7. Claire
7
CLAIRE
O nce more, I warred with indecision. Making eye contact with Derek wasn’t a simple thing of being polite and looking at a person when they spoke. His deep voice held a tone of command, but he wasn’t being harsh. He wasn’t a “jerk-face” like that Hollis boy.
Gazing into his blue stare, I felt trapped. Caught. And suckered in.
“Right now?” I asked, needing to figure out a nice way to escape.
I wasn’t in the position to be suckered into anything. I could be wrong, but I suspected he was trying to be flirty. To entice me to hang out with him and his daughter.
I got friendly vibes from him, not creepy man-whorish ones.
“Yeah, let’s go,” Naomi said.
I blinked once, dropping my gaze down to her. Her voice cut through this lull of awareness that Derek prompted. She sounded so sassy yet sweet, and young. And it was all I needed as a reminder of another reason to say no thanks.
A widower.
Naomi and Derek were here alone. Just the two of them. That other man, Nick, was her uncle and with my deductive reasoning and the familial resemblance to Derek, I assumed that woman was his sister and Naomi’s aunt.
I almost wished they’d stayed with us as we walked along Main Street. It wouldn’t feel like I was rejecting a father and daughter, but a group. Telling several people I wasn’t interested would be far easier than letting down this young girl. Or her sexy dad.
As if this will break his heart. He was too damn fine not to have tons of women available to drink hot cocoa with.
It wasn’t a date. This wasn’t a fancy dinner reservation I was breaking off. A casual invitation to walk to another stall and get hot cocoa with them wasn’t a huge commitment.
But it felt like so much more. Under the serious but playful attention Derek seemed to want to give me, it seemed like my answer would matter. To him and his daughter.
It had been a while since I had a man interested in me—at least a man who’d sparked me to be intrigued and curious whether this attraction was as mutual as I hoped it might be.
Now? Right now?
I couldn’t. I really couldn’t.
“Um, I think… I’m going to take a raincheck on that hot cocoa.”
“Aww,” Naomi whined, but without sounding whiny or petulant somehow. Simply disappointed.
“You sure?” Derek asked.
I exhaled a long breath, hating that I had to put something else first. That I needed to concentrate on my job, not what I wanted. An afternoon of strolling through this holiday market area would be fun. Warming up with hot cocoa would be a delight.
But not now.
“I just can’t stay for long,” I explained, feeling like I wasn’t letting them down, but myself. “I only stopped by here on a whim.”
That wasn’t a lie, not really. I’d wanted to drive around this holiday market area before I drove out further toward the lands that my dad had shown me on a map last night. Prime real estate lining the river. Hundreds of acres that could be developed for a multitude of purposes. Shops, factories, and other processing facilities could all go into the area, and I bet that’d increase the jobs around here. It’d be a win-win, and the career-minded part of me was excited at the challenge of finagling a deal however I could. It’d be a Christmas miracle to save the company like that.
No thanks to you, Sis.
I shoved aside the thoughts about Grace. Holding a grudge against her wouldn’t help this situation, anyway.
“I need to get back to work,” I added, feeling like I had to clarify that I wasn’t blowing them off for no reason.
“What work?” Naomi asked.
I smiled, unbothered by her blunt question. Curiosity and the willingness to speak up were important traits or skills to have in life. But her wording was cute. What work was a sillier and more adorable way of asking what do you do?
“I’m a realtor,” I replied. “I work in real estate.”
I watched for Derek’s reaction. His brows popped up a bit, and I wondered why that surprised him. What did he think I did? What occupation did it look like I held?
“Realty?” he asked. “Hmm.”
I nodded. “My offices are in Denver, but when I came home yesterday to have Thanksgiving with my dad, he mentioned some business to check out around here.”
Now he arched one brow, invested in the conversation. “In Preston?”
“Yeah. Around here,” I replied, keeping it a little vague. I learned years ago to never be one hundred percent precise when naming the area I wanted to buy, sell, or develop in. One could never be too careful when competitors could pop up or when word could spread. Oftentimes, the timing of interest in properties could make a huge difference on a deal. If no one was interested in a particular property, then the demand was low, and consequently, if a certain parcel of land garnered immense preliminary interest, the demand for it would be high and skew deals and the negotiation process.
