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And he meant the “mess” part quite literally. His house was a bona fide disaster with all the old flower beds dug up, a tree cut down and lying in sawed-up chunks across the side yard and the cobblestone path to the front door piled into a heap of rubble. Just what in the hell did this woman who’d never bothered to introduce herself think she was doing to his property?
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t all his. He really did own it in conjunction with his siblings since their father had died and left the family home to them all. But with his youngest brother at Harvard and determined to live up north, a soon-to-be married sister who already lived abroad and two other brothers who had bought houses with their significant others, Vito had begun thinking of the Cesare family home as his responsibility.
The way it had been for many years after their folks had died.
As the oldest of the Cesares, Vito had stepped in to raise his younger siblings. His mother had passed away in childbirth when he was barely a teenager, his father had followed her six years later. He’d taken care of the kids and the house until his sister was safely in college and his youngest brother was almost finished with high school. Then he’d given over the responsibilities to his brothers Nico and Renzo so he could finally live his own dreams on the European racing circuit.
The sound of footsteps on the driveway made him pause, pulling his head out of old memories. Turning as he reached the side door, he found the possessive owner of the fire bush on his heels, staring up at him with wary blue eyes.
“You can’t go in,” she informed him, tucking a strand of chin-length dark brown hair behind one ear. “The place is a little messy.”
He peered around the yard and wondered if the inside could be as bad as the outside. Glancing back down at her dust-smeared khaki cargo shorts and damp gray T-shirt, he was hardly reassured. Although he’d be lying if he pretended not to notice the admirable curves beneath the layers of dirt. “How messy?”
“Considering you look like you just walked off a shoot for GQ, you’ll probably think it looks pretty bad.” She folded her arms under those admirable curves of hers and looked at him as though he was the one covered in grime. “But as far as I’m concerned, it’s just all in a day’s work.”
That didn’t sound good. At all. Vito’s method of combating jet lag involved lots of sleeping, not cleaning. In fact, he’d grown accustomed to maid service since he’d traded surrogate parenthood to his younger siblings for life in the fast lane as a Formula One race-car driver. He hadn’t picked up a mop in years.
And he didn’t miss domestic duties one little bit.
Deciding that facing the mess couldn’t be any worse than surviving the heat, Vito inserted his key in the lock.
Paused. Turned back to the woman behind him.
“I don’t believe I caught your name.”
“Christine Chandler. Sorry. I try to avoid introductions when my hands are dirty.” She kept the hands in question tucked under her folded arms.
“Very understandable.” Nudging open the door he stepped inside the kitchen of the sprawling ranch house his dad had bought when he moved to the U.S. Or at least, the room that used to be the kitchen.
Currently, the kitchen sink overflowed with flower cuttings, plant stems and mountains of dirt. The windowsill overlooking the backyard was crammed full of flower flats precariously balanced half on the sill and half on the dining-room chairs. Bags of potting soil and birdseed crowded the floor.
“Birdseed?” It was the least offensive question that sprang to mind when all he really wanted to know was what in the hell this insane woman was doing to his house.
His mother had always called their home “Hollywood tacky” with its open floor plan and sixties modern architecture. But it had felt like home to Vito with the big yard and tons of neighbor kids to grow up with. He always looked forward to coming home, but this time…Damn.
“For the birds,” she explained very slowly as if only a complete moron would ask such an obvious question. Easing around the bags on the floor, she washed her hands over a tiny free corner of the sink. “Your uncle Giuseppe stressed that he hoped to attract a lot of birds.”
“And you can’t keep this stuff in the garage?”
“The birdseed, yes. I’ll move it now that you’re home.” She nudged one of the bags with the toe of her work boot. “But I have to be careful with the plants because it’s very hot in the garage and they’ll stay fresher if I keep them cool. I can always move them out to the workshop.”
Vito dropped his suitcase on top of a stack of empty flower flats by the door. Draping his jacket over the suitcase, he made his way to the refrigerator and hoped a drink would clear his head. He wanted straight scotch. He’d settle for a soda or anything else his brothers had left in the fridge.
He found only lemons. Tons and tons of lemons.
“I drink a lot of lemonade when I work.” Drying her hands, she moved past him to grab a white pitcher off the door. Something he hadn’t noticed thanks to the citrus garden growing on the other shelves. “Want me to pour you a glass while we discuss how to handle this miscommunication?”
He wasn’t sure he even wanted to discuss it anymore. His whole world was in chaos and he’d been made a stranger in his own home.
Maybe he’d hunt down the scotch after all.
