by Ann, Natalie
A little shove here and a tiny push there and the machine was back to its original spot.
Twenty minutes later, towels washed, rinsed and spun free of all the water, she went back into the laundry room, only to find water on the floor and a nice steady drip coming out of the ring around the hose connected to the faucet.
Mopping up the mess—hoping it was a one-time thing—she quickly threw her towels in the dryer and started a second load of laundry. Learning her lesson, she only put in half the amount she originally planned.
Unfortunately, the minute the water started to fill into the machine, equal amounts were dripping out of the hose. No way around it, she had to make a call.
***
“How long are you going to be?” Alec asked Phil.
“Why, do you have a hot date?” Phil knew that Alec hated working in the office on a Saturday, but it was unpreventable. They were way behind and needed to finalize blueprints for the ten new houses that would be breaking ground on Monday. It was the biggest number of projects they’d ever had going at once and Phil didn’t want any errors.
“As a matter of fact I do.” Alec looked at his watch. “I need to run home and shower before I pick her up in two hours. So I can only give you another hour, tops.”
“We should be done soon. I want to go over the foundation adjustments we made to four of the houses last week and make sure there are no issues.”
“Phil, we still have time before the concrete is poured. We’re just digging for the foundations this week,” Alec explained.
“Yes, and before you know it we will be pouring foundations and I wouldn’t have seen you for more than ten minutes with all the work we’ve got to do,” Phil argued.
“Point taken. Fine, let’s hurry up then.”
Forty-five minutes later as Phil was shutting down his computer, Alec’s phone rang. “Hey, shorty.”
Phil came to full alert and moved closer. More so when Alec started to frown, then added, “That’s odd. I checked everything personally before you moved in. I can’t believe it’s leaking. I’ll try to get ahold of one of the guys and send someone over to take care of it for you. I would do it myself, but I’m running late for my date right now.”
Another minute went by while Alec listened to Sophia on the other end. “No, it’s not a problem. I don’t want it leaking all night. Really, that is what we’re here for. We’ll get it taken care of. Someone should be there within an hour.”
Alec hung up the phone and turned to address Phil. “The washing machine hose is leaking water. Those appliances are brand new. I can’t imagine what’s going on, but someone’s ass is going to get chewed out if they didn’t install everything properly.”
“How bad is it?”
“She said not bad, but apologized and said that she didn’t know it was leaking until the load was done and the wood floor got pretty wet. She cleaned it up fast and shut the washer down. The drip seems to be done, but I don’t want her to be inconvenienced either. I’ll see if I can track someone down. Though it might not be easy on a Saturday close to five.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Phil found himself offering.
“You? You’re going to go take care of a leak?” Alec said, astonished.
“What, you think I can’t handle a leaky hose?”
“No, that isn’t it. It’s you volunteering to do it. I know it’s not your thing, and I appreciate all the help you put in when I’m doing flips, but this is what we pay the guys for.”
“True, but like you said, it will be hard to find someone. Unlike you, I don’t have anything going on tonight and it’s on my way home.”
“If you’re sure?” Alec hedged.
Oh, he was sure. More than sure. This couldn’t have fallen in his lap any better.
***
Sophia jumped up and answered the doorbell. Her face immediately flooded with embarrassment to see Phil standing on the other side holding a tool bag.
Seeing him shouldn’t have brought images of construction workers modeling for a calendar. But as luck would have it, she had no control over that thought, causing her to flush an even deeper shade of red.
“Are you okay?” he asked, brushing past her.
Damn him for noticing. Of course with the amount of heat rushing through her body, she wouldn’t be surprised if she were flame-red right now. “Sure. What are you doing here?” She turned and shut the door behind him.
“You have a leak,” he reminded her.
“True, but Alec said he was sending one of the guys over.”
“I told him not to bother. We were at the office—just leaving actually—and it was on my way home.”
She followed him to the laundry room, mortification mixing in with embarrassment that he would witness and somehow figure out what happened. As if it wasn’t her lucky day already, Phil would happen to be with Alec when she called. “Sorry you got pulled away from your night.”
“No problem. I didn’t have plans anyway. I was going to go home, have a beer, and grab some dinner.” He set his tool bag down and eyed the washing machine suspiciously. “Looks like the machine has been moved. You didn’t move it to clean up the water did you? It’s too heavy to move around on your own.”
Yeah, that’s what happened. She moved it to clean up the water. “I didn’t want water to stay on the wood floors.” Too bad she didn’t think about that before, now realizing there was still water under the machine. “I might not have gotten it all, though.”
“I’ll take care of it.” He extended his hand and turned the machine on. Waiting while the water started to fill the load she already started, he eyed the leak, then shut the machine back off.
She moved back to give him room, and he pushed the machine to the side to get closer to the faucet. “Looks like it’s stripped for some reason. That’s strange.”
Looking away guiltily, she decided to fold her towels. Big mistake, because once she opened the dryer, the overloaded towels started to spill out onto the floor. She lifted her eyes to his and saw his knowing grin. Caught. “I can explain.”
