Chapter Sixteen
SIXTEEN
“I don’t see why you can’t take one day off, just one, and spend some time with me.”
Giff put his nail gun down, sat back on his heels, and studied Lexy’s sulky face. It was one of those wicked whims of nature, he supposed, that made that pouty look so damned appealing to a man. “Honey, I told you this was going to be a busy week for me. And it’s only Tuesday.”
“What difference does it make what day it is?” She threw her hands up in the air. “Every day around here is the same as the other.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what difference it makes to me.” He skimmed a hand over the edge of the decking he’d completed. “I told Miss Kate that I’d have this porch addition finished and screened in by Saturday.”
“So you’ll have it done by Sunday.”
“I told her Saturday.” That, to Giff, said everything.
But since it was Lexy he was talking to, he worked up the patience to spell out the rest. “The cottage is booked for next week. Since she needs Colin at the campground full-time right now, and Jed’s got this week of school to finish before the summer break, I’ve got to see to it on my own. ”
She didn’t care about the damn porch. The floor was nearly finished anyway.
How long could it take to put a silly roof on it and screen it in?
“Just a day, Giff.” She crouched down next to him, letting all her charm slide into her voice as she kissed his cheek.
“Just a few hours. We can take your boat over to the mainland. Have a nice lunch in Savannah.”
“Lex, I just can’t spare the time. Now if I can get this done, we can go next Saturday. I can juggle some things around, and we can take the whole weekend if you want.”
“I don’t want to go Saturday.” Her voice lost its purr and edged toward mulish. “I want to go now.”
Giff had a five-year-old cousin who was just as insistent on having her way and having it now. But he didn’t think Lexy would appreciate the comparison. “I can’t go now,” he said patiently. “You can take the boat if you’re so antsy to get gone. Go do some shopping.”
“By myself?”
“Take your sister, take a friend.”
“I can’t think of anyone I less want to spend the day with than Jo. And I don’t have any friends. Ginny’s gone.”
He didn’t need to see the tears flood her eyes to know that was the root of the problem and the greatest source of her newest discontent. There was nothing he could do about it, just as there was nothing he could do about the raw spot in his own heart since Ginny’s disappearance.
“If you want me to go, you have to wait till Saturday. I’ll get the weekend clear. We can book a hotel room, and I’ll take you out for a fancy dinner.”
“You don’t understand anything!” She thumped a fist on his shoulder as she sprang to her feet. “Saturday’s not today, and I’ll go crazy if I don’t get away from here. Why won’t you make time for me? Why won’t you just make time?”
“I’m doing my best.” Even his patience could wear thin. Giff picked up the nail gun and shot a bolt home.
“You can’t even stop work and pay attention for five minutes. You just shuffle me in between jobs. And now a stupid porch is more important than being with me.”
“I gave my word on the porch.” He rose and, hefting a new board, laid it across the sawhorse to measure. “I keep my word, Lexy. You still want to go to Savannah on the weekend, I’ll take you. That’s the best I can do.”
“It’s not good enough.” She jerked her chin up. “And I’m sure I won’t have any trouble finding someone who’d be happy to take me today.”
He scraped his pencil over the board to make his mark, then looked up at her with cool, narrowed eyes. He recognized the threat, and the very real possibility that she’d make good on it. “No, you won’t,” he said in calm, measured tones. “And that will be up to you.”
It was like a slap. She’d expected him to rage, to have a jealous fit and tell her exactly what he’d do if she looked at another man. Then they could have had a loud, satisfying fight before she’d let him drag her into the empty house for make-up sex.
Then she would have convinced him to take her to Savannah.
The scene she’d already staged in her head dissolved. Because she wanted to cry, she tossed her head and turned away. “Fine then, you go right on and build your porch and I’ll do what I have to do.”
Giff said nothing as she stalked down the temporary steps. He had to wait until his vision cleared of blind rage before he picked up the skill saw. Temper could cost dearly, he knew, and he didn’t want it to cost him a finger. He was going to need all of them, he thought, if she followed through.
It would take four fingers to make the fist he was going to plow into some guy’s face.
Lexy heard the saw buzz and gritted her teeth. Selfish bastard, that’s all he was. He certainly didn’t care about her. She walked fast across the sand, her eyes stinging, her breath short. No one cared about her. No one understood her. Even Ginny ...
