Page 31 of Mountain Bean Dream
“Exactly my point.” His gaze fell to his own, and I followed suit. His hands were dirty, dark, and greasy. “How about you pass me a five-eighths socket then?”
“No problem.” I wasn’t too sure what a socket was, but it had to be something with a bit of depth—the word had sock in it, so perhaps he meant one of the black tube tools? Searching the numbers, I found one with the fraction size he was looking for so that had to be it. “Here you go.” I held it up for him pleased thathe seemed pleasantly surprised.
“Attach it to the socket, please. I need to hold this in place.” His hand was wrapped around the motor with the other hand reaching through the half-moon shape in the metal and holding something in place.
“How can I help?”
“Can you ratchet this bolt into place?” His index finger touched one of the two protruding bolts. “I feel I’m a hand short.”
“You and me both, buddy,” I whispered under my breath as I involuntarily glanced at my arm still in a sling.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.” A tinge of crimson stained the cheeks above his beard. “Just when changing the parts, sometimes it’s nice to have someone helping.”
“It’s okay. I was being cheeky. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I’m not upset. Embarrassed maybe. It should be you who’s upset.”
“Meh, I pick my battles and this isn’t one of them. You’re all good. Promise.” I gave him a nod of assurance.
“Okay. Can you tighten this?” His finger tapped the bolt and moved out of the way.
With my right hand, and an overwhelming urge to grip the metal with my left, I positioned the ratchet on and cranked.
“Excellent. Keep going.”
Like an honour student, I thrived on positive praise and kept cranking the wrench.
“Stop.” He tapped the other one. “Now this one.”
Brushing the side of my hand against his finger, I did as told until he said stop again.
“Perfect. I can finish it from here.” He pulled his one hand through and stretched out the kink after giving it a shake. “Thanks. There’s a paper towel beside the toolbox.”
I hadn’t yet looked at my hands, but they didn’t feel noticeably dirty. However, I did grab a paper towel and wipe my hands just to be safe. The chuckle from Jeremy was cute.
“What is that?” I asked as he set the motor and metal thing down on the counter.
“A bathroom fan motor. I have three to change. The motors were all dying and making a terrible sound.”
“Cool.” Construction work wasn’t my jam, but it was still interesting. “You know a lot about fixing that kind of thing?”
“It’s much cheaper to watch a YouTube video, order parts off Amazon, and do it myself than it is to hire an electrician.”
I’d heard that from Elliot too, although there were some things that were out of his capabilities. Money didn’t grow on trees, not for everyone anyway.
“No doubt.” I nodded. “And you’ve changed all three motors?”
“That was the first one.” He sighed and leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms high above his head and giving me a quick peek at the bare skin above his belt buckle. He dropped them back down and I averted my gaze. “You up for helping on the next two? I know what I’m doing now, but your extra hand will make all the difference for this taking five minutes versus thirty.”
I lifted the ratchet and smiled. “I think I can handle the twisting action as long as you tell me which thing to twist.”
Although he tipped his head down, there was no denying the grin pushing the corners of his eyes up. It was all too easy to stare at. “I think I can handle you doing just that.”
Exactly as he predicted, ten minutes later, we had changed the motors on the fans, he tested them, and once he confirmed they worked as they were intended, he gathered up his tools.
“Do you want to see how I install them?”
“Is it hard?”