Fixer Upper

By Beth C. Greenberg

When a shy divorcee with an overactive fantasy life hires a hot, young handyman, the sexual tension might blow the roof right off the house in this steamy, age-gap romantic comedy.

Newly divorced Thea Delaney is enjoying a peaceful first evening in her very own home until her bathtub comes crashing through the ceiling. When Henry, the handsome young handyman with a killer smile and perfect biceps, comes to give Thea an estimate, she is smitten.

Henry Cooper is reeling from a bad breakup. He just wants to put in an honest day’s work, but the handsy cougars won’t leave him alone. When Henry goes to work for Thea, a curvy, middle-aged schoolteacher who loves to bake, he is charmed by her easy blush and intrigued by the juicy paperback on her nightstand.

Weeks of flirty banter ratchet up the heat, but time is running out. If Henry can’t convince Thea his attraction is real before the project is done, their fragile connection may fold like a house of cards.

Fixer Upper is the steamy story Ruthie (Cupid's Fall #2) shares with Cupid while he's working in her home. This novella may be read entirely as a standalone. You won't find any gods here - just excruciatingly ordinary humans like you and me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beth C. Greenberg
• Release date: May 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005632618

Beth C. Greenberg

BETH C. GREENBERG is a former CPA who took a sharp turn into creative writing after a midlife awakening. Getting her start in fanfiction, Beth discovered a love for bending canon, which she has gleefully applied to the already-quirky cast of characters from ancient mythology. First Quiver is her debut novel and book one of the Cupid's Fall series. Beth lives in Boston, but her imagination takes her somewhere new every day.

Book preview

Fixer Upper

A Henry the Handyman Tale

Beth C. Greenberg

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Isotopia Publishing

FIXER UPPER

Copyright © 2022 by Beth C. Greenberg

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests: [e-mail]

Cover design and Isotopia logo by Betti Gefecht

ISOTOPIA PUBLISHING

www.isotopiapublishing.com

www.bethcgreenberg.com

First Edition

Contents

Also By Beth C. Greenberg

Preface

1. Thea

2. Henry

3. Thea

4. Henry

5. Thea

6. Henry

7. Thea

8. Henry

9. Thea

10. Henry

11. Thea

12. Henry

13. Thea

14. Henry

15. Thea

16. Henry

17. Thea

18. Henry

19. Thea

20. Henry

Cupid's Fall #1

Cupid's Fall #2

Cupid's Fall #3

Cupid's Fall #4

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also By Beth C. Greenberg

THE CUPID’S FALL SERIES

First Quiver

Into the Quiet

Quite the Pair

The Quest for Psyche

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Fixer Upper (Standalone Novella)

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Isotopia, by Jeff Greenberg

(prepared for publication by Beth Greenberg)

Preface

Welcome to this sweet, sexy Henry the Handyman tale written by my character, Ruthie Miller. You may remember Ruthie as the not-so-happily-married lady Cupid falls in love with in book two of the Cupid’s Fall series, Into the Quiet. Late at night, Ruthie leads a double life, writing steamy romance stories in secret and posting them on the internet under an assumed pen name. One day, Ruthie shares her story, Fixer Upper, sexy scenes and all, with Cupid while he is doing some carpentry work in her home.

While no more than the first paragraph of Fixer Upper appears in Into the Quiet, I decided to write—or listen in on—Ruthie’s story and bring it to you as a standalone novella. Whether or not you’ve met Ruthie and Cupid, you can read and enjoy this age-gap standalone romance about Henry, the hot, young handyman hired by Thea, a middle-aged divorcee with an overactive fantasy life. Unlike the rest of the Cupid’s Fall series, you won’t find any gods roaming these pages. Henry and Thea are excruciatingly human—just like us.

You’ll find teasers from all four books immediately after the end of this story. I hope you will be eager to meet Ruthie, Cupid, and the other characters from the Cupid’s Fall series. They’re waiting for you!

one

Thea

Thea should have turned tail and run from the dilapidated house, but there was something about the ramshackle exterior that drew her in.

