Page 43 of The Plus One Professional
In fairness to me, we’d stayed in touch, and he’d always show up whenever I was ready to cut him off. Then we’d have a few months of amazing, before he left, and the cycle started all over again.
“What? What do you understand?” he asked.
“It’s hard getting over someone.”
His fingers flexed on the steering wheel, and I sensed I had hit a nerve. “That’s not why I haven’t had another relationship.”
“Oh.” Now, I really did need to apologize for offending him. “I was just…sorry, I guess I just assumed.”
“You said sorry again,” he pointed out.
“Sometimes, I am actually sorry. This was one of those times.”
The corners of his mouth curled into a grin. “I haven’t had another relationship because of my life…” He exhaled. “Yeah, it just…it wouldn’t be fair to bring someone else into it.”
“Because of TPOP? Because you’re a plus one.”
“That and the circumstances that came between Lindsay and me haven’t changed.”
What circumstances?I wanted to know so badly, but I sensed that would be crossing a line. And also, Lindsay. Now, I had a name for the girl who didn’t want to be trapped by Cole.
“Have you always wanted to be a wedding coordinator?” he asked, not so subtly changing the subject.
“Sort of. My Grandma Betty owned the shop since the forties. I always knew that her plan was to leave it to my sisters and me. Once the business was passed down to us, we all sort of realized our roles in it. Birdie is the creative one. She handles all the dress buying and even designs her own dresses. Billie holds things down with financials, paperwork, and marketing. And I was always good with people and loved planning parties. So, we all play to our strengths.” I turned the tables and questioned him. “What about you? Have you always wanted to be a professional plus one?”
“No.” He smiled. “This is just some extra money. My day job is construction.”
I knew that after running into him outside the bakery. Just thinking of Construction Worker Cole made me feel all giddy inside.
“I’m getting my contractor’s license and starting my own company.”
“Seriously?!”
He turned his head toward me. “You sound surprised.”
“No, I’m not; that’s awesome! I was only shocked because my sisters and I have been trying to find a contractor we trust for a couple of years now. We’ve hired two, and neither of them worked out. One just stopped showing up one day, and the other took off with ten grand.”
“A contractor for the bridal shop?”
“No. My grandparents’ house. We inherited it when my grandma passed away, and it’s just been sitting there empty for the past three years. It’s a Victorian, and we want to preserve as much of the original as we can, which is trickier than you might think. Or maybe not since that’s your business.”
“It will be my business. Right now, I mainly work on commercial buildings. But if you want, I can stop by and take a look. I’m taking my exam next month, and then it’s a few weeks for the paperwork to go through the state. Starting off, I’m going to be working nights and weekends until I can quit my day job, so it might take a while, but I have a small crew already and good relationships with tradespeople.”
“That would be amazing. Honestly, it’s not like there’s any rush. We just know Grandma Betty would not want the house sitting empty. But we’re gun-shy about hiring someone because we want someone we trust.”
He turned his head toward me. “And you trust me?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
I wasn’t sure why I did, but I did.
“I’ll have Billie, my older sister, the one who saved us from the bathroom, send you everything we have from the other contractors we hired. She’s the one who handles all of the paperwork.”
He nodded. “How many sisters do you have?”
“Two. Billie, she’s a year older than me, and Birdie is a year younger.”
“Billie, is she named after your grandfather?”
