Page 14 of Bidding on a Second Chance
He stepped forward. “I’ve got it.”
With a startled shudder, she twisted toward him. Her hand clapped to her breastbone, and her shoulders deflated with a relieved sigh.
“Sorry for startling you.”
She wiped her face and shook her head. “Should’ve known you’d be punctual.”
“You could keep the doors locked until business hours. I can text when I get here.”
“Then I’d have to make another trip down the hall. I shouldn’t be jumpy. It’s not like Redemption Ridge is a hub of criminal activity.”
He debated his options. While he didn’t like how much she worried, not every resident of Redemption Ridge would pass up an unattended cash register. “You could give me a key until the furniture is ready.”
“Oh.” She frowned thoughtfully and nodded once. “Good idea. Then you can work when I’m not here at all.”
“Perfect.” Or at least, it should be. Why did her cheery tone as she found a way to avoid him sting? Cody’s suggestion that he wanted closure sounded better than the alternative—that some small part of him might want the second chance Piper had asked about. No way he was that messed up. He was here for the Rasinskis. Plain and simple. Piper could avoid him all she wanted. “Where do you want me to start?”
She swung her hand through the air like she was washing a window between her and a collection of furniture in the corner. “Take your pick.” She paid him the compliment of giving him a basic rundown of where to find tools without delving into how to clean up the pieces for their new paint. She opened the utility cabinet and showed him the colors she’d chosen. “They all complement each other so the final display at the auction will look cohesive. Use the brighter colors, like the teal green, on smaller pieces. For the bedroom set and any other big stuff we collect, keep it neutral. Beige or gray.”
“Aren’t colors usually an important choice in stuff like this?”
“Oh. Well.” She smiled toward the ragtag pile of furniture. “I trust you.”
With paint, but not his skills on the job.
Smile fading, she raised a finger. “Don’t even think of saying you didn’t think I did.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He’d thought it. He hadn’t planned onsaying it.
She narrowed her eyes, lips pursed with a tightness that suggested she was hiding a smile. He used to love kissing those lips.
He coughed, rubbed his mouth, and turned toward the furniture. A nightstand had been stacked upside-down on a desk, conserving floor space. He moved the small piece to the tarp Piper already had spread. “I’ll start small. It’s been a while.”
“I’ll leave you to it.” Piper and her scooter exited the room.
Graham resisted watching her go. Whether her concerns about his job were the full reason for their breakup or not, they were obviously an issue. Someone had to step up and serve the community the way he and his fellow officers did. If Piper couldn’t understand that, it didn’t matter what harebrained ideas his heart latched onto. She wasn’t the one for him.
If such a one even existed.
A power sander lay among other tools and hardware on a long table. He plugged it in, hit the button, and the sander roared to life in his hands. He pressed it to the worn surface of the nightstand. As he passed the tool back and forth across the tabletop, fresh wood revealed itself, ready for its second chance.
If only relationships cleaned up so well.
ChapterNine
The rear entrance jingled to announce Graham’s latest exit with Teddy, then sounded again a minute later to herald someone entering. Piper glanced up from the hang tag she had been about to attach to a sweater.
Lucy, clad in work boots, jeans, and a dusty jacket, rounded a rack of dresses and hurried to the counter. Her long, dark hair spilled from under her cowboy hat. “I don’t know how you could part with a pair that adorable by sending them outside.”
Piper laughed and went back to using a tiny safety pin to secure the price tag. It’d been a couple of days since Graham set up shop in the stockroom. Everything had been going smoothly. He’d given her a wide berth at church, and around his shifts, he worked on furniture in the back while she busied herself in the storefront. They hardly interacted except when he checked on Teddy. And even then, he spent more time outside with the dog than inside.
“I really thought you were more mature than this.” Piper had watched as Lucy carved out a name for herself in an occupation dominated by men. Plenty of ranchers had doubted willowy Lucy had what it took to care for animals ten times her own body weight. Only by working smarter and harder than her competitors had she built a name for herself. How much of that would be undone if people heard her drooling over a man?
Then again, Piper appreciated being the one Lucy didn’t have to put on a show for. They’d hit it off in high school and had been fast friends ever since.
Lucy grinned. “I said a very mature hello outside, for your information. But you owe me the scoop. What’s going on here?”
“Nothing. His job’s dangerous, and as far as I can tell, I’m one of his least favorite people in the world. This is for the community. Not us.” She set the sweater aside and picked up a fresh tag for the next shirt in her pile.
