by Audrey Dacey
His goal as an architect was to be innovative. That alone did not set him apart from the rest. What did was his knack for combining contrasting styles in a way that anyone with eyes would label beautiful, and that only those with trained eyes would truly appreciate. Ryan had been called brilliant on many occasions and had the portfolio and contract record to prove it, but it wasn't good enough for him. He couldn't consider himself successful until he reached the top. And he was denied that on Friday.
He took in a sharp breath and released it quickly. At least his friends would appreciate his hard work.
Ryan lifted his head toward the stairs that led to the front door when he heard the jingle of keys in the door. It was probably Caitlyn's friend who was picking up the dog. Ryan didn't mind taking care of Sam before the job started. It was a good way to pay them back for letting him stay in their house, but he convinced them that it would be better if Sam wasn't around while the bulldozers tore up his yard. He was happy that they agreed. Secretly, Ryan knew that it would be best if he didn't have that responsibility while he was working either, because he would certainly forget about the poor animal. He couldn't even keep a plant alive for a day during the work week or—admittedly—most weekends. He decided to leave out that piece of information.
§
“Sam!” Alexis shouted up the half flight of stairs as she closed the door behind her. She put her forefinger and thumb in her mouth and whistled. “Come here, boy!”
As she walked up the stairs she heard footsteps in the kitchen. It must be that nerd from Arizona, she thought. What was his name? She was really bad with names of people, and seldom made it through a story without having to be reminded who was who. All she could remember was that Caitlyn and Michael called him “the lost roommate” because he was constantly holed up in his and Michael's dorm room or in the library studying.
Apparently, he was no fun at all, which was the only thing that was keeping Alexis's inappropriate brainstorming at bay. Michael had a way of attracting boring people. It was surprising he wasn’t as mundane as the rest of them.
When Caitlyn mentioned there would be a construction crew working on their house while they were gone, Alexis hoped she could get some action out of this unique situation, as Maple Field was not known for its young bachelors. But when she heard it was the lost roommate and his friends doing the job, she quickly let go of any sexual notions. Those types of guys tended to fear girls like Alexis, and she didn't mind. She'd rather be with a guy who liked to have some fun. Bad sex might be worse than no sex.
Sam came trouncing up the stairs from the basement to finally greet Alexis. She turned around, squatted, and grabbed hold of one of his long, floppy ears, running the silky fur through her fingers. One of the reasons she ended up really liking Michael was that he didn't have the Doberman’s ears cropped. He thought Sam looked good the way he was born, and so did she.
“You ready to come home with me, buddy?” she asked the dog who was oblivious to anything other than the hand stroking his head. Alexis wasn't thrilled to take the dog into her home. She never really considered herself a “pet person” because she wasn't around the house long enough to give a pet all the care and love it needed, but she could do the job for two weeks, and with Riley around, she was more likely to be at home. She looked into the big eyes of the dog in front of her and wondered, if she did a good job—a really good job— could she get one of her own? But she shook off the idea before it could get any real bearing.
“Let's go get your food and bowls. Then we'll get out of here,” she said as she rose to standing.
A deep voice rumbled behind her, “I swear I'm not stalking you. I'm supposed to be here.”
Alexis whipped around to see the Untappable standing at the top of the half-flight of stairs that led to the main part of the house with his hands held up in surrender. A rush of anxiety swept over her as she tried to make sense of what was going on. This was her greatest fear. That another guy would just invite himself into her life. Once Frank was gone, she made damn sure there wasn't room for anyone else. This had not gone over well with several of the guys that she had slept with. She was a manizer and damn proud of it.
In the beginnings of her promiscuity, she didn't have rules and had sex with any willing penis. She quickly found out that this was a bad plan. Longest-lasting and most annoying was Richard, and she took care of that with a little help from the sheriff’s office.
After Richard and a couple other creeps, she made it clear to everyone she slept with—no strings. She didn't get the stalker vibe from this guy, but that wasn't always the best gauge.
