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“Be right there.” She scrambled up the roof and disappeared over the peak.
His lips stiffened as the crew’s guarded stares burned holes through his T-shirt. What did they think he was going to do—walk off with a load of shingles?
The woman rounded the corner of the house and fired off a barrage of commands that sent the men scurrying back to their jobs, which only confirmed Aaron’s earlier suspicion; the little dynamo headed in his direction was the forewoman.
Stopping a few feet away, she sized him up. He grimaced when her mouth puckered. Obviously, she found him less than acceptable—something he didn’t often encounter with the opposite sex.
“Aaron Smith reporting for duty.” He held out a hand.
Her eyes widened as she stared at their entwined fingers. Then she flung her head back and laughed. The throaty sound surprised him; he’d expected a squeaky noise from such a petite body. “What’s so funny?”
“Jennifer Alvarado, the site foreman,” she said, introducing herself, then quickly added, “and I specifically remember requesting someone with experience.”
“I have experience.” That is, if constructing Lego buildings as a tyke counted as experience.
She removed her hard hat, and a long, inky ponytail fell down her back, stopping a good three inches below her shoulders. She had almond-shaped brown eyes framed by sooty lashes, and a wide generous mouth that showed off bright white teeth. Bold, black brows arched above her eyes, hinting at arrogance. Without a trace of makeup, the lady was more stunning than any female he’d ever dated. And Aaron had to admit that the tool belt around her well-rounded hips made for an intriguing fashion accessory—one every woman ought to add to her wardrobe.
One haughty eyebrow arched higher than the other. “You’ve worked on a construction crew before?”
Sweat popped out across his brow. “Yes,” he lied. He doubted he and his brothers qualified as a crew, but the three had assembled several play forts at their grandfather’s home in Edgartown, Massachusetts, on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. One weekend they’d attempted a whaling boat. At the time it had seemed appropriate, since their grandfather’s house was a fully restored whaling captain’s residence dating back to 1790. The finished craft had resembled a misshapen box and had sunk on its first voyage in the water.
“Doesn’t matter.” She curved her thumbs around her tool belt. “You’re fired.”
“Fired?” Pop’s face flashed before Aaron’s eyes as panic sent his heart banging against his rib cage. “You can’t fire me.”
She checked her watch. “It’s eight o’clock. We start at seven sharp.”
“I got lost. Ask the man at the grocery mart a few blocks from here. He’ll tell you that I stopped for directions.” When her eyes narrowed to mocha-colored slits, he pointed to the corner, where the street name had been torn off the top of the signpost. “This isn’t an easy place to locate.”
“You’re not from around here and—”
“Ma’am, I want this job. Give me a chance to prove myself.” To Aaron’s way of thinking, he’d need a heck of a lot of chances to survive three months on this woman’s crew. Determined to make this work, to prove once and for all that he didn’t need anyone to rescue him, Aaron held steady under the forewoman’s assessing glare.
She thrust her chin forward, no doubt hoping to add another inch to her height. “No.”
He admired the way she kept eye contact with him—not a simple task when the top of her head barely met his shoulder. At six-one, he towered over her.
“First, I’m the only person who speaks fluent English. Second, I’m not always at the site the entire day.” She counted off on her fingers—fingers unadorned with rings or acrylic nails and polish. “And third, I can’t afford any mess-ups because of miscommunication.”
“The language barrier won’t be a problem.” Hell, when it came to building homes, Aaron was clueless in any language.
“Sorry. You’re fired.”
Now what?
Although the crew appeared to be working, each man was keeping a watchful eye on the boss lady, convincing him that this forewoman had more than earned the group’s respect and loyalty.
Time to pull out the big guns. “If you fire me, I’ll sue your organization for discrimination.”
“¡Está loco!”
“You called me crazy, didn’t you?” When her expressive brown eyes widened, he grinned. “I understand more than you think.”
“If you need this job as badly as you claim, then I doubt you have the means to pay for a lawyer.”
“There are plenty of free legal clinics in the city.”
“You’re bluffing, Mr. Smith.”
Lowering his voice, he asked, “Are you willing to put your job on the line to find out, Ms. Alvarado?”
