Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Ha! Colton’s car wasn’t in Belle’s grassy parking lot when Paisley arrived the next morning.
It wasn’t like she purposefully tried to get there before he did, but she totally tried to get there before he did.
His promptness and punctuality and readiness with a full pot of coffee made her believe that being second to arrive would annoy him.
Being even keeled and hard to shake made getting under his skin one of Paisley’s favorite pastimes. She thought he would march her out of the office yesterday when she suggested storytelling.
Leaves played tag on the ground when she opened her car door, the wind making the trees bow and bend.
The breeze blew up her skirt. There were no other cars in the lot, so she posed for a moment a la Marilyn Monroe before pushing her skirt back down.
If she’d known the wind decided to make an appearance today, she would have worn pants.
The lot would fill up later in the day as the milling or mashing or whatever they did at a whiskey distillery happened.
For now, she braced herself and pushed against the wind to the office.
She slid past Colton’s and Ona’s desks in the haphazard maze of the large, open room, put her purse in the drawer, and started a pot of coffee.
She went back to her work space while she waited. Colton’s desk was so sparse. Not an extra piece of paper or random paper clip anywhere. Not even a picture of a loved one or a dog or a favorite vacation spot. Even his challenge coin remained tucked away somewhere.
Maybe she’d drive to the maintenance building, see if she could get a jump start on locating those boxes. Eulalee said the key would probably be in a small, open bin in the supply closet, so Paisley headed that way. Maybe she’d even find the records before Colton arrived. Then they’d have time to…
To what? Even though he agreed to coffee, half the time he barely tolerated her. Besides, he was all hard muscle, blue eyes and blue jeans. Men who looked like that rarely looked at her, as evidenced by the men who looked like that rarely looking at her.
She did hold out hope of finding the eggplant to her peach. Once she finished with this favor to Brandi, Colton would probably wiggle out of their coffee meetup and she’d never see him unless she came to visit.
Now she wanted to find those boxes just so she could go home and read or play games with Trotter and forget the real world. She found the key to the building in the closet and went back to her car, holding her hair up so the breeze didn’t blind her.
The drive to the wide building took two minutes. Ms. Eulalee warned her the door would be difficult to open, the wood structure sucking in moisture and expanding in the humid Georgia air.
She hadn’t been kidding. Paisley got it unlocked, but it took her shoulder and a body slam to get it open. A draft followed her inside, blowing papers to the floor. Morning light from the high windows filled the large room, but she flipped the switch by the door for more. Nothing happened.
Still, the sun and windows provided enough light to get to work.
Utilitarian metal shelves filled with banker boxes lined the walls, giving her a spark of hope.
The room also boasted a filing cabinet and a wooden desk with an old plastic chair.
She gave the door a push, aided by a gust of wind to get it closed, then beelined for the boxes, surrounded by earthy undertones of an unoccupied wooden building.
Oh, crap. The door.
She spun around, grabbed the handle, then pulled for all she was worth. The door didn’t move.
“Hey!” She pounded on the door. “Anyone out there?”
Of course not.
She felt her pockets for her phone, acknowledging the futility. Distractions could cause major mistakes in her job, so it stayed in her purse. In the other building.
She gazed at the windows, knowing even before confirming that they were too high to climb to unless she suddenly got bit by a radioactive monkey. Even climbing on the desk wouldn’t give her the height she’d need, though it was a solid piece of furniture.
Well. This sucked. At least the sturdy building, regardless of its permit-less status, kept the wind outside. She did a quick walk-through of the space and found a back door, but a large, heavy bookshelf blocked its access.
Good thing she was an auditor and not a fire inspector.
She eyed the rows of boxes lining the walls. Might as well work while she waited for her rescue. If she got a rescue. She could just picture Colton rappelling from a helicopter, smashing in the window with his feet to save her.
She crossed to the wide wooden desk, kicking up dust as she went, spinning fantasies about how she’d thank him. She picked up the papers blown to the floor by the wind and put them on a credenza, next to a telephone book.
A freakin’ telephone book.
The desk top contained some random junk, which she cleared and put in the desk drawer, leaving behind outlines of dust. A stack of old napkins sat in the drawer, and she used them to wipe the surface clean. The skillful craftmanship of the time-roughened wood made the desk a sturdy piece.