He removed the washer ring that had been stripped. “Go ahead.”
“I’m used to the industrial-sized machines at my old building.”
“Plausible,” he said without missing a beat and tightened the new ring, then reattached the hose. “But I figured you were smarter than that. I mean didn’t you tell me it wasn’t that hard to figure out the appliances?”
She didn’t miss the twitching of his lips and didn’t appreciate it at all. He was right, but she wouldn’t admit it. So she tried another approach. “It’s been a crazy week, and I’ve fallen behind on my laundry.”
“Is that the best you can do?” he asked, his eyes crinkling.
Sliding back into their old ways, the bantering and the flirting, she cocked her hip and rested against the dryer door. “You would be surprised at the number of people who call me last minute begging me to get their taxes filed before the April fifteenth deadline.”
“Ouch,” he said, grinning wide. Replacing his wrench back into his bag, he looked around and found her mop against the wall, cleaned up the remaining water, and pushed the machine back in place. “In my defense, Sean is pretty anal about deadlines. I would have been fine if we filed the extension.”
Her eyes softened. She bet he would have been fine with it. But she didn’t want him to feel guilty. “It’s part of my job. I’m used to it. And so you know, Sean is pretty good at his job. It didn’t take me nearly as long as it might have.” She reached over and patted his hand lightly, realized what she did and yanked it back. “If it wasn’t you calling, it would have been another company.”
Picking up his bag, he walked out of the room. “Either way, we appreciated it.” Then he ruined his apology by adding, “Especially since it put you behind in your laundry.”
“Sure, rub it in,” she replied, but laughed just the same. “Since you went out of your way to fix the mess I made, the least I can do is of
fer you dinner.”
“That would be nice. What are you going to make me?” he asked with the boyish charm he’d always shown her before, enjoying their old ways.
“A nice big salad.”
His smile faded immediately. She figured as much. Too bad she wasn’t joking. But he surprised her and said, “I wasn’t that hungry anyway, so a salad sounds good.”
“Okay. Now I know you are trying to get on my good side,” she said, teasing him. Watching the light bounce back into his eyes warmed her immensely.
“What if I am?” he asked quietly.
She reminded herself to tread lightly. They were getting on dangerous ground here. She wasn’t ready for anything serious, and she didn’t want to lead him on. “Phil,” she started to warn him.
“No. Don’t put any walls up. Just be yourself. Like you used to be.”
Processing what he said, she nodded. What could it hurt? “Well, in that case, I will clarify my dinner plans.” She opened the refrigerator and pulled out a marinated London broil. “I was going to have a grilled steak salad, with plenty of leftover steak. So since you went out of your way to help me tonight, the least I can do is throw a potato on the grill to go with your steak.”
Cheered instantly, he added, “Maybe a tiny salad on the side.”
“Deal.”
After dinner was cleaned up and they each had a cup of coffee in front of them, with the last of another batch of Kaitlin’s biscotti, Sophia said, gesturing to them together at the table with her hand, “I miss this.”
“Why did it stop?”
“You weren’t safe anymore.”
“What?” he said sitting upright. “What does that mean?”
She clearly offended him. “Not that way. I meant it was safe when you were with Linda. It’s easy to be carefree with someone when you know it can’t go anywhere. Safe.”
“Great, just what every guy wants to hear. They’re safe,” he said, disgruntled.
“You’re taking it wrong. You were safe. You aren’t anymore. So don’t get your panties in a twist.”
He snorted, then looked at her deeply. She knew he understood what she was saying. She didn’t need to explain further. She never seemed to have to explain much to him before. He always knew what she meant, even when she didn’t say all the words. “There is no reason why we can’t go back to the way it was. Minus me being safe.”
She shook her head. “Too much has changed. We can never go back to the way it was,” she explained.
“Not as much has changed as you think. And I don’t really want to go back to the way it was. I want to move on to something more.”
“Phil, I don’t think that’s smart. Not right now,” she said patiently. She hadn’t figured it all out in her mind yet. And she needed to. She had to find the perfect time to move forward. Make sure all the stars were lined up and know that nothing could stand in their way.
“You have to explain that.”
So much for him always understanding her. Of course, no one knew but her in regards to this. “Another time. Let’s go back to being friends for now. It’s a start, right?” She couldn’t tell him about her fear of being the rebound girl. He wouldn’t understand.
“If it’s the best I can get, I guess I’ll take it. Can you answer one question for me?”
“Depends on the question,” she said, smiling at him.
“What do you want?”
“What do you mean?”
“I want to know what you’re looking for. What do you want in a relationship? What do you want out of a guy?”
She froze. Not what she expected him to ask. “Does it matter?”
“Of course it does.”
“It doesn’t matter if you know or not. Or anyone for that matter. Either the person has it or he doesn’t. They have to have it in them, not be told what it is I want. Otherwise, I’ll never know if it’s true or not.”
“That makes no sense at all,” he said, frustrated.
“Did you expect any different?”