Needs a little TLC, the real estate agent had said.

Maybe Thea did, too. Or maybe she was just an old romantic fool who’d watched one too many romcoms where the blissful newlyweds buy a broken-down starter house and transform it into their dream home before our very eyes.

The audience already knows the breezy video montage by heart—Goodbye, cobwebs! Out you go, ancient curtains! Shine again, hardwood floors!—but still, our hearts burst with happiness (for them) and hope (for finding such happiness for ourselves). Once those paint rollers come out, we brace ourselves for the accidental collisions, the giggling, kissing, tearing off each other’s clothes, rolling around on the floor and (whoopsie!) knocking over the paint tray, and playing everyone’s favorite game, paint-the-blue-handprint-on-the-lover. Sigh.

Sadly, there would be no romcom reel for Thea. This was move-in number seven. And all the more depressing because the last home was supposed to be forever—just like her marriage.

No, the best she could hope for was something of the strong female lead genre, the kind where the discarded woman picks herself up by the bootstraps and discovers her own strength. In the process of renovating the old house, she renovates her soul, yada, yada.

Thea wasn’t so sure she had the hero’s journey in her, but either way, this new-old house of hers needed a thorough scrubdown.

She changed into a tank top and a pair of terrycloth shorts she wouldn’t have worn in public if her life depended on it. The closest thing to air conditioning in the old house was an occasional gust from the screen door hanging by one rusty hinge. Long pants were not an option. Luckily, there were no mirrors in the kitchen.

And yet, even alone in her own house, she had to fight off Michael’s voice in her head—or was it her own voice at this point? Thunder thighs. Potbelly. Saddlebags.

Thea had a cure for those voices. She perched her iPad on the kitchen counter and started the audiobook of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine she’d been saving for just this occasion. She clipped her blah-brown hair into a messy pile, then completed the glamorous getup with elbow-length, yellow rubber gloves.

She’d never really minded cleaning. Maybe she liked creating order from chaos.

In the early days of their marriage, Michael had been so proud of her, loved to bring home his coworkers and show off his amazing wife. He’d pat his big belly and brag that his wife’s cooking was ruining his figure.

Problem was, Michael would never touch anything green—or god forbid, a mushroom. Between Thea’s baking and Michael’s man-child diet, she, too, had packed on an extra thirty pounds over their fifteen years together.

Still using that excuse, are we? Her irritating inner critic happened to be right this time. Two years had passed since the initial separation, but so had the urgency to care about her appearance. It wasn’t as if anyone was going to see her naked any time soon.

Armed with a bucket of industrial-strength cleaning products, Thea attacked the cooktop first. A little TLC, my ass! She scrubbed every inch of the refrigerator and held her breath through the worst of the caked-on crud in the oven.

When her muscles began to protest, Thea headed straight up to her bathroom and spent the last of her energy scouring her gorgeous clawfoot tub until the white enamel gleamed. Truthfully, it was the tub that had sold her on the house. With its elegant curves and bronze eagle talons, the tub resembled an exotic bird about to take flight, a fantasy waiting to happen—and Thea knew just the one.

And now that this place was all hers, Thea could finally meet her pirate king in a worthy vessel.

She plugged the drain and drizzled her favorite lavender bubble bath under the faucet. When the surface of the water was covered in bubbles, Thea undressed, turned off the lights, grabbed one of her brand-new mesh sponges, and stepped into the tub. Her eyes drifted closed, and she became Hally, a stowaway hidden under one of the pirate’s cots.

Her heart rate picks up as Captain Spike’s bluster and footsteps become louder. I’ll find you, you little thief, and you’ll wish you’d never set your sorry eyes on me or my ship. I’ll make an example of you in front of my whole crew! She knows it’s true. The man’s cruelty is legendary.

The boots storm right up to the edge of the cot and stop. Hally’s heart pounds so loud, she’s sure he can hear it. Captain Archer Spike crouches down and looks