Mercedes checked the board to see if it was level, hooked the drill with her foot and tossed it up, grabbed it with her free hand, and used it to secure the brace.
Holy. Cow.
Chet cut the engine and climbed out.
“S’up?” Aiden gave him a quick lift of his chin before focusing on the screw he was trying to place while Mercedes braced the board.
“S’up?” Mercedes gave a pretty impressive impression of Aiden, followed by a big grin to let him know she was teasing. For a moment, she looked like she was happy to see him. Then her face clouded over and she focused on her project.
“Hey,” Chet called loud enough to be heard over the tool. He rubbed the back of his neck as he inspected the new frame.
Aiden finished and Mercedes dusted off her hands.
“Are those the original supports?” Chet pointed to the concrete footings poking up about six inches from the ground.
“Yeah,” said Aiden. “Mercedes checked ‘em and said they were still good, so we could use those and just replace the boards.”
Chet nodded in appreciation. “She was right. They’ve held up well.” He did a quick once-over of the frame and found that he was truly impressed.
Mercedes measured the corner and marked off a two-by-six, which she handed to Aiden. “Okay, cut this on the angles I showed you and we’ll put it here to reinforce this corner. Then we can start putting on the joists.”
Aiden moved around to the saw stand and worked to adjust it.
“Did you teach him that?” Chet asked.
Mercedes gathered up a few tools. “He’s a quick learner.”
Chet scanned the supplies. Besides the decking for the porch floor, there was a bag of joists, a couple boxes of different types of screws, a can of stain, and a bunch of brushes. He looked around but the little egg car was nowhere to be seen. “How’d you get all this here?”
“I traded my sister and her car for your nephew and a truck.” Mercedes flipped her hand like she traded her sister every other day.
“You did what?” With the saw going, Chet had a hard time hearing Mercedes.
“Whitney called this morning to say they wanted to pay for a new railing. I told her there was no way they were paying to replace something we were going to rip out anyway. She tried to insist, but I worked her down to trading me a truck and Aiden for the afternoon.” She pointed to Aiden, who was just finishing up at the saw. “He’s a good worker and we’ve had a great time. Cat’s helping Whitney make bread and clean out her root cellar.”
Chet wondered why Whitney hadn’t called to tell him the change of plans. It was obvious Mercedes didn’t need his help. She had the project well in hand. He was disappointed. “In that case, maybe I’ll just head home.”
***
With Chet’s help, they’d get the porch done in half the time. Mercedes was still tired from finishing the master bedroom, and though the guys at Home Depot loaded the lumber, she and Aiden had unloaded it.
Now that Chet was here, there was no way Mercedes wanted him to leave. Whitney had mentioned he might stop by around six. When the time had come and gone she figured he’d decided not to show. Her arms ached, and if Chet was offering help, she would gladly take it.
There was another reason she wanted him to stay. After her talk with Sam and Cat last night at Big C’s, she wondered if the Lord really did have a plan for her in Snow Valley. If she could paint, she could get back on track. The only times she’d felt the desire to do so had been when Chet was around. She wanted to test the waters and see if spending time with him encouraged her fleeting inspiration.
“Sorry, I forgot to mention that you were part of the bargain.”
A smile tugged at Chet’s, lips but he held them in place. “I was?”
Mercedes’s pulse quickened. “Yep, and since you’re late, I’ll have to dock your pay.” She took the piece of wood from Aiden and fitted it into the corner.
“Well, shucks,” he drawled. His eyes danced, and she fumbled with the wood.
She closed her eyes. Of course, she hadn’t considered the fact that Chet may have an effect on more than her desire to paint. If that’s how she responded to him, she’d have to be careful with the saw when he was around.
Mercedes checked to make sure the piece of wood was level and then screwed it in place. “Go on, get to work.” She indicated the far frame. “I’ve marked a line for the joists’ hangers. You can show Aiden how to install the ones on that side; then we can fit the joists and install the hangers on the other side.”
Chet nodded. “Yes’m.”
He has got to stop being adorable.
Chet grabbed a handful of joist supports and hooked them in the loop on her overalls. He was close enough that she could smell the earth and fuel on his skin. It was a new scent to her, and she thought it would turn her mind to mush, it was so manly. That moment was worth all the teasing Cat had dished out when she’d put the overalls on this morning. They weren’t designer jeans, but Chet obviously wasn’t reading the label when he gave the loop a little tug and winked. If she hadn’t had one hand on a very sturdy porch frame, she would have wilted.
She listened as Chet explained to Aiden the importance of a joist hangar and how they needed to be installed right so the floor joists would be level. He was patient as Aiden’s first attempt was too low. They pulled the nails out and tried again.
In the meantime, Mercedes moved to place her marks on the opposite side. By the time Aiden got the hang of things, Mercedes was done. She leaned back against the frame to watch Chet work. He kept one eye on his hanger and one eye on Aiden. She enjoyed watching the two of them together. Aiden was serious about listening, and Chet was clear in his praise.
She caught herself sighing at the scene. What a painting the two of them would make, with their intense focus and matching coloring. She traced the lines of Chet’s body with her eye, contemplating which brushes she could use to create the right lighting effect. Maybe she should pull her paints out tonight.
