Harlequin Desire February 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2: The King Next DoorMarriage With BenefitsA Real Cowboy (Kings of California)

by Maureen Child

  “Yeah, I know,” Lucas said, voice still muffled as he continued his examination. “The ragging on you is the fun part of all this.”

  “Happy to help,” Griffin said in a tone that made it plain he wasn’t happy. “How bad is it?”

  “Like a bad horror movie up here. The wiring is antique,” Lucas muttered. “Even from a distance I can see spots that are frayed. It’s a wonder the place didn’t catch fire years ago.”

  That thought gave Griffin cold chills. He thought of Nicole and her son living here alone. What if there’d been an electrical fire in the middle of the night? Even with the smoke alarms, there was no guarantee Nicole and Connor would have gotten out. He scraped one hand across his face as a sense of uneasiness rolled through the pit of his stomach.

  “Guess we can’t lay this one all on you,” Lucas commented as he came down the ladder, metal groaning and creaking with his every step, to stand in the center of the devastated kitchen.

  He squinted into the sunlight streaming through the window over the sink. “The wiring in the whole damn house is about a breath away from whoosh.”

  Griffin shook his head. “Whoosh?”

  “That’s a technical term.” Lucas grinned. “The sound a fire makes when it whooshes into life.”

  “Great. Disaster humor.” Griffin didn’t think it was funny. He’d actually heard that sound, right after the series of pops when the wiring burst into flame. He remembered the smell of the smoke, too, and tried to push those memories out of his mind. The kitchen was wrecked, but they’d all gotten out in one piece. That was the important part. And from what Lucas was saying, they were lucky the whole house hadn’t been turned into a pile of rubble.

  Griffin pushed away from the counter and tucked his hands into his pockets. He took a quick look around the room and saw things he hadn’t noticed when he’d been here before—pictures of Connor on the fridge. A teakettle in the shape of a rooster on the soot-covered stove. Small green glass vases, knocked off the windowsill, now shattered on the scarred countertop, the flowers they’d held lying wilted and dead beside them.

  It wasn’t just a room, he thought, it was Nicole’s home, and more of a home than he had. Visions of his condo leaped into his mind. Hell, all he ever used the place for was to store his clothes, to sleep and occasionally to nuke a takeout dinner. He frowned to himself as a nibble of guilt chewed at him. She’d lost so much, and he had more than he needed or used.

  Didn’t seem to matter that Lucas had told him the wiring was ready to blow at any time. The plain truth was, Griffin had pulled those wires loose. Griffin had caused the damn fire that had put Nicole and her son out of their house. And Griffin was the one who had to make it right.

  Whether Nicole liked it or not.

  “So what do you want to do?” Lucas asked, making notes on a computer tablet.

  “I want her place fixed.”

  “We can do that,” his cousin assured him. “I’m assuming she’s got insurance?”

  “She says so,” Griffin told him. “But I’m guessing she’s got a big deductible, too.”

  “Probably.” Lucas nodded thoughtfully. “Single moms don’t usually have a hell of a lot of extra cash lying around.”

  “That’s what I think, too.” Griffin glanced over at the house next door, where Nicole was working in the dining room with her laptop—thankfully undamaged by either the fire or water. She knew Lucas was here, but she hadn’t been in a hurry to walk back through the destruction, so she had stayed where she was, waiting to talk to Lucas when the inspection was over.

  Turning back to his cousin, he said, “I’ll take care of the deductible and any extra it runs.”

  Lucas’s eyebrows lifted. “Is that right?”

  Griffin saw the interested look in his cousin’s eyes and sneered. “Don’t get any ideas. There’s nothing going on between me and Nicole. But I caused this. The least I can do is fix it.”

  “She won’t like it.”

  “She doesn’t have to know.”

  Lucas laughed shortly. “Dude, you are out of your mind if you really think Nicole won’t find out what you’re up to.”

  “Please.” Griffin tugged his hands from his pockets and folded his arms over his chest. “I’m in the security business, remember? We know how to keep secrets.”

