For the Love of Pete

by Sherryl Woods

  For the first time since they’d started talking about the house, Ashley looked alarmed. “What do you mean by anything?”

  Jo scowled at her. “I’m not going to murder the man in his sleep, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’ll probably be doing free landscaping design for him till my dying day trying to persuade him to sell me the house.”

  “Actually I wasn’t worried so much about murder. I could defend you against that,” Ashley said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “I’m more concerned that you’re going to get mixed up with a man you barely know just because he happened to build your dream house.”

  Jo stared at her blankly, then realized that none of her sisters had a clue that Pete had actually built the house because of her. If they knew her history with Pete, Ashley’s mild worry would turn into utter panic. Jo should have kept her mouth shut about this whole stupid mess. It wasn’t as if she could have the house, after all. It was just that they’d arrived while her desire for the place was still fresh. She hadn’t been able to stop talking about the house from the moment they’d arrived.

  “Me getting mixed up with Pete is not an issue,” she assured her sister. “Let’s forget about the house. I can’t have it, and that’s that. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

  “But you did, and you obviously feel passionately about it,” Ashley said. “Let’s get practical. Maybe Pete will build you another house just like it, maybe something on a smaller scale and more affordable.”

  “It wouldn’t be the same,” Jo said wistfully.

  “Come on, Jo. That’s a great idea,” Melanie enthused. “If you go into partnership with Mike, you’ll have the money for a down payment in no time. Heck, maybe you can even barter a few jobs with Pete to get the rest.”

  Jo knew it was ridiculous, but she didn’t want an exact replica. She wanted this one, at least in part because she knew she’d been on Pete’s mind when he’d designed and built it.

  But it was out of the question, and that was the end of it.

  “Come on, guys, I never should have gotten into this. You just caught me in a weak moment. Let’s talk about something else.”

  “Such as?” Maggie asked.

  Though she tried desperately, Jo couldn’t think of an alternative topic. Images of the house kept flashing in her mind. She’d been mentally decorating the place ever since she’d seen it. There would be lots of blue-striped cushions and chintz, and old-fashioned wicker furniture for the porch.

  “There you go,” Ashley said, when it was clear Jo was stumped for another subject. “This is the only thing that really matters to you. Let’s come up with a plan.”

  Jo studied her with a narrowed gaze. “What kind of plan?”

  “To get that house away from Pete, of course.”

  “Feminine wiles,” Melanie said at once, only to draw scowls from the rest of them. “Hey, it works. Isn’t that all that matters?”

  “No, it is not,” Jo said firmly. She couldn’t see herself seducing the house away from Pete. That would just complicate an already tricky situation. In fact, he’d probably be delighted to have her try. He had invited her to move in, after all. Even if the offer had been made in jest, she knew he’d be thrilled if she took him up on it. Only she knew how impossible that was. She was not putting her heart at risk, even for the home she’d always wanted.

  “Money talks,” Ashley said, shooting a daunting look at Melanie. “Let’s see what kind of down payment we can scrape together and make the man an offer he can’t refuse.”

  “It’s not about the money,” Jo assured her. “Pete loves this house as much as I do.”

  “Men don’t fall in love with houses. They want a roof over their heads,” Ashley scoffed.

  “Excuse me,” Jo protested. “But don’t you think it might be different with Pete? He builds houses for a living. They have to mean something to him for him to be so good at it.”

  Melanie regarded her curiously. “You’re certainly quick to jump to his defense. And you seem to understand what makes him tick. How well have you gotten to know him?”

  “Oh, for pity’s sake,” Jo muttered. “You all are impossible. It’s about the house, not Pete. How did we get off track?”

  “I thought it was because the two were so intertwined,” Ashley said, a smug expression on her face.

  Jo saw she was not going to win an argument with this crowd, not without divulging a whole lot more than she wanted to about her history with Pete.

  “How about some ice cream?” she asked cheerfully. “I have hot fudge sauce.”

