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“Which leaves you with me.”
“Damn it.” He couldn’t keep watching the way her breasts swelled under her shirt with each breath, so he stared into the darkness. “Sure as the world I’m going to end up in trouble with Rosie.”
“Would you like me to talk to her, woman-to-woman, and explain the predicament we’re in?”
“No!”
“So you’ll talk to her?”
“I... No. Not about us, anyway. I was planning to explain to her sometime during this visit that flipping houses suits me, especially the way I do it. I live in the house until it’s done and then move to the next one, which isn’t a good lifestyle for a wife and family. I want her to give up on that idea because I like how I run my business and don’t intend to change.”
“So you could start with that discussion and segue into our particular circumstance. Then she’ll know in advance that if we sleep together it doesn’t mean anything.”
That hit him wrong. “Wait a minute. It would mean something, just not—”
“Okay, bad choice of words. It wouldn’t lead to love and marriage. Is that better?”
“It’s better, but I have trouble picturing me having such a conversation with Rosie. For one thing, she won’t believe me. I’m sure she’s convinced that if the right woman comes along, I’ll change my ways.”
“She may think that, but I don’t.”
He stared at her. “You don’t?”
“Why does that surprise you?”
His mind stumbled. “Don’t most women think a guy just needs the love of a good woman to turn his life around?”
“I have no idea. Maybe. I grew up surrounded by my dad’s working buddies. Some of them will never change, no matter what women get ahold of them.”
“You should try telling that to Rosie. I guarantee she’d argue with you about it. Sure, she might give up on the really bad apples, like the SOBs who beat their kids or abandon their families, but if a man’s decent, she wants to find him a soul mate.”
“Like I said, that’s her prerogative. But I don’t believe it. If you tell me you’re happy with your life as it is, I will believe you. I won’t harbor some secret plan to convert you to domesticity.”
“Huh. You’re even more unusual than I thought.”
“Probably. And now that we’ve had this deep discussion, I’m heading home. See you at dawn at the building site.” She turned and started toward her truck.
“Wait.” He followed her. “We haven’t settled anything.”
She turned back to him. “What’s to settle? We have to work together unless you want to trade me for Stiffle.”
“God, no.”
“Then I’ll be here at sunrise, and we’ll see what happens.”
He groaned. “Phil...”
“Look, I want to get this cabin built as much as you do. I love Rosie and Herb, and if Thunder Mountain Academy means they can live out their lives here, I want to do what I can to make that happen.”
“So do I.”
“Then man up, Harrison. We’ll work our tails off during the day, and if the close proximity leaves us frustrated at quitting time, then we’ll figure out what to do about that.”
“You think like a man.”
She smiled. “Spoken like a man who has a lot to learn about women.”
At the moment he had no interest in learning about women in general, but he sure wanted to find out what made this particular one tick. And what made her moan and cry out with pleasure. He stood with fists clenched as he battled the urge to reach out. He itched to make contact.
Her voice softened. “My original plan was to keep our relationship strictly professional. Then I met you.”
That admission snapped what little control he had. Grasping her shoulders, he pulled her forward and kissed her. It wasn’t an elegant kiss. Desperation made him clumsy, and he landed off-center.
She adjusted the fit and...he was lost. Her mouth was perfect. He’d kissed more women than he could count, and yet he’d never settled into a kiss that felt so absolutely right. Even more perfect, she tasted of apple pie à la mode, his favorite dessert.
He kept his hands on her shoulders because if he let them stray, the kiss would turn into something else entirely. He didn’t want that. For now, for tonight, he only needed the magic of his lips on hers.
They kissed as if they’d done this before, which was an eerie feeling. He explored with his tongue, and then she returned the favor. The sweet thrust of her tongue in his mouth jacked up his pulse rate. He knew how much he wanted her. To know that she wanted him was enough to make him forget all the complications this kiss would bring.
Gradually their breathing changed and became more labored. She eased away. “Not tonight,” she murmured.
“I know.” He released her because that was the right thing to do.
“We’ll see how it goes.” She backed toward her truck.
“Yeah.” But he knew how it would go. He’d never kissed a woman that passionately without following through. They would be lovers. It was a done deal now.
He watched until her truck’s taillights disappeared around a curve in the road.
“I waited until I heard her drive away before I came out here.” Cade walked up beside him. “I need to apologize.”
“Nah.” Damon turned to him. “I see how it was. Rosie and Lexi ganged up on you. When a guy’s sweetheart and his mom box him in, there’s not much to be done.”
“Even so, it’s put you in a difficult position. I can tell you really like her, but if you do anything about it, Rosie will start planning the wedding.”
Damon glanced at him. “You know all about that, don’t you, bro?”
“’Fraid so. But if you’re not ready for that kind of commitment, then—”
“I’m not. But you want to know the weird thing about this? Phil has no intention of trying to change me. She accepts that I’m a guy who isn’t into the white picket fence routine. She’s a-okay with a temporary arrangement.”
“Wow, that’s kind of different.”
“I know, but she’s different. She’s strong and she’s savvy. I’ve never met anyone like her. She grew up with guys like me and she has no illusions. She’d rather not be attracted to me, but she is.”
“Nothing new there. That’s the story of your life ever since you hit puberty.”
“But Phil’s so practical about it. Instead of trying to make this into something it isn’t, she seems fine with having a great time for a few days and then going our separate ways.”
“But then there’s Rosie, who expects you to ride off into the sunset together.”
“Yeah. So, um...” Damon rubbed the back of his neck. “Would you consider talking to her about Phil and me?”