  “Not from women you don’t.” Lucas shook his head. “It’s spooky, I swear. Every time I think I put one over on Rose, she nails me with it. It’s like female radar or something. Built into the whole double X chromosome or whatever.”

  Griffin just stared at him. “You’re delusional.”

  “No, I’m married.”

  “Same thing.”

  “You’re a sad, sad man,” Lucas said, shaking his head and grinning.

  “Yeah,” Griffin shot back, his smile wide and self-satisfied. “Poor me. Different woman every week. Nobody making demands on my time. Sex whenever I want it.”

  “Uh, hello?” Lucas scowled at him. “I get sex whenever I want it, too, you know. And I don’t have to leave home to get it.”

  “Yeah?” Griffin laughed. “How’s the sex life these days?”

  Lucas’s wife was pregnant with their second child. Just like most of the King family, Lucas had turned from a player into a husband and father. The Kings were falling, one by one, like a row of dominoes bowing to gravity. Pitiful. Just pitiful.

  “You should have it so good.” Lucas gave him a wicked grin.

  Possibly true. For all his big talk, Griffin knew that his cousin had a point. Hell, over the last few months, Griffin had been less and less interested in living the lifestyle that had been his for years. Dozens of different women had come and gone from his life, barely making an impression. Different. He laughed silently at that, because though the faces and names had changed, they’d all been the same.

  Beautiful and boring.

  Try having a conversation with any of them. Hell, after the first five minutes, he’d been zoned out and barely listening to talk that centered on the hottest club, the newest designer or the best place to get a spray-on tan.

  But then, he hadn’t dated them for their ability to discuss art and literature, had he? Griffin could admit that all he’d wanted from them—any of them—was a quick romp in the sheets. So he really had no room for complaints, did he?

  Damn. This whole maturing thing was a pain in the ass.

  “So when do you want us to get started?” Lucas asked with another glance around the kitchen.

  “This afternoon work for you?”

  Lucas laughed. “Got it. You want it done fast.” Nodding, he made a few notes on his computer tablet. “We’re spread a little thin right now—we’ve got at least a half dozen jobs up and running, not to mention that Rosie’s got me building shelves in Danny’s room when I’m not working. But two of our jobs are winding down.”

  “Man. Rafe left town for a vacation when you’ve got that much work piled up?” Out of character for a King, Griffin thought.

  “Yeah, well.” Lucas shrugged. “Things change when you’ve got a wife and a life. Besides, Rafe wanted to take Katie on that tour of Europe while she was still feeling well enough to travel.”

  “Katie?” Fear reached up and closed a hand around the base of Griffin’s throat. Staring at his cousin, he demanded, “Is there something wrong with Katie? Why doesn’t the family know about it?”

  “Damn it.” Lucas lifted one hand. “Power down. Nothing’s wrong with Katie. She’s pregnant, is all. And nobody’s supposed to know yet, so keep your big mouth shut. Katie and Rafe are gonna have a family deal when they get back and let everybody know.”

  Relief spilled through Griffin. “I already told you, I know how to keep a secret.”

  “Right.” Lucas nodded. “Anyway, Rafe wanted them to have some time together b
efore their lives really get busy. Nothing sucks up your time like kids.”

  Another King becoming a father. Finding a life. Finding...something more. Something that Griffin wasn’t sure he’d ever find for himself and, if he did, he didn’t know that he’d want it. Which said what, exactly, about him? Griffin frowned to himself.

  “Another King bites the dust,” he muttered to cover up the unexpected emotions crowding him.

  “Call it what you want,” Lucas said, a little on the defensive side. “But we don’t see it that way.”

  “You used to,” Griffin reminded him. “In fact,” he continued, “I remember a poker game a few years ago when we were talking about Adam and Travis getting married and you said—”

  Lucas huffed out a breath. “I remember.”

  “—you said,” Griffin went on, “that getting married was like being buried, only you didn’t have the sense to lie down and be dead.”