  “It’s thirty degrees outside and you want ice cream?” Ashley asked.

  “With hot fudge sauce,” Jo said. “That makes all the difference.”

  “Count me in,” Melanie said at once.

  “Me, too,” Maggie agreed,

  Ashley clearly wasn’t going to be so easily distracted, but when she opened her mouth, Maggie frowned at her, and she clamped her lips together.

  “Ashley will have ice cream, too,” Maggie said with a grin.

  “Yes, I will,” Ashley said primly. “And then we’ll get back to Pete.”

  Jo sighed, but she dished out the ice cream and prayed she could get them all out of the house before her big sister made good on her promise.

  Chapter Eight

  It was Friday before Pete came around to Rose Cottage again. Despite her desire to keep her emotions in check where he was concerned, Jo realized she’d missed him. She was too honest not to admit that, at least to herself. She told herself it was merely because she was anxious to look for some chink in his determination to keep that house. She also told herself that her long-held hurt and anger over his betrayal were as strong as they’d ever been. They had to be.

  Maybe so, she admitted ruefully, but she couldn’t seem to stay away from him. He was on the porch, hammering away, when she took him a mug of steaming coffee.

  “How’s it going?” she asked as she handed it to him.

  He paused, took a cautious sip of the coffee, then surveyed what he’d accomplished. The new tongue-and-groove flooring was about halfway finished. “It would move a lot faster if I weren’t tied up on so many other jobs right now.”

  “There’s no rush,” Jo assured him. “Have you had time to do any work on your two spec houses since we went by there the other day?” She’d deliberately chosen to refer to them as “spec houses” in order to minimize the attachment they both clearly felt, at least to the one.

  He grinned, as if he understood her ploy. “I haven’t had much time. I usually work over there on the weekends, but that’s out this weekend.”

  “Oh?”

  “I need to go down to Richmond Saturday morning to see Davey,” he said, then studied her as if to see if the reference to his son was upsetting.

  Jo worked to keep her expression neutral so he’d continue. Eventually, he shrugged.

  “Something came up the other night,” he said. “I promised him I’d get down there to spend some time with him.”

  Envy streaked through Jo, though she didn’t pause to define the cause. “The two of you have big plans then?” she asked.

  “Any time I get to spend with my son is a big deal,” he said at once, a surprising edge in his voice.

  “Well, of course, I just meant—”

  He cut her off. “I know what you meant. I’m sorry. Look, I won’t bore you with the details, but things got a little tense between Kelsey and me the other night. I need to straighten some things out with her. I’m not looking forward to it, and I really don’t want to talk about it, especially not with you. I won’t drag you into the middle of this. It’s not fair.”

  “You don’t get to decide what’s fair,” she retorted. “Maybe I could offer a woman’s perspective.”

  “No,” he said flatly.

  There was a finality in his voice that told Jo he wouldn’t appreciate her prying any more deeply into what had happened. She bit her tongue and deliberately changed the s
ubject.

  “Since you won’t be around, do you mind if I go over to the houses tomorrow and do some more sketches?” she asked.

  “Of course not. That’s what I hired you for.”

  She grinned at him. “You haven’t actually hired me yet. Maybe we ought to talk about the exorbitant rates I charge for my expertise before we go any further.”

  “Whatever your going rate is, I’ll pay it,” he said without hesitation. “I want the landscaping done right. Mike says you can handle it, and that’s good enough for me. Besides, I saw those preliminary sketches you did in just a few minutes the other day. I know you’ve got a feel for these houses.”

  “I’m glad you’re pleased, but I still think we ought to talk about my fee,” she said. “I don’t want there to be any problems when I turn in the bill. This is a professional thing, Pete. It doesn’t have anything to do with, well, us. You’d write up a contract with Mike, wouldn’t you?”

  “Okay, you’re right. Why don’t you put something down on paper, and I’ll come inside in a half hour or so and sign it?”

  Jo nodded. “Perfect.”

