Page 4 of Sweet Devotion

Yep, he nodded to himself. “There’s a leak.” He waved a hand at the sink. “From the sound of it, somewhere in that wall. Every time you turn on the faucet, I hear water moving where it shouldn’t be.”

Alice turned off the faucet and stared at it as though it had personally betrayed her. “That can’t be good.”

Already pushing back from the table, Aiden stood upright—carefully. “I can fix it.” He was on his feet, moving toward the cabinet under the sink.

“Since when does a carpenter do plumbing?”

Flashing his most confident grin at her, he shrugged. “You’d be amazed at what I can do.” No sooner had the words crossed his lips than he realized that could so be misinterpreted. Eyes wide, he raised his hands. “No offense, that didn’t sound the way I intended.”

To his relief, she chuckled softly. “None taken.”

“What I should have said is, when you grow up in a blue collar neighborhood, you learn a lot from your neighbor the plumber, and the electrician, and even the trash collector.”

“Which is why you are a man of many talents.” Her smile was wide, and sweet, and held years of maternal approval.

Ducking his head before he said something else stupid, he opened the cabinet door and took a quick look underneath the sink. Everything was arranged in neat rows—cleaning supplies, dish soap, extra sponges, a stack of folded grocery bags tucked into a basket. Even under the sink, this woman ran a tighter operation than half the places he’d served.

He’d barely leaned over when Alice Sweet glared at him. “Don’t even think about it. Kade will kill me if I let you get down on that floor and set your recovery back.”

“Do you know another way to check if there’s a leak?”

By the tight press of her lips, she was either stumped or ticked off at him. “I’ll call Clint.”

“He does plumbing?”

She stopped mid-step. Definitely thinking. “Honestly, now is as good a time as any to find out.”

“Don’t bother. It’s no big deal.”

“Until it is.” Heaving a deep sigh, her shoulders sagged. “Fine. But be careful.”

With a nod, he lowered himself to the floor slowly, methodically, the way he’d learned to do everything in the last several weeks. Pain bit fast and mean through his hip. Getting down was a negotiation. It always was, and he was beginning to accept it always would be.

Situating himself, he cleared out all the neatly arranged supplies, and shoulders into the cabinet, looked at the back wall. Black shapes trickled along the base spiking in spots. The drywall was soft at the corner. He pressed it with two fingers and it gave. Turning the shut off valve to the faucets, he sighed. “Do you have a toolbox?”

Mrs. Sweet nodded then darted away out of his sight line before reappearing. “Here you go.”

A quick perusal told him whoever’s box this was, knew his tools. Just about everything he would need was in here, except something to cut the sheetrock with. “I’ll have to turn off the main water line to actually make the pipe repairs.”

“There’s a shut off by the porch just for the kitchen. My Charlie had it installed after we lost power once during a nasty freeze and both the dishwasher and water heater exploded. Now we can shut off the kitchen and still use the bathrooms.”

“Sounds good to me. Would you please go ahead and turn it off?”

“Of course.” Spinning about, she darted off again. For a grandmother, this woman was in great shape.

Shifting his weight, he tried not to grimace from the pain. Somehow he was pretty sure that tomorrow, or maybe sooner, he was going to be in a world of hurt.

Alice reappeared. “Water’s off.”

“I need a box cutter, please.” He didn’t dare crawl out to find one on his own or he’d never get down and under again.

The sound of a drawer gliding open then slamming shut came from a few cabinets away. A moment later, the requested box cutter appeared beside him under the sink.

“Thank you.”

Just then the phone rang and Alice Sweet’s boot heels clicked across the old linoleum flooring. Snatching the phone off the hook, he could only hear one side of the conversation. He hoped the call wasn’t going to last too long; the sooner he got this thing fixed, the sooner he could crawl out and take a handful of aspirin and snuggle up to a heating pad.

“Hello.” Alice Sweet spoke hurriedly into the phone.