“Listen.” He knocked up high again. “It’s solid.”
“Okay…”
“Now listen here.” He knocked down low then glanced at her expectantly. When she shrugged, he said with more excitement than she thought the situation warranted, “It’s hollow.”
She nodded, pretending she could distinguish a noticeable difference. “Mm, hm. Meaning?”
“Meaning this is where your chimney is for the oil burner in your basement.”
“Okay.” She’d never been down there in the basement and didn’t intend to ever go down there. God only knew what horrors there were.
She only knew the basement even existed because the oil she paid a fortune for all winter to heat the shop had to go somewhere.
Liam turned to stare at her. “Natalie, I think there’s a second flue because there was also a fireplace in here.”
“If you’re right, I would love that.” She envisioned a roaring fire starting from the first day of fall and continuing all through the long cold winter months until spring.
The book clubs would love it. Hell, she’d love it too, snuggling at night with Liam on the sofa in front of the fire instead of in her tiny apartment in front of the television.
And Christmas! A warm crackling fire was just what her holiday decor was missing.
But there still remained the problem of what looked like a very solid wall.
“How do we find out for sure?” she asked.
Liam turned from where he’d been running his hands over the wall. “Got a saw?”
Chapter Two
“A saw?” Natalie repeated Liam’s horrifying words with a feeling of panic and impending doom.
A saw he no doubt wanted to use to chop a big gaping hole into her shop’s meeting room wall.
Granted, the wall wasn’t perfect, the building was historic after all, but at least the wall was currently solid and presentable enough for the next book club meeting happening very, very soon.
He nodded, like it was a perfectly reasonable request. “Yeah. A jig saw. A rotary saw. Anything like that.”
Men.
“No, I don’t own a saw. Sorry,” she added, even though she really wasn’t sorry at all.
Thank goodness she didn’t own a saw. She could only hope his excitement over this wild idea wouldn’t send him to the hardware store to buy one.
“That’s fine. A hammer and a screwdriver will do.” Liam, ever the problem solver, moved past her.
There was no question in her mind that he was heading for her apartment to get the sparse but adorable pink tool box she’d bought for herself when she’d become a business owner. It had been the pink-handled hammer and screwdrivers that had convinced her to splurge on what he called her little box of lady tools.
And as silly as she knew he thought her very basic tool collection was, he’d rolled his eyes at it enough times, Liam knew she kept it under the kitchen sink.
“Liam, wait! What are you going to do with just a screwdriver and a hammer?” She followed him through the shop and back toward the apartment, taking two steps to every one of his long strides. “And whatever it is, do you really want to do it now? Don’t you have work to do? And you didn’t even have breakfast yet.”
Ignoring all her protests in his apparent excitement Liam, tool box in hand and determined expression on his face, made his way back to the doomed section of the meeting room wall.
“Relax, babe. I’m just going to break through a little. See what’s inside.”
The tinkling of the shop bell had her holding up both hands and yelling, “Liam, stop! I think there’s a customer. You can’t be breaking down a wall with a customer in the shop.”
He sighed. “Just shut the door between the shop and the meeting room. It’ll be fine.”
