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His head swiveled back. “Asparagus?”
“I accidentally set them on fire. Don’t ask. The point is, setting the smoke detector off is common practice. Doesn’t exactly make me feel better about all my epic failures.”
“Overloading the washer and forgetting to put towels in the dryer are not epic failures.”
“No, but the pipe bursting is.” She stepped out of his hold, and he immediately wanted to pull her back to him. She waved her hand at the puddle of water on the floor and up to the water dripping down the wall. “Epic failure.”
“And not your fault.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“I’m ninety-nine percent positive. I won’t know until I can get to the pipe and see what actually happened, but I’m pretty confident you had nothing to do with it.”
“I already told you, I’ll call my dad.”
He shook his head. Mr. Garrick had always had too much on his plate, and now with his mother recently passing, Nolan was positive the man didn’t need the added stress. Besides, he wasn’t currently working; he had all the time in the world.
“Why call your dad when you have a handy man living right next door?”
“Now you’re calling yourself a handy man? Last I checked you were… actually, I’m not exactly sure what your title actually was.”
This time his gaze drifted to the floor. “It doesn’t matter. Right now, I’m title-less.”
“What happened?”
Isla used to be the one person he told everything to. Any problems at school, work, home, he went to her, but it’d been so long since he confided in her. He caught her gaze, and her eyes softened. It would be easy to fall into their old ways, but he wasn’t ready to open up.
“Story for a different day,” he said. “We need to clean up this mess. I’ll get some fresh towels from my house and then we’re busting open this wall.”
“Excuse me!”
“The only way to get to the pipe is through the wall.”
“You are not putting a hole in my grandma’s wall.”
“It’s your wall now, and yes I am, and you’re going to help me.”
“I know nothing about putting holes in walls and pipes.”
“You’re a homeowner now. It’s time to learn, and I’m going to teach you.”
Chapter 10
Isla had been afraid to buy new furniture, and now she stood in front of her grandmother’s wall—technicallyherwall—with a sledgehammer. When she woke up, she never could have imagined the turn the day would take. First the geyser exploding from the wall, then Nolan standing in front of her with no shirt and glistening in sweat.
He looked sinfully good. And then she had a total meltdown, and in typical Nolan fashion, he comforted her. For a second, it felt like old times, but she had to remind herself it wasn’t. Three years had passed since that awful day—three years since she’d felt his touch and looked into those familiar eyes that grounded her so well.
“You ready to do this?” he asked.
She could lie and tell him,Sure! No problem!After all, didn’t everyone bust down walls on a Tuesday…? Even if she lied, her tone would rat her out, so she went with the truth. “No.” She turned and looked at him. “Who knows how long this wall has been here? How can I just take a sledgehammer to it? What if it stirs up spirits?”
“Spirits? What are you talking about?”
“Have you never watched those paranormal shows? People will have lived in a house for years with no issues, and the minute they start construction, suddenly all these crazy things start happening. Apparently spirits that have attachments to a house don’t like when you start changing things, and they get angry.”
“Do you think your grandmother is going to get angry at you?”
“Not my grandma. She would know that I had no choice, but what about the other spirits?”