  He regarded her with amusement. “And just so you know, I’m going to read the fine print, darlin’. I didn’t miss the gleam in your eyes when we left that second house the other day. I don’t want you sneaking in some deal to get that house away from me.”

  Jo laughed. “Never crossed my mind.”

  “Yeah, right,” he said skeptically. “I know how your mind works, but just so you know, there’s only one way you’re ever moving into that house and it’s with me.”

  She frowned at him. “Be careful. You saw how much I love that place. I might take you up on that, and then where would you be?”

  “In heaven,” he retorted lightly. “Or the closest thing to it.”

  The expression in his eyes was just serious enough to make her tremble. “Pete,” she whispered in what sounded more like a plea than a protest.

  A wicked grin spread across his face. “Don’t panic, Jo. I’m not going to push you into anything you don’t want to do.”

  But, of course, that was precisely the problem. Despite all the stern lectures, despite her best intentions, this was something she was starting to want, desperately in fact. Not just that house, but Pete. He wasn’t just a rebound romance, despite what she’d told him. She realized now that he was the only man she’d ever truly loved. It should have scared her to death, but with every day that passed she was growing more at peace with that knowledge.

  Pete finished up as much work on the porch as he could before dusk fell, then went inside Rose Cottage. Jo was sitting at the kitchen table, still looking rattled by their earlier exchange. He could relate to the feeling. He’d been in a state of perpetual turmoil ever since she’d opened the front door the first night he’d come by about fixing up the porch. The unexpected wonder of seeing her then was still with him.

  “Penny for your thoughts,” he said when she looked up at him with a startled expression as if she hadn’t been expecting him.

  “My going rate’s a lot higher than that,” she said, dragging her attention back from wherever it had wandered.

  He picked up the piece of paper on the table. “I assume our deal is all spelled out on here.”

  She nodded. “I gave you a break from what I’d charge in Boston.”

  Without even looking at the paper, Pete frowned at her. “I don’t want a break.”

  Her chin came up. “Well, I gave you one anyway.”

  He tossed the paper on the table. “Take it back.”

  “I most certainly will not. Stop being so blasted stubborn. You haven’t even looked at it.” She handed it right back to him. “See? It’s not like I’m going to go broke.”

  It was a nice round number, but it wasn’t enough. “Fair is fair, Jo. This isn’t even half as high as what Mike would charge me.”

  She faltered at that. “Really?”

  “Really,” he assured her. “If you won’t make the change, I will.” He picked up the contract, filled in a new set of numbers, then scrawled his signature across the bottom.

  “This is more like it,” he said as he handed it back to her.

  She frowned as she read it. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Oh, but I am. Ask Mike. He tells me all the time that he’s being conservative, too.”

  There was a spark in her eyes he couldn’t quite interpret,

  “That lowdown scumbag,” she muttered under her breath, her gaze still on the paper.

  Puzzled by her reaction, he stared at her. “Who’s a scumbag? Mike?”

  “No, of course not,” she said. “My boss in Boston. Everyone told me he was a tightwad, but I’m just beginning to see how much he was probably making, thanks to me.”

  “Seems to me that’s a good reason not to go back there,” Pete said, then added casually, “Assuming you need one.”

  “I might go back to Boston, but I sure as hell won’t be working for him again,” she said fiercely.

  Pete laughed at her infuriated tone. “Maybe I ought to call Mike right now and tell him this might be a good time to sign you up for a partnership.”

  She gave him a sly look. “It might be, if I had the perfect place to live.”

  He chuckled, “Very clever, but you have Rose Cottage. There’s nothing wrong with this place that a little loving attention won’t fix right up. Your sisters have already done a lot to whip it back into shape. The foundation and roof are solid. The porch is the last big investment you’ll be making.”

  “But there’s an even more perfect place a few miles from here,” she told him.

  He regarded her innocently. “But the price is way too high for you, isn’t that what you’ve been telling me? And it’s awfully big for one person living all alone.”

