“Thanks.” He smiled. “I’ll see you Wednesday.”
And he was still smiling, twenty minutes later, when he parked at the job site. The woman was sweet and sexy at the same time, and the fact that she had no clue fueled the flame she ignited deep inside him.
But when he walked into the house, all thoughts of Kaydee disappeared, along with his smile.
What the hell?
Chapter Six
“Stop what you’re doing!” Leo clenched his fists as he marched toward his crew. “You’re busting out the wrong damn wall.”
Dirk frowned, while two other crew members stiffened before turning to face him.
“What?” Tucker, the fourth crew member, scratched his temple. “We’re removing the one you told us to take down.”
“No.” Leo shook his head, trying really hard not to lose his shit. “I told you to take that one down.” He jabbed a finger toward the wall still intact. “Not this one. It’s load bearing.”
Thank God some of it was still there. Jesus, if he hadn’t walked in when he had, they would’ve compromised the integrity of the whole damn second floor.
“But this is the one you told us to take down before you left,” Dirk insisted.
Fuck.
Leo shoved a hand through his hair and gripped the back of his neck. Had he been unclear in his instructions? He ran the scene through his mind. Perhaps. That’d been right after Kaydee’s lunch invitation.
Dammit. He should never have left.
“What do you want us to do?” Tucker asked as the others stared at him, waiting for orders.
Dirk blew out a breath. “Should we rebuild it?”
Leo glanced at the clock on the dining room wall and shook his head. “No. The Burmans will be here soon.” It wasn’t as if they could frame, drywall, spackle, and paint the damn thing in ten minutes. “Go to lunch. Take an hour.”
Tucker stepped forward. “But we’re the ones who screwed up. Not you. It’s not fair that you should take the rap.”
“It’s okay, Tucker, and yes. I am to blame. I’m the supervisor, so I’m the one responsible. Go on and enjoy a good lunch. I’ll take care of things here.”
The kid hesitated a second before he left with the rest of the crew, who apologized to Leo as they walked by. He meant what he said to Tucker. It wasn’t their fault.
It was his.
But it was time for solutions, not blame. Inhaling slowly, he glanced over the busted two-by-fours and Sheetrock in front of him and stared into the kitchen.
How could he fix this?
One of the requirements of being a Ranger was the ability to think on your feet. Something still ingrained in him. So within seconds, he formed an idea. With no time to waste, he pulled out the plans—the ones he should’ve shown his men before starting demolition—and sketched his idea, finishing just before the homeowners arrived.
After explaining the mix-up and shouldering the blame, Leo showed the clients his suggestion and quoted a new price. It was lower than it should be, but he’d cover the difference. He also gave the homeowners the option to stick with the original plan. He’d make sure their wall returned at no cost to them.
But in the end, the Burmans decided to go with the new plan. They even thanked him and shook his hand. Leo knew he was a lucky son of a bitch. It could’ve gone so much worse and tarnished Foxtrot’s name.
He hated that he’d put the company’s reputation at risk. But what bothered him even more was almost letting Stone down.
The guy always had Leo’s back, even when he didn’t deserve it. And how did he repay him? By nearly blemishing what Stone and his buddies busted their asses to create for almost the past two years…on his first day as supervisor.
His first fucking day.
All because he’d let himself get distracted.
Stupid.
He never should’ve left the job site. Maybe he wasn’t cut out to be a supervisor.
His chest tightened as his old friends—remorse and self-disgust—returned full force. He walked out to his truck, pulled the phone from his pocket, and stared at the screen.
It was time to do something even harder than facing the clients. It was time to tell Stone—a guy who believed in him, trusted him, always gave him the benefit of the doubt—that he’d screwed up. Again.
…
Wednesday afternoon couldn’t come fast enough for Kaydee. Ever since her lunch with Leo on Monday, and those delicious kisses they’d shared in the parking lot, she’d thought of little else. Which was foolish. They weren’t an item. Or even dating. So it was dumb to keep replaying the memories of them kissing through her mind.
And yet here she was, two days later, still thinking about them. She couldn’t help herself. No one ever made her feel the way Leo did. With luck, maybe she had the same effect on him.
But when evening rolled around and there was still no sign of the guy, she decided to pull her hair back in a ponytail and start working on her upstairs bathroom.
Maybe he was stuck in traffic.
With her safety glasses in place, she stood in the middle of the tub and swung her hammer. Pieces of the hideous pink tile fell with a clunk into the tub, while a few smaller ones flew past her face. Good call not changing into shorts, but the tank top probably wasn’t wise.
Maybe Leo got hung up at work.
She slammed the wall with her hammer again, and more tile fell into the tub. By the fourth swing, she realized the pieces didn’t scatter if she held the neck of the hammer and didn’t swing back as far.
Maybe she scared Leo off.
Her heart flopped in her chest, and she stilled the hammer in midair. What if he changed his mind? Decided they were better off keeping their friendship platonic?
Shoot. She exhaled and stared at the chipped wall in front of her. Kind of how she felt. Exposed. Layers removed. For the first time since her early childhood, she decided to take a chance, let her guard down…allow someone in. She was giving Leo the opportunity to get close and see the real her.
