“I think I know the picture you mean.” Caterina stood up with the intention of going up to her room. Antonio had finally gotten around to bringing the two old trunks down from the attic to her room the day before. She’d gone through most of the boxes but hadn’t found anything that shed new light on Rosa or Gino. Since she didn’t have any plans for the evening, she thought she’d start looking through the trunks. Maybe she’d have more luck finding something important in them.
“It must take an especially talented person to be able to see beyond the surface of something and capture the essence of it in a way that speaks to people,” Caterina said, thinking more about what her sister had said. “Maybe there’s more to Damien Roth than a pretty face and hunky body, El.”
Eliana tilted her head and, looking thoughtful, said, “Maybe there is.” She picked up the laptop she’d left on the couch and clicked it shut and then shot up in one motion as if she had places to go and things to do that wouldn’t wait. “I’ve got to make some calls and then get cleaned up before the four o’clock tasting. Later, sisters.”
As she breezed through the lobby and disappeared into the hallway, Lucia angled Cat a glance and arched a brow. “Do you think one of us needs to keep an eye on her around our newest guest?”
“I wouldn’t worry about it, Luch.” Caterina walked with her toward the lobby. “You know El; she’s all about the possibilities of the fantasy, not pursuing it. She might indulge in a little flirtation with Roth, but she’ll keep it light and fun. I’m guessing they’d both enjoy it. She’ll swear he’s the most gorgeous man she’s ever seen and that she’s madly in love with him. Come Sunday, he’ll check out, and life here will go back to normal.”
“Hmmm. What’s normal for here?”
Cat gave a light snort. “Good point.”
“YOU HAVE TO be Caterina.”
Cat straightened up from where she was bent over the reception desk, making a note to herself to pick up smoked salmon tomorrow morning for the canapés she’d be making for the holiday open house.
She turned and eyed the six-foot-something of dark good looks, flashing in her direction enviable straight, white teeth, outlined by full lips that had probably stolen many young women’s hearts with a kiss. If her own wasn’t currently struggling to understand the ambiguity overwhelming it for Liam Dougherty, she might be more susceptible to its effect.
“I am. Damien Roth, right? I was in the library when you checked in and overheard you give your name.”
“That’s right. I didn’t see you, but Lucia told me there were four of you, and since I’ve already met Eliana and Marcella, I guessed you had to be the fourth. The family resemblance is striking.”
“So we’re told.” She offered a friendly smile, one she’d give any other guest. “Is there something I can help you with? There’s not usually anyone working in reception after six, unless we know there’ll be guests arriving late. There’s always someone on call, but if there’s anything you need, I can—”
“No, I don’t need anything. I saw you and thought I’d introduce myself. I’m supposed to be meeting your sisters for a drink in the library.”
“All three of them?” Caterina raised a brow.
Damien chuckled lightly. “Yes, but I’m not at all as bad as that might make me sound. Marcella stopped in while I was doing a wine tasting this afternoon. I complimented her on the wines, and she asked which was my favorite. When I told her, she said she could recommend another that I might appreciate. She offered to let me sample it at some point during my stay. Eliana suggested we all get together this evening in the library.”
“And Lucia?”
“Eliana mentioned it to her after the tasting, and she said she was in. Before I knew what had happened, I had a date with three women for a private wine tasting.”
Caterina chuckled. “That’s the way things happen around here. We sort of sweep people along with us in whatever direction the water’s tumbling over the rocks.”
He angled his head, his eyes taking in her face as if he were appraising it. She wondered if he studied her from a photojournalist’s perspective, trying to see beyond the surface to who lived beneath the skin over her bones.
She glanced away, not used to, or comfortable with, such open perusal from someone she didn’t know. She usually kept her innermost thoughts and feelings to herself. She wasn’t as internal as Marcella but was more guarded than Lucia, and with Eliana, if you didn’t know El’s thoughts or feelings, you weren’t paying attention. She wore them all on the outside.
No, revealing her secrets didn’t come easy for Cat—especially to strangers—and she felt unsure about someone trying to peer beyond what she chose to reveal.
Damien cleared his throat. “I hope I didn’t just make you uncomfortable,” he said, as if he’d read her mind. “I have a bad habit of studying people a little closer than I should sometimes. A side effect of the job, I suppose. I’m sure you’re all very different, but you and your sisters have so many physical similarities; I find the idea of trying to capture the differences intriguing. Perhaps you’ll all agree to let me photograph you for a future story about siblings.”
“Lucia and Eliana would probably agree to it, and if they did then I’d go along, but good luck convincing Marcella. She’s not much for having her picture taken.”
As if saying their names had summoned them, Lucia and Eliana rounded the doorway from the hallway into reception together. Lucia’s movements were fluid and graceful, as always, like the steps of a waltz. Eliana’s were quick and self-assured, ready to take on the world, spirited and flirty, like a tango.
“Hey Cat,” Lucia said, “we’re going to break open some wine that Marcella recommended to Mr. Roth. Want to join us?”
