Love by Design (Crystal Falls Book 1)

by Lee, Lynette

  Lily ate the salad standing at the kitchen counter, sipping the Syrah between bites. The ruby wine was significantly better than what she’d been drinking recently and she warned herself not to get too used to it. Although she’d landed this extremely high paying job, she knew there was no guarantee that she would get another one anytime soon.

  The roll of blueprints in the corner caught her eye as she finished her dinner. She poured another glass of wine and picked the plans up, squatting on the floor to roll them out on her tiny coffee table. She studied the changes Noah was making a few minutes, letting her mind wander with design possibilities. She’d already picked out paint and flooring for the entire cabin but there were still the critical furniture and art elements to figure out, not to mention backsplashes and lighting. Knowing what the layout of the finished cabin would be would go a long way in helping her make the decisions she needed to make to get the job done.

  She couldn’t help but admire the quality of the work. The man really was amazing at everything he did. The cabin would be completely transformed when he was done with it. When we are done with it, she corrected herself. After a few more minutes she rolled the plans back up and took another sip of wine.

  Time to have a bath. And try to work out how I really feel about Noah.

  Noah hadn’t seen Lily in over a week, since the evening he’d given her the blueprints. He’d hoped to catch her at the cabin, to at least get some sort of reaction to his apology, the apology that he continued to question as the days went on with no word from her.

  He’d spent as much time as he was able to at the cabin but she hadn’t been there, at least not that he’d known of. He’d even gone so far to ask a few of the guys on the construction crew if they’d seen her but no one had.

  He wondered if she was avoiding him. The longer he went without seeing her, the more he regretted what he’d done that night. He should have kept his hands off her and just told her plainly what he’d wanted to say. At least maybe then he wouldn’t be left hanging with this very uncomfortable doubt about how she felt.

  But instead he hadn’t been able to keep himself totally in control. He’d touched her and probably scared her away or worse, made her angry all over again.

  The truth was, he still didn’t know how he felt about the whole thing. Apologizing for the way their breakup had gone was the right thing to do. But was he apologizing because he wanted to clear the air or because he wanted her back? It wasn’t something he allowed himself to think about often. And yet, every time the cabin door opened, his heart skipped a beat, hoping it would be Lily walking into the room.

  It was becoming a delicate balance for him, being at the cabin often enough so he wouldn’t miss Lily if she visited but trying at the same time to avoid Christina. He didn’t want the client getting the wrong idea, that he was interested in her. The last thing he needed was to have to reject a client outright. Not only would it be awkward, he knew it could jeopardize the job which also meant jeopardizing future jobs for his company.

  He had assumed when he’d taken on the cabin project that it would be like so many others he’d done before. He’d done dozens of remodels for rich women who would come down once a month or so to check out his progress on their little pet projects. But Christina had been much more persistent, visiting the jobsite at least once a week. He knew she was angling for him, that she wanted to sleep with him. She’d made that very clear every time they were together. But so far he’d managed to keep her at enough of a distance.

  A loud bang brought him back to the cabin and he turned from the living room window where he’d been staring out at the afternoon sky to find three workers standing around one of the old kitchen cabinets that had fallen to the ground and shattered.

  “Sorry, boss,” one of them called.

  He waved them off with a quick nod. Demolition was always a loud business. And it would get louder, no doubt, as the rest of the kitchen was torn down to the frame.

  It was messy work, but necessary.

  “Oh my God,” he heard a woman cry and watched with a frown as Christina came through the front door and began to pick her way through the rubble toward him in stilettos. She made it to him and grabbed his bicep, steadying herself. He forced himself not to shake her off.

  “What’s going on here?” she cried, looking at her unrecognizable kitchen.

  “We’ve got to pull the old kitchen out so we can put the new one in.”

  It was another reason he didn’t like clients at the job site. They tended to get upset over things that didn’t matter. And explaining was always more trouble than it was worth. He’d wished more than once over the years that he could ban clients from visiting sites until they were completely finished, but of course that was impossible.

  She looked horrified and he patted her hand while gently prying her fingers loose from his arm. “I know it looks awful right now, but you’ve just got to trust me. You won’t be disappointed.”

  She patted his cheek. “I don’t expect I will.”

  A groan caught in his chest. Could she be any less subtle? He eyed the demo crew, hoping they hadn’t seen her clawing at him. They all stood around watching and smiling.

  “Hey, get back to work over there,” he called and steered her out of the living room toward the master bedroom. At least his work was finally finished in that room so he had something good to show her.

  He had closed the door so the dust from the living area wouldn’t get in. When he pushed it open she let out a loud sigh. “Oh, Noah!” she gasped.

