She heard the cabinet come free from the wall and the sound of it being set down on the floor. “Take that one outside with the others and take a break; we’re almost done in here.”
Turning she tried not to look at Dillion, instead focused on the mess he’d made of the kitchen. “Why did you tear all this up? There was nothing wrong with it,” she said, thinking about how long it was going to take to put the kitchen back together.
“Only the fact that it was a few decades too modern,” Dillion said.
“I don’t see what difference it makes,” Natalie said, wishing she’d never agreed to do this. “Old is old.”
Dillion took a deep breath. “I guess that’s kind of true, but what we’re trying to do is put the house back to the way it was in the 1920s, and that means the kitchen too.”
Natalie’s heart sank. “How long is this going to take?”
Chapter Six
***Dillion***
Dillion felt bad for her; clearly, this wasn’t her passion, and he wondered what she was doing supervising the project. “Can I ask you something?”
Natalie looked up at him. “I guess,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.
“Why are you here? I mean, this doesn’t seem to be your thing; you’ve made that clear enough,” he asked.
It took her a second to answer. “No one else wanted the job, and I thought it would look good on my resume,” she said, then paused. “Plus, there’s a new resort going in on the other side of the mountain and I’m hoping after this I’ll get the job running it.”
Dillion sighed. “Okay then, I guess I’d better show you what I have planned.”
For the next hour, they went from room to room, and Dillion explained in detail what had to be done in each room. When they were finished, he could tell from the look on Natalie’s face that she was convinced that he was going overboard.
“I just don’t see why you can’t use new baseboards or closet doors; it would save so much time. All that sanding and finishing, and the floors, wouldn’t it just be easier to cover them with carpet?”
“I’d be willing to use carpet if you can find me some from the 1920’s,” he said, meaning it as a joke but seeing that it wasn’t taken that way.
“This all just seems like a waste of time to me. Who’s going to know if the carpet isn’t old, or if we use new wood, not the old stuff?” Natalie argued.
Dillion could see that he wasn’t getting through to her. “I don’t know how to make you understand that there are a lot of people out there who will appreciate all the work that’s gone into this house when we’re finished. They’ll come from all over the world for the experience, and it has to be as real as we can make it.”
Natalie studied him for a minute and then said, “I don’t think you ever will; when I think of a vacation, I want glitz and glamor. Sophistication, and well, I don’t know, things to be fancy, not old.”
Dillion was surprised to find that he was disappointed in her, that his perfect woman wasn’t all that perfect. But then he thought about it from her side and realized that she’d grown up here, that old wasn’t something novel for her: it was her life.
“You know, old things can be sophisticated and glamorous too,” he said, an idea brewing, one that he wasn’t quite ready to think about yet. “Give it a chance; maybe you’ll change your mind.”
Natalie snorted, which was so cute he almost forgave her for her stubbornness. “I doubt that, but let’s get started,” she said, putting her hands on her hips and looking around the kitchen. “What can I do?”
Dillion hadn’t expected her to offer to help and had to think fast. Then he thought of the perfect job for her, and a wicked grin spread across his face. “I have just the job for you; follow me.”
Natalie could only stare at Dillion as they stood in the doorway to the sitting room, and he thought it looked like she thought that he’d lost his mind. “You want me to pull up the carpet?” she asked, looking at the huge room. “By myself?”
Dillion grinned at her. “Well, not completely alone, but before we can pull the carpet out, the baseboards need to come out, that’s where you come in.”
Natalie looked from him to the baseboard and back again. “I have no idea how to do that. I thought you’d have me… oh, I don’t know.”
“Don’t worry, it’s not hard,” Dillion said, pulling a couple of tools from his belt. “Just take the pry bar and wedge it into the baseboard and give it a tap.”
He handed her the tools and started to leave, needing desperately to get away from her. But he only made it a few steps before she said, “Could you show me? I’m not sure I understand.”
He gritted his teeth, knowing that being that close to her was going to be difficult. “Okay, come over here,” he said, holding his hands out for the tools.
When he left Natalie on her own ten minutes later, he had to step outside for some fresh air to clear his head. He walked around the yard a few times, wishing that things could be different, that he was free to explore his feelings for Natalie, free to love her the way he knew deep down he was supposed to.
When he came back in the house, he couldn’t stop himself from checking on Natalie. She was crouched over the baseboard, carefully tapping the pry bar with the hammer, grimacing each time a rusty nail came out with a screech.
His heart did one of those leaps it always seemed to do around her, and he felt a wave of desire building deep inside him. So, he headed for the kitchen, hoping work would get his mind off the woman who’d managed to turn his world upside down.
***Natalie***
Natalie stood panting next to Dillion, feeling the grime and dust coating her skin. It had taken four of them to lug the carpet out of the house, and she didn’t even want to think about what had been in it.
All she wanted was a shower and her bed; hours spent crouching over the baseboards had taken their toll and muscles she’d never even known she had hurt. But she followed Dillion back into the house, horrified when she saw what they’d uncovered.
