A loud screech echoes over the phone. “That’s great news! I can’t wait to see what you do with it.”
The light changes and I accelerate through the intersection. “It is, but I decided to partner up with someone on it.”
“Why? You don’t need a partner. Please tell me it’s not that sleazy Oswald ass you’re always telling us about…Thanks.” I hear her sipping through a straw so she must’ve just been handed her order. “Tell me it’s some hot guy with a nine-inch dick.”
“You do know you’re in public?” I shake my head even though she can’t see me and turn right at the next intersection.
“Yeah, the woman is kind of looking at me funny. I’ll be waiting outside.”
“You really need to be more aware, Vanessa.”
She huffs. “It’s not my fault if people are prudes. Like she wouldn’t want a nine-inch dick. Who doesn’t? Oh, crap.”
“What?” I ask.
I can hear someone who’s not Vanessa yelling on her end of the call.
“I’m really sorry, ma’am. I didn’t see him. Yeah, I’m sorry.”
“Van?”
“Hold on…I will. Promise. Yes, I will definitely try to act more like a lady. Sorry again.” The phone sounds muffled for a second then she comes back on. “Okay, my lips are officially zipped.”
“A mom and child?”
“Yeah.” Her apologetic voice says she knows how wrong she was, but it’s Vanessa and she tends to act before she thinks things completely through. “Let’s get back to you. Who’s the lucky partner?”
“Mauro Bianco.” I bite my lip, waiting for her to either lecture me or tell me to find out if he’s got a nine-inch dick.
“Really?” I get neither of those reactions. Her voice is one of concern and worry.
“Yeah. He was there and we were both bidding on the same property, increasing the cost for each other, so he proposed that we partner on it and I accepted. We’re fifty-fifty.”
Silence.
Deafening silence.
“And he put down half the money?”
I’m stuck behind some guy on a bike and though I know it’s good for your physical health and the environment and all that, they are really annoying when you’re in a car and can’t get around them.
“Yeah. And he said he’s good with his hands and has friends on the department who do side work.”
Traffic eases in the opposite lane so I pull out and around the bike.
The lack of enthusiasm on the other end of the call is popping my balloon filled with excitement.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” she asks after a moment.
“I am.” Not entirely true, but glass half full and all that.
“But this guy is the guy you had a crush on all through high school, right?” she asks in a wary voice.
“I can handle myself, Vanessa. You would’ve been so proud of me. It’s like after our date when he was annoyed with me, I’m not afraid to speak to him anymore.”
“That’s good, Mad. Has he done this before? Flipped a house?”
“No, but he wants me to show him everything there is to know.”
I make a left onto the street where she’s waiting.
“But don’t you wonder why he wants to partner up?” she asks.
“I just told you. It just made sense for this project. I’m a big girl, Van.”
“Of course you are.”
“I’m excited. To have a contractor who is as invested as me can’t be a bad thing. He’ll want to get it flipped as quickly as I do. Time is money and since it’s half his money, he won’t be dragging his feet.”
The more I work to convince Vanessa what a good idea this is, the more my own reservations at the back of my head ease. I could list a bunch more reasons, but I’m stopped at the light across from her. I spot her sitting on the cement block of a parking space, head in her hands.
“I just don’t want you to get hurt. He could be…using you.”
I don’t respond right away because to be honest, I’m a little hurt that she thinks I’d let myself be manipulated like that.
“You think I’d just sit there with a smile on my face and let him fuck me over?” I ask.
“No.” Her head picks up and she’s shaking it. I watch her until the light turns green. “I just think this guy is your ‘what if’ guy and you might not even realize you’re letting him take advantage of you until it’s too late.”
Vanessa comes from a place of caring and I have to remember that as I accelerate forward to pick her up. She doesn’t think I’m weak, she just thinks my long-lasting crush on Mauro could cloud my judgment.
“I’m here,” I say and she glances to her right and spots me.
Instantly, a smile overtakes her face. She slides into my car, her arms around my shoulders. “Congratulations, Maddie.”
“Thanks.” I pat her arms, sweaty from the two block walk. “Nice try with working out.”
She falls back into my seat. “I’m done with that. It was a stupid idea.”
I giggle, pushing back the deflated feeling she left me with admitting her worries with Mauro swindling me. “One day and you’re calling it quits?”
She sips her pale iced coffee and shrugs.
Typical Vanessa, bored with something after two point two seconds.
13
Mauro
With two coffees in hand, praying that Madison takes her regular coffee like she does her iced coffee, I step up onto the porch, where she’s already in a folding chair with her computer on her lap.
“Good morning.” I hold up the coffees and danishes.
“Finally rested?” she asks, her hair in a high ponytail, exposing her neck that’s like a spark to kindling.
It doesn’t help that I had a dream last night about her naked wearing only a tool belt.
“Yeah. I slept, ate and then slept again.”
If I wouldn’t have had to go to Cailin’s, I probably would’ve slept the entire time. Usually I function on small pockets of sleep, but I hit a wall yesterday.