Then it hit her. Webb. Ryan Webb. He was the nerd from Arizona. How did this slip past her? She really wanted a “that-was-nice-but-I-hope-I-never-see-you-again” situation, and since he was visiting from out of town, she thought…crap. He wasn’t going back to wherever he came from; he was staying in her best friend’s house a few miles away from her home for the next two weeks.
Alexis stared at him tensely. His ice blue eyes seemed softer than they had over the weekend. Maybe it was the asparagus green button up he was wearing that softened them, but she got a sense that he was just more relaxed because he was more in his element.
He slowly descended the stairs. Alexis could see the strength of his forearms below the rolled up cuffs of his shirt. This small reminder of his masculinity kindled her imagination, and she began to undress him with her mind.
In her head, she carefully unbuttoned the shirt with a flick of her thumb and forefinger after untucking it from his slacks. She slid it off his shoulders, grazing his neck and back. She ran her fingers along the muscles of his chest, through the coarse hair, and down the thin happy trail to his belt.
Before she could get his pants off, he spoke. “I'm innocent. I swear. I am doing a job for Michael and Caitlyn. Two weeks and I'm gone. I didn’t know you were the dog sitter.” He stopped on the last stair before the landing and stood directly in front of her.
“You're the lost roommate? I’m sorely disappointed. I expected someone more studious. With glasses or something. Just goes to show that nerds are lurking everywhere, and if a girl isn't careful, she may take one to bed.” Alexis gave him a glance up and down and made a chiding tick with her tongue. “You should have warned me.”
She looked up at him and could see that he, too, was taking her in. He managed to give her a crooked half-smile before saying, “You say that like you gave me the opportunity to say anything beyond a primitive grunt. Besides, no personal information. No strings, right?”
Ryan lifted a hand, and she thought that he was going to touch her. The tingle of anticipation filled her, but it was quickly squelched when he instead ran his fingers through his hair.
“Let's go get Sam's stuff.”
The warmth of his body, the spicy musk was drawn away from her. It was for the best. He was making her light-headed. Alexis took a moment before she lifted herself up the half-flight of stairs and followed him into the kitchen.
When she entered, Ryan was standing over the kitchen table looking at blueprints. His focus was completely on his work, and it was like she had never come in. He acted like they hadn't recently exchanged words or been so close to one another that static electricity drew the ends of the little hairs on her arms to brush gently against his body.
The pantry next to the stove held the dog chow, and when she opened the door, she saw two large, plastic containers marked “Sam's Food” followed by the week in which she was supposed to give it to him. There was also an envelope with Alexis's name on it. She opened it quickly to find what she expected: detailed instructions on how to take care of a dog. Sometimes she wondered if her best friend took her for an absolute idiot. Sure, she didn’t have a dog of her own, but she could keep one alive and happy for a couple of weeks. Alexis knew she wasn't a beacon of responsibility, and it took Caitlyn a lot of guts—guts she wasn't renowned for—to give someone else any responsibility that she considered her own.
> Alexis scanned the directions. Feed the dog. Walk him. Pick up his crap. Occasionally she would glance up from the handful of papers and at the handsome architect who showed no interest in her. One final instruction was at the bottom of the long, over-detailed letter. “I want the addition to be done when we get back. Leave the workers alone.” Too late for that.
In reading those words, Alexis became very aware of her desire to have Ryan all over again. Usually she was a “been-there-done-that” girl, but his current aloofness drove her mad, and she wanted to push the blueprints aside and throw him down on the table. She had waited the necessary amount of time for it to be reasonable.
Alexis bit her lip hard to push down the urge. Caitlyn would kill her if she found out that Alexis had sex on her kitchen table. She couldn’t just wipe it down with a disinfecting wipe like a sane person; she would have to buy a new one. From Alexis's understanding of Caitlyn, which was limited to what she was told, sex was full of romantic notions of sunshine and monogamy, and Michael was willing to indulge her. Sex on a table with a virtual stranger was not acceptable, especially if Caitlyn wasn’t the receiving party, and under no circumstances was it acceptable if there was any chance that Caitlyn would eventually have to eat off of that table.
