Page 18 of Blindly Yours

“Ok, well, um…thanks,” I reply just as my mother comes screeching through the door.

“Oh,Rose…” she gasps as she peers around the room. “What a mess…” Her eyes pause on Nate and she frowns. “Where is Joe?”

Nate turns to face her squarely. “He’s up in Duluth with his wife. So, I stepped—”

“Well, make sure you give us the same quality work.” She points a finger at him, taking in his dusty t-shirt and jeans with a scowl. “The original builder had a keen eye for detail when he constructed these offices, and I don’t want that going forgotten upon a shoddy repair. Attention to detail is a must.”

Nate nods and shoves his hands into his pockets. “Of course, ma’am. I don’t doshoddywork. Once I’m finished, you won’t be able to tell there was any work done at all. And I encourage you to contact me if anything isn’t up to the standards of your property.”

She holds his gaze sternly for a moment as if he’s telling some lie she’s trying to see through. But she eventually sighs and turns back to me. “Have you spoken to Malcolm? He’s been trying to reach you.”

My shoulders fall with a shake of my head. “No, Mom, I haven’t.”

“He was showing me photos of this quaint little villa in Cabo he wants to rent.” She beams.

“Good for him.” I pull my phone from my pocket, pretending to check my texts.

Nate has climbed up the ladder again and is back to work while we speak.

“He wants to take you there. Just the two of you!” My mother practically squeals. “Think of all the making up you could do!”

The smallest rumbling laugh sounds from Nate’s direction.

I shoot him a death glare. “Mom, a trip to Cabo is not going to win me back.”

She lets out a frustrated grumble and retreats to the door. “Well, good luck finding a better prospect for a husband, Rose. I refuse to understand you anymore. Malcolm is as good as they come.”

“Oh, really?” I raise an eyebrow. “Well, count me out of marriage altogether then.”

She shrugs as she slips out the door. “Don’t come crying to me in ten years when you’re living in the suburbs and shopping the clearance section.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t,” I mutter under my breath after she leaves.

Nate observes from his ladder. “They probably don’t sell those heels in the clearance section,”

My blood boils. “I willnevershop clearance.”

He crosses his arms and leans back against the metal rungs. “Don’t you teach people how to use their money carefully?”

I set my jaw. “I help people put their hard-earned assets safely away for their children and grandchildren. That has nothing to do with shopping sales.”

“Yeah, but if you don’t go to Cabo with your future rich husband, you might have to shop those sales. Plus, you won’t get to do all themaking up.”He raises a roguish brow.

“Oh, stop it.” I roll my eyes and turn to the door.

“He must like you a lot if Cabo’s on the menu.”

“A trip to Cabo is pocket change for him.”

Nate exhales a low whistle as he goes back to his work. “Sounds like you’re missing out.”

The thought that I’m missing out on Malcolm almost makes me laugh, but with my hand on the doorframe, I tap my foot and look at Nate. “I can afford my own trip to Cabo.”

Nate nods as he places a screw between his teeth again and lines up another piece of drywall. It’s all the acknowledgment he gives me.

So, with one more tap of my boot on the low-pile carpet, I spin from him and leave the room.

My clients for the morning consist of a nineteen-year-old college student who has just come into a huge inheritance from his deceased father, a mid-forties couple with five children enrolled at the most prestigious private school in the city, and an elderly widow looking to make her younger sister her beneficiary.

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