Chapter Two
L evi remembered the last time he and Dana had been together for any length of time. A little over a year ago, after Dana left Florida, she moved to San Antonio and had contacted him. He’d met her for dinner and drinks and they’d done what they always did when they saw each other. They’d fallen into bed. But the following day they both admitted it wasn’t going to work. Partly due to old issues they’d never resolved. Sex, dynamite sex, was the way they’d always settled their problems. Unfortunately, that way hadn’t really worked in the past and it didn’t work in the present. So they resolved not to see each other.
And then, six months later, she accepted the airport job and moved to Whiskey River, at least for the duration of that project.
He remembered being pissed. Remembered going to her apartment and asking her what the hell they were supposed to do with her remodeling the airport and living in Whiskey River. As usual, they wound up in bed together again.
They’d known after that one night together. No matter how fantastic the sex was, the two of them had far too much baggage to make it as a couple. So they swore, once again, to have nothing to do with each other.
They’d managed. It had been hell at times for Levi. He wasn’t sure how it had been for Dana. But she wasn’t dating anyone. He’d made it his business to find that out. He shouldn’t have. Knowing she wasn’t involved with anyone else only made him wonder if she still had feelings for him. Because he sure as hell still had feelings for her.
Then Asher got injured and all bets were off. Because Levi would have talked to the devil himself if it meant he could help Asher. Not that Dana was the devil. No she was a siren. An appealing, sexy, tempting-as-sin siren.
A little to his surprise, Levi was nervous about showing Dana his house. It hadn’t bothered him before when his friends gave him shit about only fixing up a few rooms of the place. He fixed up what he needed and blew off the rest, figuring he’d take care of the remainder if and when he needed it.
But to have Dana looking at it was another matter.
Who was he kidding? He wasn’t nervous about showing her the house. Just the thought of having Dana in his house was blowing his mind. No, he was wondering how he was going to cope with seeing Dana every day and not being able to touch her. Not being able to hold her, kiss her, make love to her.
Business, he reminded himself. Purely professional. He could do this. He finally had the chance to make it up to Asher for what he couldn’t do when they were kids. He wasn’t going to blow it. Not this time.
The doorbell rang and he went to let Dana in. She’d changed into a long-sleeved shirt, tight jeans with holes in the knees and short boots. Shit. She looked even better than she had in the yoga pants.
Dana took a tablet out of her purse and said, “Why don’t you give me a quick tour of the house and we’ll wind up in what are going to be Asher’s rooms?”
“All right. Might as well start at the top. Or the second floor,” Levi amended. “The third floor isn’t in use right now. There are some funky rooms up there and a couple of baths. My cleaning lady dusts it every few weeks, but other than that no one has been up there since I bought it and had the entire house cleaned. About three years ago now.”
He took her up the winding carved wooden staircase. It was original to the house and quite beautiful, with intricately carved newel posts and spindles. “I think there’s room to put in an elevator,” he said, “but there’s nothing up here Asher would be interested in.” He looked back but Dana wasn’t following. She stood at the bottom of the stairs running her hand over the newel post.
“I’m in love with this staircase. It’s fabulous.”
Levi grinned. “Came with the house. The original owner had it built.”
“It’s gorgeous. Or it would be if you had it refinished. What’s wrong with you? ”
“Nothing,” he said and laughed. “It just didn’t seem necessary.”
“Well, it is. You have to take care of things like this, Levi. It’s—it’s criminal not to.”
Women. “You can have it refinished as long as it doesn’t interfere with the important stuff.”
“Gee, thanks.” She walked up the stairs to where he stood. “Don’t think I won’t take you up on that.”
“I won’t. If the elevator will be too hard we can forget it. Everything Asher would want access to is downstairs. Upstairs are just a bunch of bedrooms and sitting rooms. And the master bedroom.”
Something flickered in her eyes. He’d bet his ass she was remembering the last time they’d been in a bedroom together. He sure as hell was.