Chet caught her watching and winked. His wink was not unlike his nephew’s—full of flirt. Where Aiden’s winks make her laugh, Chet’s made her cheeks burn. She ducked under the frame and hurried out to the wood they’d unloaded earlier. Unhooking the measuring tape from her back pocket, Mercedes measured the two-by-six. When she went to lift it, Chet was on the other end.
“I can see where Aiden gets his manners,” said Mercedes. “He wouldn’t let me lift a board on my own the whole time we were working.”
“Good.” Chet smiled. “You should tell his mom; it would make her day.”
“Ah, he’s a good kid.” Mercedes lined the board up on the saw and cut on her mark. Together, they carried the beam to the frame, and Chet ducked inside to move his end to the right hanger. Once they had it in place, Mercedes showed Aiden how to secure the loose end, and she and Chet went to fetch another beam.
They worked easily together, and Mercedes was surprised at how comfortable she felt with these two. Mercedes couldn’t help but wonder what they thought of a woman who could build a deck. Every once in a while Chet would look at her and shake his head. Maybe he thought she was strange—or unfeminine. Old insecurities reared. None of the men she’d dated appreciated her ability to fix a sink or install trim. More often than not, they discouraged her from even talking about it.
The floor joists practically fell into place, and soon they moved on to the decking.
“Have you used this material before?” Chet asked as he knocked on the Trex board. It did appear flimsy under his strong hand.
Mercedes bristled. “We use it all the time in Boston. It holds up well against the snow and it doesn’t have to be stained.”
Chet considered her answer, and Mercedes turned away. She hoped he wouldn’t push. She had no desire to argue, not when things were going so well between them. Besides, he shouldn’t care; it was her porch, not his.
“Then why did we buy stain?” asked Aiden.
“For
the frame and joists. They’ll need to be protected. But, before we do that…” Mercedes pulled a black marker out of her back pocket. “We need to sign it.”
She wrote her name and the date on the inside of a floor joist. “The names won’t show, but this is an O’Shae family tradition.” She finished with a flourish. “Your turn.” She handed the pen to Aiden, who took his time drawing an old fashioned handsaw and writing his name inside. He turned to Mercedes looking for approval, and she offered him a fist bump.
Aiden passed the marker to Chet, who simply wrote his first name. “This reminds me of a program I saw once on Ancient Egypt. Did you know they found graffiti in the pyramids?” Chet asked.
“They did?” Mercedes pointed at the board. “Last name and date, please. This is for history.”
Chet bent over and wrote while he talked. “Yeah, a couple of years ago they sent a robot camera into one of the places they thought was just a dead end and got back images of writing. They think it was the names of the people who worked on the temple.”
“That’s awesome.” A horrible thought crossed Mercedes’s mind, and she turned to Aiden before she missed her opportunity to warn him. “Don’t draw on stuff at school.”
Aiden held up both of his hands. “I wouldn’t do that.”
She flipped back to Chet, a question burning. “Does that mean the slaves that built the temples were literate?”
Chet looked surprised at her question, or maybe he was surprised that she cared about the pyramids. “They could at least write their names. Some of them had to be knowledgeable in writing because they inscribed the outsides of the tombs and such. But there are theories that the Egyptians, not their slaves, did the actual building.”
“True.” Mercedes gave him a smile. Chet’s broad knowledge base was a good match for Mercedes’s. “How’d you know that?” she asked.
Chet rolled a nail between his fingers. “I read it somewhere.”
“Like in National Geographic?”
Chet dropped the nail. “Yeah.”
“I love Nat Geo. My dad has a subscription.” She laughed. “He has to hide it until he’s done reading or Cat and I take off with it.”
Aiden shook his head. “You guys are geeks.”
“Thank you.” Mercedes gave him a little bow. “Geeks rule the world.”
“No way.” Aiden bumped her with his shoulder.
“Yes, way. Who do you think invented the computer? The cell phone? The internet? Geeks.”
“No.”
“Yeah huh.” Mercedes countered.
Aiden looked from one to the other as if he expected them to take it back. Mercedes decided not to push the point too much.
Chet caught her eye and gave her a smile that let her know he agreed with what she’d said, and it made her forget why she had a drill in her hand. After a moment, she remembered that she was supposed to be screwing in the stair treads. Why did she keep spacing out when Chet was around? It made her angry at herself.
Using her anger, Mercedes finished the stairs in record time.
“I like the way the material holds together; very smooth,” said Chet as he finished setting his last screw.
Mercedes relaxed. He may not have been convinced that Trex was the best choice, but he’d given it a fair shot and then admitted it was good.
The sun was still high in the sky thanks to the long summer days. Mercedes offered the guys a drink and they all went around the house to the back door. “I wish I had more to offer than a drink and some cookies. Cat was supposed to make dinner tonight, but she must be all caught up in kneading dough or something.”
“I could eat cookies for dinner,” said Aiden.
Mercedes reached up and brushed the sawdust off Aiden’s hair. He stepped away and shook like a dog, sending up a cloud.
Chet laughed.
