by Taryn Quinn
“It’s been clear for days.”
“Yeah, now it is.” I moved to the kitchen window and flipped open the curtain. “See that ice and leftover snow out there? It makes roofing a little more dangerous.”
Her face went impassive. “You said you could get it done.”
Frustration rippled across my shoulders. “I know what I said.”
“So, you aren’t a man of your word?”
I stalked over to her. “I’ve been busting my ass for weeks to get this done for you.”
“It’s your job.”
I reeled back and straightened my shoulders. “You’re damn right it’s my job. And as the foreman of this operation, I’m going to tell you that it’s going to take more time than you’d like to get it done right.”
“Then just hire more people.”
“You can’t just throw money at it, Ruby. That’s not how this works.” She opened her mouth and I cut her off. “I need a good roofer to make sure all of that is sound. What I don’t need is to go on fucking Craigslist and hope some crap operation can come and screw it up. We’re waiting the extra week to get it done right. You, of all people, should know how important that is.”
She drilled a finger into my chest. “I appreciate that you want it done right. And you’re correct—but we don’t have time for this. Half of the things in that barn remodel are more intricate than needed. And that’s on you.”
I caught her finger, then flattened her hand on my chest. “It is on me. I want that space to be perfect for your family. I know how important it is to you.”
“I don’t need magazine-ready work, Thor. I need it done.”
“Yeah, well, you’re not going to like my additional bad news.” I stepped back. “The flooring is backordered.”
Her brown eyes went shark flat. “The floor you wanted, when I said laminate would work just fine.”
“Yes. The sustainable cork floor I wanted is backordered. It wasn’t when I made the decision. The supplier is having unforeseen issues.” He’d clearly over-promised, but it was too late to deal with it. “I’m trying to find an alternative, but it’s going to take time.”
“I don’t have time.” She whirled on her heel and headed for the door.
“Goddammit.” If she thought she could run away from me every time we had a problem, she was mistaken.
I followed her out into the sunny day. She went right to the barn. My crew scattered like Malificent herself was coming through. Ruby on a rampage was a sight to behold.
Normally, I would’ve chased her down and cajoled her into accepting my shitty news, but I was out of placating platitudes. It was a setback neither of us could control.
She fisted her hands into her hair.
I came up behind her and set my hands on her shoulders. She shook me away and twirled around, looking at all the half done things. We were working around all the setbacks, trying to get everything done in between.
“I should have known better. This looks like your place. Everything half done like some ADHD child. Just like you.”
“That’s not fair.” I steered her over to the finished wall. “My crew worked on this wall for three straight days.”
“Wasted time. Could have just painted it.”
“Oh, right. Like you’d do that with one of your cars. It’s like painting it flat white. Don’t give me that, Ruby.”
“There’s pallets of furniture just sitting there.”
“Yeah, because it just came in this afternoon.” I urged her up the stairs to the second floor. “You helped me paint last night. This is almost done. The doors are going on tomorrow after we patch up the roof enough to finish up here.”
Three simple rooms were framed out, and the wet sheetrock was sticking out of the bin we used for trash. The new one was up and taped out, but it needed to be primed and painted.
“What happened? We had this done last night.”
I pointed up at the roof. “Leak got worse. Why we need the roofers.”
“I’m going to have to put my family up at a hotel. Maybe I can talk to Sage.”
I wasn’t touching that one with a ten-foot pole. Sage’s B&B had been full for weeks. Ruby’s family was coming in for Christmas. Not exactly ideal.
“At the very least, we’ll have the room ready for Cohen downstairs. It’s already framed out. We even used the leftover reclaimed wood to make a feature wall in there. Plumbing is finished, and the walk in shower is all tiled. We’re getting there. It’s all set to keep him comfortable.”
“Not fast enough.”
“I’m not a miracle worker, Tish. This kind of job would normally be two to three months minimum. I’m doing the best I can.”
“I’m not trying to be difficult.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Between this and Luna dragging me into the wedding…” She looked ready to scream. “I just can’t.”
“You love Luna.”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“Sure you did.” I moved to her and took her hand. “You’re just a little overwhelmed.”
She twisted her fingers away and crossed to the pile of furniture all perfectly labeled. “I don’t get overwhelmed.”
“Hate to break it to you, but you’re human. And this has been a lot of changes in a short amount of time. You’re overwhelmed.”
“No, I problem solve.”
I sighed and came up behind her. This time, she leaned back against me. I relaxed as I looped my arms around her middle and tucked my chin on her head. “I had a thought.”
“Oh, great.”
I laughed and turned her around to face me. “The floor is cement, so we can do a treatment on it. Probably better anyway considering foot traffic, sand, and weather. It’s not ideal, but it will cover us.”
She scratched her chin as she thought it over. “Why didn’t you say that before?”
“Before or after you ripped my head off?”
“Sorry. I had to take half a day for the dress fitting. I’ve been pricked a whole lot today.”
“Not the right prick.”
“Believe me, I’m not looking for that one either.” She tried to back out of my hold.
I pulled her in tighter and just wrapped my arms around her. She was stiff as a damn board, but finally, she melted into me.