Remodeling was going to be even harder than he’d thought.
*
Levi showed her the master bedroom last of the rooms upstairs. He’d already told her it was one of the few things he’d updated and remodeled to suit him. It was spectacular, and very much Levi’s. The room was huge with hardwood floors that she knew were the real deal. A large Oriental-style rug in myriad shades of blue and green covered the wood floor beneath the bed, leaving several feet bare between it and the walls. There was a huge picture window that looked out over his backyard, which included a covered porch, a beach-access swimming pool with a rock waterfall, which he’d obviously remodeled, a building beside the pool that was probably a cabana, and two very large buildings that she suspected were his workshop and the garage for his cars. Levi’s car collection was the subject of a lot of talk around town. The collection was rumored to have upward of one hundred and fifty vehicles. According to gossip, he drove them all at some point but he rotated a few of his favorites to drive most of the time. Frankly, she wondered how he fit that many cars into a building of its size. Maybe stacked on racks?
His bedroom was spare and uncluttered rather than Spartan. In front of the window was a comfortable but stylish fabric chair, a small mosaic-tiled table and a lamp with a base in the shape of a falcon. Bookshelves lined the walls on either side of the window and a fireplace with a marble facade marked the wall across from his bed. The bed was huge, with a carved wooden headboard that had to be an antique. It was covered in a masculine duvet in shades of blue.
“Oh, my God,” she said, speaking for the first time since entering the room. She walked over to stand in front of one of the two enormous pieces of art hanging on the walls. “Is this one of Gabe Walker’s creations?” Walker was an extremely talented metal artist from Whiskey River whose creations had been recognized all over the world.
Levi smiled. “Yeah, he’s a friend of mine. It’s called Still Waters .”
“It’s gorgeous. But I don’t get the title.” The huge metal sculpture wall hanging was a recognizable body of water—the still waters part. But off to the side a mélange of every conceivable color exploded from the water. “I’d call it something like Explosion in Still Waters .”
“Close. Gabe says the full title is Still Waters Explode. He likes the short title better. I asked him why not call it The Volcano but he said there were too many colors to be a volcano.”
“I can’t imagine what something like this costs.”
“It was free. Poker. He lost.”
“Is he a bad poker player?”
“No.” He gave her a crafty smile. “But I’m better.”
She shook her head and crossed the room to look at the large painting gracing the wall above his bed. “This is beautiful too. I love the colors.” Tall trees reaching for the sky. Aspens, she thought—in an explosion of oranges, golds, yellows, and a touch of green with the blue sky peeking out from between the leaves and trunks. “Who is the artist?”
“Talya Johnson. It’s called Redemption . I liked the colors and the title.”
“So do I. It looks great in here. Just out of curiosity, did you have someone help you remodel? An architect or a designer or both?” And if so, why come to her? Unless it was because he knew of her work with accessible housing. But this was Levi. Of course he knew.
“Yeah, but she didn’t last long. First, she wanted to remodel everything and all I wanted were the rooms I use. And the pool. To put it nicely, our tastes didn’t coincide. She liked lots of stuff—and frou-frou crap at that.” He looked around the room. “That’s not me.”
No, Levi wasn’t the least bit frou-frou. Which any designer should have known within fifteen minutes of meeting him. “No one else helped you?”
“Not with the decorating. Harlan remodeled it. So he’s familiar with the house and its shortcomings.”
“That will help. Let’s go to the ground floor.” Before looking at Levi’s immensely comfortable-looking bed got to her.
He took her on a quick tour of the first floor. Dana had an impression of many rooms, the vast majority needing massive updating. But since Levi didn’t care about that, she didn’t worry about it either. She knew the cost wasn’t an issue. It appeared that even though Levi was immeasurably richer now, he was still the same man who didn’t see any reason to waste money on things he didn’t need or want. But he was generous. Even when he was merely rich instead of outrageously so, he’d given a lot of his money to various charities and could always be depended on to help a friend out of a jam.
