by Vivian Arend
Janey finally got away from Len’s teasing. She remained in the circle of his arms as the two of them stood over the table. “How about March? Then I can tell Maggie I’ll be free to help her if she needs anything for the fundraiser gala—that’s scheduled for mid-April.”
“What event?” Clay asked, glancing up at her.
“The Habitat for Humanity project. Maggie and Cameron were in charge of part of the fundraiser, and she insists she wants to do it. I can give her a hand, but April is probably the earliest I can swing it, but not if you have the wedding then too.”
“Still say you’re biting off more than you can chew,” Len grumbled. “You’re gonna do this organizing when? In your nonexistent spare time?”
Janey let out a long sigh. “I know it’s going to be busy, but what could I do? She’s all alone, but she really wanted to do it.”
Clay kicked himself. This was the first he’d heard about it. “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to Maggie. I’ve got more than enough time on my hands.”
Katy was in the middle of adding notes to the calendar. She whistled innocently as she mumbled loud enough for him to hear, “Don’t be so sure about that…”
Gage sat on the coffee table so he could nudge Katy on the shoulder. Tanner reached for the edge of the calendar and promptly stuck it in his mouth. “Okay, spill. That’s the third time tonight you or Janey made a comment about how Clay’s about to get real busy. What did you two do?”
“It wasn’t us,” Katy protested. She glanced at Clay, lips curled into a smile even as she looked rather apologetic. “I overheard Troy and Mitch talking at the shop. It seems they signed you up for a dating service.”
“The hell? They didn’t.”
She nodded reluctantly. “And I don’t know any more than that, but if you want to take it out on somebody, I think it was Troy’s idea.”
Clay glanced at Len. “You know anything about this?”
Len shook his head. “Not my thing.”
“I’m sure they meant well,” Katy offered before wrinkling her nose. “Well, that and they were getting quite the kick out of it.”
Good grief. Just what he needed. Although he had considered it himself, the idea had been pushed aside what with Cam’s death and trying to help Maggie deal with everything. Dating didn’t seem important, especially when he added in lingering frustrations regarding his feelings toward a woman who was still in mourning.
Nope. The whole “getting to know you” relationship nightmare was not what he wanted to fool around with right now.
“Thanks for the heads-up,” he said. “I need to get the details out of those two assholes so I can shut it down.”
“Don’t cancel the account right off the bat,” Katy suggested. “Maybe this is a good thing. You haven’t dated anyone for a while. This might help.”
“Clay doesn’t need help finding a date,” Gage insisted. “Especially not from those two.”
Katy shrugged, sliding the calendar away from her son. “Okay, I’ll back off, but it’s not the most terrible idea they’ve ever had.” She got to her feet and pulled Clay with her toward the kitchen. “Come on, I’ll grab snacks, you grab drinks, and we’ll play a game of something.”
They took turns entertaining Tanner while the other four played a card game, and it was family and it was comfortable…and the entire time Clay kept thinking about Maggie. How she was sitting alone in an empty house, and his soul ached.
His promise to be there for her taunted him. She deserved so much more than life had handed her lately. Somehow he’d find a way to ease her pain.
Chapter Five
Having made the decision to stick with her and Cameron’s plans, Maggie set up an appointment with the head coordinator of the Habitat project and got up-to-date information. Talking with Daniel Coleman helped reduce her fears the task would be way too much, while strangely reassuring her this wasn’t some kind of busy work being offered her.
Not that she had anything against hard labour. Things were slow at school since her part-time position as grounds maintenance required nothing more at this time of year than for her to keep the walks shoveled and to care for the indoor plants. She already had everything in place to start seedlings for the greenhouse in a couple of months.
The Home Ec and Shop students would take their turns in the greenhouse helping with that task. The practical life skills she got to teach without having to run a full-time class was the icing on a cake.
She slipped into the greenhouse to double-check how many lights she needed to order, and to check the watering system was in working order. Her footsteps echoed back from the distant ceiling in the long, modified Quonset as she moved from one closed-in section to the next, wearing her medium-weight coat and boots to protect her from the cool temperature of the out-of-season greenhouse.
She stepped through the door into the final room and jerked to a stop with a gasp, her heart pounding briefly before she recognized the heavily bundled man standing just inside the entrance door. “God, Clay, you nearly gave me a heart attack.”
He balanced two coffee cups in one hand as he pulled the heavy door closed to shut out the freezing temperature. “Sorry. I wanted to see how you’re doing.”
Maggie glanced at her watch. “Did you sneak away from the shop?”
He beamed, absolutely zero guilt on his face as he offered her a coffee. “Don’t tell anyone. They’ll just think it’s really busy at Tim Hortons.”
She laughed and accepted the drink, leading him toward the side of the room. A couple of tall stools that were normally used while transplanting seedlings were tucked under the counter, and she pulled them out so they could sit. “I’m okay. Just getting things ready in here—I’ll be heating it up in about a month’s time so I can start the seedlings.”