She laid her cheek against my chest and sighed. “Okay, maybe this doesn’t suck.”
We swayed a bit in the cold barn before I let her go. “How about I show you something good?”
“I told you I wasn’t in the mood for another prick, Thor.”
“So says the woman reaching for me at four in the morning.” I slid my hand down to clasp hers. “C’mon, you’ll like this.”
She laced her fingers with mine. At least we were making a little progress when it came to her dealing with my need to touch her all the time. She only wiggled away when she was feeling extra thorny.
I drew her out of the barn and over to her detached garage. The matte black steel doors were down, but she also had a side door access.
Her usually long stride slowed until I had to practically drag her to the door.
“What’s wrong?”
“You didn’t do anything to my garage, did you?”
I braced my arm across the door. “Why?”
“My garage is exactly how I like it. Exactly.”
My stomach sank. Well, I was too far into it now. I opened the door and accepted my fate. Not much else I could do.
I turned on the light switch and she rushed in.
“What did you do?”
I leaned my shoulder against the doorjamb. Her garage had been cluttered, which was weird since she was so organized in the house. I waited for the creepy music from Sleeping With the Enemy every time I opened her cupboards. All the cans were face out and in alphabetical order.
But in here, she had tables lining every wall with tools. How the hell did she find anything?
“I kept it all in the same order from e
ach table, just put them on a peg board so you could see everything. I replaced the rickety tables with tall, thin ones that you can use to organize all the parts you have everywhere.”
She did her usual twirl. I was convinced that was how she took things into her brain for processing. The problem was, it usually resulted in her blowing a head gasket.
“But that’s not how I like it. I won’t be able to find anything.” She stalked back to me. “Why would you do this?”
“I did it to make your life easier. Because I know you’re an organized freak who likes order. Except here for some reason.”
“I didn’t ask you to touch in here.”
“No. I did it because I care about you. But you wouldn’t know how to say thank you even if someone yanked it out of your tonsils.” My chest heaved and hurt hit lower than the anger. Which pissed me off even more. “You know what? Me and Butch are staying at my place tonight.”
“What?” The squeak in her voice mollified me a little, but I was too mad to shake it off.
I left her in the garage. Butch was running around Joe’s feet as they played keep-away with her beloved avocado.
I gave a sharp whistle and her fluffy white ears perked. She immediately zipped my way with her toy in her mouth, her tail wagging like a feather duster. I scooped her up and set her in the truck. “Looks like it’s just us tonight.”
As the tightness in my chest eased a fraction, I shot a look over my shoulder. Tish was waiting in the doorway of the garage, her arms tightly folded over her breasts.
Stubborn pain in my ass.
When I got into my truck, Butch gazed up at me with adoring eyes. At least one female in my life looked at me as if I was her favorite.
As if I had a purpose besides dispensing orgasms and doing favors for people who didn’t even appreciate them.
And this time, I was the one who took off.
Eighteen
So, it turned out excellent sex with an entirely too sweet man with a massive…thruster turned me into a shrew.
Who knew?
It wasn’t entirely my fault. I refused to accept all responsibility. I had my brother to worry about and my family’s upcoming visit, and most tragically of all, I had been yanked into a wedding party against my will.
Who could blame me for snapping at Lucky? Besides, I sort of was learning to trust the guy. I knew he could take my spewing.
Or maybe not, since he’d bolted. But he was probably overdue.
In any case, even if I’d been wrong to lash out at him, this was still partly Blondie’s fault.
From the moment I’d received the pretty invitation with fancy lettering and rows of pine trees stamped on the bottom, I’d known I was fucked.
I didn’t know how fucked, exactly, until I was in my bedroom trying to shimmy into something called a shaper so that I could fit into the bridesmaid dress I’d been fitted for just last week.
Bridesmaid material? Me? Let’s be real. I was hardly the type to be a wedding guest, never mind in the party. I found ways to skip weddings whenever possible. My friends were dudes. Pre-Crescent Cove, I hadn’t had many girlfriends at all.
Fine, none.
Somehow Luna and I had become friends, I supposed. But I hadn’t expected her to ask me to not only come to her shindig, but to be part of it.
The dress I’d been fitted for was nice enough. It was a long column of deep wine red and flowed down into a slight flare around my calves. The plunging bodice was just a shade away from scandalous, even more so with the current condition of my tits. I’d never been an overly endowed chick, but this shaper was making me look like a porn star-in-training.
And the worst part? As I skimmed a hand down the side of my rebellious breasts, my first thought was that Thor would just love this getup on me—assuming we could have a civil conversation. He would’ve come in handy right about now as I reached back to tug up the dress’s zipper.
I was far more winded than I should’ve been. Jeez, it was winter, and I always tended to put on a few pounds watching my guilty pleasure Christmas movies on cable, but never this early. We hadn’t even reached the holidays yet. This was not a good sign for slipping back into my leathers once the weather turned enough for me to go riding again.
In like half a year or so. Gotta love upstate New York.
I’d managed to yank up my zipper and huff my still partially wet hair out of my face when my phone started bleating like the National Weather Alert system. I’d never heard so many frantic buzzes at one time.
