call a deli and place an order. I’ve got sandwiches, soda, bottled water, dessert…The cheesecake you like.”
She groaned. “Oh, Cain! I can’t have cheesecake! I’ll be big as a house.”
He laughed. She might have groaned about the cheesecake, but she accepted that he’d brought lunch. It was a good start. “You’ve lost weight since we were married.”
Billy glanced from Cain to Liz. “You two were married?”
Cain said, “Yes.”
Liz said, “A long time ago.”
Billy shook his head. “You don’t look like married people to me.”
Liz walked over and put her hand on Billy’s forearm. “Your parents’ situation wasn’t normal, Billy.”
“Yeah, but even my friends’ parents argue all the time. You two get along.” He looked from Cain to Liz again. “So why’d you get divorced?”
“Long story,” Liz said.
“I was too busy,” Cain countered.
Before Billy could say anything more about them, Liz turned him in the direction of the door again. “You don’t need to know about this. It’s ancient history, and we do need to get started on what we came here to do.” She pointed at the door. “I’m guessing Cain’s got about ten cans of paint in his truck. Let’s go get them.”
The three of them made a good team. Liz jumped into the truck bed and handed paint gallons, brushes, trays and other equipment to Cain and Billy who carted everything into the garage.
When the supplies were on the garage floor, Cain took charge again. “We’re starting at this house because essentially everything is in good repair. When Ayleen brought me over this week to check things out, I noticed a few of the walls and ceilings need to be mended and there’s also some work in the bathroom.” He pointed at a new shower head and some unidentifiable plumbing equipment in another package. “I’ll do all that. You guys can paint. I thought we’d start upstairs and work our way downstairs.”
Liz said, “Okay.”
Billy said, “I already know how to paint. I want to help with the repair work.”
“The thing about construction is that you have to do whatever needs to be done. You don’t get to pick your job.” He handed Billy two gallons of beige paint. “Eventually you’ll demonstrate that you have a strength or two like electrical or plumbing, and you’ll be considered the expert and get to do those jobs whenever they come up. But if there’s no electrical or plumbing, you’ll paint.”
Billy grumbled, but Cain pretended not to notice. Hiding a smile, Liz picked up some paint trays, brushes and rollers and followed Billy to the door into the kitchen.
He waited until Billy was through the door before he called her back. “Liz?”
She turned, her eyes wide and round, as if afraid of what he might say.
He wanted to tell her thanks. He wanted to say she looked pretty that morning. Because she appeared to be afraid of him and his motives, he handed the blue tape to her. “You’re not a good enough painter to forget the blue tape.”
She didn’t have a free hand, so he tossed it onto a paint tray, then turned and picked up the bag of plaster.
Liz spent an enjoyable morning painting with Billy. A few times Cain came into the room and either pulled Billy to show him something about the repair work he was doing on the ceiling or in the bathroom, or to praise them for the good job they were doing. Billy blossomed under Cain’s attention. He even chattered to Liz about the toilet tank “guts” exchange that Cain had explained to him.
“Because it’s normal for commodes to need these kinds of repairs,” Billy repeated Cain’s comments verbatim. “My mom might need me to do that one day.”
Though Liz was tempted to laugh, she held it back. “That’s right. If you learn enough with Cain, you’ll be able to fix things as they break at home.”
“I know,” Billy said seriously, sounding proud and responsible.
Liz ruffled his hair. “Get your paintbrush. We’ve got hours of this ahead of us.”
Lunch was fun and relaxing. Billy had a million questions for Cain and he happily answered them. Having completed the repair work to the walls and ceilings, Cain joined the painting in the afternoon.
At five, Liz suggested they begin cleaning up.
“I could go for another hour or two, how about you, Billy?”
“I’m cool.”
Liz shook her head. “The family has to come home sometime. Because Peggy is new and doesn’t know any of us, Ayleen doesn’t want her to find us here when she returns.”
“Oops.” Cain laughed. “Forgot.”
Leaving the paint and supplies in the garage, Cain and Billy piled into his truck again. Liz walked to her car.
“See you tomorrow?”
She faced the truck. “Yeah.”
Cain grinned at her. “Okay.”
She climbed into her car with the same strange feeling she’d had at Amanda’s about Cain being normal. Wondering if he was working to make her a friend or trying to ease her back into a relationship.