“If by save you mean start the whole thing completely from scratch, then yeah.” He tossed the ruined gift onto the ground, and it landed with a moist splat. “But my more immediate concern is where you’re going to sleep tonight. We need to get the water sucked out of this carpet and bring the dehumidifiers in. You can’t breathe this damp air all night. It’s not safe. And we’ve got to prevent mold from growing. My brother and his wife run a bed and breakfast—”
“I’m staying here to help,” Cora said, folding her arms over her chest, a determined set to her jaw. “I made this mess, and I’m going to clean it up.”
Trent raised a brow. Cora didn’t look like the kind of person who’d done manual labor a day in her life. “This is a job for the professionals, I’m afraid. I’ll need to call my crew in.”
“Then I’ll make coffee and snacks. I can go through the scrapbook and make a list of everything in there so we can start putting it back together.”
He laughed. “We?”
“The only reason water came out of the pipes was because you didn’t turn off the main before you took the bathroom apart,” she pointed out.
Well, touché. Maybe Little Miss City Slicker wasn’t so clueless after all. “I didn’t anticipate having a stranger in the house who’d mess up all my plans.”
“And yet, here we are.” She looked him dead in the eye, and Trent had to admire the woman’s resolve. She was stubborn; he’d give her that. It wasn’t a quality that had a good reputation, but Trent liked stubborn people. People who stuck to their guns and followed through on their promises. People whose words meant something.
“You’d better be willing to put your money where your mouth is,” he said, shaking his head. “You really want to help?”
Her pale gaze held him captive, unwavering and daring him to challenge her. “I really do.”
“Then I hope you know how to use a glue gun.”