“Are you okay?” Christine stuffed a glass in one of his hands and then pried the open refrigerator door from his other. “I’d be happy to get out of your way and go back to work as soon as we establish that I am still getting paid for my efforts. I am going to get paid for all this, aren’t I?”
She made a sweeping gesture to indicate his house, that ought to be condemned, and his eyesore of a yard that would piss off neighbors for miles around.
“Do you usually get paid for doing this?” He’d be surprised if she didn’t get hauled off to jail. Was she exercising squatter’s rights by moving into his house and making it hers?
He had to stifle an absurd urge to laugh as she seemed to genuinely consider his question.
“Honestly, sometimes I don’t get paid because I’m very new at this, but I studied horticulture with the best landscape designers in California and now I’m ready to bring that knowledge to southern Florida.” She busied herself by filling a paper cup with water and pouring the contents over the plants in his sink. “Your yard is my first large-scale production as a solo artist, but I’ve worked on bigger undertakings with other designers.”
He leaned against the light wooden cupboards in the kitchen where he’d toasted his first Pop-Tart, weary with the way she seemed to talk in circles. For all he knew, his tired brain could be making it sound as though she was talking in circles when she was being perfectly rational.
“And just what did my uncle hire you to do here?” He made a mental note to call Giuseppe as soon as possible and ask him what the hell he thought he was doing jumping in to hire help for Vito without asking.
For that matter, why did Vito’s whole family have to tiptoe around the fact that Vito was now a multimillionaire and could damn well afford to hire his own help? And his brothers were no better, paying to take care of every repair needed on the family home instead of letting him know when he needed to pitch in. According to Renzo and Nico, Vito had already given enough to the family coffers while they were growing up.
“I’m landscaping the property.” She set down the paper cup and turned to face him, her back against the wine cabinet his brother Renzo had built long ago. “Your uncle said he wanted this place to be gorgeous by the time his niece’s wedding rolls around, so I’m developing a large-scale overhaul.” Pausing, she bit her lip, automatically drawing his gaze to that soft expanse of pink. “Do you know anything about this wedding, or is your uncle…you know…losing it?”
“He’s not losing it.” And even if he were, Vito would never let on as much to an outsider. He did wonder if Giuseppe really intended to pay Christine, or if he was leaving that up to Vito. He needed to discuss that matter with him when he called, too. “He probably wanted to surprise me. He didn’t mention anything about me coming home while you were working?”
“Not so much as a whisper.” She rearranged a length of ivy along a countertop, her hands treating the delicate vine with tenderness. “Believe me, I would have remembered that part.”
No wonder she was a landscaper. She was obviously damn good with plants even if she didn’t know squat about brooms or mops. Something about her gentle touch as she handled her foliage made him wonder…
He stopped himself cold, allowing her words to sink in. Could it be a coincidence that his uncle had hired a young woman who, Vito was beginning to realize, was actually very attractive underneath all that grass stain? And could it be random accident that Giuseppe had invited a woman to sleep in the house when he knew damn well Vito would be coming home for his sister’s wedding?
Not a chance in hell.
“I’m afraid I have to apologize.” Setting his empty lemonade glass on the counter, Vito thought he had a better handle on this whole bizarre situation now. Uncle Giuseppe, eternal matchmaker, strikes again.
“My uncle is a notorious family cupid and I have the feeling that he set us up to stumble on one another like this. Once he hired a pool boy for my aunt Lorraine who didn’t even own a pool. Another time he wrote love poetry for his brother to help him land a woman. He takes a lot of joy putting people in one another’s paths and seeing what happens. And since I’m way past marrying age in Uncle Giuseppe’s book, I’ve apparently become his new target.”
“Wait a minute.” Christine frowned, her wide blue eyes turning a shade darker. Her shoulders straightened and her cheeks flushed pink. “Do you mean to imply your uncle only hired me as a potential hookup for you and not because of my landscaping skills?”
“Hell no.” His uncle had been raised in a culture that didn’t approve of hooking up. He approved of marriage. Kids. Family. But Vito wasn’t about to share that with this gardening goddess who looked mad enough to spit nails. Although he had to admit that her pink cheeks were turning him on and making him think of wholly inappropriate other ways to make her flush like that. “He probably just wanted me to meet some more nice women—”
“I am not a nice woman.” The female who’d been so gentle with her ivy plant and so protective of her fire bush looked ready to personally take him out if he dared to suggest otherwise. “And I will sue your uncle for breach of contract if he thinks he can pawn me off on some overgrown, flashy playboy who is so far removed from nature he wouldn’t know what to do with a bag of birdseed if he tripped over it.”
