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. But this time it was slightly different. Dealing with him today had been like dealing with a new friend. A new friend. Which was odd.
She knew their discussion about his brother had released him from the burden of guilt that had held him back emotionally. He was happy now. Easygoing. Which was probably why he seemed like a new person to her. She was also grateful that she had helped him. But something new was entering their equation. A question. A problem.
What if she told him about their baby and it threw him into a tailspin again?
She turned and watched his truck as it roared down the road. Billy sat in the passenger’s side, his elbow out the open window. Cain sat in the driver’s side, his elbow out the open window. They could be friends. Older and younger brother.
The truck turned right and disappeared down the street. Liz watched after it. He couldn’t fake what he felt for Billy. The boy was just a tad too inquisitive for an impatient man like Cain to fake patience. He was the happiest she’d ever seen him. And her secret could ruin that.
The next morning Cain arrived at the house with Billy in tow and another picnic basket stuffed with food. Eager for lunch, Billy went straight to work. He’d become so good at painting and had such a steady hand that Cain suggested he paint the line bordering the ceiling and around the windows and trim.
Proud of himself, Billy continued to blossom under the praise.
But Liz found herself watching Cain, watching his patience with Billy, watching his commitment to doing a good job for A Friend Indeed, watching the way he treated her. Not as an ex-wife, not as a woman he was pursuing, but as a coworker.
In a lot of ways that was weird.
“Get the lead out, Harper. If you keep repainting the same wall, we’ll be here again next weekend.”
“Got it. Sorry.”
“If you’re tired, take a break.”
She faced him. “A break? What’s a break? Billy, do you know what a break is?”
“Not hardly.”
She laughed and went back to painting, but Cain sighed. “All right. We’ll all take ten minutes then we have to get back to it.”
Liz didn’t need to be told twice. After using the bathroom, she jogged down the stairs and into the garage, where Cain had stored a cooler with bottled water and soft drinks. She took a can of diet cola, snapped open the lid and drank.
“Sorry about that.”
Lowering the can from her mouth, she turned and saw Cain walking into the garage. “You don’t have to go overboard with being nice.”
“I’m not.”
“Sure you are. I’ll bet you wouldn’t apologize to your workers if you got so wrapped up in a job you forgot to give them a break.”
“Probably not.”
“So why treat me and Billy any differently?”
“Maybe because I’m having trouble finding a happy medium.”
“Billy’s a good kid who needs to be in the real world. And that might include a boss who forgets to give him a break.”
“I’m not having trouble figuring out how to deal with Billy.”
Right. She got it. She was the problem. Their feelings around each other had gone up and down, back and forth and sideways. Plus they had a past. Even as objective as she tried to be, sometimes that past snuck up on her.
“Maybe that’s because we shouldn’t be working together.”
Just when she thought he’d admit he’d made a mistake in asking for her help, he surprised her. “We both like Billy. We both recognize that if somebody doesn’t grab hold of him right now God only knows what he’ll get into.” He caught her gaze. “We can do this, Liz. We can help him. Save him. Don’t you even want to try?”
She swallowed. “Actually,
