Chapter Five
T his is not going to work . Almost three weeks ago Dana agreed to remodel Levi’s house. A few days later he, Harlan and Dana met to look at and okay the preliminary plans and less than a week after that Dana had a 3-D representation of the remodeling plans. Since then, Levi had seen Dana every day—every single day for the past ten days and he was going crazy. Ten days of seeing her daily. She came over first thing in the morning, consulted with the construction crew and left to do other things. But she’d come back every afternoon to make sure everything was going as planned. Ten straight days of seeing her. Ten straight days of hearing her voice. The voice that reminded him of sinful pleasure.
God knows she didn’t say anything provocative. No, she talked business. Fixtures, faucets, cabinets. The myriad details that went into converting regular, and old, rooms into accessible ones. But whenever he heard her voice his mind automatically switched to hearing how she sounded in bed. Her voice husky, sultry, damned seductive. For God’s sake, she’d been talking about toilets earlier. Toilets. Now how was that for a topic to turn you on?
It’s not what she’s talking about. It’s the fact that you’re hearing her talk every freaking day. The fact that you’re looking and not touching.
Worse, he couldn’t tell if being around each other so much was getting to her like it was him. He thought it might be. He’d caught her a few times looking at him with her mind obviously wandering. And once he could have sworn she’d been checking out his butt. Wishful thinking, asshole. Dana was doing just fine.
Besides, he needed her professional help. The most important thing was to get the house ready for Asher. He couldn’t lose track of the prime objective.
And yet, he couldn’t believe it was hopeless. That day when he’d asked her if she remembered the two of them together. “ Of course I do ,” she’d said. That admission meant something. It meant she hadn’t forgotten being with him.
But it didn’t necessarily mean she wanted a repeat performance.
“Levi? Did you hear me?”
“Sorry. I was thinking of something else.” You . You and me together in your bed. “What did you ask me?”
“I was showing you options for grab bars. But you must have been a thousand miles away.”
“Not quite.” Just eight months back in time. “Look, Dana, I know nothing about grab bars. Why don’t you pick what you think is best and if Asher doesn’t like them we’ll change them out?”
“All right.” She hesitated before saying, “Would you rather I not ask you about the more minor details? I know this is hard for you, thinking about Asher’s disabilities.”
“No. I mean, yes, I worry about Asher. But I don’t want you to stop asking me things.” He put his hand on her arm. Her skin was supple, warm, inviting him to rub his thumb along the soft underside. He looked into her eyes and saw an answering heat.
“I…won’t.”
They leaned toward each other, drawn by invisible ties.
“Levi, we need you in here,” Rocky, the crew foreman said, gesturing to the bedroom. “Electrician’s here.”
Dana and he jumped as if bitten and Levi dropped his hand. Damn, couldn’t Rocky have waited for five more minutes?
“Do you need me too?” Dana asked.
“Probably. He’s looking at your plans and will likely have questions.”
“We’ll be there in a minute,” Levi said. Rocky left and Levi turned to Dana. “This is harder than I imagined it would be. And I knew it wouldn’t be easy.”
Dana didn’t misunderstand or deny his comment. “It will get easier.”
“Will it?” Levi asked. “It hasn’t so far.”
“It has to,” she answered. “We have work to do.”
*
Dana hadn’t thought anything of it when Siobhan talked her into coming to Booze’s for the Friday night pool tournament. It sounded like fun and she needed a break from working. Besides, she hadn’t played pool in a while and she liked to keep up her skills.
What she hadn’t expected was that Nathan would be there, and she really should have. Siobhan had lost no time in pushing the two of them together. But it wasn’t a date and Nathan was a nice, entertaining guy. And very cute. Hot, even.
But he wasn’t her type. Still, there was no reason she couldn’t have fun and flirt a little. So she played a couple of games of pool with him and let him buy her a drink when she beat him two games straight. Apparently, it didn’t bother him to be beaten by a girl, which was a definite point in his favor. Nathan Kershaw was clearly not an insecure guy.
“Where’d you learn to play pool like that?” Nathan asked her after Siobhan brought their drinks.
Dana managed to send her friend a look that promised retribution, not that it appeared to bother Siobhan. “My father taught me. We had a pool table growing up and my dad taught my two brothers and me to play.”