“Now wait a minute.” Vito had always prided himself on having more patience than his hotheaded brothers who made a habit of speaking before thinking. But where did this woman get off calling him an overgrown playboy? And did she have any idea what it made a guy think when a woman told him she wasn’t nice? “I don’t think we need to start launching personal attacks to solve this. I was simply trying to share with you my uncle’s motivations.”
“Well you can tell him I don’t appreciate being hired for my ass and not my professional assets, okay? I agreed to a job, not a blind date.”
And before he could think of a comeback, Christine Chandler pivoted on her heel and walked right out the kitchen door.
If that didn’t beat all.
Of course, Vito couldn’t help moving to the kitchen window and watch the ass in question saunter away, hips twitching with her snappy walk down the drive-way. He felt a little bad for enjoying the view and the residual sparks in the air when she was clearly mad, but hell, wasn’t the urge to ogle tattooed across the Y chromosome?
Reaching for the door to follow her outside, hormones kicking to life, it occurred to him he didn’t feel tired anymore.
2
CHRISTINE HATED to muck up her big exit by simply digging her hands right back in the dirt to continue working for a guy who saw her presence as pure fluff.
Then again, what choices did she have? Pausing in the middle of Vito Cesare’s driveway, she scanned her brain for more options. Her beat-up secondhand truck was parked in the carport, so she possessed the means to leave. But where would she go?
She had no ready cash, and she was between apartments. Actually, she hadn’t even thought about looking for a new apartment for another month since this job was supposed to have taken at least that long. And if she left now, she could kiss her dreams of owning her own landscaping business goodbye. If she went bankrupt, no one in their right mind would ever give her a loan to start up again.
Peering around the yard for inspiration, her gaze landed on the fire bush already wilting in the Florida heat. She couldn’t just let the plant die so she could make a great exit.
Swallowing her pride, she trudged across the tilled up ground that would one day be a lush flower garden. As she finished securing the bush into the ground and giving the shrub a nice long drink, she couldn’t help but think of the fat investment account her older brother had started in her name.
She had the money to finance this dream. But damn it, she didn’t want to start her own business with money someone else had earned. Her older brother Seth had worked long hours for years after their father walked out, slowly growing adept at reading the stock market and knowing where to invest. He’d made huge profits on his investments, funneling money to both Christine and their brother Jesse.
But she’d never been comfortable with the idea of someone else making money on her behalf. What kind of satisfaction would she take in owning her own business if the whole operation rode on the shoulders of Seth’s hard work and not her own?
The answer remained the same as it had been for the last six months she’d struggled to start All Natural.
None.
Rinsing her hands in the stream from the hose before tossing aside the nozzle, Christine prepared herself to go back and face Vito Cesare. To somehow eat humble pie and pretend it tasted good.
Definitely not her forte.
But as she straightened, he was already there in front of her, dressed in olive-colored shorts and a white knit collared shirt. He held two glasses of lemonade in his hands.
He stepped over the hose to offer her a drink, his feet now visible in black flip-flops. “I would have come out sooner to apologize for that whole misunderstanding, but I thought it might be better if I cooled off first.”
He looked far more approachable in flip-flops. The gold wristwatch was gone, as were the slick shades. She wholeheartedly approved of the more laid-back Vito. In fact, if she hadn’t seen a glimpse of Vito the worldly jet-setter, she could almost be attracted to him.
Gulping down the lemonade he handed her, she decided she was the one who needed cooling off. No way would she develop a thing for the man who held the future of her fledgling business in his hands. Too unprofessional. Too tacky.
“Actually, I was just about to come looking for you to apologize, too.” She pressed the bottom of her cool glass to her hot forehead, the icy cold condensation a welcome relief from the sultry temperature outdoors and her hot flashes inside. “I was sort of taken off guard to think your uncle didn’t care about having the yard look really great. I wanted to be impressive with the best landscaping job I could provide and not because I look better in shorts than my competition, you know?”
His eyes flicked south at the mention of her legs and Christine found herself wondering how many other women had fallen victim to that hooded stare. Been there. Done that. Lived the public humiliation of having been taken in by a pro.
She swigged the rest of her drink and kept her mind on business.
“I understand better than you think.” He nodded toward the house. “There are some chairs around back on the patio if you want to sit for a minute.”
Nodding, she followed him since they obviously had a few glitches to iron out together.
“So, are you suggesting you know what it’s like to be hired for your bod instead of your brains, Cesare?” She could hold her own with this guy as long as she kept things light, easy. She would put herself in the driver’s seat of this relationship and stay there.
