by Mia Madison
Head Over Heels
Mia Madison
HEAD OVER HEELS
A Single Dad Romance
by
Mia Madison
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 Mia Madison. All rights reserved. Including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the author.
Version 2017.7.10
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
About the Author
1
“I am so screwed.”
I dropped my phone onto the desk and all but collapsed on top of it. With my head resting on the cool surface and my long blonde hair forming a protective curtain around me, I tried to process the last few minutes. After all that plotting and planning, scrimping and saving - all my hard work was going to be for nothing. I was so screwed.
"Hey, Devon!" My office mate Mimi breezed through the door with an armful of blueprints and dropped them on our conjoined desks. The rolled up paper bounced around like mallets on a conga drum, and I automatically put up my hands to protect my head from the onslaught. I managed to bat away one persistent tube only to be bonked in the shoulder by two others.
"This is a sign," I groaned, "the universe is beating me into submission for my abject failure." I couldn't believe this was happening. I thought everything was just fine, but I guess I should have been more on top of it. After all, this was my life… well, my future.
"I am well and truly screwed," I whispered.
Mimi, still preoccupied with gathering up the wayward rolls and completely ignoring my obvious distress, grunted out, "Dev, did you say something?"
I lifted my head and shouted as clearly as I could, "I SAID, I'M SCREWED."
"Yeah, aren't we all," Mimi absentmindedly twisted her engagement ring with the pad of her thumb. It was a nervous tick that I had seen off and on over the years and noticed a dramatic uptick recently. Mimi sighed and stretched over the desk to grab yet another roll before it disappeared over the edge - and that's when I saw him.
Michael Saunders.
Sitting in the Rainier Brothers Architectural firm's conference room, leaning back for a better view of my rant was was the most panty-melting gorgeous man I had ever laid eyes on. He was staring at me - well, not so much staring as laughing - well, not so much laughing as trying not to laugh. At me.
Fuck my life.
He caught my eye - or maybe I caught his - at that point it didn't matter. I know I should have looked away, he was a co-worker of sorts. Well, a co-worker who owned Saunders and Sons Construction and was regarded as the most sought after construction manager in the area.
He was also the kind of co-worker that made you forget your name and trip over simple sentences. I had been on a number of projects with him during my internship and I would say we were friendly, but certainly not friends. I mean, look at me, and then look at him. He was older for starters, which wasn't a deal breaker but certainly put a crimp in things. He had the height, the looks, and his body… oh my gawd his body. Enough muscles that he could hold you tight, but not so overdone that he couldn't pick you up and throw you on the bed.
How do you look away from that? I could tell a blush was creeping up my cheeks, but I couldn't stop. I tried to smile, but I swear it came out like a grimace.
He smiled his patented sultry smile, turned up at the corners with a glint in his brown eyes. It was guaranteed to make every woman in the office swoon.
I don't know what came over me, but I picked up a pencil to run along my lower lip - I saw it in a movie once and spent hours practicing the move just for a moment like this. The pencil whipped out of my hand, flew across the room, and hit the wall.
He relaxed back in his chair, clasped his hands above his head, and chuckled lightly. His starched shirt stained against his waistband, and I swear if only he would lean back a little more it would break free and show me his happy trail.
Oh, how I would love to take a trip down his happy trail. Just the thought made me drool.
I could see the senior partners trying to get his attention, but he never budged - he just kept staring at me.
Wow.
All I could think of was what I would do with him if I had him. In my arms, in my bed… I swear, the heat between my legs ratcheted up a notch.
A moment later the conference room door slammed shut - cutting off my view and snapping me out of my fantasy. My perfect view of Mr. Saunders was replaced with Abigail, my boss's assistant. She was standing tall with her long arms crossed across her chest and a deep scowl clouding her face. With a flip of her head, she turned on her heel and stalked back to her office.
I blinked a few times at the closed door and wondered how much she had seen and - more importantly - how long it would take before for my lustful ogling became water cooler gossip. It was like I could feel a change in the air and my humiliation was rolling in like a summer storm. My day was already shit and I could tell it was going to get a whole lot worse.
I had to get out of there. I needed something - anything - to change the trajectory of my day. "You know what I need Mimi?" I looked over at my friend and saw she had opened up one of the tubes and was peering inside. "I need copious amounts of alcohol followed by a very large pizza and a Ben & Jerry's chaser."
Mimi grunted and absentmindedly nodded her head. I wasn't even sure she heard me.
"Yeah," I announced and reached for my pocketbook, "that's exactly what I need."
I looked over at Mimi as she pawed through the remaining tubes looking for something in particular.