Looking at the scarred wood floor, she said, “It looks worse than when we started.”
Dillion nodded, a huge smile on his face. “But look at these floors; this is oak. I was hoping that’s what we’d find, that’s what those baseboards are made from, but…” he shrugged again, the grin back on his face.
Natalie wanted to tell him that she couldn’t see it but kept her mouth closed, letting him have his happiness. “So, what next? Do we start sanding it or something?”
Dillion shook his head, then pointed to the nails left behind from the carpet. Natalie groaned. “Let me guess, I have to pull each one of those nails.”
Dillion grinned at her. “I guess so, since it looks like this is your project now.”
That was the last thing she wanted to hear him say, but she’d offered to help and wasn’t going to be one of those people, so she took a deep breath and headed for the first nail. Quitting time couldn’t come soon enough for her; every part of her body hurt.
She’d broken every fingernail, smashed her thumb twice, and had a small gash on her leg where it had scraped across a missed nail. She wanted a shower and dinner, in that order, and then her bed and twelve hours of sleep.
“I’ll see you at six,” he said when she walked past him to the door. “Unless you would rather stay home; today must have been hard.”
She glared at him, “I’ll be here; the sooner this place is fixed up, the sooner I can move on.”
She stomped out the door, her body screaming, across the street and right up to the apartment, not even stopping when David called to her from across the store. Dillion’s comment had rubbed her the wrong way, and partly because she had been thinking about quitting; still, he couldn’t have known that.
Now, there was no way she could quit, no way she was going to give him that satisfaction. But she was going to have to do something about her sore muscles, and the cut on her leg, and the simple solution was to shift and let nature do its mag
ic.
In wolf form, she’d heal in a matter of seconds, and be stronger thanks to the shift, so she headed for the back stairs and the forest. When she came back less than ten minutes later, she felt better, exhausted and starving but better. After a huge dinner, she climbed into bed, ready to face another day.
As she was drifting off to sleep, she realized that since Dillion had started acting like such a jerk, her attraction to him seemed to have faded. It didn’t surprise her; Dillion had been making rude remarks and mocking her since they met up at Millie’s the morning after he kissed her.
He’d shown his true colors, and no matter how attractive he was, she had no interest in a man like that. It was a relief not to feel that tingle when she thought about him, although a little part of her grieved the fact that she hadn’t met her true love after all; she pushed that feeling away.
***Dillion***
Dillion stood on the porch watching Natalie apply a coat of varnish to the baseboard in long even strokes. He had to give her credit: she’d hung in and done everything he’d asked of her, pulled and filled nail holes, sanded baseboards for days. She was halfway through her final coat of varnish, and he had to admit that he couldn’t have done a better job himself.
He watched as the wind played with a strand of her hair that had come loose from the low ponytail she always wore. Earbuds buried in her ears, she was unaware that he was standing there watching, and he was glad.
His plan to make her hate him seemed to be working, since most of the time all she did was scowl at him and stomp away. But then again, he’d been as nasty to her as he could be without actually hurting her feelings, something he was trying to avoid.
He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the dark cloud coming over the mountains until it was almost above them. The gentle wind that had been cooling only a few minutes before suddenly began to whip and howl through the trees, bringing with it stinging drops of rain.
Natalie froze and looked up at the sky as the rain began to fall in earnest, then looked around her. She saw him on the porch, glared at him, and demanded, “Are you just going to stand there or are you going to help me?”
Dillion realized that he’d been standing there staring at her in her wet tee-shirt, that he was mildly aroused by the sight of her nipples through the wet fabric. But he got his feet moving and joined her in the rain; it only took one glance at the baseboards to know that they were ruined.
“It’s too late, Natalie; they’re ruined,” he said when she tried to hand him a stack.
“They can’t be,” she said, trying to wipe the rain off with her already soaked shirt.
Just then, a huge gust of wind whipped down out of the forest, and the baseboards lifted slightly and began to slide off the sawhorse into the mud. Natalie screamed and dove for them, but her foot slipped, and she went down, landing on her butt in a mud puddle.
Mud splashed up her shirt and onto her face, and Dillion had to fight the urge to laugh. But one look at her face told him that she was close to the breaking point, so he approached her slowly, relieved when it stopped raining, and the sun came out.
He was only a few feet from her when he stopped, not sure it was a good idea to go any closer considering the way he was feeling right then. Muddy and angry, Natalie was practically glowing and so beautiful, he could barely catch his breath. It would have been so easy to grab her and kiss the anger right out of her, and infinitely satisfying.
But instead, he asked, “Are you okay?”
Chapter Seven
***Natalie***
Natalie couldn’t believe that Dillion had asked such a stupid question and was about to tell him that when she saw that he was truly concerned: trying not to laugh but concerned. That was when it all became too much for her, and she lost it, felt the tears begin to build in her eyes.
