“Jeez, Laura. It’s fine. It all works out in the end. ”
“That’s a horrible way to do business,” she shot back.
“Well it’s how we do business. ” Her sister uncrossed her legs and gave her a pointed look. “Eddie’s like family. They’re just little jobs, anyway. I’m sure Dad would insist on paying him if he did something big. Like when he patched the roof. We paid him then. ” Sorrow turned her attention back to her magazine, flipping through like it was no big deal. “I know you have a thing against the guy, which is why I don’t really talk about him. But I promise, he’s got no secret plans to destroy us. He doesn’t want to take us down. He’s not going to stick us with some crazy unexpected bill. He’s a good guy. ”
“So you keep saying,” she mumbled.
“He’s such a cutie-pie, too. It’ll be interesting to see if he ever settles down. It’s gotta happen eventually. ”
“Does it?”
“Sure. ” Her sister continued to flip through her magazine, blithely prattling on about things that were turning knots in Laura’s belly. “He’s so great with those kids—I’m sure he must want some of his own someday. If any woman could catch him, he’d be awesome husband material. ”
“Eddie?”
“No, old Stanley down at the recycling center. Yes, dummy. Eddie. I’ve seen so many girls throw themselves at him. He’s got to be holding out for something. I wonder what it’d take to get a guy like that to settle on just one woman. ” Sorrow got a swoony little look on her face. “For him to tell her, hey babe, that’s it, I’m yours. ”
But Laura knew. He already had.
“I’m all yours,” he’d said.
And he’d said it to her.
Twenty-six
“No, I said we’re going with the PEX pipe, not the PVC. ” Eddie leaned his elbows on the counter, breathing slowly to keep his temper.
“I heard you,” Rob said, then surreptitiously checked his watch.
“Don’t let me keep you. ” He was only half joking. “Shift over soon?”
“Yeah. ” Rob gave him a guilty smile. “I’ve been here since seven. ”
He wondered where the guy would be running off to at one in the afternoon, because Eddie sure as hell never saw him with his wife or kids. He felt sorry for poor Helen—her husband surely had something going on the side, though concealing it in a town this small was some feat. Rob must’ve been dipping into action outside the town limits.
As far as he was concerned, the guy needed to man up and deal with himself. It wasn’t like Eddie didn’t understand the concept of wanting to be somewhere else. In fact, he could think of a whole mess of other places he wanted to be. Like…
Instead of coming with Jack to the hardware store to pick up an order, he could be picking up Laura.
Instead of doing errands, he could be doing Laura.
She consumed his thoughts. He just wanted to lose himself in her.
He blew out a breath and c
hecked the clock on the back wall. He’d call her later. Convince her about that dinner. Laura needed pursuing, and he was more than up for the challenge.
For now, though, he had responsibilities. He wanted to be all kinds of elsewhere, but he kept his word. Which meant he was standing at this counter, waiting for this guy to do his job.
“All set,” Rob said, and Eddie zoned back in.
“Cool, thank—Wait. ” He pointed to the ancient screen. “You typed PVC again. I said we don’t need PVC. ”
He loved Up Country Hardware, but wasn’t it time they upgraded? Got a new system…maybe a new employee even.
“Oh, oh. ” Rob peered at the order like he was seeing it for the first time. “Got it. ”
Did he? Because demo on the ranch had gone fast. They were down to the studs, and work needed to happen quickly. They couldn’t get stopped up now with the wrong gauge of the wrong pipe. He’d stuck out his neck enough, asking Fox to scale back the project. He couldn’t be pushing back the date on top of it.