Page 4 of Love It or List It
She nodded and turned to pour him a glass from the pitcher behind her desk.
Joe’s phone buzzed in his lap and Starling’s latest text popped up on the screen.So… is he?
Figuring such a question was better ignored than addressed, Joe turned back to the lawyer.
She passed his drink across the desk, and as Joe took his first sip, she asked after his business.
It had been a year and a half since Joe’s life completely imploded, leaving him without a fiancé, home, or job.It hadn’t been the most ideal circumstances to open his own tree-trimming and landscaping business, but at least he had a few contacts willing to hire him on faith and share his details with their friends.Even his mom gave him an assist and hired him to spruce up some of her properties in preparation for the market.
Fortunately, the weather had cooperated for today’s meeting—it had been raining on and off all day, leaving everything soaked.Not ideal for yard maintenance or tree doctoring.
Business wasn’t exactly booming, but Joe had a steady stream of work and enough of a cash inflow he wasn’t worried about paying the bills.
He told Ms.Kelly as much as he awkwardly sipped his water and wondered why this Austin Taylor guy couldn’t show up on time.
Her cell rang and she answered it with an apologetic smile.Whatever she was talking about was, apparently, not so confidential that Joe couldn’t overhear.Or maybe she just wasn’t worried about it, since her comments about having sent the email and “Did they read the document and notice subsection 2b?”were so generic as to tell Joe nothing.
His phoned buzzed once again in his lap, and he looked down in time to see a notification that Garden Depot had uploaded a new reel to Insta he might enjoy.
Before he could even think about it, he unlocked his phone and tapped.His screen was suddenly filled with Paul standing in the middle of the greenhouse.He was still beautiful, still had Ken-doll-perfect looks and blond hair that begged to be tousled.His teeth practically glinted when he smiled for the camera and made jokes about how luscious their plants were.
A giggle from behind the camera told Joe who was holding it.
So Paul was also still seeing Nikki, the mutual coworker he’d left Joe for.
Joe could have forgiven Paul for falling out of love with him.It happened.But fucking someone else in their bed and doing so bad a job sneaking around that everyone at Garden Depot knew about it before Joe found out?
Yeah, he couldn’t forgive Paul that one.
Joe aggressively turned off his phone, ignoring the notifications from the group chat.Gavin might have turned off his phone so he could focus on English, but Meg, Will, and Alex shared an afternoon spare and were happy to keep pestering him with questions.
As if Joe could tell them about Taylor’s relative attractiveness when the man wasn’t even here.Even though their appointment was ten minutes ago now.
Joe and Ms.Kelly were back to making awkward small talk as the clock ticked closer to the hour when her PA rapped once on the door and swung it open.
“Mr.Taylor is here,” she announced, and Joe and Ms.Kelly suddenly transported straight into a porn film.
Austin Taylor stumbled into the room, blurting apologies and rubbing abashed at his cheek.He wore a threadbare T-shirt under a leather jacket and over a pair of sinfully tight black jeans.To complete the cliché, he wore lace-up black biker boots.All of which would already make him hot as fuck, but the look was topped off with two droolworthy touches.
First was the hint of grease on his hands and smudged across his cheek.Apparently Austin Taylor was a mechanic of some sort by trade and in his haste had failed to properly clean up.
Second, and worse, was the hair.His jaw was covered in stubble, highlighting his jawline, and above that was a mess of long dark curls.Joe suspected, based on the apparent age and disrepair of Taylor’s clothes, that he wasn’t very vain or much into fashion.He probably kept his hair long out of laziness or cheapness.It was thick and glossy and fell around his face in a tousled mess of beautiful haphazard waves.
Joe wanted to touch it.
“Sorry,” Taylor said again as he sat down, barely glancing at Joe.
Joe frowned.Late and rude, even while apologizing.“It’s fine.It’s not like our time matters or anything,” he said cheerfully.
Taylor turned and eyed him.Joe smiled wider.
“Well,” Taylor said, “the next time we have an appointment and an elderly client calls me while stranded on the highway with a flat tire, I’ll be sure to let them know I can’t help because your time is so precious.”
Joe flushed, embarrassed that Taylor managed to look like the better person when he was half an hour late.
“Why don’t we get started?”Ms.Kelly smoothly cut in as she slid two folders across the table, one for each of them.
Joe flipped his open and found a stack of official paperwork—a copy of DeeDee’s will, a property deed.