  “Give me a price in dollars and cents, and there might be bargaining room,” she countered.

  “There’s lots more to life than money,” he reminded her.

  “That’s not what you used to say,” Jo replied. “When I knew you, all you could think about was getting your business started and making a name for yourself. You were very ambitious.”

  “But now that I’ve done that, I see the flaw in my thinking,” Pete confessed. “None of it matters a damn, if there’s no one around to share it.”

  Jo met his gaze and released a sigh. “I can’t argue with that,” she said. She got to her feet and opened the refrigerator door. “Can you stay for dinner?”

  Pete walked over behind her and pushed the door closed. “Jo?”

  When she turned to face him, tears were glistening on her cheeks.

  “What is it?” he asked, rubbing the pad of his thumb across the damp, silky skin. He had to fight the desire to swoop in and claim her lips.

  “Nothing,” she insisted, trying to duck under his arm.

  Pete dropped a hand on her shoulder and kept her in place. “Talk to me,” he pleaded. “What did I say to upset you?”

  “It wasn’t you,” she insisted. “I’m just an idiot.”

  “Never.”

  “I am. I’m always wanting something I can’t have or something that’s wrong for me.”

  “Such as?”

  Her gaze met his, then darted away.

  “There’s nothing you can’t say to me,” he told her. “Nothing. What is it you can’t have that you want?”

  A spark of anger flickered in her eyes as she faced him. “I wanted you once,” she said with such quiet regret that it made Pete’s heart twist. “And I wanted James, at least till I figured out what a dope he was.”

  “Anything else?”

  Her lips curved slightly. “I want that house.”

  Pete cupped her chin in his hands and looked into her eyes. “It was made for you,” he said quietly.

  Surprise lit her eyes. “You’ll sell it to me?”

  Maybe he should. It was obvious the place meant something to her, perhaps even more than it meant to him, though he didn�
�t see how that was possible. But that house was the one thing that might keep the door open for him to get back into her life. He couldn’t relinquish it too easily.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I can’t sell it to you.”

  The excitement in her eyes died. “Can’t or won’t?”

  “Doesn’t matter. The house is mine.”

  “I could hate you for the ten seconds when you let me get my hopes up,” she muttered.

  “Just add it to the list,” he advised. “You have bigger reasons to hate me.”

  “But I’ve been working on forgiving you for those,” she said.

  He grinned. “How’s that going?”

  “Not half as well as it was about five minutes ago,” she replied.

  “I figured as much,” he said, then dropped that kiss on her lips after all. “I think I’ll skip dinner tonight. We both have a lot of thinking to do. I’ll see you when I get back.”

  “Maybe you will, maybe you won’t,” she said airily.

  Pete picked the contract off the table and waved it under her nose. “This says I will. I know you’d never go back on your word.”

  “Why shouldn’t I?” she asked. “You did.”

  “But you’re a better person than I ever was, darlin’. Everybody around here knows that.”

  In fact, he was exercising astounding restraint to keep from capitalizing on that kiss and seducing her right here and now. He knew the attraction was there on her part. He felt it every time he crushed her mouth beneath his. It was in her eyes when she looked at him. She wouldn’t fight him. In fact, she would come to him as eagerly as she had at eighteen, when she’d been way too young and he’d been way too stupid to see what a gift she was giving him.

  With the taste of her still on his lips, he made a hasty exit before he was tempted to stay and prove just how low-down and sneaky he could be.

  Jo sank down on a kitchen chair after Pete had gone and touched a finger to her still burning lips. She could deny it from now till the cows came home, but she wanted him. It didn’t seem to matter whether it was sensible or insane. It didn’t seem to matter that he’d broken her heart once. All that mattered was the heat and need that simmered every time he was around. Even tinged with hurt and regret and anger, that need was a powerful force. In fact, its overwhelming power scared her to death. She liked being in control, but she wasn’t with this. The need controlled her.