“Actually, yes. You’ve always been good at throwing out hints and never giving all the answers, but I’ve always seemed to understand what you were saying.” He shook his head and put a dangerous smirk on his face. “But I’ll get it out of you.”
“Is that a threat?” she asked, falling back into teasing and trying to push the seriousness away.
Her eyes grew wide when he reached over and placed his hand on her cheek, lowering his mouth to hers. What a wonderful mouth he had. All the memories of that night flashed through her brain, clouding her judgment as his lips moved over hers. Involuntarily her mouth opened and he swooped in, tasting her, and pulling her in.
Minutes dragged by. Finally lifting his head, he whispered, “It’s a fact.”
Closing the door behind him ten minutes later, she rested against it and groaned. Tonight did not go as well as planned.
Seriously though, what was she supposed to say when he asked her what she wanted? Was she supposed to say, “I want someone who wants all of me, for me? Not just my name, or my job, my looks, my brains or my connections. Just me, all of me, for me and for no other reason.”
He had to want her for that, without being told. Otherwise it was meaningless. She’d never know if it was truly her he wanted, or who he wanted her to be.
Remember Everything
Phil rolled over and opened his eyes. A tender look spread across his face as he extended a hand out and lightly traced his fingertips along a smooth thigh, over her hips, up her waist and cupped her breast—overfilling his hand.
Feeling her body come alive again, he shifted closer, trailing his lips along her collarbone and under her ear. His tongue came out to trace her lobe, then pulled it in by his teeth.
Her deep moan fueled the fire within him. Scooting closer, he pressed the length of his body to hers. He had to touch her, had to feel all of her.
Pushing her blonde hair away from her face and affectionately tucking it behind her ear, he whispered, “You’re so beautiful.”
She turned toward him, ran her hand down his whiskered jaw, moved her mouth closer to his and captured his lips with hers. Devouring him greedily, her hands moving faster, traveling the length of his body. Grasping him tight, stroking him softly. He moaned deep in his throat.
Beep, beep, beep. “Shit.” Phil rolled over and hit his alarm clock, then flopped on his back staring at the ceiling. How many times was he going to remember that night and the next morning with Sophia?
He threw the covers back and stood up, sporting a pretty massive hard-on. Looks like another cold shower.
Something was going to have to change soon. At least he was making progress. But that kiss Saturday brought everything back to the surface from that night three months ago.
The way she felt in his arms, her body next to his, every moan, groan and shout that came out of that gorgeous mouth of hers.
He’d thrown the gauntlet down—he knew that—by telling her he would get what she wanted in a relationship out of her. And he would. He could be as stubborn as the next guy if he wanted to be. He wanted her more than anything. Sophia was worth it.
Two hours later, Alec walked into his office with two coffees and a box of donuts in his hand. “You look like hell. Rough night?”
Reaching over, Phil grabbed one of the coffees out of Alec’s hand, set it down and then snatched the box of donuts and opened the top. Pulling out two, he set one on the desk and took a huge bite out of the other. “No. Just a lot on my mind. What’s the occasion?” he asked, holding up the coffee and tilting it toward Alec before taking a sip.
“I figured I owed you for going to Sophia’s on Saturday. So what was wrong? Who do I need to lay into for not doing his job right?”
Phil cringed. He didn’t want anyone to get in trouble. But he wasn’t going to let Alec know what caused the leak either. No need for anyone else to be aware of it. Alec would only bust her about it, not that Sophia would care. Still, he felt it was the lea
st he could do. She did make dinner for him after all. He’d keep her little secret for now. “The washer ring on the hose was stripped. Must have been a freak thing. Easy enough fix,” he said casually.
“Okay, makes sense.” Alec dove into the box and pulled out a donut at random. “So how’s she doing?”
“Who?”
“Sophia,” Alec said confused. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing. I’m just tired.” There was no way in hell he was telling his brother what was going on with Sophia. First off, he wasn’t sure what was going on. Second of all, he wouldn’t be saying anything without talking to Sophia first.
“Are you sure?” Alec looked at him more thoughtfully.
Sometimes being a twin sucked. Phil had never been able to fool his brother. He knew Alec had been concerned with him at different points during his relationship with Linda, but held his tongue. And he appreciated that Alec did that. But in the last several months, Alec had decided to stop holding back. “I’m sure. I don’t bug you when you come in looking like hell.”
“That’s because I never do. I sleep like a baby. Nothing bothers me,” Alec said grinning like a fool.
Unfortunately for Phil, Alec always did sleep like a baby. And nothing ever did seem to ruffle his feathers. “Then get back to work, because I’ve got a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it.”
“Geez, don’t be so cranky. Maybe you should have some warm milk before bed tonight. I bet Mom would come over and make it for you, then tuck you in and read you a story.”
Phil laughed but still picked up a piece of paper, crinkled it up, and chucked it at Alec. One handed, Alec caught it and tossed it back, landing it right on Phil’s second donut.
***
After work on Tuesday, Sophia pulled into the garage, shut the car off, grabbed her briefcase from the passenger seat and climbed out. Opening the door to the mudroom that led to the back door, she came to a standstill.