“Great because you’ll be using those good hands you mentioned today.” She smiles. Her teeth all white and glowing. “You’re going to think I’m a dork, but I drew up a list of responsibilities yesterday.”
She stands up and meets me on the edge of the porch, accepting her coffee and taking a sip before continuing. “Oh, you remembered. Thank you.”
She’s wearing a set of denim overalls with a white t-shirt underneath and she looks cute as hell. Not in the two-year-old sense. In the ‘I wonder what she’d look like in just the overalls and no t-shirt underneath’ way.
“You’re welcome,” I say. The stirring of happiness inside me over the fact that I got her coffee right needs to be squashed.
“I usually make my own, but of course having roommates, I came down this morning and we were out. Not a note on the chalkboard adding it to the list to buy or anything. Not that I should be surprised, I tend to be the mother hen of our trio.”
“You’re making me feel kind of bad for Cristian.” I sip my coffee, my eyes transfixed on her dark ponytail swinging as she talks.
“You live with your brothers?”
“Just Cristian. Luca’s on his own with his buddies. Partying is still everything to him so we kicked him out two years ago. Not that he doesn’t use our place as his grocery store. Drives Cristian crazy, but he’s still young.”
“He’s as old as me.” She drops her pen, crossing her arms over her chest and resting her hip on the ledge.
Her eyes remain on mine. This is a nice change of pace.
“You’re not in the same spectrum of maturity, I assure you.”
She giggles, that curl at the end of her ponytail teasing me as it appears and disappears.
“Well, Vanessa is about the same. Can’t hold a job to save her life. Scrapes by to pay the rent. Lauren is determined and has a drive like no other, but only when it comes to succeeding in her job or winning a sports game, no
t so much with her laundry or keeping food in the cabinet.”
“I haven’t even asked my brothers, have they gone on their dates yet?” I open the bag of danishes and hold them out in front of her.
“No, thank you.” She might deny them, but I catch her licking her lips after seeing the cheese and strawberry pastries. “They haven’t. Vanessa is delaying because her dad is the Commander of Cristian’s district and Lauren is downright refusing to date Luca. What kind of brothers do you have?” She smirks, clearly joking with me.
“I wouldn’t want to date them either. I’m the best of the lot in case you were wondering.”
She quiets for a moment, her gaze moving down to the pad of paper.
“We really should finalize this before they get here. The dumpster should be here by ten.” She turns away from me, and I take the opportunity to check her out while she isn’t watching me.
Her overalls hug her ass perfectly. I just manage to move my eyes back up to her face before she spins around to say something.
“Here’s the list I came up with. I’m totally flexible, but I think it gives us each multiple areas to work in. It wouldn’t be fair if you did all the manual labor and I only took the decorating and redesign. I have dates down that I’d like us to go shopping for fixtures and tiles. I think I have your schedule right, but if not, we can change it up.”
“I feel like I’m the slacker between us.”
A frown crosses her lips before she raises the coffee to her lips and takes a sip. “I’m sure you’ll be proving your worth this first week of demolition.”
I wrap my hand around her bicep. “Let me feel. I bet you have biceps of steel.”
Her arm lays limp.
“Come on.”
Rolling her eyes but obliging, she raises her arm and flexes, showing off some serious guns for a girl her size. I press my four fingers on the top and my thumb on the bottom. More than her muscle, I notice how soft her skin is.
“I’m gonna call you Zena,”
“The warrior princess?” she asks, her eyebrow quirked so high it’s near her hairline.
I laugh. “Yeah.”
“I guess that’s a compliment.”
My hand leaves her bicep even though I don’t want to pull away.
“It is.”
She rolls her eyes again, but more playfully than the first time. I pick up the sheet to scan it over.
It’s printed in two columns, one with my name and the other with hers, on the other side is a two month calendar of dates she’d like things to be done.
“Two months huh?”
“Well obviously there will be things out of our control, but this is the proposed schedule if everything goes smoothly. We need to talk budget. Figure out how much demolition and contracting is going to cost. If you’re comfortable with it, I’m going to leave that up to you.”
The piece of paper drops from my grip and floats to the ground. I scramble to pick it up.
“If you’d rather not, I can…” she rambles out quickly probably taken by my surprised response.
“No. I can do it.”
She smiles and I straighten the piece of paper in my hand.
“Great. I can do the one with the new finishings once I get your figures.”
Looking it over, she’s right, everything is right down the middle. She didn’t leave all the numbers and paperwork to her and leave me doing everything that required muscle.
“I did leave some permits for you to get because although I don’t want you using that dreamy smile on me to get what you want, I figure it might work on the clerks at the city and get them pushed through faster.”
I so badly want to call her out on her dreamy smile comment, but I let it slide.
“Done. If I get a male clerk, I might need your help though.”
Her cheeks flush and damn it if I don’t want to cage her between my arms and feel her body pressed against mine.
I fold the piece of paper and put it in my back pocket. “Oh, and you got my schedule right.” I wink and the rosy blush in her cheeks deepen.
“Look at this dump you two decided to lose a shit load of money on.” Cristian’s voice behind me makes me curse him for always being early for everything. I would have liked a few more minutes with Madison to myself.