She had to stop a moment as the muscles in her stomach seized. Ginny had left. Just gone away. Everyone she let herself care about left her, one way or another. She never mattered enough to make them stay.
At first she’d been sure something terrible had happened to Ginny. She’d gotten herself kidnapped, or she’d stumbled half drunk into a pond and been eaten by a gator.
That was ridiculous, of course. It had taken her days, but Lexy had resigned herself to the fact that she’d been left behind again. Because no one stayed, no matter how much you needed them to.
But this time ... She shot a defiant look over her shoulder at the cottage where Giff was working. This time she’d do the leaving first.
She headed for the line of trees. The sun was too hot on her skin, the sand too gritty in her sandals.
At that moment she hated Desire and everything on it with a wild and vicious passion.
She hated the people who came and expected her to serve them and clean up after them.
She hated her family for thinking of her as an irresponsible dreamer.
She hated the beach with its blinding white sun and endless lapping waves.
And the forest with its pockets of dim shadows and screaming silence.
And most of all she hated Giff because she’d been thinking about falling in love with him.
She wouldn’t now. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Instead, she thought, as she left sun for shade, she would set her sights on someone else and make Giff suffer.
When she caught sight of Little Desire Cottage, and the figure sitting on the screened porch, she smiled slowly. She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of it before. Of him before.
Nathan Delaney. He was perfect. He was successful, sophisticated, educated. He’d been places and done things. He was gorgeous to look at—gorgeous enough that even Jo had taken notice.
She’d bet Nathan Delaney knew how to treat a woman.
Lexy opened the little red bag she wore strapped across her body.
After popping a cherry Lifesaver in her mouth to sweeten her breath, she took out her compact, carefully dusted her nose and brow.
Her color was up, so her cheeks needed no blusher, but she methodically painted her mouth a young, inviting red.
She spritzed on some Joy and fluffed back her hair while calculating exactly how to play the scene.
She wandered closer to the cottage, then looked up with a friendly smile. “Why, hello there, Nathan.”
He’d brought his computer out on the picnic table on the porch to enjoy the breeze while he worked. The design he was tinkering with was nearly perfected. At the interruption, he looked up distractedly. And realized his neck had stiffened up again.
“Hello, Lexy.” He rubbed at the ache.
“Don’t tell me you’re working on such a beautiful morning.”
“Just fiddling with final details.”
“Why, is that one of those little computers? How in the world do you draw whole buildings on that?”
“Painstakingly.”
She laughed and, cocking her head, skimmed a finger down her throat. “Oh, now I’ve interrupted you, and you probably wish I’d scoot.”
“Not at all. It gives me an excuse to take a break.”
“Really? Would you just hate me if I asked to come up and take a peek? Or are you temperamental and don’t like to show your work in progress?”
“My work’s just the beginning of progress, so it’s tough to be temperamental about it. Sure, come on up.”
He glanced at his watch as she turned to go to the steps. He really wanted a couple of hours more to refine the plans. And he had a date at one. A drive up to the north end of the island, a picnic lunch. And some more time to get to know Jo Ellen Hathaway.
Still, he smiled at Lexy—it was impossible not to. She was pretty as a picture, smelled fresher than the spring breeze teasing through the screens. And the short white skirt she wore hinted that she had legs approximately up to her ears.
“Want something cold?”
“Mmm, I’ll just have a sip of yours, okay?” She picked up the large insulated glass on the table and sipped slowly. “Iced coffee. Perfect.” She detested iced coffee and had never understood why people chilled a perfectly nice hot drink.
She ran her tongue over her top lip and sat companionably beside him. Not too close. A woman didn’t want to be obvious. She glanced at the monitor and was so surprised by the complex and detailed floor plan that she nearly forgot the point of the visit.
“Why, isn’t that fantastic? How in the world do you do all that with a computer? I thought architects used pencils and slide rules and calculators.”
“Not as much as we used to. CAD makes our lives easier. Computer-assisted drawing,” he explained. “You can take out walls, change angles and pitch, widen doorways, lengthen rooms, then change your mind and put it all back the way it was. And you don’t wear out erasers.”
“It’s just amazing. Is this going to be someone’s house?”
“Eventually. A vacation home on the west coast of Mexico.”