And he probably didn’t want to.
It was silly the way her eyes stung with unshed tears. She had no right to feel hurt. It wasn’t like she and Leo were even a thing.
But she wanted to be.
There. She admitted it. Dammit.
Clenching her jaw, she forced her emotions back down and slammed the hammer into the tile wall. Again. And yet again. Chunk after chunk dropped into the tub as she imagined the tile as her stupidity and tried to smash the sucker away with her hammer.
“You’re not going to hit your thumb again, are you?”
Gasping at the sound of Leo’s sexy tone behind her, Kaydee fumbled with her hold on the hammer, barely managing not to drop it as she twisted around to face him. “Holy… You scared the devil out of me.”
“That’s a shame.” A crooked smile tugged his lips. “I like a woman with a devilish streak.”
He was here, setting a bucket on her bathroom floor…and he was flirting with her. The invisible vise squeezing her chest disappeared. And just like that, all was right with her world again.
Adopting his grin, she placed a hand on her hip and tipped her head. “Good to know.”
They smiled at each other for a few beats, and the temperature in the room rose several more degrees.
Probably, she should follow those words with action. A devilish woman would, but since Kaydee had no clue what constituted devilish, she stuck to something familiar. Manners. “Did you eat yet? Are you hungry? Thirsty?”
“I’m good,” he said. “I ate before I left the ranch.”
She nodded. “I…uh, didn’t think you were going to make it tonight.”
His playful expression turned serious. “I told you I’d help you with this, and I’m going to keep my word.”
“But I feel bad,” she said. “You look like you could use a break.”
He shook his head. “Nah. It was just a long day at work. Long week, actually.”
That las
t part didn’t sound good. She frowned. “But it’s only half over.”
“Tell me about it.” He scoffed.
Yep. Something was definitely wrong. “Want to talk about it?”
“Nothing to talk about, really.” He bent down to retrieve a hammer and safety glasses from the bucket. “I screwed things up on Monday. And because I wasn’t clear enough, my crew took down the wrong wall.”
Monday?
Kaydee couldn’t help but feel it was somehow her fault. “I’m sorry.”
If he hadn’t met her for lunch…
“Don’t be.” He straightened and put on the glasses. “I came up with an alternate plan that the homeowners loved, and when I told Stone about it, he told me to shake it off. He had a few issues like that when he first started, too.”
He mentioned his former Ranger buddies from time to time. This Stone, and another one named Vince, came up more often. She could only imagine the bonds they formed in and out of battle. Her father and grandfather still kept in contact with their war buddies.
“He sounds like a good guy.”
“He is.” Some of the tightness disappeared from around Leo’s mouth.
“And he’s right, you know,” she said. “Everyone makes mistakes. It’s part of life. You’ll no doubt make more. But that’s okay. Nobody’s perfect.”
His chin lifted. “Sounds like you’re speaking from experience.”
“Man.” She snickered. “The things I did when I first started out? This one time, I dyed a lady’s hair pink…but she asked for green. The darn containers were next to each other, and I was in a hurry and grabbed the wrong one. Then this other time, I shaved a strip up the back of a baseball player’s head when he sneezed.”
Leo laughed. “I would’ve loved to have seen that.”
“It’s funny now, but at the time I was more horrified than he was.” She shook her head as the memory came flooding back. “But with his permission, I turned it into his jersey number, and his teammates liked it so much, they had me shave their numbers on their heads, too. So don’t be too hard on yourself. Like I said, nobody’s perfect.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” He stared at her with admiration warming his gaze.
“You, Leo Reed, are way too sweet and equally distracting,” she said with a smile.
“I’m not so sure about that,” he repeated.
She laughed. “Well, I am, and I’m also sure this tile isn’t going to remove itself.” She stepped to the back of the tub and motioned for him to join her. “So come on. Let’s work on this wall. I found it therapeutic…before someone scared the bejesus out of me.”
He chuckled, and his expression brightened as he stepped in next to her. “Sorry about that. I did knock on your front door. I even hollered up the stairs, but I’m not surprised you didn’t hear me the way you were attacking the wall.”
She laughed. “Smashing tile is a great way to expend energy.”
His lopsided grin returned. “I can think of a few other suggestions.”
Her internal temperature passed hot and shot straight to inferno. And his nearness only increased the heat. “Me, too,” she managed to say in a tone a little breathless to her ears.
“Yeah?” His smile widened, and a wicked gleam entered his eyes. “I’d love to hear them.”
Chapter Seven
Kaydee’s heart raced so fast she swore it was about to take flight. He was flirting with her again. Something she sucked at, but dammit, she was determined to give him something to chew on.
“I bet you would,” she finally said, then turned her attention to the wall and whacked it with her hammer.
The sound of shards hitting the tub muffled his chuckle. Feeling energized and strangely content, she spent the next half hour busting out tile next to him. When Leo finished his side first, he began to load the debris into the bucket and carry it downstairs. To where? She had no idea, but by the time she finished her side, he had most of the tub cleared.
“You did great.” A smile tugged his lips as he walked closer. “Sure you never did this before?”
