Little pieces of sawdust clung to Clay’s bare shoulders. She wanted to brush them away, but that would be way too personal. Or mom-like.
“You’re not having issues with dust in the house, are you? Or too much heat leaking in? I think I got a good seal,” Clay said, looking at the heavy plastic he’d used to blockade the work area from the main living quarters. Sweat ran in rivulets down his chest. She tried not to look. He noted her trying not to look. Pulling the cooling towel from around his neck, he swiped at his torso.
“It’s too hot to be doing this. Maybe we should have waited until next month,” Daphne said, averting her eyes.
“Nah, it’s always hot in Louisiana. If we stopped working every time we started sweating, we’d only work two months out of the year,” Clay said, walking toward the opening and then pulling on the chambray shirt he’d draped on a sawhorse. “Let me show you our progress. We’ve been lucky. This dry weather has us on schedule.”
Daphne followed him outside, where several other workers did construction things. What, she had no clue. Clay worked with his older brother, Lawrence, in a newly formed construction company, Caldwell Contracting Services. They specialized in remodels and additions, and though they were young, Daphne knew they were more than competent. Lawrence had graduated with a degree in construction engineering technology while Clay had skipped the traditional four-year college and taken drafting and electrician courses. Both boys had worked their way through school working for a large-scale construction company before forming their own last year. Daphne was happy to support guys she’d watched grow up.
Which made her feel extra perverted for practically salivating all over Clay.
It was that stupid book’s fault. Tippy Lou had given her a book regarding female arousal and orgasms and then bugged her for months about reading it. Finally, Daphne had pulled it from beneath her stack of decorating magazines and started.
This was what she got for doing what Tippy Lou suggested—horny.
“All this looks great. I can’t believe you were able to match the siding,” she said, marveling at how seamlessly the new addition blended with the old farmhouse. She and Rex had been gifted the house by her grandparents the day after they’d married. Strange to think her grandparents had just given their old house to two teenage kids, but her grandparents had been even younger when they’d married fifty-one years before.
The small farmhouse had three bedrooms, a small living area, and an even smaller kitchen. Having only one bathroom had turned into a nightmare when Ellery got older, so Rex had turned a storage closet into a half bath for Ellery when she was in middle school. But the blueprint had remained the same until two months ago, when she’d hired Caldwell Contracting Services.
When Daphne had called to list the house, bouncy Shelly the Realtor had suggested a remodel. Shelly hadn’t actually turned up her cute nose at the hand-painted apples on the kitchen backsplash, but she’d certainly made a face. She’d prescribed a weeklong viewing of HGTV for Daphne, who’d never realized how important open living spaces, en suite bathrooms, and big walk-in closets were to potential buyers. Oh, and heaven forbid someone have carpet. Berber and white appliances were the kiss of death.
“We’re going to leave this open until we get the tub and vanity inside, then we’ll close her up and work from the inside. But, yeah, it’s looking good.”
“When will you be totally done?” Daphne asked, thinking about Ellery’s upcoming birthday at the end of October. Her daughter would be turning twenty-three. How was that even possible? When Daphne closed her eyes and thought about her daughter, she saw a little girl in pigtails, stamping her foot over not getting the fluffy puppy behind the pet store glass. Her daughter had grown into a beautiful, complicated, creative young woman . . . who still wanted her mother to bake her a chocolate cake and throw her a fun party. But with more weeks of construction left, Daphne would have to figure out something else for Ellery’s birthday.
“About a month. Probably the second week of November if everything arrives on time. It’s going to be dusty and messy until then, but in the end, you’ll have a gorgeous place.”
“Perfect. I need buyers, and Shelly promises it has a better chance at selling with these changes. I hope I can recoup the money invested.” When Daphne had decided to move