Risqué Renovation [Blue Collar 1] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Nicole Morgan

  Chapter Seven

  Patreece stepped off the sidewalk and onto the grass of Grand Isle’s City Park. There were people everywhere, some talking, others laughing and children scurrying about as their parents tried to get them to behave. The entire scene looked chaotic at best. It definitely wasn’t a Norman Rockwell painting. But to her, everything looked perfect. None of these people seemed unhappy with their life.

  Her pompous quasi-friends back in California would never dream of spending their day at a city fair, much less dressing down in some of the attire she was seeing. They’d always been obsessed with designer labels and keeping up with the Joneses. This type of living was exactly what she’d missed from her younger days living in St. Helena with her family.

  Looking back now, she had no idea how she had been sucked into Carl’s life so easily. Every time she thought of it, she felt nauseated. What a fool she had been. So young and naïve, she hadn’t once voiced an opinion of her own. At least not in the early years, she hadn’t. As she grew older and a little wiser, she began questioning some of his decisions, not just for their marriage but for her as well. He controlled her in every way. She couldn’t do a single thing without him being right on top of her, suffocating her with every move he made.

  That helpless feeling had been what caused her to run out on Kade and Rachael earlier that morning. Once she’d gotten home, taken one of her Xanax and lain down for a little while, she felt much better. Looking back, she realized how rude her behavior must have seemed. Not just to Kade, but to little Rachael as well. It hadn’t been her intention at all. There was just something about the way Kade leered in her direction that brought back all that old anxiety she used to feel around Carl.

  Ugh. Stop it, Patreece! She chided herself for thinking his name so many times. If she was ever going to be able to move on, she needed to learn to leave the past in the past. And she was going to start right this minute. She searched the crowd for the sweet little girl who had given her such joy that morning. It had been a very long time since she had felt genuine happiness. The least she could do was apologize to the little angel.

  She made her way through the crowd, waving occasionally to a few people who said hello. Some of them she recognized from the café earlier, while others struck her as the type who would offer a greeting to just about anyone regardless of whether they knew them or not. When Janis had mentioned they were a small and simple bunch, she hadn’t added that they were excessively happy all the time. Not that Patreece was complaining. She could get used to living on the other side of the spectrum that she’d known for so long in California. That was for sure.

  “Patreece!”

  “Rachael, wait!”

  Patreece turned to see Rachael running toward her with a man racing behind her, obviously trying to catch up with the little girl.

  The sight of the little one warmed her heart. “Well, hello there.”

  “Hi!” the little girl offered jubilantly. “I’m so glad you came. Are you having fun?”

  The man who had trailed behind Rachael finally made his way to her.

  “Rachael Kay, how many times have I told you not to run off?” He tried to discipline her through ragged breaths.

  “I’m sorry, Daddy. I just wanted to talk to Patreece.” She leaned in closer, squeezed his hand, looked up and whispered, “She’s the one I was telling you about.”

  Patreece tried to hide her smile. The girl was quite a character and had the personality of three kids rolled into one. Her father was a tall man, much like Kade, only Rachael’s dad didn’t have the muscular build her uncle did. This man appeared thin, but not overly skinny. Personally she’d always preferred a little contour and shape to her men but he still was a nice-looking man. He just didn’t have that handsome look that Kade Riley seemed to exude.

  As soon as the thought entered her mind, she quickly tossed it aside. The last thing she needed to do was think about Kade and his body. His stare earlier had caused her enough havoc for one day. She didn’t need any more headaches.

  Holding out her hand to Rachael’s dad, she proceeded to introduce herself. “Hi there. Patreece Warren. I just moved to Grand Isle. Pleased to meet you.”

  “Chuck Rawlings.” He shook her hand in return. “I see you’ve met my little monster?”

  “Daddy! Stop it! I’m your little princess. Even Uncle Kade says so.” She smiled wide.