He glanced around with interest. “This wasn’t here when we were in high school. Sounds like it’s a hit with the kids—the gardening and stuff.”
“Most of them. Sometimes I get a few who don’t think playing in the dirt is very important, but I rarely see any of them complain when we start harvesting vegetables. And I usually catch the complainers snitching strawberries when they think I’m not looking.”
His eyes danced with amusement. “It’s definitely a good thing we didn’t have this back when I was in school, then. Strawberries—God, they’re my favourite.”
She smiled at his enthusiasm. “Just let me know, and I’ll help you set up your own patch.”
He shrugged. “Not much room for that in my yard.”
“You’d be surprised,” she teased, suddenly delighted with the idea of surprising him with a strawberry pot for his deck. A thank-you for everything he’d done. Once again it was impulse that made her speak. She’d considered asking him but felt terrible for taking up even more of his time. Yet there was something in his eyes that encouraged her to be brave. “I have a favour to ask.”
Instant response. “Anything.”
She snorted. “Be careful saying that too quickly. You have no idea what I’m about to hook you into.”
“Doesn’t matter. Anything you need, I’ll help.”
She took a deep breath and screwed up her courage. “Cameron and I volunteered to help with a project this summer. Habitat for Humanity is cleaning up the old Miller Hall property and building a set of four seniors’ residences on the space. The committee said I could get out of it, but I’d really like to keep the commitment. The project was important to Cameron, and I feel as if I need to do this.”
Clay nodded slowly. “Kind of like doing it in his memory. To honour him…?”
“Yeah.” Her chest ached, tightness binding her briefly before she pushed her grief away. “And while someone else could step up to help me, it would be extra special if you were the one. We could do this together, for him.”
He turned away for a moment, and she studied his profile without speaking. There was sadness there, a furrow folding his brow as he stared at the bright calendar on the wall.
January fifteenth. Not even two months had passed since Cameron had died, and another wave of pain washed over her. Clay cleared his throat and seemed to be fighting for words. The two of them momentarily wrapped up in their shared loss.
When he turned back, it was to catch her fingers in his and squeeze them briefly. “I’d be honoured. I’d already heard about the project, and I was going to offer to help, but doing it in his memory? Definitely.”
A warm glow lit inside that curled around the constant ache she carried, not just from his agreement, but from the other parts of his comment. She swallowed hard and focused on the fact the rumour mill had gone ahead of her. “Of course you’ve already heard. Why did I think otherwise?”
“You forgot the power of discussing anything with Janey.” He shrugged. “Now, if you’d talked to Len you might’ve been able to keep it secret for a little bit longer. Luckily, this isn’t anything that needs to stay on the hush hush.”
“Definitely not. But I suppose if you’ve heard about it my explanation can be a little shorter. You know what we’re signed up for?”
“I assume Cameron was going to do cleanup for the lot. Tractor work and things like that, and then you and he were going to work on landscaping.” Clay continued after she nodded in confirmation. “I’m good with all of that. But I don’t know what’s involved with the fundraiser.”
“Not much on our part. I thought we had to do a lot more organizing, but it turns out we’re the hosts for the evening.”
Suddenly he looked uncomfortable. “I don’t have to talk on a microphone, do I?”
“Don’t worry, if there are any announcements to make I can handle that part. It’s more that you have to dress up, because there’s a dance, and unless one guy commits to going in a suit, no one else will.” He pulled a face, and she smiled. “You’re as bad as Cameron. Why is it the guys who look the best in suits never want to wear them?”
“Because we know no one is looking at us anyway,” he bantered back. “A guy in a suit means a woman in a fancy dress is somewhere close by, and that trumps a guy in a suit any day.”
The tease she was going to offer in return was interrupted when his cell phone went off, an annoyingly perky whistle filling the air.
“Damn it, Troy changed my ringtone again.” He pulled the phone free from his pocket to check the text message.
Maggie didn’t even try to hide her amusement. “Are they sending out a search party for their coffees?”
“Something like that.” Clay got to his feet. “I need to run, but how about I come over this week, and we can take a look at what we need to do. Make some plans, that kind of thing.”
“I already have a set of master blueprints from Daniel. He said I’ve got free rein when it comes to designing the layout for walkways and the rest.”
Clay nodded as he did up his coat and pulled on his gloves. “You’ve got the expertise. The committee is lucky to have you.”
“And I’m lucky to have you,” she offered with sincerity. “You’re a good friend, Clay. Thank you.”
He hesitated for a moment before giving her another of his breath-stealing hugs. Like usual, she felt cared for and guarded as he held her, and like usual, it seemed far too short a time before he set her free and headed out. His phone went off in another round of whistling before the door closed behind him, and the last thing she heard was him cursing his brother, zero heat in the threats to skin him alive.
She laughed and went back to her tasks, not quite sure how to label the emotions roller-coasting through her. It had to have something to do with how right honouring Cameron’s memory alongside his good friend was. For the first time in a long time she felt a flutter of excitement. Something to look forward to.
