Page 15 of Hold

“Well, I have”—how could she classify Liam?—“someone coming over.”

Sam, damn her, picked up on the tiny hesitation. “Someone, huh? Someone you have to clean the tub for? Come on, T. Spill.”

“All right, all right, don’t get excited. He’s a—”

“He!”

She’d known Sam would react like this. Given how hard she’d hated Gabriel and how thrilled she’d been when Thea had kicked him out—the first time—any mention of a male in Thea’s vicinity would make Sam sit up in her Hemingway camp chair. She was an archaeologist and traveled all over the world but had now lived in New Mexico for two years. Two years that hadn’t included a trip to Massachusetts, not even when their brother’s babies had been born.

“Cool your jets. He’s teaching me how to fix a toilet.”

“What does he look like?”

“It doesn’t matter what he looks like!” And Thea didn’t trust herself to describe him in disinterested terms. He’d looked great last night—biceps doing their cha-cha in another Pat the Plumber T-shirt, his hair and beard just hipster enough to be interesting but not so much that you’d start looking for a pair of suspenders and knitted grandad vest.

But he’d scowled again, those blue eyes narrowing against her as if she’d insulted him. She’d half expected him to cry off after that look, but he’d texted her this morning to confirm, asking her what time the boys got home from school so he wouldn’t interfere with her schedule. So, once again, she didn’t know what to make of him, and she wasn’t about to explain that to Sam.

“T.” Sam’s voice was patient, patronizing. “Italwaysmatters what they look like.”

“I’m too tired these days to care,” Thea lied. It didn’t bode well for this visit that she hadn’t just told Sam a plumber was coming. Plumbers were faceless contractors. Unattractive, the classic plumber’s butt rising out of their baggy jeans. Thea’s breath shortened at the idea of anything like that happening to Liam around her.

“Look,” she went on. “I want to chat, but the timing’s bad right now.”

“No fair! Since when did you want to know how to fix a toilet? What’s wrong with it?”

“I’ll call you tomorrow. It’s fine. And I should have learned to do this stuff ages ago. I was always waiting for Gabe to do it, which was my own stupidity.”

“Well, you got that right.”

“Thanks.”

“You know what I mean. Still no word, I assume?”

“Of course not.” Thea had stopped hoping six months ago that Gabe would come back. She was ashamed that she’d waited that long.

“Good. How are the boys?”

The doorbell rang. “Oh shit.” She stank of bleach and hadn’t gotten out the tools Liam had cleaned or anything. “They’re good. I have to go. Love you, bye!”

“Hey!” Sam was laughing as Thea hung up on her.

There wasn’t anything she could do—or should do—about her outfit, an old Fielding Paper polo with the collar falling off and pregnancy khaki shorts.You’re about to crawl around in spaces no human should have to examine, she reminded herself as she tucked a curl behind her ear and went to the front door.Get over yourself.

Wise words.

♦

“God,” Thea said, her head in the dank and moldy cabinet fifteen minutes later. “How do you do this all day?”

“I don’t,” Liam said behind her. “I’m a teacher, remember?”

“Oh, right.”

“So look up. You see the nut that goes around the drain?”

“I see three nuts.”

“The one closest to the sink. This one.” He put his head through the open cabinet door she wasn’t stuck in. Despite the sickly-sweet smell of whatever needed cleaning out of her sink drain, she couldn’t miss his clean scent. If he came a little closer, she might be able to take a surreptitious sniff of his shoulder or his hair or something.

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