  Chuck picked her up and lifted her onto his shoulders. “Yes you are, pumpkin. But you’re also quite the handful, too. Uncle Kade doesn’t have to chase you around nearly as often as I do.”

  “I think you’re pretty,” Rachael blurted out.

  “Well, thank you very much. I think you’re pretty as well. Those are beautiful ribbons you’re wearing in your pigtails.”

  “My mommy gave them to me. Before she died.”

  Patreece was stunned silent by the young girl’s statement. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose her mother, especially at such a young age. Surprisingly, this little one seemed to be handling it okay. Rachael was obviously a strong little girl. Having men like her father and her uncle to dote on her probably didn’t hurt the healing process, either. It was clear her words had struck a nerve with her father as well. His eyes became misty and he promptly changed the subject.

  “So you just moved here, huh? Did you lose a bet or something?” he teased.

  “You don’t like it here?”

  “No. I love it here. But Grand Isle is pretty far from the rest of the world. We’re like Leave It to Beaver meets fishing town. Not much happens around here. The only thing predictable is the snow. And even that can surprise us.”

  “It gets pretty bad, huh?”

  “Let me put it to you this way. Whenever you think the snow is going to stop, it’s not. It’s just getting started.”

  “Gee, I can hardly wait,” she offered sarcastically. “So what is it that you do? That is, if you don’t mind me asking.”

  “Not at all. I’m a fisherman. Got a boat down there at the docks. Nothing too fancy, bought it used and take good care of it. It does the job well enough to feed this little munchkin and pay the bills.”

  “Ask him what it’s called!” Rachael blurted with giddiness as she bounced on her dad’s shoulders.

  Patreece smiled at her. “Okay. Mind if I ask what you named your boat?”

  Chuck let out a boisterous laugh. “Sorry, my little princess here doesn’t have much of a filter. I named her The Rachael Kay.”

  “After me!” the little girl exclaimed.

  “Well, that must mean your dad loves you very much. That’s quite an honor. You’re a very lucky girl.”

  “Look, Daddy! They’re getting ready to start the beanbag toss. Can we go, Daddy? Please? Can we?”

  Chuck nodded at Patreece. “Well if you’ll excuse me, ma’am. It would seem the attention span has been broken yet again. It was nice meeting you.”

  “Likewise. I’ll see you later, Rachael.”

  Patreece waved them off and took a look around the busy park. She saw Janis, Shirley and Catherine over to her left, bustling about like the busy bees she remembered seeing them as earlier. She wondered where on Earth they got all of their energy. Just watching them made Patreece want to sit down and take a rest for them. It was their speedy stamina that kept her from heading in their direction. Patreece had a sneaking suspicion being tag-teamed in a conversation with the two women would probably cause her to run in the opposite direction.

  A whiff of something delicious caught her attention and she looked around to find where it was coming from. Off across the lawn, she saw a man standing in front of a large grill. As she made her way over to him, she was able to get a better look at the items being cooked. There were hamburgers, hot dogs and what looked like bratwurst. Oh god, bratwurst. It had been forever since she had some good old-fashioned, fattening backyard barbeque. There were several people gathered around. Some were chatting with the chef while others were adding condiments
to their burgers and dogs.

  The relish and diced onions looked especially tempting and she pondered whether anyone would think she was a pig if she got a hot dog and a brat. She asked someone where the plates were and went to get one.

  She searched for buns, but didn’t see any lying around. “Do you have any hot dog buns?”

  The man looked over his shoulder. “Someone will be back with some soon. Can you hang on for a bit?”

  “Sure.” She nodded politely.

  She’d no sooner answered the question than she saw Kade walking toward her, carrying a large box.

  It was obvious he didn’t notice her at first. He set the box down and didn’t look up from unloading the various bags and setting them on the table. It wasn’t until the cook told him she was waiting that he looked up and saw her.

