Page 20 of Hold

“Just the books on the syllabus. And you know the plot of more books than you think.” He looked up at her through one sweaty curl that hung over his forehead. “Unless you spend all your time watching old movies instead of reading.” She thought she might have seen him smile again. “Stand by with that caulk gun when I get these onto the siding.”

She picked up the giant squeezy gun thing and shouldered it, pointing the tip at him. “Now, I—I—just need you to stick ’em up, see?”

He leaned back on the ladder and stared at her for a moment. “You owe me a million dollars.”

She pouted. “I never watched Jimmy Stewart’s Westerns. Benji! Get away from the ladder!”

Without a whole lot more conversation, she helped Liam finish what he was doing, and he came down to her eye level. Kind of a shame, as she’d been enjoying the sight of his arms holding the drill, bracing the shims, his biceps flexing…

“Benji!”

“Sorry!” At least he hadn’t ridden his bike into the ladder. Just into Liam’s legs. “I wobbled!”

He hadn’t fallen off, partly because he’d put his foot out to stop himself and partly because in a split second, Liam had dropped the drill and grabbed the boy’s arm.

“Go inside,” Thea said in a deadly voice.

“Mommm!”

“I warned you.”

“But I didn’t—”

“Inside!”

Benji threw his bike to the side and stormed into the house.

“Sorry,” Thea said. “I hope your drill’s okay.”That wasnotan innuendo. Don’t blush, don’t blush.

“Not a big deal.”

“He only did it to get your attention, you know.”

Liam smiled, this time a gentle smile that lit up his eyes in a whole new way. “He’s a good kid.”

Thea was warmed by the compliment, but as usual, the next second she was suspicious. “If the next words out of your mouth arehe needs a man in his life, I will fill up your orifices with that caulk gun.”

“Jeez.” He held up his hands. “You need to… never mind. I was just saying he was a good kid. That’s it.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.” He began to put together his tools. Thea helped him secure them in his truck, and they went inside.

“How many old movies have you watched?” he asked. His beard had some sawdust in it from cutting the wood, and a bead of sweat was running down his cheek and onto his neck.

Focus, Thea!“Most of them,” she answered. “When the boys were younger, it was AMC or start hitting the tequila. Cary Grant saved my liver.”

Liam picked up the air conditioner like it was a box of popcorn and inserted it into the window. “Go check that it’s straight outside.” Thea did so, yelled that it looked fine, and came back in as the air conditioner clicked on with a soothing hum rather than the bone-rattling judder they’d all become used to.

“Ahhh,” she said, lifting her hair off her neck with both hands. She was wearing a loose T-shirt and felt it rise up above her waistline as she did so.

Liam might have been looking. Or he might have been thinking and just happened to look in her direction. She couldn’t see his eyes to check but wondered if she saw his cheeks flush a little.

“You gonna give a man a glass of lemonade, or what?” he said.

Not much of a come-on. Not that she wanted one. “Right, right.” She wound her hair around into a bun as she led him into the kitchen.

He sat at the kitchen table and made it look small and insubstantial as he scrubbed at his sweaty hair and beard.

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