“As a matter of fact, I do. Sort of.” He led them to the patio that she’d commandeered for peat moss.
Thankfully, she’d used all the bags of manure a week ago.
She couldn’t picture Vito hanging out around the fertilizer, even in his flip-flop guise. Settling into the wrought-iron chair across from him with a big glass-topped umbrella table between them, she placed her empty glass on the surface and was grateful the lawn wasn’t in full destruction mode back here. A tire swing still hung in an old banyan tree behind a big workshop in the backyard. “And how is it that you end up being judged on your looks? Are you an underwear model on the side?”
“Are you suggesting I’d have a future in the industry?”
“Just taking wild guesses.” She wished she hadn’t emptied her glass so quickly as she conjured images of Vito in his underwear. Was he a boxers or briefs kind of guy?
Considering his flashy clothes earlier, she’d have to go with silk boxers. But if ever a man had been built for tighty-whiteys…
“Christine?”
Her underwear daydreams faded at Vito’s voice. “Sorry. You were saying?”
“I’m a race-car driver.” The humor in his eyes suggested he knew the direction of her daydreams. “And sometimes people bet on a driver because he looks good in his racing suit instead of how well he drives. That bugs me, too, so I don’t blame you for being miffed that my uncle would be so superficial. If it makes you feel any better though, I’m sure he never would have hired you if he didn’t think you’d do a great job on the landscaping. He’s really excited about Giselle’s wedding.”
“You race cars?” Christine didn’t know squat about any sport. For that matter, was racing even considered a sport since it didn’t have a damn thing to do with being athletic?
“I’m a Formula One driver.” At her blank look, he continued. “It’s open-wheel racing. You know, as opposed to stock cars like NASCAR?”
“Don’t have a clue about any of those, actually. Although I’m sure you look very cute in the racing suit.” She’d flirt with him before he had the chance to flirt with her, putting herself firmly in control of the situation. No sense making herself seem like a novice when it came to men. She wouldn’t be taken advantage of again. “But back to the matter at hand, what do you suggest we do in relation to my work here?”
He peered around the yard, his square shoulders settling deeper into the wrought-iron patio chair. “I think you’d better keep working. No offense, Christine, but it looks like a natural disaster around here.”
“It’s a work in progress.” She wasn’t always the neatest person, even when she wasn’t involved in an extensive landscaping job. But she could see the potential for the yard and had every confidence it would be gorgeous by the time she finished. “Besides, I was operating under the impression that the house would be vacant except for me, so I’ll admit I’ve been a little more lax about daily cleanup just because I’m working such long hours on this job. It doesn’t make much sense for me to put away my tools in the garage every night when I’m only going to need them six hours later.”
“You’re putting in that much time on the yard?”
“Have you seen the property recently? It was in shambles. Not that it looked terrible from the street or anything, but from a professional perspective, it needed to be almost started from scratch. Just keeping up with all the watering is more than a full-time job for transplants in this heat.” She leaned closer, elbows on the table. “But you think I’ll be able to stay on here and finish up the job?”
She folded her hands inward so he wouldn’t see her crossing her fingers.
“Definitely. I sure as hell couldn’t have my baby sister come home with the house looking like this. Giuseppe told you it needs to be ready to go September first?”
“It won’t be a problem as long as I can continue to work at manic speed, which means I can’t take off many afternoons like this.” She plucked her T-shirt away from her damp skin in the hope of catching a breeze. “And I’d also need to be able to stay onsite so I can maximize my work hours. Do you have any family you can stay with for a few weeks while I finish up? Giuseppe, maybe, since he’s the one who assured me I’d have twenty-four-hour access to the property?”
“That could be a problem.” Vito drained his lemonade glass with one long swallow. The upturned glass dripped condensation down into the open neck of his collared shirt, drawing Christine’s eye to that dark expanse of skin glistening with a slight sheen.
She blinked fast before the underwear fantasy came back.
“How so? If you don’t want to stay with your uncle, maybe you could stay at a swanky hotel while you’re in town. Aren’t European race-car drivers practically made of money?”
“No. But money isn’t really the issue here—it’s more of a comfort concern. I like to stay at the house whenever I’m in the States. I grew up here, so it’s sort of…home.” He met her gaze, his hazel eyes dark and intense despite his relaxed tone.
Christine had the feeling he wouldn’t be changing his mind on the issue anytime soon.
“Well, we can’t both stay here.” What did he expect her to do—pitch a tent out front for the next month?
“Why can’t we?”
For a moment she thought he really wanted her to get to work on the tent, until she realized she’d never said that part out loud. “You mean both of us in the house?”