"Mimi, grab your stuff," I commanded as I grabbed my coat, "we're going to Smitty's Pub." It wasn't anywhere near 5:00 pm when I waltzed out the door and into the lobby, and as I glanced over my shoulder I could see Mimi slack-jawed and bug-eyed as she grabbed her coat. On a normal day that would have elicited at least a chuckle, but today I had other things on my mind. The first was to get liquored up and the second was to come up with a plan to turn my life around.
2
"My day starts at the butt crack of dawn every day and ends," I paused and looked up at the ceiling, "around the same time." I took a gulp of my chocolate martini before going on, "I'm still just an intern, but I've done everything that's asked of me and more to claw my way up that architecturally designed corporate ladder." Mimi was looking at me with a deadly serious stare and I began to nod my head in agreement, "my goal is not just to cross every I and dot every T, my goal is to hand deliver that T and that A on a comfortable fluffy pillow along with a warm chocolate chip cookie and-"
"Oh my god," Mimi interrupted, "I remember when you used to bring in those cookies." She took another swig of her margarita and asked wistfully, "why did you stop? I wish I could bake like that, those were awesome. I could go for one right now," she gushed.
"Mimi, listen," I almost slurred, "Those cookies got me nowhere." I waved my hand around to emphasize my point, but it was lost on her.
"But they were awesome," Mimi went on as if suddenly ambivalent of the gravity of my story.
"Yes, they were awesome," I conceded, "but it was just another case of me using my personal time-"
"Of which you have none," she chimed in.
"Of which I have less than none," I agreed, "and what did it get me?"
"I loved them," she sighed.
"I meant at work," I swiped my finger in the direction of the office as I grilled her, "what did it get me at work?"
"Nothing?" Mimi all but hiccuped.
"A big fat nothing is right!" I emphasized the point by driving the palm of her hand into the rickety table and felt a rush as the empty glasses clinked together. The tinkling sound energized me as if it were my personal call to arms. "I've been so busy making sure that the Brothers Rainier were getting all my attention that I've not left anything over for myself."
"You have to start taking care of yourself," my wise-beyond-her-years friend advised - not for the first time.
"Well, I started to," I almost wailed, "I found the perfect house, a beautiful antique Victorian with lovely bones and a crappy layout. It was perfect and I had it all planned out."
Mimi put up her finger to shush me as she down the last of her drink. When she drained the last drop, she waved her finger to re-start our conversation.
"Like I was saying," I continued, "I would stay in the basement apartment while working on the main house, and then move upstairs and live there while I finished up the rest. Save myself a shitload of money doing as much as I could myself, and then use the whole thing as my own personal showcase until I flipped that sucker for a huge ass profit."
"You should SO do that," Mimi grabbed my arm and implored me as if we hadn't been discussing the very issue for the past three drinks. "You have such great ideas about things, like where people should walk and how high ceilings should be, and… stuff..."
I listened to Mimi's thoughts trail off until the silence hung in the air between us and wondered at what point this conversation had become pointless. Even during our early college years Mimi was a sloppy drunk and considering the crushing blow I had experienced earlier, this perhaps wasn't the best idea I had ever had.
"The loan, Mimi, remember the loan," I reminded her as if we had been discussing a long forgotten pet. "I was so busy with the Anderson development that I lost out on the 203k construction loan for the property. I could have easily turned that dilapidated shack into a kick-ass house. That would have been the cornerstone of my plan to re-work how people live."
"Yeah," Mimi whispered around another swig of her drink, "that would have been awesome."
"Yes, it would have," I agreed wistfully. "But, without that loan, I'm going to lose the house to some other buyer."
"And your dream of world domination will go away with it," Mimi lamented my loss with another swig of her drink.
"Yes," there was nothing more to say so I picked up my drink and drained the contents before summoning the waitress for another. As I waited to place my order, another thought ran through my head and I almost smacked myself in the face, "and to top it all off, I have to be out of my room soon. I don't even have anywhere to live."
"You're right sweetie," my friend finally agreed, "you are screwed."
"Yes," I said emphatically, "and that has to change right now!" Focusing my attention on Mimi with laser-sharp intensity, I was determined to come up with a new plan. "I need a life."
"A real life this time," my friend joined in, "with… things… and… people…"
"Yes, a real life where I make friends with people outside of work."
"But, I work with you," Mimi said sadly, "You don't want to be my friend?"
"Of course I want to be your friend, I'm talking in addition to you," I rubbed her arm soothingly, "now keep up Mimi. I need to change things fast, or I'm going to turn around one day and be an 80-year-old cat lady looking at old blueprints and waiting for my chance."
"You make your own chances," Mimi imparted the words with solemn reverence. "You've gotta take the bull by the horns and grab his life with all the gusto you can muster."
"I take the bull by the horns," I disputed half-heartedly.
"You do that for other people," she agreed, "but never for yourself. When you had food poisoning you came in because the partners said they needed you for the BitchCo building."