Alexis closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, Ryan continued to ignore her. As cold as he was to her right now, she doubted Caitlyn’s suggested kibosh was all that far-fetched. Of course, he was more of a planner than a worker.
She turned back to the pantry, frustrated with herself as much as with him. She grabbed the heavy bin from the shelf, but the weight was more than she expected, and the bin hit the floor with a smack. Alexis was startled by the loud noise and jumped back with a squeal. It was far too girly for her taste, but she couldn't help it. Her eyes were wide with shock, as she turned to see if the statue in the room had been moved by her performance.
His eyes shot to her, and she was hit with his annoyance, but within a few moments he was laughing. Alexis looked around the room wondering where this was coming from, but she was dissatisfied with the answer. How could he go from warm to cold to angry to laughing?
Oh, God. He's insane. It was the only rational explanation. Alexis shook it off and turned back to the container and lifted it by the sides. The fall had caused the bin to crack on the bottom, and as she lifted, dog food poured out of the crack and onto the tile floor.
A roar of laughter rose behind her, and she heard Ryan sit down in a squeaky, wheeled dining chair and roll a short way across the floor.
“You have got to be kidding me!” she demanded of the dog food. She glared at week two's bin. If there had been no one around, she would have taken that bin into the backyard and beat the crap out of it with one of Michael’s baseball bats, but the continuous laughter in the background kept her from being rash.
Sam munched on some food, and Alexis excused herself through the sliding door and onto the small deck off the kitchen. She took in a deep, frustrated breath while the door behind her slid open and closed again.
Ryan was still laughing under his breath, and now that it was over and Alexis wasn't standing in a pile of dog food, she was able to laugh a little, too.
“What the hell was Caitlyn thinking?” she asked through a chortle.
“I have no idea. I always remembered her as having more forethought than that.”
“That's the weird part. She does have more forethought than that. I guess her need to organize and micromanage took over.”
“I'll make you a deal.” He looked down at her with his cold eyes. The seriousness washing over him was almost palpable. “You clean up the mess you made, and I'll bring the other bin to your car.”
He wanted her out of there. If that was the price for having him bring the food down, she'd pay. “Deal.” She dug her hand into the pocket of her black satin shorts and grabbed her keys. “It’s the Volvo.”
As she handed them to him, their fingertips touched for a brief moment, and she was disturbed to find that the warmth returned. It was good she was leaving soon. Ryan Webb was like a drug she didn't need, and one she would surely regret having tried.
They both got to work at their separate duties. He was done well before she was, so he bent back over the kitchen table, staring at the big blue sheet of paper and making quick notations.
When she finished, Alexis placed her hands on her hips showing the slimness of her body through the billowing white top and said, “I'll be back in a week to get more food.” Ryan waved a hand at her that looked more like he was telling her to go away rather than acknowledging her. Rolling her eyes in frustration, she clipped a leash on Sam and headed down the stairs.
About halfway down she noticed that the door was opening, and a forty-something man in dark wash jeans and a navy t-shirt walked through the door. He was incredibly muscular, tanned, and had soft brown eyes that matched the chestnut waves of brown hair that was graying slightly at the temples.
He looked up, as astonished to see her as she was him. Alexis was ready to take out her frustrations on this lucky stranger when she spotted a wedding band on the hand holding the door behind him.
Why were all the men around her married? She huffed slightly as she pushed past him and out the door. Alexis didn't have the patience for anything that wasn't lust. There was only one ready solution to her current agitation, and it was resting peacefully in the top drawer of her bedside table.
§
Daniel Montgomery startled Ryan out of his thoughts. “Who was that?”
“Huh?” was all he could muster in reply.
“That ten that just stormed through the door. Did you get to meet her?” Ryan looked up briefly to see his friend standing in the doorway with a paper bag in hand and a folder tucked under his arm.
“Oh, yeah. Sorry. That was Alexis. She was here to pick up the dog.”
