Chapter 2 #3
Macie returned with their food, and the two of them tucked in.
Hudson realized this lunch was another thing that hadn’t changed, because the barbeque at Sparks was still the best on the planet.
As they ate, several locals made their way over to the table to say hello.
Granddad was well-liked in town and had a lot of friends.
Hudson didn’t miss some of the sideway glances from people who remembered him.
He could see them mentally sizing him up, wondering if his return to town was going to spell trouble.
Granddad told all of them about the resurgence of Ryan Construction, asking them to spread the word.
A few people said they’d let folks know, but just as many eyed him with too much doubt…
and a couple even boldly stated that they were perfectly happy working with Beck Reed.
They’d just finished when Macie returned to their table. “Y’all want anything else?”
They both shook their heads.
Rather than clear the dishes, Macie pulled a chair over from a nearby table and plopped it down at the end of their booth.
“You done working, Macie?” TJ called out from the bar.
Macie looked over her shoulder. “I’m taking a quick break. You’re perfectly capable of pouring beer, Dad. In case you forgot, you’re technically on the schedule to work today.”
TJ frowned, looking almost confused. “I am?” Then he started muttering, “This is ridiculous. Can’t expect me to work all these hours.”
Macie rolled her eyes. “Dad doesn’t even look at the schedule. We just put him on there—every single day—for shits and giggles, so we can all tell him to get back to work whenever he’s getting on our nerves or we’re feeling ornery.”
Hudson and Granddad laughed.
“So you got any jobs lined up yet?” she asked Hudson, who shook his head.
“I only got back to town a few days ago. Granddad and I have been going over the ins and outs of the business, and I’ve been getting to know the crew as we finish up a couple of projects.
” He liked the crew, but if Hudson couldn’t manage to land a couple of jobs ASAP, he was going to have to let them go…
and then they’d really be up the river without a paddle.
“Want a sort of filler job while you do that, something to keep you busy until you line up something legit?” Macie asked.
Hudson was nodding before she finished asking the question.
Prior to Dad’s death, Hudson was accustomed to rising with the sun, and while his workday ended around six, that was when he came home and started taking care of Dad’s needs.
Since Granger’s funeral, Hudson had been preparing for the move to Maris, but he’d settled in a couple days ago.
After so many years on the go, Hudson was starting to feel antsy to get back to work.
“You need some work done around here?” Hudson asked, glancing around the restaurant.
“Not at the moment, but hold that thought, because there’s a chance we might get the property next door. If that happens, we want to knock down the wall between and double the size of the restaurant.”
Hudson’s creative brain started churning. “I hope you’ll let me bid on that project.”
Macie grinned. “Of course we will. Though I’ll warn you, Beck Reed already caught wind of the possible purchase, and he’s got a serious hard-on for the job.”
“Of course he does,” Granddad muttered.
Macie waved off Granddad’s concern. “You know we’re Team Ryan Construction. But for now, I have something that’s probably less up your alley, Hudson. More handyman than construction.”
“Handyman?” Granddad chimed in. “Why wouldn’t you just call Bobby Duncan?”
“Oh, didn’t you hear?” Macie, like her dad, loved being the teller of tales. “He took a nasty tumble from a ladder while digging leaves out of his mom’s gutters this past weekend. Fractured his femur. Probably going to need surgery, and he could be out of commission for up to six months.”
“That’s a bad injury,” Hudson added, recalling a colleague suffering from the same several years earlier.
“Yeah. Well, prior to the fall, he’d started helping my cousin renovate her new house, working there three days a week.
She’s determined to do as much of the work as she can on her own, but a lot of it requires two pairs of hands or more strength than she has.
She’s ripping up carpet, stripping wallpaper, painting the walls and cabinets, getting new appliances in the kitchen, and I think there’s the issue of one room needing new drywall.
She planned to hire a plumber and an electrician to update all that stuff, but it sounds like you could help her with the plumbing. ”
All of that was right up Hudson’s alley.
And until he started to line up bigger jobs, the idea of getting back to work was appealing.
The crew was perfectly capable of finishing up the last two jobs without him standing over them every hour of the day.
He hadn’t planned to do more than get them going every morning anyway, so he could start bidding on other projects.
Since both jobs would wrap up in a few weeks, he needed to get the word out that Ryan Construction was coming back strong.
The Sparks were a well-respected family in Maris. If he did a good job for Macie’s cousin, hopefully they’d all spread the word. Might be the quickest way to get the business back off the ground and redeem his reputation.
“Which cousin?” he asked.
“Paige.”
And just like that…the bubble popped. Because there was no way in hell Paige Sparks—the girl he’d terrorized for five years in school—would hire him.
“That’s terrific,” Granddad said, oblivious to just how badly Hudson had burned that particular bridge down.
Hudson needed to head this off at the pass. “I’m not sure that’s going to work.”
Granddad and Macie stared at him, confused, until he was forced to admit… “I wasn’t exactly nice to Paige in high school.”
Macie shrugged. “So what? That was years ago.”
“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, anything anymore. 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 a leak.
Getting a plumber from Douglas takes an act of God and Congress.
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 he hadn’t noticed in high school was Paige’s ass.
Which was shocking to him, because damn.
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.”