LOVE in a Small Town (Ladies of Legend Boxed Set)

by Janet Eaves

  “Oh? What would that be?”

  “To put it nicely, I think he’s dehydrated from drooling every morning when you’re there.”

  Chloe couldn’t help laughing at the picture that brought to mind.

  “You’re intentionally driving him insane, right?”

  “Yep.” She always wore her best fitting jeans and a snug shirt, made sure she had funky jewelry on, and that her hair and makeup were perfect. She wanted to torture Greg Andrews a little bit. She knew he liked the way she looked. That had been obvious the first time they met. He nearly salivated looking at her that first day in the building, but seemed to dislike her as a person. He still didn’t like her, yet he’d all but propositioned her the night she went to the building with a flashlight. In Chloe’s opinion, the guy needed to learn that women weren’t necessarily available for a physical relationship just because he was interested. He needed to learn that, with most women, unless he developed an emotional relationship first, nothing else would follow. This wasn’t for her own sake, of course. She had just taken it on as a public service for the betterment of Womankind. The Edification of Greg Andrews was like an adopt a highway project to her.

  “What happens if he snaps?” Betsy asked.

  “Snaps?”

  “If he decides he can’t take the torture anymore and goes for it? Goes for you. What happens then?”

  “What can happen? We’re in that building surrounded by guys who’ve known me all my life. Greg makes the wrong move, he’s toast.”

  “Is that fair?”

  “I don’t know.” Or care. “But it sure is fun.”

  “This isn’t like you, Chloe.”

  “Which makes it even more enjoyable! I go down there every morning and look around at my pretty new gallery—it really is starting to look like a gallery—I say some things to Greg, he leers at me and snarks back, then I come home and work like crazy the rest of the day.” She shrugged. “Hey. At least I’m getting out.”

  ****

  The next evening Martin stopped by her house and approached the topic in a different way.

  “If you had acted like this in the first place, maybe he wouldn’t have added the extra charge to the project. Maybe he would have been way more willing to take it on, even with that deadline, if he’d thought you were interested… You know. Or hey—maybe if you’d taken all your clothes off and jumped him that day he came here to the cabin, he would have redone the building for free.”

  “Martin! How can you talk like that to me?”

  “Real easy. I’m your brother, remember? I can say whatever I want, as long as Mom’s not around. Plus I’m always right. You act like Greg is this horrible monster who uses women, but the way I see it, you’re doing the same thing to him. Except what you’re up to is worse. Greg doesn’t have a way out without breaking the contract. You keep teasing him, something’s bound to happen. Thing is, I’m pretty sure that’s what you’re hoping for.”

  “Martin!”

  “Chloe. Take a look at what you’re doing. A good, hard look.” He glanced at his watch. “I need to go. Showing a house up on the mountain. Think about what I said, okay?”

  “Okay,” she whispered a few minutes later as he threw his old Jeep CJ into reverse and backed into the road, then took off toward the mountain.

  How could Martin think Chloe hoped for Greg to break under the pressure? She was just having some fun at the man’s expense. It was harmless. She couldn’t believe Greg was so bothered by it, or at least not after she vacated the premises each morning. That sure wasn’t what Betsy had heard from Mike though, was it? Mike said Greg was a bear to work with all the time now, and Mike blamed it on Chloe. Well, it wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t that big a deal.

  ****

  One week before the deadline, Chloe stopped in at the gallery as usual. The beautiful ash tongue-in-groove floor gleamed under a couple nights’ application of polyurethane. The windows were in, and the walls were painted to match the high ceiling. The big new ceiling fans turned slowly, setting a relaxed pace for the room. For potential customers.

  Dave was on a high ladder working with one of the hanging lights. Tracks had been installed for the track lighting, but not everything was in yet. She wandered upstairs and talked briefly to Ed and Fred, who were sanding drywall seams in preparation for another coat of ‘mud.’ It would sure be different to live in this large open space instead of her cozy cabin. She thought she would like it. Definitely hoped so, because the cabin was going to be in her past very soon. Looking out one of the large front windows, she saw Greg Andrews cross the street. He must be going over to his office for something. That was okay. She could talk to him there.

