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AS SOON AS Rhiannon stepped into Yeardsley’s house, she knew something wasn’t right. The foyer wasn’t cool and welcoming like it usually was; it was stu y and humid. With an hour before the first appointment, it was really not good.
“Oh my God, what’s wrong? Why isn’t the AC on?”
Carmela asked when she walked into the house a moment behind her.
“It’s on,” Rhiannon replied, holding her hand up in the air only to be blasted with a warm current from the vent in the high ceiling. “It’s just not cooling.”
Carmela’s usually stoic expression dissolved into barely contained panic. “Oh shit, you’ve got to be kidding me. No, we don’t have time for this,” she said, her dark eyes wide and her fair skin flushing either with heat or panic or both.
“I don’t think the AC gives a single crap about our timetable,” Rhiannon said as she pulled o her light gray suit jacket and walked to the closet where the AC was.
“What the hell are you doing?” Carmela screeched.
Rhiannon ignored her as she checked for possible causes.
If it was the compressor, they were going to have a huge problem on their hands.
“Hello, can you hear me?” Carmela asked again when she stopped pacing behind her.
“What does it look like I’m doing? The Sunday crossword?” Rhiannon snapped.
“You know how to fix air conditioners?” Carmela’s tone softened.
“I mean, I can troubleshoot a thing or too. My parents are contractors, remember? They’ve flipped like a million houses, and I used to help when I was home for the summers during college.” When Carmela didn’t say anything snarky, she continued. “It gave me a lot of good experience for all the stu that can go wrong in the heat.”
Before bending down to look under the unit, Rhiannon started unbuttoning her shirt.
“What the hell are you doing? The prospective buyers are going to be here in like—”
“I know,” Rhiannon cut her o as she unbuttoned her shirt and placed it carefully in the bathroom along with her jacket, leaving her in trousers and a white camisole. “And do you think we’re going to get a tech out here quickly enough?”
“What the hell does that have to do with you getting naked?”
Rhiannon laughed as she bent down to check the coils. “I don’t exactly want to sweat through my shirt.”
As Rhiannon looked for the problem, Carmela paced the hallway and made phone calls. Even an emergency service couldn’t respond in less than an hour.
After ten minutes, Rhiannon was convinced the AC wasn’t actually broken so she checked the thermostat. “Damn, I should’ve checked this first,” she muttered to herself.
“Checked what? What is it?” Carmela asked, her cheeks bright red and her hair getting frizzy.
“I think the problem is with the smart thermostat. I think it’s misreading a float switch trigger, but I don’t know why it’s not just shutting o ,” Rhiannon mused to herself.
“I have no idea what the hell that means. Can you fix it?”
Carmela was desperate.
“You’re cute when you’re frantic,” Rhiannon decided after glancing at her. “He probably just needs a new thermostat, but I think there’s a way to hardwire it to stay cool,” she added before pulling o the thermostat’s face and revealing a slew of wires.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Carmela asked as she peered over her shoulder.
“We’re about to find out,” she replied, pulling three colored wires out of their slots and twisting them together.
As soon as she did, the compressor clicked on. Holding their breaths, neither of them moved until cool air floated down like a miracle.
“Holy shit, you fixed it,” Carmela whispered in awe.
Rhiannon turned around to face her and her captivating face. “Wow, thanks for having so much faith in me,” she replied with a chuckle. “It’s not really fixed, though. This is more like a temporary bandage.”