“I came into town to drive around and look at some places.” I laughed lightly. “Hopefully, before this snowstorm starts.”
“They always say a snowstorm is coming,” Naomi said. “But they aren’t always accurate.”
I nodded. “You can thank the mountains for that.”
“Any places in particular that you’re interested in?” Derek asked.
Hmm. It seemed that I’d misjudged him. When he asked me—twice—about joining them for hot cocoa, I thought he just wanted to spend a little bit of time together. Out of a simple interest in me.
Naomi was already buddying up with me, so curious and full of questions. And I didn’t mind it at all, even if I wasn’t used to being around kids.
Now, Derek seemed more interested in the fact that I was here to check out the real estate in the area.
“A few,” I admitted. I wasn’t new at this. I’d keep my answers vague.
“Hmm.” He looked down for a moment, pensive.
I wasn’t sure how to interpret that. Was he bothered? Interested? Worried about newcomers moving into his town, whether they were businesses or families?
At the end of the day, it didn’t matter to me. It couldn’t. A deal was a deal. Money was money. Since the responsibility of keeping the offices open was placed on my shoulders, I had to focus on bringing in some sales and revenue before others we worked with could get uneasy and back out of more deals. The layered web of connections and contingencies between deals was a complicated animal to contend with. But I could. I’d succeed. That was my goal in life—to always come out on top.
I knew where my priorities lay, but meeting Derek and Naomi threatened them.
“I’ve noticed some for sale signs out there,” he said.
Wait. He wasn’t shopping around, was he?
That would be a hell of a way to not be able to want him. To wonder about him. If he was looking at buying something I might have my eye on, that’d make him competition in a field where I didn’t play so nicely.
“Oh, really?” I said airily. Before he could offer to show me around and point them out, I squared my shoulders and stood up straighter.
“Yeah.” He smiled at me again, slower and wider. “Preston’s a nice area.”
It sure can be with someone like you in it.
He was doing it again. Those smiles were disarming me. I wouldn’t go so far as to claim he was charming me. I’d talked to Naomi more than I had with him. Derek still seemed gruff and aloof, but not unnecessarily unfriendly toward me.
This has to stop. No more.
I couldn’t explain how I’d trickled back to this stubborn awareness of him. I was attracted to him. There was no doubt about that. But it couldn’t develop into anything more.
This wasn’t a good time to be distracted by a handsome man. It wasn’t even a good time to want to joke around with his daughter and be entertained by her inquisitiveness, either. This spark of desire that he’d ignited had to fizzle out.
“I’m sorry,” I repeated with a genuine smile, “but I wasn’t planning to make this market event a whole-day sort of thing.”
“Are you sure?” Naomi asked, peering up at me. “You could take your hot cocoa with you.”
I smiled, amused with how much of a bargain she’d try to make.
“I’m sure. But thanks for inviting me.”
Naomi frowned, but nodded. “It was nice to meet you,” she said.
“It was nice to meet you too,” I said.
“Yeah.” Derek offered me his hand. “Nice to meet you, Claire.” He thrust his hand toward me, and I accepted it to shake.
So warm. So big. So strong. My smile faded a bit as I struggled to let go, not wanting this connection to end. Where his rougher skin touched mine, I enjoyed a delicious zing of more awareness. This man just had to live and breathe and I would be wishing to be closer, soaking up the attention.
Oh, stop. I mentally groaned at how distracted he made me feel.
Focus, Claire. Focus.
The company was on the line. Dad wouldn’t be swooping in to save the day. It was on me to get Barone Realty on the road to recovery from Grace’s mistakes of gambling with too much.
No time for dating.
No time for flirting.
Only work.
“Well, have a good afternoon,” I said, stepping back and lifting my hand in a wave.
“Don’t forget to make time for an eye appointment,” Naomi said.
I nodded. “Sure. I won’t. My job isn’t all that matters in my life,” I joked, raising the bag with the jelly jars. “I don’t want to miss out on reading which flavor I’m getting.”
As I retreated and eventually turned away from the father-and-daughter duo, I felt like a liar.
Lately, I’d made sure that my job was all that I concentrated on. No prospects. No energy for dating the wrong men. No daydreaming about having a family.
Walking away from the two of them was bittersweet, like I was literally walking toward the wrong decision. But that was what I always did—married to my job and not seeing an end in sight to that curse.