Chapter 5 #2
Hudson couldn’t shake the feeling that Paige wasn’t exactly excited about this date. “Is this your first date with the guy?”
Paige sighed. “Nope. My third.”
Hudson tried to piece that information together with the fact she hadn’t gone out with the guy in the month he’d been working with her. “Has he been out of town?”
She shook her head, clearly confused by his question. “No. Why?”
Hudson waved his hand. “Never mind. So you’re just doing dinner and coming home?
Because if that’s the case, I could start tackling that pantry-slash-broom closet and you could join me after.
Doesn’t sound like the date is going to take long.
” He told himself that offer was based on him getting the job done, and not because he was curious to see this douchebag she was going out with.
Douchebag?
Jesus. He really was jealous of the guy.
“Oh.” Paige appeared to consider his offer, then her shoulders slumped. “Better call it a night now. He mentioned going dancing at Cruisers after dinner.”
If she looked unenthusiastic about dinner, that feeling was tripled as she mentioned the dancing.
He was tempted to ask her why she was going out with the guy, but that would be crossing a line.
They were only just beginning to build a friendship, but they hadn’t reached that level of personal sharing yet.
“Okay, then. I’ll just grab my stuff and get out of your way so you can get ready.”
Paige smiled. “Thanks.” She lifted her arms, gesturing around the foyer. “This really does look great.”
“Just wait until we sand the walls and paint. Unless…” Hudson was getting ahead of himself.
Paige tilted her head. “Unless?”
The fact she didn’t seem to realize the timeframe on their trial run had elapsed set his mind at ease. “It’s been a month.”
“Oh, right. Well,” she lifted one shoulder, “I think it’s working out great.”
Hudson breathed a sigh of relief. “So do I. And we’ve made some amazing headway. I’m pretty invested in the work now. Can’t wait to see some of these rooms completed.”
Paige knew it wasn’t feasible—timewise or financially—to tackle the whole house at once. So, she’d decided to renovate the primary living spaces, pushing the other rooms off until “someday.”
“Great,” she said.
Her goal was to finish the kitchen, living room, dining room, her office, as well as the master bedroom and bathroom by the end of summer, so that she could host a housewarming party for her family. The two guest bedrooms, other bathrooms, sunroom, and bonus room were going to remain as-is for now.
He considered telling her about the job he’d just landed, then decided to break that to her later. Hudson hadn’t mentioned the offer because he’d been worried about jinxing it. Hell, he hadn’t even mentioned it to Granddad until the contract was written and ready to be signed.
He picked up his tool belt, swinging it over his arm. The new job wasn’t scheduled to start for a few more weeks, so he was hoping to convince Paige to let him start on the plumbing issues now, even though it wasn’t next on her list. He’d discuss it with her tomorrow.
Hudson was strangely bothered by how anxious she was to get ready for this date. She didn’t sound like she wanted to go, but she was definitely in a hurry for him to leave. She’d also managed to avoid giving him the guy’s name.
“Have a good time tonight with…”
Paige didn’t take the bait. “Thanks,” she said. Then added, “For everything, Hudson.”
The smile Paige gave him as he left hit him hard square in the middle of his chest, cracking open a heart he’d always believed was made of stone.
Jesus Christ.
He was falling for Paige Sparks.
Hard.
Hudson kicked back in the barstool, letting his eyes glance across the large room.
He pretended he was searching for familiar faces from high school, but the truth was, he was essentially spying on Paige, who’d shown up with her date half an hour earlier.
She’d looked mildly surprised to see him sitting at the bar.
Actually, she’d looked somewhat panicked, though he couldn’t understand why.
It wasn’t like he intended to make some sort of scene or ruin her date.
He didn’t even plan to approach her. The two of them had exchanged brief waves from across the room while her date stopped to chat with someone at another table, and that was as far as he planned to take it.
When he left Paige’s house, he was certain his night consisted of nothing more than BLTs and soup with Granddad, after which they’d catch a baseball game on TV. However, fate had decided to tempt him when one of his old buddies called and invited him to Cruisers.
Hudson, who didn’t believe in God, karma, or voodoo, had decided it was a sign and agreed to join Ronnie McCarty for a beer or two.
Which in hindsight was a bad idea, because he and Ronnie were friends in high school for a reason. They’d both been assholes.
Ronnie was actually the one who’d stupidly pitched the still-lit joint inside old man Potter’s shed, igniting the fire, but he’d managed to avoid getting caught.
