walls.”
Amanda grimaced. “I’m sorry. I scheduled a play-date for Joy. I didn’t realize you’d need me this soon.”
“It’s all right,” Liz said easily. “Cain and I will be fine.”
She genuinely believed that, until Amanda and Joy left and suddenly she and Cain were alone with two gallons of paint, two paint trays and a few brushes and rollers. Why did fate always have to test her like this? Just because she’d become comfortable around him, that didn’t mean she had to be tested an hour after the thought had formed in her brain.
“What’s the protocol on this?” she asked, nervously flitting away from him.
“First, we put blue tape around the windows and doors and existing baseboards so we don’t get any paint where we don’t want it. Then I’ll do the ceiling and you do the walls.”
He went out to his truck and returned with a roll of blue tape. Swiftly, without a second thought and as if he weren’t having any trouble being alone with her, he applied it on the wood trim around the windows.
“Wow. A person would never guess you hadn’t done that in about ten years.”
He laughed. “It’s like riding a bike. It comes back to you.”
He was at ease. He wasn’t seeing her as anything but a work buddy. Surely, she could follow suit.
“I know but you really look like you were born to this. It’s almost a shame you don’t do it anymore.”
“My end of things is equally important.” He turned from the window. “Come here. Let me show you how simple it is.”
She walked over to the window and he positioned her in front of it. Handing her the roll, he said, “Hook the end of the tape over the edge of the top molding and then just roll it down.”
She did as he said but the tape angled inward and by the time she reached the bottom the edge was still bare.
“Here.” Covering her hand with his, he showed her how to direct the roll as she moved it downward, so that the side of the woodwork was entirely covered by the tape.
Liz barely noticed. With his chest brushing her back and his arm sliding along her arm, old feelings burst inside her. The scent of him drifted to her and she squeezed her eyes shut. She had never met a man who caused such a riot inside her. She longed to turn around and snuggle into him, wrap her arms around him, simply enjoy the feeling of his big body against hers.
She stiffened. She had to get beyond this! If he could treat her like a coworker, she could treat him like a friend.
As if unfazed, he pulled away and walked to the paint. He poured some of the gray into one of the trays and white into the second one.
“Okay. I’m ceilings. You’re walls. But first I’m going to do the edge where the wall meets the ceiling.” He nodded at the tray of gray paint. “You take that and a roller and go nuts on the walls. Just stay away from the edges.”
“With pleasure.” She managed to make her voice sound light and friendly, but inside she was a mess. Especially since he seemed so cavalier. All this time she’d believed his attraction to her fueled her attraction to him. Now, she wasn’t so sure. Oh, she still believed he was attracted to her. His attraction simply didn’t control him.
And by God she wasn’t going to let hers control her, either!
For the next ten minutes they were quiet. Cain took a brush and painted an incredibly straight, incredibly neat six-inch swatch at the top of the wall, ensuring that Liz wouldn’t even accidentally get any gray paint on the ceiling.
Deciding she needed to bring them back to a neutral place or the silence would make her nuts by the end of the day she said, “How do you do that so fast, yet so well?”
“Lots and lots of practice,” he said, preoccupied with pouring more white paint into his tray. “Don’t forget I did this kind of work four summers in a row. That was how I knew I wanted to run a construction company. I learned to do just about everything and I actually knew the work involved when I read plans or specs.”
“Makes sense.” She rolled gray paint onto the far wall. She’d heard that story before, but now that she was a business owner she understood it and could respond to it.
“In a way, I got into cleaning for the same reason. Once I realized what would be required of my employees, it was easy to know who to choose for what jobs and also what to charge.”
“And you did great.”
His praise brought a lump to her throat. In the three years they were married he’d never praised her beyond her looks. He loved how she looked, how she smelled, how soft she was. But he’d never noticed her beyond that.
She cleared her throat. “Thanks.”
Occupied with painting the ceiling, Cain quietly said, “You know this is going to be more than a one-day job.”
“So you’ve said.”
He winced. “More than a two-week job.”
She stopped. “Really?”
“Because we can only work weekends, I’m thinking we’re in this for a month. And we’re kind of going to be stuck together.”
“Are you bailing?”
“No!” His answer was sharp. He stopped painting and faced her. “No. But I have to warn you that I’m a little confused about how to treat you.”
Relief stuttered through her. She didn’t want him to seduce her, but she certainly didn’t want to be the only one fighting an attraction. “I thought we were trying to behave like friends.”
“I’m not sure how to do that.”
“Most of the day you’ve been treating me like a coworker. Why don’t you go back to that? Forget I’m your ex-wife.”
He glanced over at her and all the air evaporated from Liz’s lungs. The look he gave her was long and slow, as if asking how he could forget that they’d been married, been intimate.
Maybe that was the crux of their problem? Every time she looked at him something inside her stirred to life. She’d lived for three years without thinking about sex, but put him in the room with her and she needed to fan herself. Worse, through nearly three years of a bad marriage, they’d already proven they could be angry with each other, all wrong for each other and still pleasure each other beyond belief.
It was going to be difficult to pretend none of that mattered.
But they had to try.
She cleared her throat. “I could use a glass of water. Would you like one?”
“Please.”
In the kitchen, she took two bottles of water from the refrigerator. She pressed the cool container against her cheek. Late March in southern Florida could be hot, but being in the same room with Cain was turning out to be even hotter.
Still,