  Shaking his head, Lucas muttered, “Yeah, well, things change.”

  “Damn straight they do,” Griffin told him, and felt his own wayward emotions coming back into line. Maturing was one thing, he told himself sternly. Going crazy over one woman and signing up for a lifetime of marriage was something else again. He wasn’t about to set himself up to be one of the many Kings ready for a fall. Let his cousins go from happy bachelors to husbands and fathers. Let his own twin, for God’s sake, make that move, but not him. “Things change, cousin, but only if you let them.”

  Lucas snorted. “Whatever you say, cuz.”

  Griffin knew sarcasm when he heard it. “Just figure out who you can get in here to fix up this place. And do it fast.”

  “You got it,” Lucas said. “We’ll take care of permits from the city. I’ll have some plans drawn up and email them to Nicole for approval.” He turned off the tablet and tucked it beneath his arm. “Tell her I’ll let her know when she needs to decide on flooring, paint and appliances.”

  “Fine.” And whatever she picked, Griffin promised silently, he’d be upgrading. He paid his debts, and he’d be damned if he was going to let Nicole have a half-assed remodel because of her pride.

  Chuckling softly, Lucas headed for the back door. “You know...sometimes things change whether you want them to or not. And not even a King can stop it.”

  Griffin didn’t bother saying aloud what he was thinking. You can stop anything—if you never let it get started.

  Trouble was, Griffin told himself as he walked out of the destruction into the summer sunlight, as far as Nicole was concerned, he had a feeling it was already too late.

  Something had already started between them.

  Putting the brakes on might not be as easy as he’d like.

  * * *

  Nothing said summer more than the scent of hamburgers on a grill.

  Nicole stepped out of Katie’s kitchen, carrying a bowl of potato salad and a plate filled with sliced tomatoes, onions and cheese for the burgers Griffin was flipping on the grill.

  Her gaze slid across the grass until she spotted her son, playing in the sandbox table Griffin had retrieved from her yard. Connor was completely entranced with pushing his toy dinosaurs through sand mountains, so she set the potato salad down under the umbrella shading the redwood table, then she walked to Griffin.

  She studied him as she got closer and, as usual, her gaze did the up-and-down thing until she’d examined every really gorgeous inch of him. He was wearing those board shorts again and his bare back was broad and tanned to a dark gold. His hips were narrow, his muscular legs long, and his black hair curled at the nape of his neck.

  A flutter of something interesting wafted through her and Nicole had to take a deep breath to steady herself. Seriously, didn’t the man own a shirt?

  “Dinner’s almost ready,” he said as she approached.

  “Good. I’m starving.” In more ways than one, she realized.

  “Barbecuing is the one kind of cooking I can do without having to call the fire department.” As soon as he said it, he winced. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay.” She waved off the apology even as she shrugged off the memories the mention of the fire department had caused. After all, it had only been a single day since her house had become uninhabitable. Not surprising that she was still a little touchy on the subject of fire. Heck, she hadn’t even watched Griffin as he turned on the propane flames on the barbecue.

  “Lucas emailed me a brief proposal,” she said, setting the plate of cheese and vegetables down on the workbench alongside the truly impressive grill Rafe had built the summer he and Katie first got together.

  She thought about Lucas’s proposal and had to muffle a whine. Even cutting the cost down to the bone—which she knew Lucas had done because of Nicole’s friendship with Katie King—the total had staggered her. She was going to have to either take out a small home-equity loan to cover her deductible, or maybe she could work out a payment schedule with King Construction. Something to think about, anyway.

  “Good.” Griffin glanced at her, then turned his attention back to the burgers on the grill. He reached for the cheese and slapped a slice on each burger. “Lucas said he could have a crew out here starting the teardown as early as tomorrow.”

  “Teardown.” She sighed a little at the image those words created. Then she looked up to find Griffin watching her.

  “Then they’ll start the redo,” he said softly. “Does that make it easier?”

