Page 47 of On the Rocks

Tony huffed. “I don’t need anyone getting electrocuted before the bar is even open.”

“Do I look like an amateur to you?” The woman stepped toward me, shoving her safety glasses up and back into the pile of grey curls pinned to the top of her head. “Hi, I’m Maggie. You must be Cora. Heard a lot about you from Aiden.”

“Have you?” I said, turning in his direction. Aiden was conveniently hidden behind Tony’s page of instructions.

“So, are we going to do this?” he asked, and Maggie and I exchanged a smirk before deciding to let him get away with changing the subject.

“About the only thing Tony has done right is order the light fixtures I told him to,” Maggie muttered to me, a smug grin on her face. “His choice looked like something off a whale’s?—”

“No, they didn’t!” Tony cut in. “And I told you. The only reason I went with these,” he gestured to the boxes in the middle of the bar, “was because my first choice had a supply chain issue.”

“Whatever you say,” Maggie said. “I know I’m right, and that’s all that matters.”

“This sounds just like me having superior road trip snacks,” Aiden said. “When you’re right, you’re right.”

“Oh, don’t start with that again,” I said, crossing my arms.

“Says the girl who ate half the box of donuts,” Aiden pointed out.

“It was a long drive. What did you want me to do? Starve?”

He handed the instructions back to Tony. “I’m just saying. Mini donuts will always trump pretzels.”

Maggie smirked, nudging Tony, but I didn’t have a chance to parse what that might mean before the door thumped open, and a man I didn’t recognize walked in. He was tall, with dark hair and a bit of a beard.

“Oh, thank god,” Maggie said. “I’m finally getting some real help around here. Miracles do happen.”

“Going for the unshaven look now?” Aiden asked before clapping the man on the back.

The man pulled away and rubbed at his beard. “I’ve been running between work and Nana Dee so often that I forget what day it is, never mind that I should shave.”

“Don’t,” Maggie told him. “Looks good on you. Distinguished. Ladies love a beard.”

Tony rubbed his own hairless chin, lips pursed.

Aiden gestured in my direction. “Trent, this is Cora. Cora, this is one of my college buddies I was telling you about.”

“You got the college run down, did you?” Trent said. “This guy try to tell you the cosmetics company was all his idea?”

I laughed. “Is that what he normally does?”

“Hey, knock it off,” Aiden said. “I gave you…two percent of the credit in the story.”

“More than usual,” Trent teased. He held up a metal box. “Anyway, I’ve come bearing the tools of the trade.”

“So are you the handy one of the college friends?” I asked.

“Hey!” Aiden protested at the same time Trent smirked. “I’m handy.” He picked up a hammer as if to prove a point.

“Watch where you’re swinging that thing,” Trent said, plucking it out of his hand. He turned to me, shrugging. “My grandfather worked as a carpenter before he and Nana Dee started their business. Taught me everything I know. Most importantly, how not to put a nail through my finger.”

“See?” Maggie said to Tony. “I told you that was lesson number one.”

“And I told you the hammer slipped.”

“Aiden was telling me about your grandmother earlier,” I said to Trent, talking over Tony and Maggie’s bickering. “I was sorry to hear she’s been having health issues.”

Trent glanced over at Aiden in surprise, like he hadn’t expected him to share that information, but then he nodded. “Thank you. I’m hoping she’ll get in to see her doctor soon, and that’ll clear up the mystery. If she was just less stubborn?—”

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