Cat glanced up at Damien. He gave her a crooked grin, the kind that lends boyish charm to grown men, even those like the one looking at her, sporting that sexy stubble on his face. “Want to make it me plus four?”
“Why not? I was just going to spend the evening going through a musty old trunk.” She regarded her sisters. “Do you think our guest realizes what he’s getting himself into, spending an evening alone with all four Bonavera sisters?”
“Oh, it’ll be okay,” Lucia said. “Antonio’s going to join us too. He called about fifteen minutes ago to say he was almost home.” She smiled warmly at Roth. “You’ll be glad to have another man around. We can be a bit overwhelming if you’re not used to us.”
Marcella arrived about five minutes later, toting a padded canvas bag from which she pulled three bottles of red and put them in the middle of the large square coffee table nestled between the library’s couches.
“Okay, now that I know we’re drinking red, I’ll go make up a quick tray before Antonio gets here,” Cat volunteered. “What kind of cheese do you want me to put out, Cel?”
“It’s a cab-merlot blend, so Asiago and Brie if you have it, with bread, not crackers.”
“I’ve got a baguette I can cut up. Do you want any fruit?”
“If you’ve got dark cherries or red grapes, then yes. And some dark chocolate would complement it nicely.”
Cat headed for the kitchen. “I’m on the food. Someone else want to get the glasses and plates?”
“On it.” Eliana jumped in and, as Caterina went through the solarium doorway toward the kitchen, she heard her sister add, “I just love an impromptu party.”
CATERINA EASED HER foot off the gas pedal as she drove by the construction site on her way back from the store Tuesday morning. What had been done since her last visit? Were they on schedule with the update she’d gotten last week?
She snorted. Last week’s? She hadn’t followed up on the prior one…not like her at all.
Curiosity nagged her. If she didn’t stay on top of things, who would? Her sisters trusted Antonio and Liam without question. Cat trusted them, too, but miscommunications and misunderstandings happened: changes someone thought were for the better but forgot to mention and went ahead wit
h before you could stop them from being implemented; changes you don’t like and didn’t want but now you’re stuck with because you trusted them too completely.
Blind faith—she didn’t believe in it. If you relinquished all involvement in something that impacted you and then weren’t happy with the results, you had no one to blame but yourself. No, she didn’t believe in blind faith, so why hadn’t she stayed on top of things with Serendipity as she should have been doing the last couple of weeks?
Cat swallowed back the sour bile of truth. She’d lost her backbone. Liam confused her. Not just confused…worried. He immobilized her to the point that she didn’t know what she wanted or what to do about him. It was no excuse.
She couldn’t let her apparent inability to manage the jumble of emotions he stirred in her get in the way of her dream. Serendipity was too important. She needed to get back on schedule, regain control. She’d find a way to deal with this unwelcome infatuation for their builder later, when she had more time to think about it and come up with a sound plan.
She coasted to the side of the road and drifted to a stop. On the passenger seat next to her sat a white cardboard box with a dozen mixed doughnuts that she’d picked up as a peace offering. She’d discovered during previous site visits that Liam had a weakness for doughnuts. Sweets to sweeten his disposition if he was in a foul mood. Cat rolled her eyes as she leaned over and picked up the box. Could she get any lamer?
After getting out, she set the box on the hood of the Jeep and then got her red leather bomber from the backseat.
As she picked her way across the gravel a couple of minutes later, she took in the lines of the structure, still dressed in house wrap, and tried to envision what it would look like with the stone exterior and wide front porches, juxtaposed against the Blue Ridge marching behind it in the distance.
Lucia would surround it with gardens: an abundance of roses, night-blooming jasmine, clematis, and wisteria, wherever they could ramble. There would be benches and Adirondack chairs nestled among hydrangea, impatiens planted with abandon, lush, broad-leafed hosta, and Solomon’s seal inviting guests to sit in a shady reprieve on warm summer afternoons.
How different it all might be if fate hadn’t delivered them Antonio. He’d done such an amazing job with the design, and although she’d never told him, Liam had surpassed her expectations with the construction. She might not believe in blind faith, but it wouldn’t hurt to let him know that she was pleased with the work he and his team were doing. After all, they still had a long way to go, and when they started fitting out the kitchen, she had very specific wants. Having a better working relationship with their contractor could only help her cause if she insisted on one thing or another that may not have been what they planned.
After entering the building, Cat followed the pop-pop of a nail gun. She found Liam framing a doorway in what would be one of the upstairs guest rooms. His back was to her as he worked his way down a two-by-four that formed one of the sides. When he got toward the bottom, he crouched, holding the stud firm with one hand and running the nail gun down with the other.
He wore a faded black tee shirt and a pair of well-worn jeans that pulled tighter over his muscular legs as he balanced on his haunches. Saliva pooled in the back of her mouth. When she realized that she stood in an unfinished hallway with a box of pastries, salivating over a man, she almost groaned aloud. She was as bad as Eliana.
Cat cleared her throat. Liam glanced over his shoulder. He stood up when he saw her, his movements fluid for his size. He turned around, took her in.