I turn around to see my younger brother in his damn man leggings again with earbuds hanging from his neck. “You don’t look like you’re ready to work.”
He walks up the steps, his attention only on Madison. “I have to work in two hours. It’s my weekend off, do you guys work on weekends?” He smirks in my direction and then his arms wrap around Madison, lifting her feet from the splintered wood porch. “Maddie, you look great. You really should discuss your business decisions with me first though.” He chuckles into her neck, his lips in the exact place I want mine to be. “You and Mauro taking on the world together?”
Her feet fall back to the ground and she smiles up at my brother like he’s a long lost friend. If they were so close, how come I never knew her? “One beat down house at a time.” She laughs and he chuckles, his gaze still not leaving hers.
Finally he looks over at me. “I was on a run. Training for the marathon. Thought I’d drop by and give you guys hell.”
“Thanks. You can go back to training now.”
Madison playfully swats my stomach. “He’s joking, Cristian. You’re always welcome.”
“Thanks, Maddie. You always were nice.” Cristian doesn’t know about the word nice and how offensive Madison finds it after the board game cafe.
“Some might say I’m a people pleaser,” she says, her eyes lit with mischief glancing in my direction.
“Who? My dumbass brother?” Cristian slaps my stomach harder than I expected and I hit him right back. “Fucker.”
“I carry hoses, you carry a gun.”
Cristian looks up at me, shaking his head. “Let’s do a quick sprint and see who’s faster.”
“Let’s run up a flight of stairs with forty-five pounds strapped on our backs,” I deadpan.
“Jump a fence holding your weight on one arm.”
“Carry two hundred pounds of dead weight in your arms down a flight of stairs that’s crumbling without a face mask because you gave it to the victim.”
He crosses his arms. “Go into a dark building knowing some creep is there hiding, his only intent not to go back to jail and he’ll do anything to make sure he achieves his goal.”
“Run into a building that—”
Madison’s hand covers my mouth. “I think we get the point boys. I can say that you both have extremely hard jobs.”
Cristian laughs. “I like this. You’re the only person I’ve seen able to shut him up.”
I bite the inside of her palm lightly and she removes her hand, staring down at it and back to me.
“Did you just bite me?”
“Why didn’t you silence him?” I nod to Cristian who I can see is enjoying whatever this is between me and Madison way too much.
“Because me and you have work to do.” She opens a bag. “Do you want to come in and see the house, Cristian?”
“Cristian got sick the last time he went in.” I give him a shit-eating grin. “Some tough police officer he is.”
Cristian laughs, shaking his head. “You’re such an ass.”
Madison pulls out a hat and places it on her head, pulling her ponytail out of the back and then twisting her hair into a bun.
“Too bad you can’t help, Cristian. Demolition is good for releasing aggression. You’re welcome to stop by anytime, we can always use an extra set of hands.” She smiles and heads to the front door. “I’ll see you in there.”
She disappears through the door, a groan echoing from the hinges as it opens and closes.
“What the fuck?” I whisper-yell to Cristian.
“What?” His head draws back like he has no idea what the fuck I’m talking about.
“You’re flirting with her.”
�
�No, I was saying hi to an old friend.” A smirk emerges on his lips. “Oh, man.” He shakes his head in disbelief.
“What?” I shift in place.
“Jealousy looks good on you.”
“I’m not jealous.” I peek in the door to see that she’s at the back of the house in the kitchen, looking out a window. A laundry basket full of stuff sits on the dining room table.
“You are and you like her.”
I look in the house again and set my narrowed gaze on Cristian. There’s a good chance he’ll see through my bullshit. I might have been able to pull it over on Luca, but Cristian is a tougher sell.
“I just want this to go smoothly and if you date her and fuck it up by breaking her heart, it’ll screw up my chances of having something profitable outside of the department.”
He crosses his arms. “Jealousy, lying, are you sure you’re my brother Mauro?”
“Fine.” I roll my eyes back in my sockets. “Do I want to sleep with her? Yes. Am I going to? No. We’re business partners.”
“Interesting.” He smiles and rocks back on his new, too colorful running shoes.
“Stop it.”
He holds his hands up in the air. “Stop what? I’m not doing anything.”
“I can’t do anything about my attraction to her and you know it.”
“Yeah, I do.” A small part of me thought, (hoped?) that maybe he’d tell me to go for it. “I stopped by the deli last night. Mama’s already got the two of you living in this house with a kid on the way.”
“Mama just wants a grandchild.” I pull off my hat and run my hand through my hair.
“Keep doing that and you’ll be the first bald Bianco.”
I shake my head, placing my ball cap on backward. “I’m screwed.”
He grips my shoulder. “Can I ask you a question? Are you into her just for her looks?”
I shouldn’t be surprised by his question. Have I dated mostly tens? Sure. The fact Maddie has transformed into a ten plus is not lost on me, but it’s more than that. “No. As sick as it sounds, I think it’s because she sees me differently. Not at first, she didn’t. But this morning she told me she’d like me to do the budget for the demolition and construction of the remodel.”
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