  His hypnotic eyes zeroed in on hers and locked in position, and she stared back at him. Her heart rate kicked up a notch to an uncomfortable speed and she fought against her racing pulse. She had no idea why being so close to him unnerved her so much. He hadn’t done a thing to make her feel threatened or ill at ease. Still, it was all she could do to keep from running far away. Only her own resilience and stubbornness kept her standing still with her feet planted firmly in place. Being that it was just her second day in Grand Isle, the last thing she wanted was to be known as the town freak, someone who ran away from people all the time, even though she knew it wasn’t people she wanted to run from. Mostly it was just Kade Riley, all six muscular feet of him, and that damn killer smile.

  Uh-oh, Patreece. This could get complicated.

  Chapter Eight

  Kade worked his head from side to side and tried to remove the kink that had managed to work its way through his shoulders the night before. After the fireworks display, he’d helped his parents get everything back to the café before heading home. By the time he finally crawled into bed, it was fast approaching midnight. Sadly, his fatigue had done a double cross on him, causing him to lie awake, staring at the ceiling.

  He had tossed and turned for over an hour, trying anything he could think of to get Patreece Warren out of his mind. Relentlessly, she kept reappearing before his closed eyelids, showing him that gorgeous smile of hers. Her laugh tempted him, her eyes taunted him and with every ounce of his being, he couldn’t seem to think of anything but her. Once the sandman finally offered a reprieve, he didn’t end up having much rest. He’d slept like shit, waking up several times only to face the same problems all over again.

  For hours last night, he’d tried to get to know her, striking up casual conversation and cracking jokes in hopes she would laugh as she had that morning at breakfast. He’d gotten her to smile a few times, but nothing like he wished for. Her mannerisms were cordial and her smiles polite. It wasn’t the real her, though. He didn’t know how he was sure about that, either. He just was. There was something hiding beneath the surface of this woman that he knew she had no intention of revealing. Not knowing what that part of her was drove him nuts. And the fact that it was making him crazy only added to his curiosity.

  Who was she? Where had she come from? He’d tried to casually slide in subtle questions about her home town as she ate her bratwurst. He hadn’t asked anything too blatant or nosy, just the type of conversation most people would openly answer. She had proved to be a harder nut to crack than he’d anticipated.

  With expert maneuvering, she’d sidestepped every question as if they were landmines. Even more surprising was her calm and cool demeanor. The woman wasn’t stupid. Kade was fairly confident she knew exactly what he was doing. She could have gotten angry, even walked away from him. She did neither of those things, though. The woman was a damn mystery.

  His mother had called him away, saving Patreece from his questions and further rescuing her from answering them. By the time he’d found her again she was sitting on the grass talking to Rachael and Chuck. An instant pang of jealousy had struck him square in the gut when he saw them all laughing together. It brought him back to a time nearly twenty years earlier when he’d gone to find Kim to ask her on a date, only to find her kissing Chuck on a park bench.

  For a brief moment, he’d actually felt angry with Chuck for spending time with Patreece. It was an emotion that he shook off very quickly. It wasn’t in his nature to be a possessive man, and he hadn’t even been on one date with Patreece. Not to mention Chuck was like a brother. The realization that this woman, whoever she was, was wreaking such havoc on his thoughts and actions didn’t sit too well with him. He didn’t like being out of control. Quite the opposite, in fact. Kade needed to be in charge of his actions. He didn’t like anyone dictating his life or his emotions. That seemed to be exactly what this woman was doing, whether she knew what she was doing or not.

  For the rest of the night, he’d watched her from afar. Rachael sat on her lap while they looked up at the fireworks display. He sat only twenty yards away, but it might as well have been a mile. He smiled when she pointed up to the sky for Rachael to see something. She was good with the little one. It made him wonder if she had any kids of her own. She definitely had a motherly quality about her. A few of the women he’d dated in the past were too worried about how they looked to even consider having a child. He never much thought of having one, at least not seriously, anyway.