"BitCo"
"Yeah, whatever, they were still bitches," she tossed out sarcastically, "every last one of them."
"I know," I said uneasily, "but they let me go home early."
"Eight PM isn't early," Mimi was becoming more agitated and I wondered if my unflappable friend would finally lose her cool. "You ditched your grandparent's wedding anniversary to check out a job site."
"And they dropped the project a month later," I remembered that very clearly.
"And they dropped it anyway," she echoed. "They stuck it to that sub-contractor big time."
"They went out of business after that," I imparted the latest office gossip with authority.
"NO!" Mimi, obviously floored by this new development, was shaking her head in astonishment when something apparently caught her eye.
I gave my shoulders a shake, sat up straight, and placed my hands neatly on the table, "I'm sick and tired of getting screwed by the Ranier brothers," I said emphatically. "It's high time I think of myself first."
"Hey, speaking of you being screwed," Mimi whispered.
"Mimi," I lamented, "I just had a cathartic moment. We need to figure out what I should do next."
Mimi ignored me and continued her thought in a barely concealed whispered. "Isn't that Michael Saunders?"
I whipped my head around so fast that the world did a quick spin.
"Devon, I say this as your friend," Mimi grabbed my arm and gushed, "Michael Saunders is what you should do."
3
The pub was now hopping with the Friday after work crowd. Suits or casual didn't matter - nobody seemed to notice the difference. But even in that crowd, Michael Saunders stood out.
I watched him work his way towards the bar and I would have thought this was his natural element. He greeted old friends and seemed to made new ones with the ease of a confident man, and I noticed - with a stab of jealousy - that the women in his path magically appeared to have brighter smiles and larger chests than before he appeared. I tried not to stare, but it was hard to look away.
"Well, look who's sitting up tall now," Mimi clucked. "Are you seriously arching your back? Don't hurt yourself there missy!"
"No, well, yeah, maybe," I said while contorting myself into a slouch while still managing to stick out my chest.
"No, no," my friend laughed, "I say go for it - show off those girls and let everyone know they're up for some action!"
"Shhhhh, someone will hear you," I covertly scanned the room looking for anyone I knew - or worse yet - worked with. I had forgotten how randy Mimi got with a few drinks in her.
"Oh don't worry sweetie, they're all still at work," she had the ability to read my mind in so many situations. "Besides, it's not like any of them would know what you were trying to do. I don't think any of them know what boobs are for."
With my gaze now focused on the man currently grabbing a beer from the bartender, the most I could muster was, "yeah, boobs."
Unlike the men in my office, there was a raw sexuality in the way he carried himself. The way his jeans clung to his hips, and how he moved with precision and ease. When I fantasized about sexual encounters with this man - which, like earlier today, I did often - it was more along the lines of a raucous night of debauchery that left me spent, yet wanting more.
"Hey Michael, over here!"
As Mimi waved wildly towards the bar, I all but shrunk into my chair. "Mimi, what are you doing? Michael would never be interested in me - he is SOOOO out of my league."
"Oh please," my friend scoffed, "you said yourself that you need to take hold of a bull." With her hands outstretched, she looked as if she were calculating a simple math problem, "I'm just providing you with the best bull around." After a few moments, she added kindly, "you're welcome."
I initially tried to calculate how much room w
as under the table, but when my eyes locked with his, I had to resist the urge to jump up and down with Mimi. With a tip of his hand, he acknowledged the two of us and made a beeline for our table.
"Well, I did say I needed a change," I justified as I started to come around to the idea.
"Exactly," my friend agreed, "I say that change starts now." Mimi's eyes sparkled as she continued, "I say that you take him home tonight and live out every single sexual fantasy you can with him."
"What? Are you crazy?" I was shocked at my friend's unusual boldness, but as the most perfect specimen of a man stood next to our table, I thought of how a night of debauchery might be exactly what I needed.
"Well hello ladies," Michael said as a slight smile played around his lips, "I see you started happy hour a little early today."
A quick glimpse toward my friend was met with the universal wide-eyed "go for it" look - so I did just that. "Well hello to you too. How about joining us?" Leaning over slightly to give him a better view of my almost nonexistent cleavage, I lightly patted the empty seat next to me and cooed, "I think you should sit down first though because you have some serious catching up to do."
"I would love to join you," he drawled while pulling out the empty chair, "but I'm not so sure about catching up, it looks like I'll need to keep my wits about me." The slight smile that played on his lips drew me in, and I nervously licked my lips. As the chair scraped along the wood floor, I was sure he would be called away by a friend or some other woman looking to hold his attention, but the second his finely toned ass hit the chair, I was ready to claim victory.
"So, what brings you two here," Michael said conversationally as he settled in.
