Something Old - Dianne L. Christner [48]
“You driving?” Lil asked, popping to her feet.
“Sure,” Katy replied.
“Good. I’ve gotta go find my purse.” She winked, and Katy thought it was an excuse to flirt with the plumber again. “Then I’m ready to go.”
Jake pinned Katy with his dark gaze, and as soon as Lil left, he jumped right in where they’d left off before his cousin joined them. “You could probably tolerate me better if you’d let me tell you my story. I need to tell you exactly what happened to me the last couple of years. How it’s changed me.”
She shook her head. “Nah. I don’t want to get involved in your personal life.”
“Come on, Katy. You already are.”
She started to stand, but her foot slipped on the plastic, and he lunged forward and caught her arm, steadying her. Their faces were close, mere inches away, and he whispered. “I hate the word never.”
When he drew back, she asked, “What?”
“You’ll never forgive me, and I’ll never forget you. And never’s a miserably long time.”
Lil popped back into the room. “Found it.” She hooked her arm under Katy’s coat sleeve. “Let’s hit the shops. See ya later, chump.”
Katy forced a smile for Lil. At the doorway, she hesitated, but Lil went on outside. Katy glanced back at Jake.
He winked.
Hoping to wipe the smirk from his face, she said, “One thing before we go. I was wondering, is your plumber married?” His brows furled. “Very.”
Katy shrugged and started through the doorway. But behind her, the amusement in his voice couldn’t be denied. “Tell Lil the electrician’s single.”
Straightening her shoulders, she didn’t reply.
CHAPTER 12
Barely able to contain her excitement, Katy grinned over at Lil, whose car was filled with painting supplies. In response, Lil did a little shoulder shimmy. They were both anxious to get started. In a few short weeks, the doddy house renovations had nearly been completed. New purchases were stored in Mr. Landis’s barn. Now came Katy’s favorite part: cleaning up the place and making it livable.
Lil turned the car into the Millers’ drive and honked just as Jake strode out of the doddy house. With a wave, he headed directly to the back of the Blazer. It amazed Katy how those two read each other’s minds. They were more like twins than cousins.
Ever since Katy and Lil’s spat over hiring Jake to renovate the doddy house, Katy had kept her feelings and frustrations over him private, aware that information somehow magically passed between the other two.
Sometimes Katy’s escalating problems seemed overwhelming. She hadn’t told anybody about the ballet tickets either. That problem continued to fester, frustrating her peace. Once she would have shared all her job-related problems with her mom, but now that she was operating in a gray zone, she didn’t think her mom would understand. With time nearing her move into the doddy house, she didn’t want her mom to worry that she was getting pulled into worldly ways.
Katy watched Jake easily tote a five-gallon paint can in each hand—shabby chic yellow for the kitchen and tropical turquoise for the bedroom—jaunting to the doddy house without speaking to her. The sly rat knew how to turn her head, showing off his muscles and ignoring her just the way she wanted him to, all very unfair. Was this something he’d learned at college? How to Win an Old Girlfriend 101?
“Want me to get the white can?” she asked Lil.
“Nah. Too heavy. Let Jake get it. But together we can manage the ladder.” Lil struggled to extract it from the back of her car. Katy caught the end just before it dropped to the ground. They did an awkward, baby-step shuffle all the way inside the house with it. “Bedroom or kitchen?” Lil tossed breathlessly over her shoulder.
“Bedroom.” Jake can work in the kitchen, she hoped, far away from my work area.
Lil nodded as they maneuvered the ladder through the hall. Next they struggled to set it upright in