Today was actually warm, the sun out, trees, daffodils and early tulips blooming everywhere. Hard to believe it was already May. The buds on a couple of Nanna’s big rhododendrons promised a colorful show.
When she met Cole at the rear of the SUV, he said, “Let me call Ryan.” He pulled his new cell phone out of his pocket. “He offered to help carry the heavy stuff. I don’t want you trying.”
“Do I know Ryan?” she asked, disconcerted.
“He’s your neighbor, the one on the corner.” The call was obviously answered, because he said a few words, then stowed the phone, looking satisfied. “He’s on his way.”
Wanting to do something, Erin grabbed the new faucet assemblies for both the shower and bathroom sink and carried them upstairs to the apartment. By the time she’d returned, Cole and a stranger were sliding the vanity wrapped in cardboard and plastic from the back. Erin got out of the way.
Cole introduced her to Ryan Sager, who was probably in his early thirties, maybe five foot nine or ten but stocky, with plenty of muscles, a friendly face and russet hair.
“Hey,” he said, “I’ve seen you passing. Another redhead.”
Erin laughed, even though she was chagrined to realize she’d never noticed him. Apparently, she was wearing blinders. “I pretend I’m blonde.”
“I tell my wife my hair is brown.” He grimaced. “It almost works until my beard starts to grow in.”
“Copper red?”
He rubbed his jaw. “Unfortunately.”
They both laughed.
Then he reminded Cole to call as soon as Erin got back from Lowe’s with the shower stall, and headed back up the street.
“How did you meet him?” Erin asked, watching him go.
“Oh, I saw him trying to unload a sofa from the back of his pickup truck a few days ago. His wife was supposed to take the other end. I helped get it in the house.” Cole grinned. “She was sure happy to see me.”
Remembering her aching muscles after hefting sheets of plywood above her head, Erin said, “She has my sympathies.”
An hour later, watching Cole and Ryan muscle the old, cracked shower stall down the stairs, Erin thought about how she’d deliberately isolated herself, when so many of the neighbors had been Nanna’s friends. They were people who cared about her, for her grandmother’s sake. Meanwhile, Cole, deeply reserved, readily extended a helping hand to complete strangers. She’d do better, she vowed. Time to do some visiting. And maybe, just maybe, she could drum up some more work for him.
For his sake, she told herself, not for mine… But lying to herself didn’t work very well.
After the two men plunked the old shower stall down in the driveway, Cole studied it. “I thought about taking an ax to this. Maybe I still should. We can get it in the garbage container little by little, instead of making a dump run.”
“I should’ve kept that Dumpster for longer.”
“Maybe. But I can break down the cabinets, even burn them, and the old sinks will go in the can.” He shrugged, then joined Ryan, who was already untying the ropes holding the new shower stall on the roof of the Cherokee.
Watching Cole and Ryan wrestling the bulky thing up the stairs, turning the corner and miraculously getting it through the door, Erin heard some serious profanities. Muffled voices continued to come from inside the apartment. It was quite a while before they reappeared. She guessed they’d unwrapped it and set it in place in the bathroom.
“Did it fit okay?” she asked the minute Cole emerged.
“Perfect,” he said, looking surprised that she’d doubt him.
He shook Ryan’s hand and thanked him, Ryan saying, “Michelle wants to meet you, Erin. She’ll probably drop by one of these days.”
“That would be nice,” she said, meaning it. “You have kids, right?”
“Eight-year-old boy, five-year-old girl. Michelle talks about going back to work once Gracie starts kindergarten this fall.”
He was already backing away, so she didn’t ask what his wife had done before choosing to stay home with the kids. When he reached the sidewalk and turned out of sight, she asked Cole about Ryan.
“Do men discuss things like what you do for a living?”