“How accessible do you want the kitchen to be? For instance, do you think Asher will want to cook? Or does he simply need to be able to reach some of the things?”
“I can’t imagine he cooks much. He’s been in the army since he was seventeen. And not as a cook. Besides, Muriel cooks better than either Asher or me will ever be able to.”
“You have a cook?”
“Yeah. She comes in three times a week and cooks up a bunch of food. Works out great. She likes to cook and I like to eat.”
“Are you planning to get an accessible refrigerator?”
“Yeah. I’ll wait to order one until we see if we’re going to use the current refrigerator’s space for the new one or change location. I can find out dimensions of ones I like too.”
“Okay. I’ll sketch out a few updates but we’ll table doing a lot of major work on it until after you talk to your brother.”
Then Levi showed her his den—a game room/TV room/music room where he clearly spent a lot of time. It was already outfitted with Levi’s own smart home system, as were all the rooms he used. “There’s not a lot you need to change in here,” she told him. “Widen the doorway to the hall but the French doors leading to the backyard are wide enough. I imagine you’ll want to make the bathroom more accessible.”
He nodded. “But it doesn’t have to be done first thing.”
Finally they came to the set of rooms that Levi wanted to convert into living quarters for his brother. They were set a little apart, like a mother-in-law’s quarters of a newer house. A brief look around told her it hadn’t been updated in a long, long time. Typical of many older homes, even mansions of this era, these rooms were small, with small bathrooms. “I assume you don’t mind knocking down walls?”
“Whatever you need to do. I want it to be as comfortable for him as possible.”
She hesitated but decided her question was too important to ignore. “It would help me to know what specific injuries and disabilities Asher has. In order to tailor his living quarters for the best possible fit.”
Levi didn’t answer. His jaw was clenched, his eyes held equal parts sadness and helplessness.
“We can talk about that later if you’d rather.”
“No. You’re right. You need to know.” He took a drink from the water bottle he carried around, sucked in his breath and began. “He lost his left leg below the knee. He’ll be in a wheelchair predominately for a while yet. He’ll be getting a prosthetic leg soon, but we don’t know exactly when that will be. The doctors said it depends on a number of factors. His doctors don’t want to rush it. They say they’ve had more success when the stump is allowed to heal longer. Not to mention, as it swells and goes down he’ll need frequent adjustments. He had a number of other injuries, but they are all healed now.”
“Did he have a TBI?” A traumatic brain injury could mean Asher might need even more specialized help .
“No. Somehow he avoided a TBI. But he has depression and possibly PTSD. He denies having either. But that’s Asher.”
“We’ll lighten up the rooms with paint and more windows. Take out walls and widen doorways.” She made notes on her tablet. “The bathroom will most likely need to be completely redone.”
“Like I said, whatever you need to do.”
“I’ll draw up some plans and once you approve them we’ll show them to Harlan and get his take. I have no idea what nifty home helpers you’ve invented or what your virtual assistant can do, so we’ll need to discuss that as we go along.”
“Okay. I’m available.”
Available. So was she.
No, no, no. Strictly business.
But maybe…this time…
No, you dummy. What makes you think a relationship could work this time when it never has before?
Wishful thinking?
They hadn’t really tried to work it out again. Two nights of wild sex didn’t constitute trying. But they’d both been so sure it wouldn’t work out.
“Dana, I know this isn’t what we agreed on. I really appreciate you taking on this project. It means a lot to me.”
“I’m happy to do whatever I can to help a wounded veteran. Even if he weren’t your brother.”
He shifted, looking a little uncomfortable. “I was afraid you’d turn me down. It won’t be possible to stay out of each other’s way now.”
She knew what he was implying. “No, it won’t be. We’re both adults. We should be able to keep our hormones in check.”
“We should,” he agreed.
She met his gaze and heard as clearly as if he’d said it: But will we?