Chapter 2
2
TRAVIS
“ L unch?”
A woman’s voice cut into my work. I was measuring to cut the next piece of drywall, which meant I was all caught up in it. But not so caught up that I’d forgotten the hot blonde who’d been moving in and out of the building all morning.
This time when I looked up, Sierra had a purse slung over her shoulder and keys in her left hand. I opened my mouth to tell her I’d brought my lunch, but one look at those rose-colored lips and prominent cheekbones and I thought better of it.
“Sure,” I said. “I could use a break. I’ll drive.”
Only as her mouth fell open slightly did it hit me that she was offering to bring something back for me, and here I was assuming we were leaving for lunch together. She might even have plans. A lunch date. Hell, for all I knew, she was married or engaged, although I didn’t see a ring.
After a long moment, I stood and walked around the stack of drywall. I grabbed my keys and wallet from the table where the lamp was. When I turned, she was still staring at me, but at least her mouth was no longer hanging open.
“Let’s go,” I said.
I didn’t wait to see if she followed. I just started for the door. I very well could have ended up heading off to lunch on my own. I would’ve then spent that hour finding a way to salvage my pride. But when I pulled the door open and looked back over my shoulder, she was walking toward me, keys no longer in her hand.
“Automatic doors,” she said as she breezed past me.
“Automatic doors?” I asked as I followed her out the door and led her toward my truck.
“That’s what we need here. Don’t you agree? People coming in with their luggage don’t want to have to deal with pulling doors open.”
“Those actually push,” I said.
Why was I arguing? I agreed with her on the automatic door thing.
“Have you discussed this with the boss lady?” I asked.
“It’s my first day, technically,” she said. “Since you’re the contractor, I thought bringing it up with you might be better. You can tell me why it’s a bad idea.”
We’d arrived at my work truck, and I was having second thoughts about offering to drive. It just seemed the gentlemanly thing to do, even though this was strictly professional—or that’s what I was telling myself, anyway. But it would be impossible to go five seconds without taking a look at the way her tits strained the fabric of her blouse.
“I’ll apologize in advance for my truck,” I said, rushing ahead to get to the passenger side before her.
I pressed the button to unlock the door, then opened it. When I looked back, she was still standing at the front of the truck.
Finally, she stepped toward me. “You don’t have to do that, you know.”
“What?” I asked, faking innocence.
“Hold doors for me. We’re working together. It kind of makes things personal.”
At that point, she was just inches from me. Our eyes met. The contact sent warmth rushing through my body, and my stomach did a strange fluttering thing that it’d never done before. I frowned, trying to figure out what was going on.
“It can never be anything more than professional,” she said. “You’re my boss’s contractor.”
Normally, I’d be discouraged by those words, but there was something not quite convincing about the way she said them. In fact, it was almost as though she was trying to convince herself this couldn’t be personal.
Yeah, she was definitely feeling it too. It was not one-sided.
“I’m a gentleman,” I said. “Don’t take it personally if I hold doors for you. It’s just what I do. My mom raised me to be respectful to women.”
She eyed me for another long second but then gave a nod. “Okay.”
Then she climbed into my truck and pulled her own door closed. I smiled to myself as I ran around the front of the truck. But that smile disappeared when I opened my door and remembered my truck needed a serious interior cleaning.
“She’s my work truck,” I said. “I don’t get around to cleaning her very often. I’ve been putting in some long hours.”
“She?” Sierra asked with a smile. Then she waved a dismissive hand in front of her. “It’s fine. Mrs. Gray is just happy you’re moving things along so quickly. Apparently, there were a lot of delays with the exterior.”
I winced as I backed out of the parking space. Those delays were on my watch. I’d done my best to keep everything on track, but I was working with subcontractors out of Knoxville, and they kept pushing us back in favor of other projects.
Instead of fessing up to that, though, I went another route. “Four years,” I said. “Four years from project approval to where we are now, and we’re still not finished.”
“But you will be soon,” she said.
“As I told your boss, I’ll do everything within my control. There’s your boss’s dog. Have you met Toby yet?”
I gestured to the left, where a golden retriever wandered the backyard of Zack and Ashlynn Gray’s house. Their cabin sat at the very front of the property where Ashlynn’s retreat center was being built.
“No,” Sierra said. “She showed me his picture during our first meeting, though.”
Toby’s owner, otherwise known as Sierra’s boss, was standing on the back patio. Her maternity T-shirt showed off that she was well on her way to her delivery date.
When she looked directly at us and waved, a sudden thought caused me to grip the steering wheel a little tighter. What if she noted us leaving the property together and thought we were getting personal?
No, that was ridiculous. We were two colleagues going to lunch. Both Ashlynn and her husband were good people. I’d known Zack for years, and I’d gotten to know Ashlynn pretty well while working on this project.
These days, Ashlynn didn’t come around much. She’d stepped on a nail early on while walking around the construction site, and from that point on, Zack hadn’t let her come near the place. I assumed that was why she’d hired someone to keep an eye on things.
“Do you live in Rosewood Ridge?” Sierra asked.
“Yep. Moved here from Georgia about twelve years ago,” he said.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her looking over at me. I couldn’t quite make out her expression, but my guess was that she was calculating my age.
She couldn’t be older than her early twenties, which meant twelve years ago she would have been in elementary school. Considering the thoughts I’d been having about her all morning, I didn’t even want to consider how young she’d been when I moved to Rosewood Ridge.
“So, what do you recommend for lunch?” she asked as she faced forward again.
Oh, shit. That had been the only reason she asked if I lived here. She wanted my restaurant recommendations. The good news was, as someone who did my fair share of takeout, I’d tried all the restaurants in town.
“Depends on whether you’re in the mood for something heavy or light,” I said. “There’s a new diner on the square. We also have a Mexican restaurant, some Asian places, and a retro-style hamburger joint…”
“Do you have a pizza place in this town?”
I glanced over at her. This was my kind of woman.
“Are you kidding?” I smiled. “Does any town not have one?”
She nodded. “That’s what I’m in the mood for.”
If this woman wanted pizza for lunch, that was exactly what she’d get. I’d only just met her, but she was the very type of woman I’d always been afraid of meeting. This was a woman who could break my heart.