He left early to head to work and she spent her evenings scrapbooking or reading and being so polite to him that Trent wanted to shake her. He hated politeness. It was so…impersonal. But he wasn’t going to push the issue. Cora had to be the one to bring it up again, to make it clear she wanted to circle back to their mutual attraction. To pick up where they left off.
Maybe he should never have kissed her.
You know there’s no point regretting something like that. Besides, would you avoid kissing her if you had a do-over?
Hell no. That kiss had marked him like a tattoo gun scratching over his skin. And speaking of skin, Cora was officially burrowed deep under his.
“This place has every early 2000s cliché,” Hale said as he whacked the end of his chisel with a hammer, dislodging another beige tile from the floor. Now that the plumbing was in tiptop shape, it was time to start on some of the cosmetic side of things.
Trent had been up since the crack of dawn, dismantling what was left of the vanity unit, and now that it was a more “sociable” hour, Hale and another one of his mates, Sean, had come over to help tackle the tiles.
“I swear, you could show me a picture of the bathroom and nothing else and I could tell you exactly what year the house was renovated,” he added.
Trent was working on the backsplash section behind where the new unit would be installed. These tiles were smaller and more stubborn. Each one seemed to want to break into three or four pieces.
“That looks like a dog’s breakfast,” Sean said, shaking his head. “I bet this was a DIY job.”
“Isn’t this a DIY job?” Hale asked, continuing to make speedy progress on the floor. “We’ve got a plumber, a brickie, and a… What are you again, Sean?”
“Renovation enthusiast, mate. Jack of all trades.”
Trent snorted. “And master of none.”
“Still sounds like the opening to a joke.” Hale neatly chiseled away another tile and tossed it into the growing pile. “What’s the plan for the bathroom?”
“Liv really likes that high-end-spa look, so I managed to find some of those big slate tiles for the floor. Nick had a contact and they discontinued the style, so I picked up the rest of their inventory pretty cheap.”
“Got enough in case there’s any breakages?” Hale asked.
“I didn’t come down in the last shower.” Trent rolled his eyes. “No pun intended.”
“Says the man who didn’t turn the water mains off,” his friend muttered under his breath, and Sean stifled a smirk. Trent was never going to live that one down.
“Anyway, we’re going charcoal and white. Faux marble backsplash and countertop with brushed gold fixtures.” He’d shown some of the inspiration pictures to Cora last night and she’d enthusiastically approved…and then immediately started thinking out loud about what funky decorative items could add to the spa vibes. For a moment it was like they were connecting again…until she’d scurried off to her bedroom, book in hand. “Liv will be over the moon. I think she hated the bathroom more than anything else in this place.”
“I can see why.” Hale wrinkled his nose.
For a guy who spent most of his life in flannel shirts and work boots and who’d been wearing a man bun before it became socially acceptable, Hale’s taste ran surprisingly far to the champagne end of the spectrum.
“Actually, now that I’ve got your snobby ass here, I need your help.” Trent grinned.
He couldn’t sit back and let Cora be awkward for the rest of her trip. It was clear she needed a break from her life, and he’d overheard her Skyping with Liv earlier that morning and some very interesting information had come out: It was Cora’s birthday next week.
Hale shot Sean a wary look. “Gee, when he puts it like that, how can I refuse?”
Sean chuckled and went back to his work at the other end of the bathroom, the chink sound of his chisel hitting tile punctuating the air at regular intervals.
“I need Aimee’s help with a birthday party,” Trent clarified. Aimee ran a party planning business for kids—putting her bubbly personality and sweet face to profitable use, dressing up as everyone from Cinderella to that Frozen chick in order to make little kids’ birthday dreams come true. “For Cora.”
Hale raised a brow. “You know her customers are usually in the five to ten age bracket, right?”