Chapter Sixteen
J ust as she was about to drop the sledgehammer again and march into the other room towards him, Zac appeared back in the dining room, but this time instead of carrying his trusty clipboard, he was instead carrying the other sledgehammer. She watched as he pulled goggles from his head over his eyes and took a swing at the wall.
Pausing, he looked across at her and grinned. ‘I’m not looking to invest in any property at the moment, and definitely not this cottage. This little gem is entirely yours.’
Lynsey opened her mouth, about to question what he was doing then, but instead she kept quiet and picked up her own sledgehammer as he took another swing. Putting all her weight behind her, with the next blow the brickwork let out an audible crack and the first brick fell to the floor, the early morning light from the kitchen streaming through the hole in the wall.
Pushing his goggles up to his head, Zac held his palm out towards her. ‘Good work!’
‘You too!’ High-fiving him, Lynsey felt a flush of achievement. They’d done it. She’d done it. Frowning, she suddenly had a thought. ‘You’re not charging me for this, are you?’
‘Haha, you’ve not signed any contracts yet.’ Chuckling, Zac slid his goggles back down before picking up his sledgehammer again.
After the initial breakthrough, it didn’t take quite as long for them to bash a decent sized hole between the dining room and the kitchen. When the final brick fell to the floor, Lynsey leaned her sledgehammer against the wall, before circling her shoulders as a sharp pain shot through her shoulder blade. Tilting her head from side to side, she tried to ease the discomfort.
‘Here.’ Placing his sledgehammer down next to Lynsey’s, Zac stepped towards her, indicating for her to turn around.
‘No, I’m fine.’ After she’d winced once more, he once again circled his finger, indicating her to turn. Relenting, she did as he’d asked her to and turned to face the back wall. She jumped as she felt his fingers against her shoulders.
‘Just relax. This will help.’ He pressed deeper this time, drawing the pads of his thumbs deep into her muscle.
It was easy for him to tell her to relax, but she had to admit it felt good. She could already feel the pain easing. Watching a blackbird flutter in and out of the overgrown hedge outside the small dining-room window, she savoured his touch against her. Maybe she’d got him wrong. Maybe he wasn’t after the cottage after all, but if he wasn’t, then why had he sneaked back inside at the crack of dawn? Gently shrugging him off, she turned on the spot and came face-to-face with him. She could feel his breath against her nose. They were that close.
As if frozen to the spot, he reached up and slid his goggles to the top of his head, his sandy hair ruffling against the plastic lenses. Reaching slowly towards her, he gently slid hers to her to rest on her head before carefully tugging a trapped strand of hair from the arm of the goggles.
He was so close. She was so close. And she felt it. That connection, that spark she’d felt when she’d initially seen him. She blinked. It would be so easy to lean forward, to close the tiny gap between them and touch her lips against his, to find out what he felt like, what he tasted like.
Shaking her head, she stepped back, the chill of the early morning instantly enveloping her, a feeling of loss filling her as she watched him rub his palm over his face before shifting backwards slightly too.
He cleared his throat and nodded towards the wall. ‘This is going to be a really lovely space.’
Glancing at the floor, Lynsey slipped her goggles from her head and held them in her hands before focusing her attention on the gaping hole in the wall. ‘Why did you come by this morning?’
Scratching his stubbled jawline, he spoke quietly. ‘I wanted to take another look at inside. I noticed the lock was a bit iffy when I left yesterday, so had a feeling it wouldn’t be working.’
Turning, she looked him in the eye. ‘But why?’
‘After I saw you with the estate agent yesterday and noticed how upset you were at the prospect of not being able to afford the renovations and having to sell, I went away and spent most of the night working on my quote.’
‘You’d already given me a quote.’ He wasn’t making any sense. In fact, the only little sense he was making was by saying he’d spent most of the night awake. That at least explained the dark circles under his eyes and the stubble visible across his chin.
‘Yes, I did. You’re right.’ He held up his forefinger before. ‘One moment. Let me grab my clipboard.’
Lynsey watched as he disappeared through the door into the living room before re-emerging with his blue clipboard clutched against his chest.
Glancing around, Zac pointed to an old dust sheet crumpled in the corner. ‘May I?’
Lynsey nodded. He wanted the dust sheet? He was welcome to it. It hadn’t done much good in here, anyway. She watched whilst he tucked the clipboard beneath his arm and dragged the dust sheet into the middle of the room. After shaking it out a little, he spread it across the filthy floorboards, picnic-rug style, before holding out his hand, indicating Lynsey to sit down. She lowered herself to the sheet as he did and curled her legs beneath her.
Placing the clipboard between them. ‘Right, you bought this cottage before you’d seen the inside, right?’ He looked up, waiting for Lynsey to nod before continuing. ‘And I’m taking a wild stab in the dark that you only had a certain amount of money to buy a property with. Hence why you bought through auction and took an almighty gamble on this cottage of yours?’
She nodded slowly. ‘You know this.’
‘Yes, yes, I do. Now, I mean. I didn’t before. When I quoted you for the work, I wasn’t aware there was a set budget I needed to work with.’
