Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Paige slumped against the wall in the living room, sliding down until she hit her ass. “Are we done yet?”
Hudson stood over her, shaking his head. “I swear to God, whoever wallpapered this room put it up with fucking superglue.”
They’d stripped the wallpaper from several rooms already, and while it was slow, tedious work, it had at least come off fairly easily.
The living room was proving to be a challenge.
Enough of one that she’d come very close to saying to hell with it and suggesting they just wallpaper over the old.
Not that Hudson would go for that. He hated wallpaper as much as she did.
Before they’d started the room, Paige had been hopeful that perhaps there wouldn’t be any wallpaper under the wood paneling covering the lower half of the wall, but no such luck. Every inch of the room had been papered, and Hudson was right, the old adhesive was making it a bitch to strip.
Hudson tilted his head to the left, then to the right, stretching his neck then rubbing it wearily.
He was wearing loose-fitting jeans that looked like they were one more wash away from completely disintegrating and a faded black T-shirt that was covered in little bits of the sticky remains of the wallpaper.
Regardless, the man seriously looked like sex on a stick.
Though, it didn’t matter what he wore. Paige had spent the past two weeks sneaking covert glances, wondering how a face she’d literally despised for years now set her insides aflutter.
That face was now more rugged, less boyish, and his hazel eyes twinkled with mirth all the time, which was a welcome change from the hate-filled scowl she used to know.
Hudson’s light brown hair was shorter than it had been in school; back then, it was a shaggy, greasy mess, but nowadays he kept it styled and clean and—
Stop drooling, Paige.
When he bent over to pick a piece of damp wallpaper off his boot, she realized it wasn’t just his face pushing all her hot buttons. She could bounce quarters off Hudson’s ass.
Her toys had been getting a workout the past few nights, and it looked like tonight would be no different.
“Shit gets everywhere,” he grumbled, flicking the sticky strip of old wallpaper to one of the countless little piles around the room.
She’d only started helping a few hours ago.
Hudson had been here since early this morning, plugging away in this room, while she put in her eight hours at the restaurant.
He had taken down the wood paneling and hauled it to the dump, and he was cussing a blue streak when she’d gotten home, pissed off by the slow wallpaper-stripping progress.
She’d quickly changed into her paint-splattered jeans and an old T-shirt, thinking it would go faster with the two of them tackling it.
Ha-fucking-ha.
“I’ll give you a million dollars to go to the kitchen and grab us a couple of beers,” Paige said, closing her eyes.
Hudson chuckled. “I’ll do it for free.”
She sighed, listening as he walked to the kitchen, grabbed a couple cold Coronas from the refrigerator, and popped the caps. This wasn’t the first time they’d shared a beer at the end of a long workday. In fact, it was starting to become part of their routine.
Despite Hudson also running the crews on two different projects for Ryan Construction, and bidding on every job he could find, he’d somehow found a few hours nearly every single day to help her.
She’d tried to tell him she hadn’t meant for him to spend so many hours here, but he was determined to give her a good head start before other jobs began rolling in and he wouldn’t have the time.
She peered over at the archway as Hudson returned with the beer, plopping down next to her on the floor. He handed her one of the bottles and they tapped them together in an unspoken cheers and took long sips.
Paige took in their lack of progress and groaned. So far, they were less than halfway through, and her patience was gone.
“I vote we just strike a match to it and be done. I have home insurance.”
Hudson wiggled his eyebrows. “Don’t tempt me. You know I have some experience with arson, Princess.”
Paige barked out a laugh. Clearly exhaustion was taking over. Since the first day they’d reunited, neither she nor Hudson had referred to his checkered past, or the bullying he’d subjected her to in high school, or how much that nickname annoyed her. She suspected that was on purpose.
If she didn’t think about it or bring it up, she wouldn’t be forced to question her wisdom in hiring him. And he was being careful not to remind her of all the reasons why he probably shouldn’t be working for her.
They were just two weeks in on their month-long trial run.
The first week had been the honeymoon phase, as they worked harmoniously, chiseling away at her list more quickly than she’d expected.
Hudson was a hell of a worker, and while Bobby had only been here a few days before his unfortunate accident, there was no comparison between the men.