  Chapter Six

  “Good morning.”

  “Man!” Greg sloshed coffee off the side of his mug and onto his jeans. “Don’t sneak up on a guy like that.” He finished filling his mug and went to his desk chair, leaning onto its back legs as usual. “I thought you were at your building.” Why couldn’t she just give him a break?

  “I was there. It’s looking great.” Chloe smiled, then tipped her head and looked at him quizzically. “Something wrong with you?”

  “Nothing that won’t be miraculously cured a week from now when I hand that key back to you.”

  “The job has been exhausting, hasn’t it? I’m sorry you’re all having to work so hard…”

  “Uh-huh. You had no idea what you were asking me to accomplish when you gave me those perfect drawings. You just smiled and assumed a man would make it all right for you.”

  “Don’t—”

  “I sure will. You said as much yourself that day in the basement. You don’t worry about how things work, you just let Martin or Mike or one of the other guys in the family take care of it for you. You know what, sweetheart? That’s an irresponsible way to go through life. It’s unbelievable to me that you’ve gotten this far without knowing any more than you do. Obviously your family carries you.”

  “I’ve made my own living ever since college. I worked during college too!”

  “I guess people must pay you a lot for painting pictures. I can’t imagine why. A lot easier to just go out and look at the mountains in person. Mike said that’s what you paint.”

  “Not everybody has the opportunity to just go out and look at them.”

  “Everybody in Legend does. Why would anybody here buy one of your paintings? Makes no sense to me to have a store here that sells pictures of basically the view from everybody’s window.”

  “You’ve looked at some of my paintings?”

  “I know what mountains look like. I don’t need to see your paintings.” He felt one of his Chloe headaches coming on and massaged his forehead. “You done here now?”

  “No. I came here to ask you something. I need to have a display case built.”

  “You’re kidding. You have got to be kidding.”

  “I know it’ll cost extra, but I need it. I need it before opening day.”

  “I can’t believe you have the nerve to ask me a favor! Forget it. Or ask Mike.”

  “I did ask him. He turned me down. Said he has little enough time with Betsy and LizBeth Ann now, without another project dumped on him. Something like that.”

  “Sounds about right. I imagine you’ll get the same answer from everybody.”

  “I have. Didn’t ask Ed or Fred, but I get that woodworking isn’t really their thing.”

  “No. If you don’t want it built out of drywall, don’t ask them. So. Too bad, I guess. Go to the city and find somebody, maybe. Or, let me think, do without for once. Have you ever had to do without anything?”

  She didn’t favor him with an answer. “I have to have this display case built! No way can I put my town out and not protect it! I was so wrapped up in creating it, I hadn’t thought about a case. I need this, Greg. Please.”

  Whoa. He really wanted to hear her say please, but not because she wanted a display case. He wanted her to say it because she wanted him. She made
him ache for her a little more each morning she came to the gallery. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since she started doing that. Still couldn’t figure out what had triggered her change in attitude. It had been easier to deal with her when the two of them barely spoke to each other. This sexual tension was a killer, and he didn’t have time to go anywhere and take the edge off of it. He knew Chloe wasn’t going to let him do anything about it with her. She was just punishing him. What he’d ever done in his life to deserve this kind of sweet torture, he didn’t know.

  “So. Will you come?”

  Have mercy. “Huh?”

  “I said, will you come out to the cabin and look at the pieces, then design a display cabinet?”

  “Hell no. Didn’t I already say that?”

  She shrugged, and those bell earrings chimed lightly.

  “What will it take to get you out there? Just to look?”