And if there was a tremble of something else there, she wasn’t ready to think about it any harder.
Chapter Six
What with one thing and another, Maggie managed to convince Clay it was her turn to come over to his place. She stepped into his living room and glanced around with approval. The few times she’d come over with Cameron the place had always struck her as surprisingly homey for a single guy.
“You got a new couch.”
“Old couch. I did a trade with Anna and Mitch because mine was a foldout, and they needed it to set up a guest-room-slash-office deal.”
“So this was Anna’s?” Maggie slipped out of her boots and made her way to the center of the comfortable living room. She dropped her file folder on the coffee table before settling on the brightly patterned couch. “It doesn’t really look like Mitch’s style.” Come to think of it. “It doesn’t really look like your style, either.”
He chuckled as he joined her, sitting in the oversized chair beside her. “Yeah, paisley is so last year, but it’s a couch, and it’s comfy. I’m not too worried about the mismatching patterns.”
They chatted for a while before she felt bad about taking up too much of his evening. She patted the folder. “It’s all here. At least the preliminary drawings.”
“Great. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
He leaned forward, reaching for the file when his phone rang. A solid driving beat plus a flurry of words that included “sexy” then some filthy swearwords.
She’d never seen Clay move so fast. He fumbled for the screen, shutting off the dirty ringtone as soon as possible.
“Let me guess. Troy?”
He rolled his eyes as he stabbed violently at the phone. “I’m surprised that boy has lived as long as he has. He’s always one step over the line.”
Maggie bit her lip to stop from laughing as Clay made a face. “What’s wrong?”
“The bastard changed my password. I can’t adjust the ringtone until I choke the new access code out of him.” He laid the phone on the chair arm with a heavy sigh. “I’d turn it off completely, but Katy is supposed to text me to arrange babysitting for tomorrow.”
“It’s not a problem,” she assured him.
Only as they looked over the ground blueprints and discussed how to deal with the existing water lines and underground electrical, his phone blared on a regular basis. Clay glanced at each one before hurriedly shutting them down and getting back to their task.
Maggie couldn’t remember getting this many calls and texts in one evening her entire life. “You’re Mr. Popularity.”
When he didn’t answer, Maggie glanced up, surprised to find his cheeks had bloomed to red.
“It’s nothing. Just my pain-in-the-butt brothers.” He hesitated then confessed uneasily, “Their idea of a joke. They signed me up for a dating service and won’t tell me the passwords to shut the thing down. I’m getting text messages from women who want to meet me.”
Well. That was about the last possible thing she’d expected. “Why on earth would you need a dating service?”
His phone went off. If anything he seemed to turn redder, and Maggie shuffled the papers in front of her to give herself something to do as he dealt with the text. She’d never imagined Clay would be so shy about the fact ladies liked him. A terrible idea popped into her head, one far too tempting to ignore.
“Hey, I know.” She offered him a brilliant smile. “There are a few single ladies working at the school. If you need an introduction to any of them—”
“No.” The word burst out of him as if jet propelled. He laid the phone on the table between them. “No, thanks, I’m okay.” She snickered, and this time he shook a finger in her face. “You’re as nasty as the rest of them.”
“I couldn’t resist.” She gave up teasing and turned back to the project.
His phone rang, the vibration mode making it bounce across the smooth table and straight over the edge in front of her. She caught it before it could hit the ground, her thumb landing on the screen and accidentally opening the message.
A selfie of a pair of breasts barely covered by a teeny black bra flashed in her face.
“Oh my—”
Her first impulse to toss the phone at Clay
was stolen away by sheer shock. It had to be a mistake—she was imagining it. She lifted the phone higher and took a more thorough look.
Nope, she’d been right the first time. “There are boobs on your phone. Anyone I know?”
It was an honest question.
Clay snatched the phone from her fingers, his eyes widening as he glanced at the screen.
“For fucks sake…” He powered it off and tossed it across the room into the other easy chair, growling in frustration. “One of my potential dates wanted to show me her assets.”
“She’s…well stocked.”
He missed the joke, serious concern filling his expression. “I’m sorry you saw that. Hell, I’m sorry I saw that.”
Maggie quivered with held-back glee. “If you need to work on your portfolio tonight, we can discuss the designs another time.”
He gave her a dirty look and that was it. Laughter burst free. It was just he looked so guilty and yet contrite, like a little boy caught with his fingers in the cookie jar. It wasn’t her place to judge if he wanted to look at ladies’ boobs. Heck, she’d think it was odd if he didn’t.
The edges of his mouth twitched until he was smiling as well. “I’m glad you find this entertaining.”
“Dating has changed a lot in the eight years Cameron and I were together.” The reminder he was gone cut like always, but today, with laughter spilling through her, the pain wasn’t as sharp.
Clay leaned back in his chair, dragging a hand through his hair and leaving it a wild mess. “In some ways it hasn’t. I mean, it’s always been about making yourself attractive to other people. Seeing what you have in common.”
