“Bless you, my dear,” Ace said. “That will definitely help.”
“We’re still doing some work outside, yes?” Steven asked.
“Yep. I figure we can put your brother on that.” Ace checked his to-do list. “Other than that, and some splashes of color, we should be good to go. This house doesn’t need much more than makeup at this point.”
Steven sighed and grinned. “Glad to hear that. That list you gave me had me a little worried.”
“Well, it helps that you have good fixtures throughout,” Ace said. “I especially like the flooring. Original?”
“Yup,” Steven said. “Most of the work I’ve done to this place involved getting rid of some pretty hideous wallpaper and carpeting.”
“Yeah, aesthetically the fifties could be kind of spotty, but you can’t question their workmanship,” Ace said. “This house has a pretty simple construction and design, but it has really good bones.”
“Oh, Steven’s brother knows all about good bones,” Holly said.
“Um, what?” Ace said, startled.
“He’s a chiropractor,” she said. “Bones are his thing.”
“Right,” Ace said, recovering. “Well, good. We’re probably all going to need one after today.”
“Need what?” Paul’s deep voice once again snuck up on him. Apparently, yes, he was going to be here.
“Good bones,” Holly said, cryptically.
Paul raised an eyebrow at Ace.
“I meant a chiropractor, Miss Shipley,” Ace said, blushing. “A massage, that is. We’re all going to be feeling this tonight.”
Paul just kept looking at him with hunger, and Ace felt his blush deepen. Then it started to make him mad.
If Paul was going to eye fuck him like that, he could at least acknowledge having met him before.
And why do I always, always, always go for the closet cases?
“Okay,” Ace said brightly, to break the awkwardness he was starting to feel. “Now that the muscle is here, let’s get that massive TV downstairs. Then we’ll get you started outside,” he said to Paul.
“Outside?”
Yeah, somewhere that rumbling voice won’t be the end of me.
“If you don’t mind doing some of the grunt work on the yard?” Ace said. Mmmm, grunt work. Stop it, Hoffman!
Paul raised one dark eyebrow at him, and Ace just knew he was thinking of the same kind of grunt work. He needed to get some distance between them before his resolve evaporated.
“Just tell me where to go and what to do,” Paul said with a twinkling smile.
“You and Steven go unhook the TV and I’ll be downstairs to show you where to put it.”
He headed to the basement before Paul could see the inevitable blush over put it.
*****
Paul threw himself into clearing the overgrown foliage that choked the front of the house. It was better that he was outside. The short time he spent in Ace’s proximity was dangerous enough. He preferred it out here. Alone. Sweating. Aceless.
Yeah. Better.
He hauled another unwieldy armful of vines and branches to the backyard, marveling at how Steven hadn’t picked up their dad’s obsessive yardwork tendencies. Sure, Steven would mow the lawn as often as the next guy, and he fertilized right on schedule. But in the four years he’d owned this house, he hadn’t touched any plant life other than the grass.
Paul started a burn pile in the fire pit in the backyard, waiting for Ace to appear with more instructions.
Yeah. That’s why you’re waiting for Ace to appear, he told himself.
He knew he had been fooling himself when he decided it would be safe to help Steven today. Knew that as soon as he saw his blond dream man his willpower would vanish.
Hell, it vanished as soon as he heard the words “good bones.” He’d arrived at Steven’s in time to eavesdrop on his brother’s assumptions about Ace and this David realtor person, which did not amuse. And then he had to deal with the sudden images of giving Ace a massage, which … also did not amuse. Did something else, though.
When Paul returned to the front yard, he found Ace and Steven surveying his work.
“This is already better,” Ace said, not looking at Paul. “Now we need to create some order out of what’s left here by the house.” He turned to the rest of the yard. “And those trees need some attention.”
“Attention?” Paul said. “Is that code for chainsaw?”
Ace chuckled and flashed his eyes at Paul, almost shyly. “Do you have any experience operating that tool?”
A jolt immediately shot through Paul, but he forced the blood away from his face. Unfortunately, it had decided on a different destination.
“Um, on behalf of my limbs, I vote no on the chainsaw,” Steven said.
Paul rolled his eyes. “Man, one little flesh wound and he gets all twitchy.”
Ace raised an eyebrow in question.
“Long story,” Paul said. “You have any brothers?”
“One sister. Older.”
“Then you probably got through childhood with fewer scars,” Steven said.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Ace said. “But if I’m anything to go by, I’ve found that little brothers tend to earn their scars.”
Paul slugged Steven’s arm. “See? He’s on my side.”
Ace smiled with a furrowed brow.
“All right, boss,” Steven said, back to work. “What’s next?”
Ace grabbed a pair of heavy duty cutters from his truck for the tree trimming. He directed the brothers through the pruning process, restoring a pleasant shape to the shrubberies that remained and culling down the explosion of flowers to a more manageable collection.
Once again, Paul was impressed with Ace’s ability to see – and realize – the potential in what looked like a hopeless mess.
And it certainly didn’t hurt that Ace spent a lot of time on his hands and knees to dig out plants. His ass looked just as inviting as the first time Paul had laid eyes – and hands – on it.
God, he wanted to be invited back there. Suddenly, rules were less RULES! and more rules?