Paisley selected a box from the middle of the stack and hauled it over to the desk’s clean surface, still relying on her theory that starting at the beginning was never a good idea.
Manilla folders neatly filled the box. Paisley selected one at random and opened it up, checking the date. It fell within the parameters for the missing bottles. She picked a few more to verify that their dates also fell within the search criteria.
This must be it.
She looked at her watch and sighed. How long would it take for someone at Belle’s to guess something was wrong?
* * *
A twinge of disappointment struck Colton as he pulled into Belle’s empty lot.
He didn’t know why he expected Paisley to be there already.
Or maybe he was just disappointed in having to wait to see her.
Her unmethodical mind drove him insane half the time.
The other half of the time, he loved watching it work.
It fit so well with her breezy, friendly nature.
Unlike this wind, which had a breezy, unfriendly nature.
Plus they could hash out the details of their not-date.
He unlocked the door. The aroma of freshly brewed coffee greeted him.
“Paisley?” he called. He didn’t move, waiting to hear a rustle of clothing or her sweet voice responding to him.
Only silence returned his greeting.
Maybe she needed the restroom. But then where was her car? Or she forgot something and went to fetch it.
He turned on his computer and slid into his chair. After checking his email and clearing the messages, he glanced at his watch. His actions took all of three minutes.
This would be a good time to approve upcoming vacations. There were only a handful, so he moved on to equipment requests.
Where was she?
He got up and poured some coffee, his eyes drifting to the desk drawer where she stored her purse. He tapped his finger against the cup, debating invading Paisley’s privacy.
“Okay, then.” He pulled himself away from the coffee station and strode to the desk.
One tug and it opened.
Bright butterflies patterns burned his eyeballs, but the proof didn’t lie. Paisley was here. Somewhere.
He slowly looked around the office. Nothing seemed out of place. No furniture overturned or papers on the floor. No smashed coffee mugs or shredded sticky notes.
Colton strode across the office and to the restrooms. A single knock would tell him what he needed to know.
Okay, a single knock and a small push on the door. “Hello? Paisley?”
His voice echoed in the empty room.
Back at his desk, he called her cell phone. He wasn’t surprised when the desk drawer vibrated in response.
Maybe she went to the maintenance building without him. He grabbed his keys and drove the short distance as leaves swirled in the wind.
A weird sense of relief passed through him when he saw her car outside of the simple wooden structure.
As much as she complicated his life with her chipper smile and just by being so Paisley-ish, he realized he’d miss her when the project ended.
Miss her quirks, her sense of humor, her presence in his life.
Miss how he felt being with her.
She made him feel again.
The thought sparked both exhilaration and terror. She snuck in when his defenses were down, and now he couldn’t imagine a day without her.
Wind help propelled him to the building. He turned the handle, but the door didn’t open. He fought down the urge to go all caveman to make sure she was safe. “Paisley?”
A muffled voice snuck through the thick walls.
“Open the door.”
She must have moved closer because he could hear her better. “I can’t. It’s stuck.”
Colton closed his eyes and let out a pent up breath before he gave the door a sharp rap. “You pull while I push, okay?”
“Okay.”
“On three.” He counted off and dug in with his shoulder. The door didn’t move. “Are you pulling?”
“No, I’m cleaning my jewelry with the rusted paper clips stacked on the desk.”
He never wanted anyone more than he wanted her at that moment. “Try again? On three.”
He counted down and pushed. Still nothing. “How did you get in?”
“With difficulty.”
“Why didn’t you leave the door open?”
“Well, gee, why didn’t I think of that?”
He cracked a grin despite the situation. “Stand back. I’ll force it open.”
“Okay.”
He counted to three, then rushed forward as he called out. “I’m coming in.”
The door had other ideas.
Colton stood back, rubbing his sore shoulder. Last time he encountered an immovable object was years ago when he tried to catch a football and ran into a tree instead. “You still clear?”
A muffled sound emerged, which he took as a yes.
One more try, and then he’d find an axe and bust through.
This time he backed up a bit more, then charged forward, twisting the door handle a split second before sheer force got him inside the old building.
The door hit the wall and slammed closed behind him.
Paisley stood toward the back wall, holding one hand in another. “Thank yo-”
She didn’t say much more before Colton strode to her, giving her a quick visual once-over to check that nothing was broken and her eyes were clear.
And then he crushed his mouth to hers.