  Not fair. This was simply not fair. He wanted to say things that were…inappropriate. Things he couldn’t say because she was Mike’s cousin and Martin’s sister, besides being his current source of income. Her weekly payments toward the total bill, even after paying for materials and the guys’ wages, were sure making Greg’s bank balance look better.

  “Make me an offer.” He gave her a smile that he hoped looked only a tenth as lecherous as he felt.

  “Dinner?”

  Well. There was food involved. “Home cooked?”

  “Yes. What do you like?”

  “If it’s home cooked, I won’t be choosy. Uh… Do you bake bread?”

  “I haven’t in a while, but I can. All right then, a meal including home baked bread. Say eight-thirty tonight? You guys still working ‘til around eight?”

  “About, yeah.” He might let them cut out a little earlier tonight so he’d have time to shower and change. It’d probably make no difference to the outcome of the evening, but it also couldn’t hurt.

  ****

  Greg didn’t remember the last time he’d had such a great meal. The bread was the best part—turned out the woman knew her way around a package of yeast. Fork-tender roast beef with carrots and potatoes, a tossed salad with some kind of fancy sweet dressing, and fried apples. She served shoofly pie for dessert, and he had some of that, but also loaded up with more bread and butter.

  Finally, he couldn’t eat another bite and slid down in his chair. “Uncle.”

  She laughed. “You give up that easily? My brothers could eat you under the table.”

  “Whatever. I’ll die if I eat anything else. I’d die happy of course.”

  “I can pack some stuff for you to take home, too, before you leave.”

  He groaned happily.

  “So now are you ready to look at my little town?”

  “Huh? I’ve been here for a while. Feel like I’ve pretty much seen it.”

  “Not Legend. At least, not that Legend. I want to show you Little Legend.”

  She rose and led him into the small living room where a lot of little toys were spread out all over the floor.

  “Watch you don’t step on any of them. Some of the kids are really hard to see when you’re this far away from them.”

  “Kids?” Greg squinted at the toys, then got down on one knee and picked up a tiny figure. “This looks like LizBeth Ann.”

  Her face broke into a huge smile. “Yes! It is. See Betsy and Mike?”

  He picked them up in turn. Amazing. He felt like Gulliver checking out the Lilliputians.

  “Whoa. You made these?” Greg picked up the Piggly Wiggly and examined it. Lots of detail. Then he saw his own building. “Deluxe Home Improvements” read the words on what looked like plate glass windows. Huh. The place looked like it needed paint. Did his building really look that bad? She had even included the pesky kudzu vine growing up around the back door.

  “See yourself? That’s you looking out the window. I realized I was running short on time, so I painted some of the shop owners inside their buildings instead of making them three dimensional.”

  “Cool. Yeah, that looks like me. Maybe a little scruffy though.” He looked at her. One brow was raised, but she didn’t say anything.

  “Your building is looking good.” He picked up the McClain Art Gallery. “Looking very good. Hm… I dunno… That doesn’t exactly look like you in the window.”

  “I can’t paint myself. I’ve worked and worked on it. Self-portraits are difficult, even at that scale. What do you think is wrong with it?”

  “Needs more spark. The eyes need to have some snap to them. And you should be smiling instead of looking so serious. And, well, you haven’t captured your sexiness. You look kind of boring.”

  “That’s a lot of suggestions. Not sure I can capture my sexiness.”

  “I sure would like to capture it.” He hadn’t intended to say that out loud. He meant it, but had intended to keep it to himself.

  Chloe cleared her throat. “Well.” She moved to the other side of the room, carefully stepping around the little people and buildings. “Um, what about a display case?”

  “This the whole thing?”

  “For now, yes. It will most likely grow as I have time to work on it.”

  “Lordy. This could take some room. I’m surprised you’re willing to give up that much floor space in the gallery. And where do you see it going?”

  “I don’t know.” She bit her bottom lip. “I don’t want to give up the floor space. I don’t want the room to seem crowded. I was going for light and airy and spacious.”