“No, I’m not okay. Look at that; look at what happened. All my hard work gone, and in only a few seconds, now I’m going to have to start over,” she said, struggling in the mud to get to her feet.
“It’s not so bad,” Dillion said, offering her his hand.
She ignored his hand, and finally managed to get to her feet and looked down at herself. “I’m done. I can’t do this anymore. I’m sorry, I tried,” she said, the tears so close to the surface she knew she had to get away from him and fast.
But as she tried to get past him, her foot caught on one of the baseboards, and he had to reach out and catch her. “Hey, slow down. It’s not that bad, a quick wash and sanding and you’ll be back to varnish.”
She pushed away from him. “I’m sorry Dillion, I really did try, but I just don’t get it, and I don’t think I ever will. I’m not even sure I want to get it. I just want to go home and take a shower and pretend this day never happened.”
Dillion grabbed her arm before she could escape. “Hold on a second, take a deep breath,” he said. “I think I’ve been pushing you too hard, probably been pushing all of us too hard.”
Natalie turned and looked at him. “Really?”
He nodded. “Maybe we all need a break, and I know just the place to take that break. Go take a shower and meet me back here; we’re going on a little trip,” he said, a big grin on his face.
“A trip? Tonight?” Natalie asked, narrowing her eyes at him. “What kind of trip? Why are you suddenly being so nice?”
Dillion laughed. “Just go get cleaned up; it’s a surprise,” he said, then added, “I can be nice, you know.”
Natalie wasn’t sure she believed him, but she was curious. “Okay, but I need to let someone know how long we’ll be gone.”
Dillion thought about that for a second. “I think three days should be enough for what I have in mind.”
Still suspicious, she headed for the apartment and the shower, but never considered not going with Dillion. Ignoring what that meant, she got ready, stopped in the store to tell David she was going to be gone, then headed outside to meet Dillion, her heart pounding in her chest.
When she saw him standing by the truck, she said, “I forgot to ask you what I should pack.”
“You won’t need anything; that will all be taken care of,” he said with a mysterious grin.
Natalie eyed him warily. “I don’t know if I should trust you,” she finally admitted.
“Don’t worry, I don’t have anything nefarious planned; just get in the truck,” he said; when she still didn’t move, he said, “You’re just going to have to trust me.”
***Dillion***
Dillion breathed a sigh of relief when Natalie got into the truck without further question. His heart soared a little when he realized that she trusted him; even after all the snide comments and his rude behavior, she still trusted him.
“You won’t be sorry,” he said when he joined her, “and hopefully this is going to change your mind about old things.”
“I doubt it, but what the heck, we all needed some time off,” she said, sounding far more relaxed than she looked.
When they got to Nashville, he headed for the airport and the last-minute flight he’d booked. “We’re flying?” she asked when they turned onto the road that led to the airport.
Dillion nodded. “We could drive but that would take a whole day, and I don’t want to waste one traveling; this way we’ll be there in time for dinner tonight.”
They breezed through security and arrived at their gate just as the last call for their flight came over the loudspeaker. But they made it to their seats and in only a few minutes, they were air born on their way to Georgia, and Dillion couldn’t help but smile, knowing what was to come.
He could tell that Natalie was nervous and excited, and who could blame her. She’d left home with him on the spur of the moment with only the knowledge that she was going to Georgia; anyone would have been nervous.
Resisting the urge to take her hand in his as they sat in silence, he closed his eyes and said, “You might want to take a little nap; we’ve got a big night ahead of us.”
Natalie looked at him, then gave him a little smile. “I think I might be too excited.”
Dillion wanted to pull her into his arms but stopped himself. “Just close your eyes for a little while then.”
When the flight began its descent into Atlanta, Natalie was asleep on his shoulder, snoring quietly, and he wondered how something so innocent could be such a turn on. But then she stirred and sat up, and the contact was broken, and not a minute too soon, he thought.
She opened her eyes and stretched. “Are we there?”
Dillion could only nod, words impossible at that moment. Finally, he managed to find his voice, “We’ll take a cab from here.”
***Natalie***
The cab took them through town and out into the country, then finally down a tree-lined drive. It stopped in front of a nondescript building made from red brick, and Dillion helped her out. She stopped for just a second to breathe in the humid air, feeling as if she’d traveled much farther than she had.
There was still no indication of where exactly there were or what they were doing there, but she followed him into the building. They were greeted by a man in a suit that looked like it was severely outdated. “Ah, Dillion, there you are. I was worried your flight was going to be late,” he said, stepping out from behind the desk he’d been seated at.
“Traffic was a little heavy, but we’re here,” Dillion said, shaking the man’s hand and slapping him on the back. “Natalie, I’d like you to meet Simon.”
Natalie stepped up and shook his hand, liking the man immediately. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said.
Simon grinned at her. “Shall we get started?”
Natalie had no idea what they were starting, but she nodded anyway. “I guess.”
Restoration (Wolves 0f Gypsum Creek Book 4) Page 4
