AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How are things looking?”
“Well, for the most part, she needs all new pipes, and after seeing the way the electrical runs in the wall we took down last night, I’m going to say that she is going to need a full rewire. Hence the reason I called you. You might want to take on the job, but then again, you might not.”
“Let me take a look. Where is the main junction box?”
I thought about that for a moment. “To be honest, I have no clue.” I laughed. “I don’t think I have seen one.” I told Mr. Townsend I was going back inside.
As Pete and I stepped in, Nolan was coming down the stairs. “Nolan, this is Pete. He works for me and does all my electrical. I asked him to come by and take a look at your wiring to see what he suggests.”
She grabbed my arm, squeezing. “Yay!” She let go of my arm to shake his hand but remained close enough to me that her shoulder brushed my arm as she moved. It sent little tingles straight to my groin. Man, I really was hard up, wasn’t I?
“Do you know where the electrical panel is?” Pete asked her, and she blinked with the same doe in the headlights look that I was pretty sure I’d had outside.
“I don’t remember seeing one.”
“Well.” He laughed. “There has to be one, so let’s take a look, shall we?”
It took us a few minutes to locate it in the laundry room inside a small cupboard. One look inside, and Pete whistled. “I’m not sure how this is rusted, seeing as it’s an interior wall, but it is. You’re going to need an entirely new panel; besides, this type of panel went out about twenty years ago. I don’t think you can even get breakers for it now.”
Nolan rested her forehead against my arm in a defeated move and sighed. “I figured as much. How hard would it be to change it out?”
“It’s not hard, just a lot of tedious work. The breakers that they use aren’t up to code anymore, so I have little doubt that the wiring is.” He winced slightly. “Sorry to say, but you are looking at a total rewire of the house.”
She turned to me, one brow hiked in question. I nodded. “I was pretty sure that was going to be his suggestion once I saw the wiring last night.”
“Ouch!” She winced.
He winked at her. “I can give you a discount since you’re a friend of my boss.”
I chuckled. “Anything you can do to help, Pete.”
“Yes, any help would be great. I want it done right and safely. How long do you anticipate it taking you?”
He scratched his bearded chin. “Three, four days, probably. I could order the new panel and have it this week. I have to start wiring on the house Brad and I are working on soon, but I could probably blow this out before then.”
“Get her job done, and then you can work on the other job.”
“Alright,” he said and waited for Nolan to respond.
She nodded, chewing her bottom lip as she considered that. “Okay, I guess that is going to have to work.” She frowned. “What do you think I could do while there is no power in the house?”
“We could work on the exterior,” I suggested.
She turned to me as Pete’s phone rang, and he stepped out of the room to take the call. “We?”
I shrugged. “Unless you’d rather me not help.”
She put her hand on my arm. “You don’t have to. I don’t want to pull you away from your real job.”
I couldn’t help myself; I reached forward and brushed a lock of brown hair off her cheek. “You aren’t pulling me anywhere. I want to help.”
Like earlier, leaning forward and brushing my lips with hers felt like the natural thing to do. When she curled her arm around my neck and tugged me closer for another kiss, I didn’t fight it.
Chapter Eleven
Nolan
Iwas a little overwhelmed with everything, especially with the kiss that Brad was giving me. It felt different. It felt good.
