by Nina Crespo
“Only because I had help. One of the loan officers at the bank was good friends with my uncle, Jacob. He told my uncle I was in trouble. I should have been upset that the loan officer shared the information, but honestly, I was relieved...and scared. I’d put everything into Brewed Haven and didn’t want to lose it. Uncle Jacob gave me the money to rebuild and catch up. He’d said it was a gift and to keep it between us. But yesterday, Zurie told me he hadn’t used his personal money. He’d borrowed it from the family corporation that Tillbridge falls under. All this time, it was misclassified on the balance sheets by our old accountant. Zurie recently switched firms, and they found it during their audit. So instead of being caught up, I’m in debt to Tillbridge.”
“Wait.” He leaned in. “Your sister isn’t expecting you to repay the money, is she?”
The judgment on Zurie’s face had conveyed her thoughts so clearly, it had been as if Rina could read her mind—This wouldn’t have happened if you’d made better choices and not bought that building.
“No, but I’m the reason the loan exists. It should be my responsibility. I refuse to be treated like a charity case.”
“Can you handle paying the loan without jeopardizing the business?”
“Yes. At least I can once I win the Gwen’s Garden contract.”
“You didn’t seem too enthused about doing it the last time we talked.”
“Enthusiasm isn’t going to pay off my loan. Like you said, I just have to get used to creating something that’s different from my usual.” And all that required was her getting over feeling like she was jumping into the deepest part of a lake.
Scott blew out a breath. “I know doing what you have to do isn’t always easy. I wish I could help.”
Actually Scott already had. He hadn’t offered an unwanted opinion, and he’d allowed her to express exactly how she felt about the situation—frustrated and sad.
She glanced at their melted ice creams. “Sorry for ruining going out tonight.”
“You didn’t. I asked what was wrong and you needed to talk. But if you feel that strongly about it, we’ll just make another appointment and do this again.”
His small teasing smile prompted a laugh out of her. “I’d like that.” It was only fair since she’d spent their time together talking about another not-so-happy moment in her life.
In silent agreement they stood, and she waited for him as he threw the ice cream cup away.
As she started to cross the street, he lightly grasped her arm, stalling her. “I understand how curveballs can really throw things off when you’re running a business. I watched my father deal with more than a few. If you need to talk again, I’m here to listen, ice cream appointment or not.”
“Thank you.” The empathy in his gaze prompted her to kiss his cheek. The smoothness of his skin and the wonderful smell of his cologne caused her to linger. Scott turned to look at her, and what she saw in his eyes suspended her even longer.
As their lips hovered a hairsbreadth apart, anticipation flowed through the current that hummed between them in that tiny space, overpowering reason and hesitation. She pressed her lips to his. The contact awakened something that took notice and grabbed hold of her. Rina opened to him and the flavors of chocolate, mint, and the slow drift and glide as they deepened the kiss grew addictive. The need to get closer bloomed inside of her, and she slid her hands up and around his neck. As he grasped her waist and brought her against him, she welcomed the contact with a sigh. Yes. Lost in what she couldn’t define, Rina knew she just wanted more.
A car horn blared. Tires squealed. The sounds scratched the surface of a recollection and yanked her back to reality.
Scott’s arms went around her as they both looked up the street.
Two cars crossing into the intersection at the same time had narrowly avoided a collision, but the image in front of Rina was cluttered by her own elusive memories jumbled with a mix of terrible emotions.
She sucked in a breath filled with Scott’s scent. Without realizing it, she’d closed her eyes and burrowed her face into his chest.
“Are you okay? You’re shaking.” Scott, his arms now completely wrapped around her, tightened his hold.
Stay. Soak up his warmth and his strength. That’s what every part of her screamed out. But something about helplessness sucking her down and leaning on someone for comfort was all too familiar. Years ago, vulnerability had gotten the best of her, and needing an escape from reality, she’d found it in Xavier’s arms.
Feeling almost as if she was in the repeat of a dream she had to wake up from but wished she didn’t, Rina looked up at him. “I think that was my signal to go back to work.”
“The kiss or the near wreck?”
“Both.” She moved back. “The cafe is my priority.” Testing uncharted waters, she ventured out. “So can we leave that kiss as just a kiss?”
He studied her a moment. “If that’s what you want. Just so you know, I’m not following you. I have ice cream on my hands. I need to wash it off.”
“Of course.”
Inside the cafe, as Rina headed to her office, she struggled not to look back at him. No matter how much she liked kissing him, viewing that moment as “just a kiss” was the smartest thing to do.
Sitting at her desk, she pulled up his number on her phone. She didn’t need it anymore. Her finger hovered over the delete icon.
A knock sounded at the corridor-side door.
“Come in.”
Scott walked inside. “Got a minute? There’s an issue with the men’s room.”
The troubled look on his face almost made Rina want to crawl under her desk. “What type of issue?”
“It’s probably best for you to see it yourself.”
She followed him. Please, not another broken sink.
After a quick peek to make sure the bathroom wasn’t occupied, he beckoned her inside and pointed to a water stain on the ceiling above the sinks that hadn’t been there a couple of days ago. “What’s up there?”