Mr. Potter could only chase down one of them after they’d split up, taking off in different directions.
Hudson had drawn the short straw, so it was his ass that had been hauled before Judge Sparks’ bench, and his sorry hide that had been forced to rebuild the shed, with his Granddad’s help.
Granddad had made him work to pay back the cost of replacing the shed every weekend for three months.
Ronnie had gotten off scot-free because Hudson refused to rat him out.
While Hudson was trying to make amends for his shithead ways nowadays, Ronnie was still a dick.
Since they’d arrived an hour earlier, Ronnie had pounded six beers and hit on no less than four women—all of whom wisely shot him down.
Unfortunately, each rejection was followed by Ronnie loudly and drunkenly insulting the women, calling them frigid or stuck-up or stupid.
Hudson had tried to get him to lower his voice, and he even apologized for Ronnie. He refused to go down with the asshole’s sinking ship, considering he was just starting to make strides toward redeeming himself.
When he hit his limit on Ronnie, Hudson excused himself to go to the restroom, and now he was hanging out by the bar, claiming a stool that was out of Ronnie’s line of sight, wondering how long he could hide out before the guy realized Hudson wasn’t coming back.
Hudson leaned forward and called the bartender over. “You might want to cut off the guy I came here with,” he suggested, when he noticed his old friend stumbling over to yet another table of women.
The bartender scanned the room until he saw Ronnie and muttered a curse. “That guy is in here every weekend, getting wasted and hitting on women. Never catches a clue that none of them are interested.”
Hudson nodded. “Just an FYI. He drove himself here.”
“Thanks for the heads-up. I’ll get Tony, the bouncer, to go confiscate his keys. I’ve got the number to a couple of ride-share drivers who deal well with getting the drunks home. I’ll give one of them a call.”
With Ronnie taken care of, Hudson turned his attention back to Paige.
Her date—who really did look like a douchebag, with his brand-spanking-new dark blue jeans and too-tight T-shirt that Hudson assumed was supposed to make the guy look muscular—reminded him of a banty rooster.
His hair was long on top and coiffed with an ungodly amount of gel, his facial hair was more peach fuzz than beard, and he’d swaggered into the bar like cock of the walk when they arrived, stopping to fist bump a couple of men he knew.
Now—like the last few times Hudson had looked—the guy was texting on his phone. Paige looked completely bored, leaning back in her chair, watching everyone bumping and grinding on the dance floor.
When the guy finally put his phone down, Paige pointed to the dance floor. For a moment, Hudson thought the two of them were going to dance, but the man’s phone rang at that moment. He glanced at the screen, then raised his pointer finger before heading outside to take the call.
Paige sighed, her shoulders slumped. She looked more annoyed than sad.
It was obvious she wanted to dance…so Hudson stood. If her date wasn’t going to pay attention to her, he would.
However, before he’d made it two steps away from his seat, Ronnie had made his way to Paige’s table.
Hudson saw red when Ronnie grabbed Paige’s hand, trying to pull her up from her seat.
“I don’t want to dance with you,” she said, struggling to reclaim her hand.
Fortunately, Tony the bouncer had already been on his way.
“Time to go,” Tony said, strong-arming Ronnie toward the exit, as Hudson and Paige watched his former friend cuss a blue streak at the bouncer, claiming he “had rights.” Then he glanced back at him.
“Hudson!”
Hudson didn’t have a clue what Ronnie thought he was going to do for him. Not that it mattered. Tony was way stronger than Ronnie, and he had him out the door before Hudson could reply.
“I’m sorry, Paige,” Hudson said, pissed that the guy he’d shown up with had manhandled her.
Paige rolled her eyes as she looked at him. “It’s not your fault. Ronnie’s been an asshole since high school. You know tha—” She paused.
“I know that because I was the one being an asshole next to him.”
Paige smiled. “It’s funny. Ever since we started working on the house together, I keep forgetting that.”
Those were probably the nicest words she could have said to him. “Good. I wish I could erase those years from your mind completely.”
“You’re off to a great start.”
“Thanks. Although, I might have set myself back a little bit tonight.”
Paige looked at him curiously. “Did you come here with Ronnie?”
Hudson grimaced. “He called a couple hours ago, asked if I wanted to go out for drinks. Guess I was thinking he might have matured.”
Paige snorted. “Never going to happen.”
Hudson had zero interest in talking about Ronnie. “Where’s your date?”