She settled her hand over the hammer dangling from her tool belt. He suspected she’d like to pound his head with it. The boss lady was one-hundred-percent miffed female.
“How about a second chance?” He pressed his lips together to keep from chuckling at the dark flush stealing across her cheekbones.
“On one condition.”
Conditions, again? His grandfather. Now her. “What?”
“Finish installing the wallboard in the living room and entryway by the end of the day.”
“Or else…?”
“Or else you’re unemployed.”
Chapter Two
Jennifer strolled past the corner of the house, then collapsed on a stack of roofing shingles. She breathed deeply, hoping to settle her rising frustration—if she could call the jittery feeling in her stomach frustration.
The new crew member, Mr. Smith, hadn’t fooled her. A construction worker…yeah, right. And she was a runway model. If his brand-new jeans, sparkling-clean work boots and the absence of a tool belt and hard hat hadn’t given him away, his hands would have. Clean, well-manicured nails and slight calluses—the kind a person gets from working out at the gym. The guy was a fraud. A heck of a handsome one, but a fraud nonetheless.
Barrio Amigo usually employed only local Latino men. Why would her boss send her someone who—she’d bet her best Bosch drill on this—had never even driven through Santa Angelita before today? And why hadn’t Louisa, Barrio Amigo’s secretary, notified her that the new replacement would be starting this morning?
She’d been hoping for a man with more experience, one who could do the work of two men each day. Due to the unusually rainy weather, the crew had fallen two weeks behind schedule on Mrs. Benitos’s home. Jennifer had promised the older woman she could move in by the end of May and today was April first.
April Fool’s Day. She smacked her open palm against her forehead. Louisa had sent Aaron Smith as an April Fool’s Day joke. I wish. Louisa was too flighty and self-absorbed to carry out such a scheme.
“Who’s the new anglo?” Juan, Jennifer’s second-in-command, shimmied down the ladder propped against the back of the house. He spoke fairly good English—when he wished to—and supervised the crew if she had to leave the site.
“His name is Aaron Smith. Ricardo’s replacement.” Ricardo had slipped a disc in his lower back a week ago and had gone out on medical leave.
“Doesn’t look like a construction worker.”
“I doubt he’ll last the day.” She peered around the corner just in time to witness the new employee stagger under a thirty-five-pound sheet of wall-board. Returning her attention to Juan, she asked, “Will you keep an eye on this guy while I run to the office?”
“Sí.” Juan climbed back up the ladder and disappeared from sight.
Five minutes later, Jennifer hopped in her truck and headed to the nonprofit organization’s headquarters. Traffic north on Wilshire Boulevard had slowed to a crawl, but at least vehicles were moving. She should have waited until Louisa entered the office at noon to hear the scoop on Aaron Smith, but Jennifer wanted to know more about the new guy ASAP.
The headquarters for Barrio Amigo sat in a strip mall that had seen better days. A Closed sign hung in the window, so Jennifer let herself in with her own key and went straight to the metal filing cabinet against the far wall. She skimmed the employee records but found none marked with Aaron’s name. Next she rifled through the secretary’s In basket but again, nothing. Did Aaron Smith even exist? She scribbled a note, asking Louisa to call her cell phone later, then locked the door and left. By the time she’d returned to the site, the crew was breaking for lunch.
“Don’t go in there,” Juan warned, blocking the front door of the house.
Her stomach clenched. “I thought you were keeping an eye on him.”
“One of the trusses had to be adjusted. I just now got off the roof to check on his progress.” He shook his head in disgust and mumbled something about having to repair the damage the anglo had caused.
When Jennifer entered the house, whistling sounds greeted her ears. From the snappy tune to the jig in his step, Aaron appeared to be enjoying himself. No wonder—he’d gone loco!
“Hey, boss.” He flashed a charming grin.
She scowled.
“I’m making good progress.”
Inching closer to one wall, she examined his work and shuddered. He’d used the wrong nails, and most of them had been pounded into the wallboard at odd angles. She turned slowly in a circle and surveyed the entire area, unable to prevent her mouth from dropping open.
“What’s wrong?” He joined her and together they twirled like a couple of toy tops.
“Where are the outlets? The heater vents? The air-intake vents?”
“Outlets and vents?”