“You’re not much better.” Mercedes brushed Chet’s shoulder and then down the front of his shirt, getting rid of the accumulated dust. Chet’s hands reached out as if he were going to place them on her waist, and Mercedes paused. She lifted her chin, and when their eyes met, the whole atmosphere charged with sparks that raced across Mercedes’s skin.
Was she stepping into his arms or trying to stay out of them? Chet was an enigma, this man who shod horses and talked of Egyptian temples. Life would never be boring with him around. She dug her fingers into the hair on the back of his head. Chet closed his eyes and leaned in.
Aiden cleared his throat dramatically, and Chet and Mercedes jumped apart.
She looked down at her hands as if they’d betrayed her, then hurried into the house and let the screen door slam behind her.
Get. A. Grip.
Pressing her cool fingers to her warm face, she worked to calm her racing heart. She’d had butterflies around a guy before, but Chet took things to a whole new level. This was ridiculous. She was ridiculous. She determined she needed to feed the two of them and get them out of her house before she did something really stupid—like fall for the guy.
***
Aiden put his hand up to stop Chet from following Mercedes through the back door. “Dude, what was that?”
Chet shook his head. “I’m not sure.”
“Are you into her?” Aiden asked, his voice eager.
“I don’t know.”
“Dude, you are so into her.” Aiden offered him a fist bump.
Chet put up his hands. “Calm down. This isn’t high school.”
Aiden deflated.
Chet felt bad for minimizing him. “I might kind of be interested…”
Aiden’s head came up.
“But I’m pretty sure she’s not interested in me, so let’s just drop it.”
“She was totally checking you, Uncle Chet.”
“She was?”
Aiden jerked his chin. “Totally. Come on. I’m starving.”
This time it was Chet who stopped Aiden. “Not a word,” he warned.
“Dude, I’m cool.” Aiden squared his shoulders and went in first.
Chet hesitated a moment, wondering if it was possible that he’d misread Mercedes. Would she … could she be interested in him? He’d certainly felt something when she was close, like he was wearing a shirt full of static electricity. He’d almost put his hands on her hips and pulled her in. All day they’d been working together, guessing the other’s needs and predicting their movements. When she’d picked up one end of a board, he was there to get the other. When he needed a level, she handed it to him before he asked. He thought it was just because she knew what she was doing, but now he wondered if it was more than that.
He hurried into the kitchen, hoping his tardiness wouldn’t make things awkward. Aiden was already into the cookie jar on the table, and Mercedes was leaning into the ancient fridge. How that thing still worked was beyond him.
“We’ve got soda, milk, orange juice, cranberry juice, or water,” she told them.
“Milk,” answered Chet and Aiden at the same time.
“It goes best with cookies,” clarified Chet.
“Agreed.” Mercedes pulled the milk out of the fridge and three glasses from the cupboard.
“Hey, leave some for the rest of us.” Chet nudged Aiden, who had a handful of cookies.
“What? There’s tons.”
Chet gave him a look, but Mercedes said, “He needs to eat a lot; this is dinner.” She handed Aiden a plate. “Don’t tell your mom all I fed you was cookies; she’ll think I’m a bad influence.”
“They have oatmeal in them.” Aiden smiled.
“That’s exactly what I told myself when I ate them for breakfast,” said Chet. He took a big bite of a cookie and smiled.
Mercedes rolled her eyes as she handed out glasses of milk. The sound of tires on the gravel driveway brought her head up. She threw a panicked look at Aiden. “It’s your mom!” They were going to get caught eating cookies for dinner.
Aiden shoved two more cookies in his mouth and downed the entire contents of his glass.
Cat and Whitney inspected the new porch.
“Looks great,” Cat grinned. “You guys got a lot done.”
Whitney frowned. “I thought I told you to build a railing,” she said to Chet.
Mercedes jumped in to defend him. “I got to looking at the floorboards and they were in bad shape. We ended up tearing the whole thing out and starting from scratch. The railing shouldn’t be too hard. Cat and I can do it tomorrow.”
There was a loud yell from the kitchen, followed by Aiden calling for Chet and Mercedes.
They ran in to find water shooting in all directions as Aiden used his hands to try and stop the spray from the broken faucet. Chet grabbed a dishtowel and jumped in to help deflect the stream.
“Turn it off!”
“I tried; the knob broke!” Aiden yelled back.
Mercedes dropped to her hands and knees and squeezed between the two, forcing her way under the sink. After a few seconds more, the water trickled off. Chet backed away from the sink with his hands out, just in case it went off again. Aiden moved and Mercedes scooted out from under the cupboard. Her back was soaking wet, and her hair dripped. Darn it all if she didn’t look beautiful when she was half drowned.
Aiden wiped the water off his face and Chet shook out his hands. Whitney and Cat stood in the doorway, staring at the three of them like they were a pack of wild animals invading the kitchen instead of the rescue crew diving in to save the day.
Aiden handed Mercedes the knob to the faucet. His eyes were huge, like he couldn’t believe what had just happened. “It just came off.”
Summer in Snow Valley (Snow Valley Romance Anthologies Book 2) Page 61
