Chapter 2 Caleb #2
“Henderson is going to be pleased,” I said, thinking about how good she smelled in spite of the dust, the look of sheer joy on her face when she’d kicked my ass without remorse, the excitement this hidden room had brought her.
“We should frame one of the bills for the entranceway.” She stared down at the money. “A pretty cool item to show off.”
And she was thinking about work… Well, that tracked.
“We’re not demoing this room,” she said.
“I’m insulted you think I would.” I ran a hand along a shelf. “This room has a history, and we won’t lose it.”
“Really?”
Her suspicion of me burned. “I’m a lot of things, Emma.
” For instance, I was a total asshole who’d enjoyed the sight of her on her hands and knees, glaring at me.
“But a liar isn’t one of them.” I rose with more difficulty than I’d ever admit and offered a hand, pulling her up.
“We’ll talk to Henderson, see what he wants to do, but I suspect that, like the attic, he’ll want this left as is. ”
Eyes still on mine, she nodded. “Sometimes the past is best left alone.”
And how well we both knew it.
In silence, we made our way back to the living room. If it hadn’t been drizzling outside, the front windows would have revealed a distant view of the rocky California shoreline where, once upon a time, my siblings and I had run wild and feral, completely unsupervised.
“Back to the change orders,” she said, all business now, as she pulled out her laptop. “First, the barn. You’ve pointed out a structural issue with how Henderson wants to change up the windows. Is it because you’d have to deal with the weight-bearing beams?”
“It’ll be time-consuming and expensive, and tricky to get past the Historical Board.” Ryder had put it on me to somehow talk sense into the man—or, as it turned out, his dusty proxy at my side.
“So change his mind,” she said.
“That seems like a you problem.”
She snorted. Her ponytail had given up the fight, strands loose around her face, somehow still scented like coconut and vanilla. Shit. I was a dead man walking.
“This place is going to be incredible,” she said. “I still can’t quite believe I get to be a part of it.”
“So you at least trust me enough to know that it’s going to turn out well.”
“Actually, I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you. And given you’re the size of a mountain and I’m only five foot four…” She shrugged. “What I trust in is the architectural and engineering plans. I’ll see if I can design a work-around.”
“If you’re five foot four, I’m Santa Claus.”
“Hey, I’m totally five foot four.” She paused. “Okay, fine. Five foot three and a half.”
I stepped into her personal space and looked down at her. She barely hit my shoulder. “Five foot two, tops. I could get out my measuring tape and prove it to you if you’d like.”
She snorted. “I bet you also use it to measure your—”
I laughed. I wanted to resent the hell out of her for some of the things she’d pulled on me in our architectural program, but I’d never been able to hold a grudge, and certainly not against those eyes and spirited attitude. “Are you going to be this annoying the whole job?”
“Pot. Kettle,” she said. “You’re even more guarded than I am, and that’s saying something.”
I shrugged. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing, you know.”
She processed this as if searching my words for a speed trap before shrugging—the closest she’d get to admitting I might be right.
I opened my mouth to bait her again, just for the pleasure of seeing those eyes flare, but stopped, remembering that, for this job to go smoothly, I needed her on my side.
An hour later, we’d gotten through ten of the eleven items on the list, and we’d each gotten our way on five of them.
“Tied,” she said. We’d ended up in the kitchen around a large worktable, going back and forth between the plans and the list.
“Didn’t realize we were keeping track.”
She smirked. “Another lie.”
I smiled. True. “Last change order will be the tiebreaker. The wall between the pantry and back mudroom your boss wants removed—it’s another load-bearing wall.”
“And?”
“And it’ll eat up your entire change-order budget.”
Emma stared down at the plans for a long moment.
“The reason for removing this wall was to make the floor plan more open. But,” she mused, “I get that we need to ensure the structural integrity as well. What if I designed a more open doorway between the pantry and mudroom? It would create a sense of openness without completely removing the wall.”
Impressed by the smart suggestion, I nodded. “If you can get Henderson to agree, you’re on.”
“I’ll talk to him.” She pointed at me. “But until then, we’re still tied.”
“Something to look forward to,” I said, then walked her out.
Out front in the circular driveway, Ryder’s work truck was long gone, leaving just mine and an old green Subaru that looked like it might be on its last breath. It also seemed packed to the gills. “Yours?”
“Yes. I’m still…getting settled.” She was busy combing through her messenger bag, presumably for her keys.
Finally, with a huff of annoyance, she began pulling things out and setting them on the hood of her car.
Three thick architectural books that had to weigh as much as she did. Her laptop. ChapStick. Toothbrush…
“Sleep mask?” I asked at the last item, “Or…kinky blindfold?”
“You wish. There you are,” she muttered, finding her keys.
“Until next time,” I said.
She seemed startled at the thought. Clearly, she’d hoped to never see me again. But on big, complicated jobs like this, there’d be meetings. Many of them.
“I’m curious.”
She glanced back.
I slid my hands into my pockets. “You ever going to tell me why you don’t like me?”
“I never said I didn’t.”
“Your face when you first saw me again said it.”
She rolled her eyes. “Goodbye, Colburn.”
“Until next time, Sumner.”