‘So, you tried to fleece me by giving me the highest quote you could?’ As soon as she’d said it, she regretted it. She had a feeling she may have misjudged him before. No, she knew she’d misjudged him before. He’d helped her, free of charge – she hoped – after all.
Giving a low chuckle, Zac wagged his finger at her. ‘No, I worked with the knowledge I had at the time. You wanted to renovate this cottage, turn it back into how it was before the previous half-hearted renovations had begun, right?’
She nodded. She still didn’t understand what he was getting at.
‘What if I told you that I could do the work for less than half the price, but you wouldn’t end up with the interior cottage looking as it did when it was last purchased? And yes, I did some digging on the internet last night too and found the listing of the property both when it was sold through the estate agent and when it was sold through auction.’
Huh? Less than half the price of his original quote. She certainly liked the sound of that. ‘I don’t understand how you can cut your quote by so much.’
‘That’s where it gets interesting.’ Zac folded the first sheet of paper over, tucking it beneath the plastic backboard and revealing a sketch of a room. ‘We use fewer materials and I offer my work at a reduced price if you let me use the before and after pictures for advertising my business.’
‘Really?’ She rubbed the palm of her hand across the leg of her jeans. ‘I like the sound of that. But what do you mean by using fewer materials? How is that possible?’
‘Take a look at this.’ He tapped the sketch on the clipboard. ‘I’ll take off the remaining plaster, check the brickwork and repair any damage and we leave the brickwork bare.’
Shifting onto her knees, Lynsey leaned forward and peered at the sketch. It certainly looked a little like her living room. The fireplace was in the right place but instead of smooth plastered walls as she’d imagined, Zac had drawn exposed brickwork, giving the room a classy and yet different look. She grinned as she took it all in. ‘I love it. I think it’ll look really good.’
‘That’s not all. To further reduce costs, I had a quick search on the internet and there are loads of quirky old cabinets and shelving for sale in the local reclamation yards. You don’t need a brand new kitchen. We can visit the reclamation yards and create a custom kitchen, completely useable but also filled with character.’ He flicked over the sheet of paper again, revealing yet another sketch beneath. ‘This is just an idea using what cabinets and shelving units the local reclamation yards have for show on the internet. There’s bound to be more if we visit.’
Lynsey didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Zac’s ideas looked perfect and much more her style than a brand new kitchen. She looked at him, resisting the urge to cup his cheeks in her palms and give him a big kiss. ‘I don’t know what to say.’
Zac shrugged, his cheeks pinking a little. ‘You don’t need to say anything. I’ll leave the sketches and the quote here and you can take a little time to think about it. Get back to me when you’ve made a decision.’
‘No, I mean, I know what to say about the quote. I say yes, but I don’t know what to say to you.’ She leaned back, her legs still beneath her. ‘I don’t know how to thank you for... all of this. For coming back, for helping me with the wall, for coming up with this idea. I can’t imagine many other builders would out put all this time and effort into working out a way to make things work like this for their customers.’
Zac shrugged. ‘Don’t mention it. It’s a beautiful home and you deserve to live in it.’
‘Thank you, Zac.’ She bit down on her bottom lip before meeting his gaze. ‘And I’m sorry for all the horrible things I said to you. I was downright rude. I shouldn’t have been.’
Shaking his head, he chuckled. ‘Don’t be. I was just as bad, if not worse.’
Laughing, Lynsey placed her hand on his forearm. ‘Yes, you were.’
Zac looked down at her hand, still on the sleeve of his shirt, and looked back up at her.
Pulling her hand away, Lynsey frowned. Was he feeling it, too? Had he felt the tingle of his skin when she’d touched him? Had he felt the ‘moment’ they’d shared when he’d pushed her goggles onto the top of her head? She forced herself to stand up and move away. Of course he hadn’t. She remembered how he’d acted towards her, spoken to her, when they’d first met, the way he’d just walked away without a backward glance when he’d originally refused to even give her a quote. Feelings didn’t change that quickly.
And yet, here she was, looking at him in a different way herself. She shook her head, trying to dislodge the thoughts, trying to break the connection she felt with him.
Standing up, Zac freed the papers from the clipboard and passed them across to her, giving her a small smile as their fingers brushed. ‘I hope to hear from you soon.’
‘Uh-huh.’ Lynsey nodded. Words had failed her and all she could do was to watch him disappear into the living room and back outside, leaving her alone in her new kitchen/diner. What was going on between them?
Nothing. That was what. And even if she did feel something for him, there were no guarantees that he did, too. Yes, she’d definitely felt as though he might just be feeling the same way, but what did she know? She’d been with Ross for eleven years. She hadn’t even attempted to get into another relationship in all that time. She didn’t know the signals. And besides, if the way Ross had so royally deceived her was anything to go by, then she was the worst at reading other people.
Shoving her hands in her jeans pockets, she stepped towards the small window and looked outside. The overgrown garden was alive with wildlife now, birds fluttering from hedge to hedge, a large bee bumbling around in the air, hovering over the early spring flowers. She even caught a glimpse of a squirrel scurrying up the large oak tree at the bottom of the garden. She frowned. The sun had fully risen, and she had a nagging feeling she was forgetting something.
The bakery! It must be passed opening time now. How could she have forgotten?