Taking the hand he offered, she stepped out of the tub and waved her hammer between them. “I think the evidence speaks for itself.”
She wore dust and debris like an accessory. He did not.
Still holding her hand, he put the empty bucket down and slowly appraised her body. “Yes, it certainly does.”
Awareness shot down to her toes and bounced back up, perking her nipples in the process. A fact that didn’t escape his notice.
He removed the hammer from her hand and dropped it on the floor, along with her safety glasses. “You’re hot as hell.” His husky tone increased the heat pooling low in her belly.
“You think I’m hot?”
“Hell yeah.” He tugged her into his arms as his mouth took hers in a deep, thorough kiss that had her melting against him.
The feel of his lean muscles, combined with his wicked tongue sweeping inside her mouth, increased her need to touch more of him. So she did, sliding her hands down his torso to slip under his shirt and stroke his hard abs. She loved how they quivered under her touch, and the low, sexy sound she ripped from his throat.
A second later, he backed her against the wall, and the kiss got out of hand real fast. Tasting and plundering, he drove her insane, and she eagerly rubbed her nipples against his chest.
Damn, that felt good. He felt good. So hot, and hard, and strong.
He must’ve enjoyed it, too, because he slid a hand up her side until his palm cupped her breast. Then his thumb brushed over her nipple, and she moaned and pressed into his touch.
Without breaking the kiss, he lifted her up and set her on the vanity, then grunted his approval when she wrapped her legs around his hips and drew him in tight. Damn. He was hard. Everywhere.
So hard.
Kaydee couldn’t stop herself from rocking against the bulge in his crotch. Twice.
Ripping his mouth from hers, he pushed her shirt up and tugged her bra aside. “So beautiful,” he murmured before drawing a nipple into his mouth.
She moaned and rocked against him again. He was driving her mad, making her tremble, making her need…everything. With his name falling from her lips, she shoved her hands into his hair and held his head while he flicked her stiff peak with his tongue. Breath hitched in her throat.
Damn, he was good.
Still holding his head, she drew his mouth back to hers and slipped her tongue past his lips, trying to convey all the need burning her up inside.
Leo stiffened, then released her and stepped back. “Sorry,” he said between ragged breaths. “I didn’t mean to let things go so far.”
With her entire body clamoring for more of the things went so far, she sucked air into her lungs. But before she could tell him she was more than happy where things where headed, she heard her front door open with a familiar knock.
“Kaydee? Leo?” her grandfather called from downstairs.
Shoot. She fixed her clothes with jerky movements.
“We’re up here, removing tile,” Leo replied, stepping between her and the doorway as if to block her from her grandfather’s view.
He was sweet, but it wasn’t necessary. Her grandfather wouldn’t bother with the stairs.
She placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. “Is that what they call it these days?”
His lips twitched.
“That explains why no one answered their phones,” her grandfather said. “Ava sent me over to see if you two wanted any dessert.”
“Yeah. Definitely,” she answered her grandfather while holding Leo’s gaze.
She wanted more of his brand of dessert, too. The one he’d halted. But since that moment had passed, she’d have to settle for the food kind. Thankfully, Ava’s baking was as remarkable as the woman.
Her neighbor’s equally remarkable grandson motioned for Kaydee to precede him out the door. It wasn’t hard to see that the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.
Now, if only she could see why he’d stopped their embrace.
…
Thanks to Kaydee’s confidence in him, Leo decided not to step down from his supervisor role that week. In her own nonjudgmental way, she made him realize he was putting too much pressure on himself to be perfect. And she was right. No one was, not even Stone. And his buddy certainly didn’t expect Leo to be.
He owed the guys everything but was done being coddled. He hadn’t been a quitter before everything went to shit overseas, and it was time they started counting on him again. Time he gave them a reason to treat him like they had before he was shot and their Ranger buddy Drew was killed.
Every night, when he closed his eyes, he saw his buddy and the little girl who died nearby that day, right down to the last detail. At first, those images and survivor’s guilt had tormented him until he tried to silence the images with the pain meds for his wounds and a constant flow of alcohol. But they only served to make him do stupid things, and the images remained.
It wasn’t until he realized the stress and unnecessary worry he was causing his family and friends that he finally wised the hell up and sought the professional help he desperately needed. Now, after fifteen months of hard work, he was in a much better place in his life…and in his head. He still saw those images every night, because he deliberately brought them to mind. It was his doing. An act of respect, to pay homage and remind himself to live and enjoy life. Something they could no longer do.
So why was he holding back with Kaydee? That was the opposite of living. That was playing it safe.
It was time to put himself out there. To experience life again.
A wave of determination washed over him. It was time to let go. To do more than flirt and steal a few kisses. Time to drop all of his guard and let whatever was going to happen…happen.
“Well now, you look like you just made a decision about something important,” Brick said, walking into the tool barn. The guy carried a tile cutter in one hand as if the damn thing weighed a feather. “And I don’t think it has anything to do with where you’re going to put that jigsaw.”
The Army Ranger's Surprise (the Men of At-Ease Ranch) Page 6