Rina visualized the floor plan of her apartment. Her heart sank.
Chapter Twelve
As she stood in front of the bathroom mirror in her apartment, Rina gathered her braids into a ponytail. The soothing scents of clary sage, lavender and sweet almond moisturizer calmed her. But as her gaze drifted to the claw-foot tub with silver feet on the other side of the room, peace evaporated.
The second contractor she’d hired a little over five years ago to help with the apartment remodel had understood her vision of not wanting a traditional shower and tub area. He’d put a sloping drain in the beige tile floor near the claw-foot tub, tiled the walls partway surrounding it and installed a showerhead, and she’d painted the space a soothing blue. When her bathroom sanctuary was completed, her heart had leaped high on the excitement meter. But now, relaxing herbal-infused soaks or long hot showers in her favorite spot were on hold. Scott believed a faulty pipe, somewhere behind the showerhead wall, was causing a leak in the men’s bathroom downstairs.
The ringtone she’d assigned to Philippa, “Lean On” by Major Lazer and DJ Snake, blasted from her phone. After wiping her hands on a coral hand towel, she hurried out of the corner bathroom, snagged the phone from the polished wood dresser and answered it. “Hey.”
“Good morning,” Philippa sang out. “I have a whole ten minutes before I have to leave my office and go to the kitchen. Tell me about your date.”
“You may have time but I still have to get ready for work.” She still needed to get dressed.
“You can’t leave me in suspense all day. Just give me the highlights.”
I kissed him. But trying to explain to Philippa that it was just a kiss and didn’t validate her date theory would take more than ten minutes.
Rina flopped back on the queen-sized sleigh bed. With the low light peeking through the blinds over the wide
side window, it would be so easy to snuggle back under the tousled cream sheets and forget she had a cafe to run. “Let’s see. The highlights. It wasn’t a date. We had ice cream, and when we came back to the cafe, he noticed a leak in the men’s room ceiling. My shower is causing it.”
“What is up with the two of you and water?”
“There’s nothing up with the two of us. It’s an old building.”
“But you didn’t have these problems until he showed up.”
“Are you saying he’s cursed?” Maybe he was. When they kissed an accident did almost happen.
“No, he’s too cute to be cursed. Maybe it’s ghosts in the plumbing.”
As Rina got up, she switched to speaker mode. “Seriously? After everything I just told you, haunted water pipes is what you come up with?”
“It’s more interesting than old leaky pipes. You know, I read a romance novel about a haunted mansion once...”
Philippa went on to describe the entire plot about ghosts who were lovers when they’d been alive but had ended up trapped by a curse keeping them from being together in the afterlife.
Rina found a pair of jeans in the closet and put them on. As she walked into the living room, natural light from the large tinted windows on the side wall bathed the dark-wood furniture, cream couch with turquoise pillows, and matching side chairs in a soft glow.
A stop in the laundry room in the side hallway netted her clean socks. Farther up, as she passed the kitchen, she snagged her keys off the white marble counter.
In the entryway, as she slipped on her tennis shoes, Philippa finally took a breath allowing Rina to comment. “I still don’t understand what that story has to do with me. I own a cafe with glitchy plumbing not a mansion.”
“But you do have a hot handyman. And just like in the book, you two could fall in love and the ghosts who are messing with your plumbing could live happily-ever-after.”
A laugh slipped out of Rina as she disengaged the alarm on the wall panel. Only Philippa would try to connect that story to her life. “Ghosts are not haunting my plumbing, and I’m not going to fall in love with my hot handyman. Drool over him, definitely, but...” Rina opened the front door and smacked into said handyman’s gaze. “Scott.”
“But Scott, what? Let me guess. Doing anything with him is a bad idea? Girl, you need to let that go and do exactly what I told you to do. Indulge. If you need convincing, just imagine him with his shirt off.”
Scott’s brows rose.
Rina hung up on Philippa.
* * *
Scott grinned as he set the toolbox on the cream counter in Rina’s bathroom. A moment ago, after pointing him in the right direction, she’d rushed out the door.
Of course he’d wanted to know more about what he’d overheard before and after she’d opened the door, but from the cute look of embarrassment on her face, he wasn’t getting that answer.
Last night, after Rina had insisted they view their kiss as “just a kiss,” he’d wondered if they would ever spend time together again. He’d also been concerned about misreading her. She’d kissed him, but she’d also been a little vulnerable over finding out about the loan from her sister. Instead of going all in on the kiss should he have been the one to ease up?
Bottom line, Rina had made her position clear. She didn’t want to take things further. He’d planned to clear the air about it this morning, and let her know he was good just helping out as the repairman. But if she asked him, he’d gladly take his shirt off for her. She’d said he was hot. Scott couldn’t stop a widening grin. But she might feel differently if he didn’t get this repair right.
He hadn’t done a job like this in a while, but he could get it done. Still, it would be great to run through the steps with someone who did this type of work more often than he did. Scott pulled up the familiar number but instead of voice he chose video.