“And you were obviously all congeniality.”
If Daniel only knew how good he was to her. “As much as was necessary.”
“It wasn’t enough.” Daniel smirked. “You know you could use a woman like that in your life. We’re here for two weeks, having a friendly face to socialize with in the evenings might be nice.” Daniel was always giving him hell about finding the right woman and settling down. No one understood that his career was more important than a relationship. Women created conflicts and distractions. He was already distracted by the petite brunette who kept showing up, and now he couldn’t afford to be. Work was more important now, especially with the deadline he was determined to meet. But if she had been there any longer he was sure he would’ve helped himself to seconds.
“I’ve got you, don’t I?” Ryan asked.
“You flatter me, but I’m not the type of friendly face that you need. You’re wound tighter than a yo-yo.”
“I have work to do, so if there is a point to this, could you get to it?” Ryan turned back to the blueprints.
Daniel sat down in a chair and leaned back on its axis. “That is the point. You ignore a chick like that for work. You need to loosen up.”
“I didn’t ignore her. I even carried the dog food to her car.” They had a conversation like this at least once a month. Usually on Sunday, when they were watching some game on TV and some woman was in the kitchen with Daniel’s wife. He was sick of the blind dates, but he didn’t know how or have the guts to tell his friend to knock it off. So, he tried to change the subject. “Do you have the schedule on you?”
Daniel crossed his arms over his chest. “I have it, but I’m not going to give it to you until you make me a deal.”
Ryan finally looked up at his friend. “What kind of deal?”
“I’ll give you the schedule if you ask out that beautiful woman.”
“No.” Ryan glanced at the blueprints and then stood up straight and turned to Daniel. Changing the subject never worked. Ryan wasn’t sure why he continued to try. “What the hell kind of business are you running if you aren’t going to give me t
he schedule when I ask for it?”
“I dare you to ask her,” Daniel said with a smile.
“You dare me? Like fourth grade?” Ryan asked, incredulous.
“More like third grade but sure.”
“Fine. Whatever. Just give me the damn schedule.”
Daniel pulled a folder out from under his arm and held it out for Ryan. Just as Ryan reached for it, he snapped it back. “The next time you see her.”
He didn’t plan on seeing her again. In fact, he planned on avoiding her, so there was no harm in taking the dare.
“I’ll do it.” Ryan grabbed the folder and opened it.
“Well, this is cause for celebration. Speaking of which...” He pulled a bottle of Glenlivet from a paper bag, one hand on the neck and the other on the base, like a waiter. “For you, my friend.”
Ryan glared at him unforgivingly and then turned back to the folder.
“You’re kidding me? How did they pass you over for the promotion?” Daniel asked, thudding the bottle on the kitchen table hard enough to make a noise but not hard enough to risk breaking the bottle. “You’re the golden boy.”
“Apparently my social skills are lacking. And a major project director needs good social skills.” He responded without looking up. As it was, Ryan could hardly face the facts himself; he couldn’t face his best friend with them.
“I’m sorry. Keep the bottle. Sounds like you’ll need it anyway.”
There was a silence between the two men for a few moments. Ryan couldn’t remember a time when he was more embarrassed. His career was the one thing that he could always be proud of. He worked hard, but apparently that wasn’t enough. If the work day wasn’t just beginning, he’d go sit out on that deck, watch the wind blowing through the trees surrounding the yard, and make love to that bottle of Glenlivet. He glanced at the bottle. A 25-year-old single malt scotch. Daniel was a hell of a friend even if he did pester him with women.
“This could be a good thing,” Daniel said slowly, cautiously. He folded his arms over his chest. “I’ve wanted to tell you this for a while, but I didn’t know how to broach the topic. I think this is as good a time as any.” He paused, obviously surveying Ryan for a reaction, but he didn’t give one. Ryan was too preoccupied to attempt to figure out what Daniel was dancing around. “Lisa wants to move back out this way, so she’s closer to her family. Plus, there are better schools for the kids.”