  Not really. “I suppose.”

  He dropped one hand onto her shoulder and the heat of his touch sent a wave of warmth radiating through her body.

  “Lucas promised to get the job done as fast as he could.”

  “I know.” She looked over the fence at her house and couldn’t help thinking that it looked...lonely. For the first time in her memory, the house was empty, and Nicole’s world was still shaken. “I appreciate you getting him to do it this quickly.”

  “Not a problem. I did have a hand in you needing the kitchen redone.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed, “you did.”

  He winced.

  “But from what your friend Jim the fireman said, the wiring was poised to go at any moment.”

  “Lucas will take care of that, too. He’s got a master electrician who will fix all the wiring and just tack it onto the cost of the kitchen redo.”

  Fabulous. An inner shriek resounded loudly, but at the same time, Nicole had to admit that the house definitely needed rewiring. She’d never be able to sleep soundly in her bed again if she was lying there every night, terrified that a fire would erupt and endanger her son.

  “Hopefully,” she muttered, “my insurance company will see it that way, too, or I’m going to be making payments to Lucas until I’m eighty.”

  “No, you won’t.” He laid a few onions on top of the cheese bubbling atop the sizzling burgers in the smoke and steam. “I’ll take care of that.”

  She stiffened at his presumption. It was one thing to accept Griffin’s offer of a place to stay, but she wasn’t about to let him pay for the kitchen rehab. “No, you won’t. It’s my kitchen, my house, my problem.”

  He frowned at her. “Don’t be stubborn.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I mean it.” He shrugged. “I can afford it. It’s not like it’ll kill me to handle the cost of the redo, Nicole.”

  This wasn’t stubbornness, this was pride, and hers was taking a beating at the moment. Well, she might not have as much money as a King, but she could take care of her own problems.

  “I’ll kill you if you try,” she said and waited until his gaze met hers again. “I don’t care how much money you have, this is my responsibility. I can take care of myself, my son and my house.”

  He frowned at her. “Who the hell says you can’t?”

  “You just did,” N
icole snapped, irritation blowing through her as fast as the electrical fire had moved through her kitchen. “Or implied it, anyway. I don’t need to be rescued.”

  “Look around,” he shot back. “I’m nobody’s white knight.”

  “Not how it looks from where I’m standing.”

  “Yeah? Well, I don’t see a horse and I’m not wearing armor.”

  No kidding, she thought grimly.

  Nicole took another long breath, trying to steady herself. Griffin was just trying to help, she thought. Maybe it was the overblown, high-handed, arrogant kind of help the Kings so excelled at, but he wasn’t trying to be offensive.

  “Look,” she said when she thought she could speak without either screaming or gritting her teeth, “I know you think you’re doing the right thing by offering to step in and make everything okay again, but I can do this myself.”

  He studied her for a long moment and Nicole had to force herself to stand still under his steady stare. Finally, though, he said only, “Fine.”

  “Fine.”

  “Now that we’ve got that settled, why don’t you get Connor and I’ll bring the burgers to the table?”

  He was giving in too easily, she told herself, even though his voice was tight and his eyes were grim. He wasn’t happy about this, but Nicole told herself his happiness wasn’t her issue. Griffin was just going to have to learn that not every woman in the world rolled over when a King spoke.

  She’d been standing on her own two feet for a long time now and she wasn’t about to let anyone—not even a well-meaning, would-be Knight in Shining Board Shorts—take control of what she did and didn’t do.

  She turned around sharply and left him standing there, staring after her. By the time she had Connor’s hands washed and the boy secured in his booster seat, Griffin had already poured lemonade for all of them, including filling Connor’s sippy cup. He handed it to the boy and smiled when Connor snatched it and sucked at the straw.

  “Apparently moving dinosaurs through the desert is thirsty work,” he said.

  Relieved, Nicole smiled. Good, she was glad they’d left their previous conversation behind. Maybe he really was going to accept that she was in charge of what happened in her and her son’s lives.