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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, I do.” And for the first time since she’d seen him standing in only a towel in his kitchen, she wanted to tell him she was proud of him. She wanted to say it so much that she suddenly understood what he’d been going through every time he’d seen one of the changes she’d made since their marriage.
The feeling was nearly overwhelming.
“You know I’ll help Billy. I’ll do everything I can.”
He smiled at her, a smile so warm and open, she could only stare at him. The spark was back in his dark brown eyes. His hair fell boyishly to his forehead. But that smile. Oh, that smile. She would have done anything to see that smile three years ago. It seemed to say that he was different. Happy. Easy to be around. If they didn’t have a past, if she didn’t have a secret, Cain would be the man she would actually consider giving her heart to.
But they did have a past. And she did have a secret.
She chugged her soda and headed into the house just as Billy came out.
“Hey! I didn’t even get a drink.”
“Go ahead and get one. I’m ready to get back to work, so I’m going in. You and Cain take all the time you need.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
CAIN JUMPED INTO HIS Porsche and punched the address on the invitation in his hand into his GPS unit. He’d been invited to a party being hosted by one of the women who’d been helped by A Friend Indeed. In a few minutes, he found himself driving down the street of the middle-class, blue-collar neighborhood.
He hadn’t wanted to attend this party. But it had been a real stretch for him to volunteer to help with the Friend Indeed houses and an even bigger stretch to have taken Billy under his wing and those things had worked out amazingly well. So attending an event for the families involved with the charity was simply another level of change for him. Especially since it would involve chitchat. No bankers or businessmen to schmooze. No business talk tonight. Somehow or other he’d have to be…well, normal.
But he’d decided to once again push beyond his own inadequacies to attend tonight because he couldn’t stop thinking about something Liz had told him. When he’d first arrived at Amanda’s, Liz had instructed him to accept anything any client offered because this might be the first time in a long time they’d had something to offer. He’d finally wrapped his head around just how demoralized and demeaned these women had been and then his thoughts had segued to the fact that Liz and her family had been abused.
Liz had been a child in a family just like this one. Alone. Scared. Usually hungry. He couldn’t bear the thought.
But that also meant he couldn’t refuse an invitation to anything connected to Liz. He didn’t want her to feel rejected by him, or that somehow she and her friends weren’t good enough. They were. He was the socially awkward one. So to protect her, here he was, driving in an unfamiliar section of the city, about to attend a gathering with people he didn’t know.
He parked on the street and headed up the sidewalk to Joni Custer’s house. As he climbed the stairs to the front door, he held back a wince of pain. He’d been so busy proving himself to Liz and enjoying doing the work he loved—the work that had nudged him in the direction of success and riches—that he’d forgotten he wasn’t eighteen anymore. Billy was probably stronger. And maybe he should be the one hefting boxes of hardwood, while Cain stuck to measuring and fitting.
He found the bell and within two seconds, the bright red front door opened. Liz stood on the other side. Dressed in shorts and a halter top, she looked amazing. Comfortable. Confident. Relaxed.
Their gazes caught and she smiled sheepishly. His heart did a cartwheel. She was smiling at him now, like a real person, not a person she was forced to socialize with, not a person she had to pretend to like. Her smile was genuine.
“Come on. Everybody’s outside on the patio.” She took a look at his attire and winced. “Somebody should have told you dress was informal.”
Cain immediately reached for his tie. Walking into the foyer, he yanked it off and stuffed it in his jacket pocket. “I can make do.” He removed his jacket and tossed it over a hook on a coat tree in the foyer. Following Liz to a sliding glass door at the back of the house, he rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt. “See, now I’m dressed appropriately.”
“Well, not exactly appropriately.” She turned and gave him another smile. “But better.”
“How about a little background before I go out there into a sea of people I don’t know.”
“Joni is one of the first women we helped. Every year she hosts a barbecue. Most of the people attending are also A Friend Indeed women, but some are parents and friends of the clients.” She hooked her arm in the crook of his elbow and headed for the door again. “I’ll introduce you around, but then you’re on your own.”
It felt so good to have her at his side that it disappointed him that she wouldn’t stay with him, but he understood. If they had just met, they’d still be in a friend stage, not behaving like a couple. He had to accept that.
“I appreciate the introductions.”
She hesitated another few seconds at the door. “You might get a critique or two of the work you’ve done.”
“Hey, you helped!” He opened the sliding glass door. “If I’m going down in flames, you’re going with me.”
She laughed and the second they stepped onto the stone floor of the small patio, Liz said, “Hey, everybody, this is Cain. He’s the new board member who’s been fixing up houses.”
A general round of approval rippled through the crowd.
Liz leaned in and whispered, “Get ready. Any second now you’ll be surrounded.”
Her warning didn’t penetrate. He was too busy analyzing whether it was good or bad that she hadn’t introduced him as her ex-husband. On the one hand it did point to the fact that she saw their association as being a new one. On the other, she could be embarrassed about having been married to him. So it took him by surprise when a middle-aged man approached him and extended his hand for shaking.
“You did Amanda’s house?”
“That was mostly painting,” Cain said, snatching Liz’s hand, holding her in place when it appeared she would desert him. “And Liz and I were equal partners on that one.”
“Don’t be so modest,” Ayleen said, ambling up to them. “I hear the whole house is to die for.”
“It is.” Amanda walked over. She unexpectedly hugged Cain. “Thanks again.”
Embarrassment flooded him at her praise. What he’d done was so simple, so easy for him. Yet it had meant the world to Amanda. “I guess that means you like the house?”
“Like is too simple of a word,” she said with a laugh.
Liz shook her hand free of his, as if eager to get away. “How about if I get us a drink? What would you like?”
Not quite sure what to say, Cain raised his eyebrows in question. “What do they have?”
“What if I get us both a cola?”
“Sounds great.”
The second Liz left, he began fielding questions about the work he’d done on Amanda’s house and the four houses he still planned to repair.
Eventually he and the middle-aged man who introduced himself as Bob, Joni’s dad, wandered over to the grill.
“This is my grandson, Tony.” Bob introduced Cain to the man flipping burgers.
Cain caught a flash of yellow out of his peripheral vision before a tall blonde grabbed his forearm and yanked him away from the grill. “Sorry, guys. But he’s mine for a few minutes.” She smiled at him. “I’m Ellie. My friends call me Magic.”
“Magic? Like Magic Johnson, the basketball player?”
“No, magic as in my wishes generally come true and I can also pretty much figure out somebody’s deal in a short conversation.”
“You’re going to interrogate me, aren’t you?”
“I know who you are.”
“Who I am?”
“You’re Liz’s ex. She hasn’t said anything, but for her to be introducing you around, I’m guessing she likes you again.”
He paused. His heart skipped a beat. Her wariness around him took on new meaning. He’d been so careful to behave only as a friend that she might not understand his feelings for her now ran much deeper. She might think he didn’t like her “that” way anymore. But he did. And if she wanted more, so did he.
“Really?”
Ellie sighed. “Really. Come on. Let’s cut the bull. We both know you’re cute. We both know she loved you. Now you’re back and she’s falling for you. If she’s holding back, I’m guessing it’s only because she thinks you don’t want her.”
Cain couldn’t help it; he smiled.
Ellie shook her head with a sigh. “Don’t be smug. Or too sure of yourself. As her friend, I’m going to make it my business to be certain you don’t hurt her again.”