Instead of the narrowed appraisal she’d become accustomed to, his eyes drifted over her, moving down from her face, resting a moment on the box of doughnuts and then continuing their exploration until she felt as if they’d left no inch of her body untouched. He might as well have run his hands up and down that path, the effect was just as devastating to her peace of mind. And damn her, she half-wished he would have. She was worse than Eliana!
“I had to go to the store this morning to pick up some things for the open house this week,” she said, trying to steer her mind away from thoughts of the two of them getting hot and sweaty together. She held out the box. “I picked these up for you and the crew.”
Liam angled his head and watched her but didn’t say anything. He probably wondered what she wanted and how quickly he’d be able to get rid of her.
“I know you all like them and…I don’t know why you’re looking at me like that. I don’t have an ulterior motive. It’s just—look, I don’t say thank you often, for what a good job you’re doing. I appreciate it.”
The corner of his mouth twitched, slowly rose, turned into a grin. Not a sneer—an actual grin that skimmed the margin of friendly. Made him look downright charming, a word she’d never have used to describe him. This was something new.
“Always good to hear that the customer’s satisfied with your work.” His gaze didn’t waver. It sparkled—crystal-blue seduction with a hint of amusement. If she didn’t know better, she’d think Liam was flirting with her. Was he flirting with her?
The possibility took her so aback, she didn’t know how to respond. She thrust the box forward.
“Would you just stop staring at me and take the damn doughnuts?”
He set the nail gun down on the plywood floorboards and walked toward her. Sauntered, really. With him taking his time, an eternity seemed to pass before he stood in front of her. Her breathing faltered—the air that usually flowed in and out without her having to think about it felt suddenly heavy in her chest. She didn’t know what to make of the gleam in his eyes. And it made her nervous.
Liam reached for the box, his fingers brushing hers. Caterina’s heart stuttered from one clutching beat to the next, like an engine that wasn’t getting enough fuel and threatened to stall out with the next pause in her breath.
“Thanks.” The same corner of his mouth curved up again, teasing a shiver that ran up her calf and kept going until it buried itself at the juncture between her legs—the last place she wanted to think about at that moment. Lord help her, if she started drooling, she’d have to slap herself, because none of her sisters were here to do it for her.
“You haven’t been here for a while. I suppose you want to see what’s been happening,” he said without any noticeable contempt. His unusually affable nature threw her even more off guard than her traitorous hormones. She jumped on the offer. Anything to avoid letting the wanton woman that wanted his hands all over her from escaping and possibly jumping him. A danger she feared would increase the longer they remained standing there with him looking at her like he wanted to devour her instead of the doughnuts she’d just given him.
“When will you start putting up wallboard?” Cat asked after they’d gone through several of the rooms on the second level, and she’d regained some equilibrium.
“Not for a few months. Once we finish all the interior framing and get that past inspections, we’ll move on to the rough plumbing and have all the ductwork done for the HVAC. Then we need to bring in the electricians to run all the wiring through the interior walls, floors, and ceilings. We have to go through another round of inspections for each of those steps before we can put in the insulation and close things in.”
“Hmm. It’s hard waiting to see it come together, but it’s a real process, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Things would move a lot quicker if we didn’t have to bring the county in at every turn before moving on to the next step. I agree it’s important that they ensure work’s being done to the proper standards, but they work on their own timeframe, and yours doesn’t matter much to them. And if you get an inspector with a chip on his shoulder for some reason, they can kill your schedule. Most of them are pretty decent, and if they issue a stop work order it’s for a legitimate reason, but I’ve run into a couple I’ve had to walk away from and go punch a wall because they put a hold on a job just to show they could.”
Cat gawked at him and exclaimed, “Are you serio
us? They can do that?”
“It’s happened. That’s what happened the day Burke left Riley with you when he had to go over to the county offices. It usually doesn’t stick if it’s simply a power play, but you’re still hit with delays until you can get it straightened out. We’ve had a couple of situations when we had to go over an inspector’s head and talk to the chief inspector. My brothers and I avoid doing that if we can. You never know if you’ll have to deal with that inspector again, and things run a little smoother if you don’t ruffle their feathers too much.”
“I didn’t realize construction could be so political.”
“I think it’s more about egos than politics. Some people get off on that kind of power. Like I said, most of the people I deal with are straight up, but occasionally you run into some prick who—”
Liam threw her a glance. “Sorry, I probably could have stated that more delicately.”
Cat laughed. “If someone put a stop work order on our job just because they got off on pulling a power play, you better believe I’d have something to say about it, and in choicer words than that to describe them.”
“If I had to put my last hundred dollars on who’d come out on the top in a battle between you and them, my money would be on you.”
She stopped and glanced up at him. “Is that an actual compliment, Liam?” she asked, still unsure if his attitude toward her had changed for some reason, or if she’d just caught him in an exceptionally good mood that even she couldn’t dampen.
He shrugged. “You stand your ground for what you want, and you don’t give in, or up, easily. At least that’s been my experience.” He slanted her a glance, his expression turning more serious. “I haven’t always enjoyed dealing with you because of it, but I respect you for it.”
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