“Those things you plug lamps and TVs into? The places hot air and cool air enter the room.”
He scratched his head. “Shoot. I must have covered them up.”
Unsure whether to laugh or cry at his perplexed frown, she pressed her palms to her forehead, hoping to ease the thump, thump building in intensity. “You’ll have to remove all the wallboard, cut out the electrical and vents, then nail them back in place. I doubt you’ll get that far by the end of the day, but if you do, find me.” She tapped her finger against a bent nail head. “You’re using the wrong-sized nails and they have to be pounded in straight.”
She snatched the hammer from his hand, then grabbed a nail from the pouch on her tool belt. “Do it—” with one blow, the nail went straight into the board “—like that.”
“Impressive.”
The compliment startled her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d awed a man. Oh, heck. She didn’t care what Smith thought of her. As long as he respected her authority—Then why did those clear blue eyes make her yearn to do something else to catch his attention?
Although she suspected the new employee had never worked construction until today, he intrigued her. But no good could come out of becoming better acquainted with Aaron Smith. Where men were concerned, especially anglo men, she no longer trusted her instincts. An anglo had burned her once and left her family devastated.
Troubled by the memories of her past, she cleared her throat. “Time to break for lunch.”
A few minutes later, Aaron left the house, went to his truck and removed a lunch pail. He returned to the front yard, pausing near the men sprawled across the grass. When no one in the group acknowledged his presence, he walked off and sat alone under a lemon tree.
Jennifer resisted the temptation to join Aaron. She’d survived being an outcast on more crews than she cared to remember—just because she was a woman.
By the end of the day, Aaron Smith was as good as gone.
“QUITTING TIME!” the boss lady shouted from somewhere outside the house.
Aaron rolled his shoulder, surprised at the bruised feeling in the joint. Evidently, three-times-a-week workouts at his fitness center were no match for hauling wallboard all day. Beginning at the front door, he counted the panels he’d taken down, cut out the electrical and vents and nailed back up. Eight. Crap. He had over half the room left to do.
“Smith, get out here!”
Jennifer Alvarado. Even her name sounded sexy. When he stepped outside, he noticed the rest of the crew had left the site. Except Juan, who lingered near his truck. In Aaron’s opinion, the right-hand man was a tad too overprotective of the boss.
“Here.” Jennifer shoved a piece of paper in his face.
“A personal check?”
“Why wait until next Friday to claim a day’s pay?”
“You’re really going to fire me because I didn’t finish putting up the wallboard?”
She planted her hands on her hips and glared. “You’re too slow, Smith.”
“I’ll stay and complete the job, and you won’t have to pay me overtime.”
“No. I want someone with more experience.” She gestured toward the front door. “We’re already behind schedule, and tomorrow the crew will have to waste precious time finishing your work.”
“But—”
“Smith.”
“Aaron.”
“Aaron.” The starch in her shoulders disappeared.
Interesting.
“I appreciate that you tried your best.” Her mouth twitched. “Had we met under different circumstances, I’d have pegged you for a businessman. I have a hunch you’d look right at home behind a desk.”
If you only knew, lady. He opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off…again.
“I have to be at another site before dark.” Halfway to her truck, she stopped and turned. “You don’t live here in Santa Angelita, do you?”
“No.”
“Can you find your way out?”
“Sure.” Her concern for his welfare irked him. Reminded him of the lack of confidence his brothers and grandfather had in him. When she made no move to get into her truck, he said, “I’ll leave the hammer and nails inside the house.”
He returned to the yard, expecting the boss lady to be long gone. Instead, he spied her truck idling at the corner. Well, hell. He’d have to leave, then sneak back when the coast was clear. He got into his Ford and pulled away from the curb, heading in the opposite direction.
By morning, the feisty señorita would discover that Aaron Smith was no quitter.
“HEY, ALVARADO, over here,” Juan called from the porch of Mrs. Benitos’s home.
Each morning Jennifer and Juan arrived a half hour ahead of the crew. They used the time to check supplies, examine the previous day’s work for mistakes and decide if anything should be redone. She tossed the blueprint she’d been studying through the open truck window, then cut across the lawn. “Let me guess. A graffiti artist christened the inside of the house.”
Chuckling, Juan shook his head.