Cade chuckled and shook his head. “Nice try. That’s your job, and somehow you have to make it stick.”
“Phil understands how it is with me. Why can’t Rosie?”
“Because you’re one of her boys. She has definite ideas about how our lives should turn out. She’s a fixer. That was what got her into social work all those years ago, and what prompted her and Herb to turn the ranch into a foster home.”
“We’re damned lucky she’s a fixer,” Damon said. “She saved my bacon, that’s for sure.”
“She saved all of us, and she...well, she can’t stop trying to help. She thinks matching you up with Phil was a stroke of genius, and before you go blaming it all on Rosie, it was Lexi’s idea to start with.”
“Wait, there’s the plan! I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. I’ll talk to Lexi, who should understand given that she’s dragging her feet regarding you.”
“Hey! Tender subject.”
“Sorry. But see, I could talk to Lexi, and Lexi could talk to Rosie. How’s that?”
“It would have sounded great to me when we were in junior high.”
“Shit.” Damon sighed. “You’re right. I have to face Rosie, which will be damned embarrassing, and find a way to explain that Phil and I will be nothing more than friends with benefits.”
“Can I hide in the closet and listen?”
“No. And if there’s a rubber snake in my bed tonight I swear I’ll sneak over to Lexi’s duplex and duct-tape the front door while you two are in there doing it. So watch yourself.”
Cade just grinned at him. “It’s good to have you back, bro. Let’s go have another beer before we call it a night.”
“Sounds fine to me, but Lexi probably wants to take you home and have her way with you.”
“She probably does, but we need to drink another beer so she can slip out to your cabin and get rid of that rubber snake.”
4 (#u6998fab3-bb41-5d03-b5cb-3ee8bfbcd3a2)
PHIL WAS USED to hard work, but she’d never had the mingled pleasure and pain of constructing a cabin with Damon Harrison. The man provided gorgeous scenery, but she barely got to enjoy the view because he never let up. She’d thought her dad was a dedicated construction guy, but Damon had him beat by a country mile.
They started building the walls at dawn, a process similar in principle to the old Lincoln Logs set she’d had as a kid. Except these logs required a forklift to transfer them from the correct pile to the section of the cabin where they belonged. She suggested taking turns driving the forklift and he’d agreed immediately.
In general she had no complaints, except the man seemed to have no Off switch. She was determined to work at least as hard as he did, so they kept up a steady pace. First they put down a layer of caulk along the flat side where the logs joined. After they positioned the next log, they drove spikes through predrilled holes to make sure the walls were rock-solid.
They ran the electrical wires between the logs for a cleaner look, and Damon’s exacting measurements guaranteed they never drove a spike through a wire. When Phil had worked for her dad, they’d sometimes run into careless builders. She’d guessed from Damon’s emails that he wasn’t at all careless, but after the first few hours, she knew it for a fact.
Rosie brought them lunch at noon, and talking with her had been the only time Phil had been able to sit down all day. By the time they stowed the tools at six o’clock, they had walls that reached to her waist. At this rate Damon would be able to go back to California early if he chose to.
Any worries that she’d be distracted by the way his sweat-dampened T-shirt clung to his muscled chest or how his jeans cupped his firm ass when he leaned over to pick up a drill bit were pointless. She’d had no leisure time to enjoy those things, not unless she wanted to look like a slacker.
“Good.” Damon took off his straw cowboy hat and mopped his face with a bandanna as he gazed at the walls rising from the foundation. “This was the height I wanted to reach today.”
Phil stopped drinking water from a large jug and looked at him. “I didn’t know you had daily goals for this project.”
“It didn’t seem necessary before, when I thought...”
“When you thought I was a man?” She was hot and tired and in no mood. “But with a woman you need daily goals? What the hell is that about?”
“Hey, hey, hey. That’s not what I meant at all. You’ve worked faster and more efficiently than any guy I know. I’m blown away by what you can accomplish.”
She was somewhat mollified. “So I guess you can forget about the goal thing, now that you know I can cut it.”
“Nope.” He put on his sweat-stained hat. “I set up ambitious production goals to keep me on track. Thinking about the job last night, and knowing how you affect my concentration, I decided some benchmarks would help me stay focused.”
“You didn’t seem to lack concentration today.” A breeze wafted through the meadow, and she fanned her damp T-shirt to take advantage of it. “I’ve never worked with anyone who concentrated on the job as hard as you do.”
He gave her a long, slow grin.
“What?”
“Then I must have hidden it well.” His smile widened. “Props to me.”
“Hidden what well?”
“You didn’t catch me watching you?”
“No.”
“Excellent.”
“When were you watching me?”
“A lot. Whenever you leaned over to spread the caulk, and especially when you drilled holes for the spikes.”
“There’s nothing sexy about using a power drill.” Not true. Damon with a power drill would have been extremely sexy if she’d had the luxury of watching him.
“That’s what you think. When you use the drill your breasts quiver.”
That movement would have been subtle. He’d definitely been paying close attention. “I can’t imagine where you found the time to notice things like that. I’ve been going full throttle all day and barely glanced at you.”
“And consequently, I’m pretty sure you got more work done than I did.”
“Really?” That was a gratifying thought.
“Yep, I’d bet on it. I have the feeling you were out to prove something to me today.”
“I thought you were trying to prove something to me!”
“I was, but then you’d do something sexy and I’d forget about my macho image and stop working so I could stare at you.”
“I totally didn’t notice.” No doubt because she’d been determined to show him that she could work rings around any man doing the same job.