  “You’ve got that going on now, but if you start moving the town of Legend indoors, I think you’ll have a problem.”

  “I’ve seen model train layouts of real towns. They were so realistic, with all the buildings in the right place. They’re really big though. The square footage would be a killer!”

  “Guess you could buy a separate building for it.”

  She smacked a palm to her forehead. “I can’t even believe you said that. For one thing, I can’t afford the building I have, and for another thing, there is no time to renovate another space. Not even a small space.”

  “Guess you could put it upstairs in your apartment.”

  “I could. But some people couldn’t climb the stairs. I don’t really want to worry about the security of people going up there.”

  “In Legend you’re worrying about security?”

  “Not a whole lot. There will, I think, be people coming from all over to see the gallery. I plan to host some traveling art shows. Security will definitely be a concern then. I’m looking into it, but wow that kind of thing is expensive.” She picked up another shop building and looked hard at it. “My concern now is how to display Little Legend. I’m very open to suggestions.”

  “How about run it around the perimeter of the whole gallery space? Maybe at about chair rail height, so you don’t interfere with the paintings. People could walk along the whole perimeter and see it. Plus they could see it from more angles if it’s spread out like that. If we built a big display case to put it in, the stuff in the middle would be almost hidden. Especially for kids.”

  “Oh. You’re completely right on that. Children couldn’t see it very well in a traditional display.”

  “Even like this, with it on the floor, it’s not easy to look at. You’d kind of have to crawl around on your hands and knees to see it.”

  “So the chair rail height display case, running the perimeter of the room, and tall enough to hold St. Mary’s church—I think that’s the tallest building we have. What would that cost me?”

  “Man, I don’t know. What materials do you want used? Plexiglass? Glass? Glass with wood?”

  She sank onto a short little couch, frowning.

  “I’m at a loss. I made a drawing of what I had in mind, but I really like your idea better. You’re the professional—what materials do you think would work best?”

  It was the first time she had seemed to appreciate his abilities. The first time she had asked his opinion on anyth
ing at all. Up until now, his purpose had been to carry out her plans as best he could. Greg carefully picked his way across the room and sat on the short couch, too. The rocking chair was too near the Piggly Wiggly for safety, and there were similar problems with the other chair and the longer sofa located near the fireplace. Not that it was a hardship sitting this close to her.

  “I’ll tell you what I think would work, and I know somebody who’d do a good job of it, but he’s based in Knoxville. Could be expensive.”

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll get something to write down his name and number.”

  “I don’t know his number. I’ll have to find it. If you want, I can take the measurements and give him a call with the info. See if he’s too busy for a rush job. Sometimes contractors don’t have time, Chloe. Will you be real disappointed if you can’t have the little town on display for the opening?”

  Her eyes went wide, and her beautiful mouth formed an “O.”

  “I have to have the town there! Surely, somebody can make a display case for me. Oh, why was I so engrossed in what I was doing that I hadn’t given any thought to displaying the town? I had everything else so beautifully organized. Not only do I know where the seating areas will be and the cash register/wrapping desk. I know where every single painting will hang.”

  “Doesn’t surprise me. You’re a detail person.”

  “So are you.”

  “Have to be, to give the customer what he wants. Or what she wants.” He hoped she would get the double meaning.

  She gave him a slight smile. “You’re doing a fine job of that. Giving me what I want. The building is great.”

  “Yeah. Is that all you want from me, Chloe? A beautiful art gallery and living area? Because I was getting some not-so-subtle hints that you wanted something else too. Something a lot more personal.”

  She blushed. Good! At least she had the grace to do that.

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  He laughed. “Right. You come to the building every morning; say things to get my engine going. As if just looking at you didn’t already have it going. All the guys know what you’re doing. They’re not sure how I’ve controlled myself this long. I just tell them you’re the boss lady, and I know better than to let you trick me into something. You looking to trick me, Chloe?”