When it's Not Right

Chapter 10

Jay tried to help make breakfast and got shooed out of the kitchen. She ended up sitting at the table and feeling awkward and uncomfortable that activity was happening around her, but she wasn't helping with any of it, and thinking of a way to ask about the scar on Cory's back that wouldn't come off as offensive or outright rude.

        Then again, outright and rude seemed to not be offensive to him at all, so maybe she could just ask. Or, she considered as a plate of eggs, hash browns, and toast landed in front of her, she could ask Lou because maybe the older woman already knew. That would be easier than trying to ask Cory.

        The idea of talking to him would be a lot simpler if she hadn't seen the video footage of him defending her from five guys. He was weird, that was for sure, but backwardly so and chivalrous. How he behaved now that she was getting to know him almost explained in a nice way why he'd locked her in his jeep.

        "Are you thinking about the scar, or the shoulders?" Lou asked quietly after Cory had gone to take a shower now that all Trench's stuff was piled by the door.

        "The scar," Jay replied with an eye roll. Rick had spent most of the drive up laughing yesterday because Louise had been so ridiculous about trying to match-make Jay with Cory.

        "That's boring," Lou hedged, winking heavily.

        "Ha ha," Jay replied, not laughing. She dug into breakfast and started eating more forkfuls than she'd previously been pushing around on the plate. "Do you know how he got it?" she asked. Lou shook her head to the negative.

        "I asked the first time I saw him wandering around without a shirt, but he just shrugged and changed the subject," Lou answered. "It doesn't seem to slow him down much, though," she pointed around the kitchen and dining room vaguely with her fork. "He redid the floors, walls, and bathroom up here, turned the second spare bedroom into a small en suite and walk-in closet for the master bedroom, and then framed and finished the basement, after he moved in. I'll get him to dig up the photos from the listing to show you how it looked before he bought the place."

        "He did all this himself?" Jay stared at what she could see. Nothing in the house was fancy, but it was all... finished. And it looked nice.

        "Tony did the electrical, but Cory did everything else," Lou confirmed. "He only finished about a month ago."

        "Huh," Jay looked around again, trying to spot evidence of 'home-done' renovations and not able to find any.

        "I've been trying to talk him into working on your apartment since he's set up as a private contractor to get the cheaper prices for working on his place. It would give him a chance to make some extra money, and you wouldn't have to worry about strangers in your apartment," Lou stated. The logic was loaded with hook-up insinuations and strings that Louise was trying to tie onto it, but it was still sound logic.

        They talked about renovations, houses, apartments, and pets, and were laughing over stories about a cross-eyed cat that Tony had rescued from an alley that had lived in their New York bar's back office for twelve years when Cory came into the kitchen. Lou angled the conversation back to renovations and, after he ate, he took both ladies on a tour of the house to show off what he'd changed since he moved in. They finished in the basement because that's where Cory had put his computer, and all the before, during, and after renovations photos were on an external hard drive.

        Jay actually forgot to feel embarrassed as they all discussed the house and then the apartment. Cory even did a quick estimate for materials and time based on the floor plans that Tony had gotten for him and the damages that Jay and Lou described. He still had the recent prices for everything from finishing the basement, and he knew how long the work would take with himself doing it.