“Did you beat the pants off of your brothers too?”
Dana laughed. “Sometimes. Enough that they got used to being beaten by a girl.” She took a sip of her wine and said, “It didn’t seem to bother you.”
“What, being beaten by a girl? I have two older sisters. I’d have been in sad shape if I let something like that bother me.”
“Still, it’s nice that you have that attitude. I swear with some men losing to a woman is a threat to their masculinity.”
Nathan laughed. “No, that’s not one of my insecurities.”
They talked a while longer and ordered a second round. Nathan said, “So what are your plans when you finish with the airport? I know it’s getting close to completion. Are you sticking around or going back to—I don’t know where you were before you were here in Whiskey River.”
“I was in San Antonio. I’ve sublet my apartment there. I’ll be here for a while longer, at least. I’m helping remodel Levi’s house.”
“Oh, right. I heard that at poker. His brother’s a veteran and is moving in with him. How’s that going?”
“Good, so far. I’m a little worried about the time constraints but so far all is going as well as you could expect.”
“Are you and Levi dating?”
“No.” Definitely not dating. Wishing they were together was a whole ’nuther matter. “Why do you ask?”
Nathan shrugged. “Just wondered. You’re both single, you’re beautiful and Levi is not a stupid man.”
Dana stared at him a moment. “I think there was a compliment in there. Thanks? ”
He grinned. “Merely stating a fact.” Looking over her shoulder, he added, “And speak of the devil, look who just came in.” He gave a wave, motioning whoever it was to come over.
Dana turned around and saw Levi standing in the entrance to the bar. Of course it was Levi. Their eyes met and she smiled involuntarily. She couldn’t decipher his expression but he started walking toward them.
“Dana. Nathan.”
“Levi, how’s it going, man?” They fist bumped.
“Pretty good. I thought you had a flight tonight?”
“I did. They canceled. Which is a good thing or otherwise I wouldn’t be here with this very beautiful woman.”
Dana gave Nathan a quizzical look.
“Lucky you,” Levi said dryly.
“Ain’t it the truth.”
Siobhan came over and asked what Levi wanted to drink. “I’ll have a draft.”
Siobhan left and the three of them talked awkwardly until she returned with Levi’s beer. He took it, asked Siobhan to run a tab and said, “I’ll leave you to your…date.”
“Oh, it’s—” Dana started to deny it but Nathan nudged her before she got the words out. She was torn. On the one hand, it was gratifying to know that Levi didn’t like seeing her with Nathan. On the other hand, it wasn’t really fair to Nathan to well, use him like that. Not that he seemed to mind. In fact, he seemed all for it .
“We were leaving soon, anyway,” Nathan said. “Weren’t we, Dana?”
Okay now she knew something was going on. Exactly what, she couldn’t say. But she could feel it. A definite tension between the two men. It dawned on her that Nathan was needling Levi and Levi wasn’t a bit happy about it.
“Were we?” she asked Nathan.
“Yes,” he said firmly.
“Have fun,” Levi said in a tone that meant anything but. He picked up his beer and left.
“You did that on purpose,” she accused Nathan.
“Guilty. Sorry. I couldn’t resist.”
“Couldn’t resist what? Pissing off Levi?”
Nathan shrugged. “Seemed like the thing to do at the time.” He finished his drink and said, “Why don’t I walk you home? Unless you want another drink?”
“No, I have to work in the morning.”
Nathan settled the tab and they left. But not before she felt Levi’s gaze boring into her back. She turned around and sure enough, Levi was watching them. And he didn’t look happy.
Was it ridiculous that she felt a little thrill?
She and Nathan walked across the Square to her apartment building in companionable silence. Then she realized that she might have screwed up in allowing Levi—and Nathan—to assume her being with Nathan was more than accidental .
“I’d ask you up but I have to get up early.” If he was annoyed with her, so be it. But apparently he wasn’t, she thought looking at him.
Nathan smiled. “I wasn’t angling for an invite.”
“I didn’t think you were. I just…I’m uh… Oh, hell.”
He was laughing now. “Don’t worry about it. I had a nice time tonight.”
“I did too,” she said, and meant it.
He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “See ya.”
He waited while she opened the building’s door. “Hey, Dana?”
“Yes?”
“I’m not stupid either.”
And with that he was gone.