Page 10 of Waiting for Forever
“Her dad’s not my biggest fan, either.”
Again, Macie looked unconcerned. “Paige is thirty-one years old. She doesn’t ask her dad’s permission for…well,anythinganymore. She’s desperate for help, Hudson. She’s currently living in the house. She and Bobby had started ripping up the carpet, so now the place is in a bit of disarray. Something Paige cannot abide. Plus, you’re a plumber, and she’s got aleak. Getting a plumber from Douglas takes an act of GodandCongress. Even if you could only give her a couple weeks’ worth of work it would help, because she’s falling behind on her schedule and she’s not a happy camper about it.”
“Sounds like she hasn’t changed at all,” Hudson mused, recalling Paige, whom he’d called Princess because it pissed her off. She was an awkward, nerdy girl, with color-coded notebooks and a pencil case, who always sat at the front of the class, right in front of the teacher, her hand flying up to answer all the questions.
“I know she’s desperate for help, and I have a feeling you’re looking for a way to prove yourself to the town.”
Damn. Macie was as astute as ever.
“Right?” she prodded.
“Right,” he grumbled.
While Macie hadn’t looked at him with the same distrust some of the other patrons had just hit him with, that didn’t mean she’d forgotten his bad attitude.
“You should also know that, while Dad still owns the restaurant, Paige manages it. If you want a shot at bidding on the expansion I just mentioned, you’ll need to win her over, because she’ll be choosing the contractor.”
He was more fucked than he realized. Maybe this return to Maris wasn’t such a good idea.
“Great,” he mumbled.
“So, you helping Paige with her house renovations sounds like a win-win to me. She gets some of her work done, and you get a foot in the door on the expansion,” Macie added.
Macie didn’t understand just how bad he’d been to Paige. She’d been easy prey, and he’d teased her for basically everything—from her nerdy glasses to her boring, conservative clothing.
He’d sit behind her in class and pull her hair, which she always wore in a ponytail. In ninth grade, he’d stuck his gum in it, and the teacher had to cut it out. He’d drawn ridiculous dick pics in her notebooks, destroyed her textbooks and library books by tearing out pages, and he’d made a habit out of stealing something from her lunch box every single day, eating it in front of her.
He made her life a living hell, simply because she was smart, well-behaved, and had the misfortune of being Judge Sparks’ daughter.
So no, Paige Sparks wasn’t going to hire him for either job. But that didn’t mean he didn’t owe her the same apology he’d just given his grandfather. “What’s her address?”
Granddad lit up, clearly thinking Hudson was going to take the job. He hated disappointing him right out of the gate, but Granddad had known as well as Hudson this was going to be an uphill battle at the beginning.
Macie wrote down the address. “She’s off today, so she’s there right now.”
“You can drop me off at home and head straight over,” Granddad suggested.
Nothing like hitting the ground running.
Half an hour later, Hudson pulled onto Paige’s street, parking his truck by the curb. He took a moment to study the house. Granddad filled him in on her new home before Hudson dropped him off. He vaguely recalled the old lady, Ms. Bly, who’d lived here before. According to Granddad, who’d gotten all the details from TJ, the house was badly in need of remodeling, as Ms. Bly hadn’t done a thing to the place in over six decades.
To some people, that might sound like a nightmare, but to Hudson it sounded like a dream come true. He loved bringing houses back to life. This place was old enough that he knew—even without seeing the inside—that it was built when people gave a shit about quality. It wasn’t like the cookie-cutter McMansions that were popping up everywhere else in the world, constructed with the bottom line in mind. Cheap materials, cutting corners, and speedy builds were the name of the game these days, and Hudson hated it.
Just as he was about to climb out of his truck, the front door opened, and Paige emerged. Not that he could see her face to confirm it. She had her back turned to the street as she wrestled a large, heavy roll of carpet out onto the porch. But he didn’t need to see her face to know it was her. He’d sat behind her in countless classes, and he would recognize that long ponytail anywhere.
What hehadn’tnoticed in high school was Paige’s ass.
Which was shocking to him, becausedamn.
He got out of his truck and crossed the yard as she struggled to drag the carpet down the front steps.
She still had her back turned when he decided to announce his presence. And because he was a stupid idiot from way back, he greeted her in the worst possible way.
“Hello, Princess. It’s been a long time.”
Chapter Three
Paige sighed, trying to tell herself she wasn’t hearing that voice. That despised, horrible, anxiety-inducing voice.