She’d traded way the hell up.
This week, however, Hudson had started to question the schedule, pointing out that they’d be wiser to tackle some tasks before others. He kept insisting on moving into the office, tearing down the ceiling and walls, so that he could get a proper look at the plumbing.
For right now, he’d basically put a Band-Aid on the slow leak problem, cutting out a small section of the ceiling, using pressure-rated pipe repair tape to solve her problem for the short-term.
Paige insisted she wasn’t ready for the mess that tearing down the drywall would involve.
She preferred to finish stripping the wallpaper and getting the carpet out first. She supposed it made sense that the plumber would want to move on to that, since stripping wallpaper was as thrilling as watching hair grow.
It would also probably be smarter of her to make use of the plumber while he was here and had the time.
Unfortunately, that argument with Hudson had occurred on the same day her dad found out she’d hired her former bully, and she’d been subjected to countless questions from Dad that she hadn’t had good answers to.
Primarily, if she’d asked Hudson for references, or even a resume to prove the man could actually do what he said.
“That arson was the result of a lit joint, wasn’t it?” she asked.
“Fucking small towns,” he muttered. “Everyone always knows all the details.”
“Uncle TJ is very thorough with his storytelling,” she joked. “Given the way I’m feeling right now, I wouldn’t mind risking a fire if you had some pot you were willing to share.”
Hudson’s eyes widened. “What? The perfect princess wants to smoke pot with Maris’ OG bad boy? Think of the scandal.”
Paige snorted. “We’d throw those stupid high school clichés on their heads if we got caught, wouldn’t we?”
“We would. They really are stupid clichés, but damn if they don’t stick.”
“Still getting the hairy eyeball from folks around town?”
“Some. I’m pretty sure Mrs. Wainwright locked her car door the other day when I walked by her on the sidewalk. Like I was going to drag her out from behind the wheel and steal the thing. She drives a goddamn minivan.”
Paige laughed, then leaned toward him, bumping her shoulder against his. “Give them time. They’ll soon see that you’ve changed. Meanwhile, I’m destined to be a goodie-goodie for all of eternity.”
“That’s a bad thing?”
Paige shrugged. “I guess not. But one of these days, I swear I’m going to cut loose and do something so wild and crazy, the locals will have gossip about me that’s more interesting than my perfect attendance or MBA.”
“What’s wrong with them talking about that?”
“Other than the fact they scream boooooring? Sadly, those are apparently the only memorable things about me. How depressing is that?”
“You’re making me sorry I don’t have any pot in my truck.
Gave that up along with the cigarettes the year I turned twenty-one.
I could start drinking legally, so hitting the bar and splitting a few pitchers with my colleagues became my vice.
Less expensive and less illegal. Texas really doesn’t want us to be happy. ”
“Wow, you’re as boring as me these days.”
“Watch it.” Hudson reached over, ruffling her hair playfully, as she tried to bat his hand away. There were moments—like this one—where it felt surreal to have Hudson Ryan in her house, the two of them chatting like old friends, rather than the bully and his victim.
“Guess it’s ultimately up to us to reinvent ourselves,” she mused. “Like you’re doing.”
“It would be a hell of a lot easier if there was some button we could push to do a complete reboot after graduation. Some way we could shed all the high school crap and become the adult version of ourselves instantly. No muss, no fuss, no dark pasts hanging over our heads.”
Paige considered that, then joked, “I think I was my adult version in high school.”
Hudson laughed. “No way. You’re much cooler nowadays.”
Paige was ridiculously thrilled by that comment.
“So…did you break it to your dad that you hired me yet?” Hudson asked.
Her dad was another subject they were both careful to avoid. She wasn’t sure if it was exhaustion or maybe the fumes from the old adhesive, but it felt like they were turning a corner tonight. Moving away from adversaries to something that felt like genuine friendship.
Sure.
Friendship.
Paige wished her feelings were something as innocent and easily contained as friendship. In truth, she was fighting a pretty strong attraction to Hudson, and she had since the day he showed up in her yard and hefted that heavy-ass rug over his thick, muscular shoulders.