I dug it out from where I’d tossed it in my tangled sheets and scowled at the readout. Now what? Wasn’t I already doing my civic duty by shimmying into this dress?
And there were heels to go with it. Not flats. Oh, no. Just because the bride was a shorty, she wanted the entire bridal party to teeter around on matching stilts. Hadn’t she gotten the memo that I would loom over almost all the women and a good segment of the men?
At least Lucky held up his end of the bargain there. I almost felt small around him.
Why did I keep thinking about him? So what if I’d be seeing him soon? I saw him all the time. He was my contractor. He went in and out of my house more often even than the mice he’d hired an exterminator to shoo out into the cold.
Cute little things. Old house. Stuff happened.
I hadn’t tucked one into my hoodie pocket after one particularly active construction day while they leveled the cement floors. No proper lady would do such a thing.
I snorted. Proper was definitely not the word for me. But I hadn’t kept the little dude, adorable as he was. He was probably outside casing the joint at this very moment, trying to find his way back in.
A quick swipe of my thumb over my phone, and Blondie’s tear-filled bluebell eyes filled my screen. I started to ask her what her damage was when an ear-splitting screech pierced my eardrums.
“Damn, look at those knockers! Go Tish!”
I released a baffled laugh as I glanced down at my chest. A weird sense of pride filled me, probably a holdover from when I’d been too tall and skinny with it. Knobby knees, elbows, and braces for the junior high spring formal had set me on my path to social awkwardness early.
And now my big accomplishment was that I’d somehow grown breasts—or at least the appearance of them in this too tight dress.
Yay me.
“Yours are climbing high too. Is that a wedding dress or are you trying on your honeymoon lingerie?”
“Neither. This is my slip.” She hiked it up higher and her jugs threatened to overflow like Mount Vesuvius. “You don’t remember my wedding dress?”
“Uh, it was light-colored…”
Shaking her head, she laughed. “It’s gray. Not white because I’m super preggo.” She reached down to cup her noticeable baby bump, and something rippled through my midsection. The feeling wasn’t uncomfortable exactly. Just…weird.
What was it like to have one of those in there? Just cooking away and getting bigger by the hour.
Not that I wanted one. My life was work, work, and more work. Family would be part of the mix soon too. And yeah, Thor tried to get me to see there were other things in life, but babies? Not so much.
“You’re beautiful.” I swallowed over the unexpected dryness in my throat. “Except for those tears, Blondie. It’s your damn wedding day. Chin up. Unless Teach did something he deserves a steel-toed boot in the junk for, and if so, I can shed these fancy threads in a nanosecond.” I grimaced and shoved up my breasts. “Well, maybe a full minute. Good thing I have an assortment of wrenches available to get this zipper back down.”
She let out a watery giggle and ducked down long enough for me to see her entirely too crammed dressing room. There was a handsome blond dude in a tux and a pair of society types who probably were her parents—and the parents of Mr. Slick if the resemblance held true.
A few other random women milled about whom I assumed were in the wedding party. Luna had assured me it was small, but I was pretty sure m
y idea of small and hers were very different.
“I’m sorry to call this late. I know you’ll be leaving soon.”
I checked the time on my phone. “I am? Hippie Acres isn’t far from here.”
The wetness in her eyes dried in a blink. “Happy. And um, have you looked outside today? It’s a mess out there.”
I went to the window and groaned at the blanket of white outside. Dripping from the trees, thickly coating the grass, stacking high on the banks of the shore.
Great. One more complication for my day. Now I’d have to find my way to some apple farm on the back roads of Turnbull in a damn blizzard.
I shut my eyes and debated pretending I’d lost cell service from the storm. But that was low even for me. It was Luna and Caleb’s wedding day. That meant joy and happiness and fa-la-la-the-fuck-la.
“You know, maybe you shouldn’t have skipped doing a wedding rehearsal? That way, at least some of us would have a clue how to get there.”
“There’s a map on the back of your invitation,” she said primly. “And I didn’t want to have a rehearsal because—”
“You wanted it to be all natural and for events to unfold without scripting. I can guarantee they will since you’re having your freaking BFF marry you. Is she even legal?”
“Of course. Our handfasting ceremony will be as official as any other.”
“Says the witness in your belly,” I muttered. “Anyway, I’ll figure it out. If everyone else can find the place, I can too.”
“That’s just the thing.” Her chin wobbled. “Some of the family and friends can’t make it because of the storm. The wedding started out small and now it’s even smaller. And...” She took a deep breath, clearly trying to keep it together. “My bestie can’t be my maid-of-honor because she’s on the way to urgent care with her grams.”
“What the hell kind of excuse is that? Wrap up grandma and get on the road.”
Truth be told, I was a little jealous of this so-called bestie for having called in the spilled blood excuse before I’d thought of it.
Slow on the uptake, Burns. You snooze, you lose.
But no, I wouldn’t bail on a friend, even a new one like Lu. Besides, she was important to Lucky because of the whole Caleb deal, and that mattered because no one wanted a rift with the man who held the fate of their home’s foundation in his hands. Any more of a rift in this case, since I’d already created a deep enough one with my mouthing off.