  None of the women he ever dated lasted for very long. They were either too shallow for him or they each wanted different things in life. What did Patreece want? Why had she come to Grand Isle? The questions plagued him as the night wore on.

  The combination of his interest in her mixed with the restless night resulted in the balls of knotted muscles that sat atop his shoulders. His hot shower had done little to ease his tension. Thankfully, today was Sunday. He was used to hard work. It was all he knew. But hard work wasn’t enough to prepare him for his mother and her friends once they started handing out orders. For a fifty-nine-year-old woman, Catherine Riley was a force to be reckoned with.

  He took a sip of coffee and glanced at the butterfly picture Rachael had drawn for him. It hung on his refrigerator in the exact spot she’d placed it a month before. He had to laugh at the chaotic image of scribbles. She hadn’t stayed in the coloring lines or stuck with the usual little-girl type colors of pink or purple. Instead, she’d used bright blues and reds to fill in her butterfly. It was just as unpredictable as the girl who colored it. Kade knew Chuck was going to have his hands full with that one, especially in her teenage years.

  The clock above his mantel chimed eleven times. He hadn’t realized how much of his morning had passed until he heard it. Sleeping in until half past eight probably hadn’t helped, either. His coffee had been the only thing he really needed that morning. Still, it surprised him that he somehow had managed to skip breakfast. Skipping over a meal wasn’t typical of him. He had a big appetite and was usually the last one left seated around the family dinner table.

  He heard a growl and rubbed his belly. The lack of breakfast was rearing its ugly head in the form of grumbling in his stomach. He didn’t feel much like cooking but knew he could stop by the café anytime and pick up something. Downing the last of his coffee, he took a quick look in his refrigerator to see what he needed to get while he was out.

  Once behind the wheel of his truck, he called in an order to the café. A nice, juicy cheeseburger sounded like it would hit the spot just right. Minutes later, he pulled up at the store. He drove into the market’s lot and took the spot right next to a familiar Oldsmobile. He knew Grand Isle was a small town, but he hadn’t expected to find Patreece there. Not that he minded. Running into her was definitely something he could get used to.

  He walked inside and pulled one of the rickety old carts out of their holding bay. The wheel squeaked obnoxiously as he made his way along the narrow aisles. He tossed some of his usual weekly fare into the metal basket—pickles, ketchup, mustard, a few frozen pizzas and a six pack of beer from the cooler. Then he made his way over to the deli and ordered up a few pounds o
f Muenster cheese, turkey and roast beef. All that was left to do was get some bread.

  He made his way to the bakery, feeling a sudden hankering for something sweet to go along with his greasy burger. As he made his way through the store, he glanced down aisles and around displays to see if he could happen upon Patreece. Despite his efforts, he couldn’t seem to find her anywhere and was beginning to think he’d missed her. He was disappointed that he was going to have to come up with a new plan to run into her. Patreece Warren might be making every effort to avoid getting to close to him, but little did she know such behavior only encouraged him to try that much harder.

  No sooner did he come around the corner than his vision was met with the unmistakable sight of her enticing body. Her back was turned toward him and she wore her hair up in a ponytail, a style she seemed to prefer. Her jeans were faded and her red T-shirt had some sort of writing on the right sleeve. He watched as she chatted with the baker. He couldn’t make out the words, but he heard her laugh. It was that laugh that had echoed in his mind the night before. He’d heard it at breakfast yesterday morning, seen the bright smile on her face as she talked with Chuck and Rachael, and there it was again. She had a beautiful laugh, one that made him want to smile himself.

  She turned with a small box in her hand. The smile that was plastered across her face diminished just as quickly as she saw him. Damn it. What the hell was it about him that put her off so badly? If she kept up this attitude much longer, he was likely to get a complex. He never considered himself to be egotistical, but he did have a healthy opinion of himself. Having her look at him like he was the very last person she wanted to see caused him to feel like a gawky teenager all over again.