After a couple of rings, a close-up image of Wendy’s face appeared on the screen. Her dark blond waves flowed back from her slim face. The freckles across her nose indicated she’d recently been out in the Florida sun. “Hey, you.”
“Got a minute?”
“Sure, as long as I can sit and drink coffee while we talk.” She dropped down on what appeared to be a step on a wooden staircase.
“Where are you?”
“Visiting one of our project sites. It’s a house that’s being renovated. It’s a beauty. I’m meeting the owner to go over a few designs, but he’s running late. What do you need?”
“Advice. I think a friend has a leak in their bathroom wall. I wanted you to take a look and walk through the repair with me before I did anything.”
“Sure.” She slipped a pair of glasses down from the top of her head and positioned them over her light hazel-brown eyes. “Show me.”
He switched the camera view from him to the tub area.
“That’s a smart design for a claw-foot tub. But if I would have done it, I would have brought the tile walls farther up. What makes you think there’s a leak in the wall?”
Scott explained about the cafe and what he’d noticed in the men’s room.
Wendy nodded. “That sounds reasonable, but I’d still use a moisture finder to make sure the numbers line up with the leak coming from the shower and not some other random place. If it’s an older building, there could be some weird pipe configurations.”
“Good to know.”
“Then I’d...” She looked up from the phone. “I think the owner is driving up.”
“Can we talk after your meeting?”
“Dad.” She called out behind her up the stairs. “Scott has a question about a shower repair. I have to meet with our client. Can you talk to him?”
“Wendy, no, I can call you back.”
The camera view had already changed to her climbing the stairs.
Was she really trying to help him out or was she setting up another chance for his father to ask him to come to his wedding?
Patrick Halsey’s face appeared on the screen. Scott had his father’s eyes and at one time he’d had his perfectly straight nose, but a wild punch thrown during a fight scene brawl had left his with a small bump. His father grinned, happy to see him. “Hi. Wendy said you have a question about something?”
His father was even more knowledgeable than Wendy. Talking to him would only be a benefit. He told his father the same thing he’d outlined for Wendy and what she’d mentioned so far. “Yes, she’s definitely right about the pipe configurations in the wall.” Like Wendy, he slid his glasses from the top of his head to his nose. “Can you give me a closer look at the wall where the showerhead is and then the faucet assembly?”
He showed his father what he’d asked, and they talked through the repair and what to look out for. It was like old times when he’d used to work for him. Before Scott realized it, they’d been on the phone for almost thirty minutes talking about the repair and issues his father had encountered working on similar jobs. “Thanks, Dad. I appreciate the assist.”
“Wish I was there to help. Like I said, my money is on a broken backflow valve. Older buildings can be a headache but also a nice challenge. Where did you say this place was?”
Scott hesitated.
Wendy’s smiling face suddenly appeared next to his father’s. “So did you two figure it out?”
“I think we did,” his father replied. “I better get going. I’m supposed to meet Theresa at the florist. Good luck. Let me know what you find.”
“I will. Thanks, Dad.”
His father left the screen and only Wendy remained. “So things must be slow on set with the movie since you have time for side gigs.”
“Today, yes. Tomorrow...”
“Let me guess. You’ll be busy?” She glanced over her shoulder then back at the screen. “Liar-liar-pants-on-fire. I saw the story online about Nash. He broke his nose and h
is leg. Filming’s going to be shut down for weeks, maybe months, giving you plenty of time to repair that shower and make it to Dad’s wedding.”
“You must have gotten that from one of those tabloid sites. Nash chipped a tooth and he sprained his ankle. Most likely, the director is going to film around him until he’s able to come back in a few weeks.”
“Whatever’s happening, it sounds like you have the time to come to the ceremony. Dad won’t say it, but I know he’s really disappointed that you won’t be here.”
Guilt started to rise, but his reasoning about not wanting to go through another one of his father’s weddings overrode it. “I don’t have a say in the filming schedule. I have to be available when they need me.”
As Wendy stared at him she released a breath. “Can’t you at least try to work something out...for his sake?”
Chapter Thirteen
Rina stood outside the door of her apartment holding a large foil-covered plate and saucer. She’d been out there for at least a good two minutes debating whether or not to go inside and face Scott. But after he’d heard her and Philippa talking about him earlier that morning, how could she?
He’d sent a text a couple of hours ago, wanting to talk to her about what he planned to do in her bathroom. She’d texted back that she was busy, and that he should go ahead with the repair and bill her for his time and the supplies. To make sure she didn’t have to see him, she’d even sent Darby to give him the spare key so he could get in and out of the apartment without her.
Once again, the moment from that morning of opening the door and Philippa telling her to imagine him with his shirt off played in her mind. Rina groaned and started descending the steps with the metal grill–style railing on the side of the building. But halfway down she went back up. She had to go inside some time, not only because she lived there, but to check on what he was doing. Her entire apartment could be a construction zone by now, and she’d sanctioned it with her texts.
Leaning against the wall in the entryway, she toed off her tennis shoes near the door.