  He followed her in and felt a sense of accomplishment flood over him once again at seeing his own work finished exactly how he’d wanted it to be done. He’d expanded out one wall and added doors going outside, making the room seem much bigger than it had before. A large plush white area rug spread over the dark wood floor and gave the room a rich feel, which he could thank Lily for. She’d picked out all the flooring for the house and had done an incredible job matching his architectural design. The fireplace caught the eye just how he’d wanted it to - gray stone spanning from floor to ceiling and a two sided fireplace opening through to the bathroom so that lying in bed, one would be able to see the jacuzzi tub through the clear glass.

  The bathroom was lighter with the addition of skylights and white granite tile. Blue and gray backsplashes and tub and shower tiles gave it a clean feel - again, Lily’s handiwork - and the double sinks were at once modern and traditional enough to seem to belong with the wooden walls of the cabin.

  “Noah, I don’t know what to say. You’ve captured my soul.”

  He wanted so badly to roll his eyes. She slid her long fingernails around his neck and tried to pull him in to her. He dodged and went instead to the French doors, pulling them open.

  “I know you probably won’t be here much during the summer, but if you are this little area out here will be a really nice place to enjoy the fresh air.”

  She looked disappointed but watched as he continued to move through the room and show her the features.

  “This is all great, Noah,” she finally interrupted him. “I’m so proud of you. It looks like the work is progressing nicely and I have every faith in you that you can pull this off by the deadline.”

  She said the last bit slowly and he got the hint, the same one she’d been dropping throughout the project. She wanted the cabin done exactly on time. And he would do that for her, no matter what he had to do to make it happen. He just hoped he’d be able to catch Lily again before the cabin was complete.

  “I’m sorry, Christina, but I’ve got to run back to town now. I’ve got another meeting. But I’m sure I’ll see you again soon,” he told her as he ducked out of the room, hoping to dodge any more unwanted affection. He breathed a sigh of relief as he slipped out the door but frowned as he got into his truck. Still no Lily.

  If this kept up, he might just have to go hunt her down.

  Lily kicked off her flip flops and rolled her yoga mat out on the studio fl
oor beside Angie. The two of them had started going twice a week a few months before, right around the time of Lily’s breakup. When Angie had first proposed it, Lily had been skeptical, but after only one week, she was hooked and she’d managed not to miss a class yet. Somehow the gentle stretching and pulling of her body had helped her to ease the pain and tension of the breakup and the stress of starting Daly Design. She wouldn’t give it up for the world.

  “Still no Rachel, huh?” Angie leaned over and asked her as she sat on her mat and pulled her legs up into a pretzel.

  “Nope. She’s adamant - no yoga. Maybe you should work on her.”

  “Ha, you don’t think I’ve tried?”

  Lily shrugged with a smile. “Maybe someday.”

  “How are things with the job?” Angie asked.

  Just then the instructor began to speak and Lily gave Angie a shrug and whispered, “I’ll tell you later.”

  Lily began to go through the stretches, following the instructors moves, and let her mind wander, turning quickly to Angie’s question. Overall, the last week had been pretty fantastic. She’d gotten approval for all her design choices from Lydia and she’d stopped by the cabin late one night to find that the master bedroom had already been completed. It was truly beautiful and a total thrill for her to see her own work come together so perfectly. She was just waiting on the bedroom furniture she’d ordered with Lydia to arrive at The Bungalow and she could get the room completely set up, just the way she wanted it.

  Of course, there was still plenty of work to do. She hadn’t yet ordered the furniture for the main living spaces and most of the kitchen design elements needed to be chosen and approved. But she thought she was getting the work done nicely and would be finished with the project well before the deadline, which should make her unpleasant client at least a little bit happy.

  So far she’d managed to avoid Noah as well. Every time she arrived and workers were at the site she stopped to talk to them and ask them if Noah had been around. It got to be a joke with them so that when they saw her coming they would laugh and kid her about her crush. Little did they know. She knew it was probably silly, trying to keep the space between them, especially when their work coincided so closely with one another’s, but after the night with the blueprints she just hadn’t been up to facing him.

  “Okay people, downward facing dog,” the instructor called and she heard a few groans around her. She bent and placed her palms on the floor, feeling the blood rush to her head. She leaned into the stretch and felt some of the tension in her shoulders relaxing.

  Whenever she let herself think back to his finger on her lips or the way he’d smelled that night she grew weak. It wasn’t something she was prepared for, how much her body would betray her. She’d tried to convince herself several times that he was nothing but a liar and a cheat who’d broken her heart, but her intellectual reasoning stood no chance against the pains of longing for his body. Even the memories of the breakup were starting to fade. After the conversation with Lydia at Plush and the apology from Noah she wasn’t even sure she believed he’d cheated on her anymore. She had been drunk after all. And she had only heard about him cheating second-hand. Still, admitting that she might have been wrong to judge him so quickly was something Lily wasn’t completely prepared to do.

  The lights grew dim as the instructor moved them into the final position and Lily was surprised to find an entire hour had passed so quickly. She hadn’t been as present in her body as she would have liked, but her muscles definitely felt better.

  When the class finally came to a close, Angie bent over and asked her again how the job was going.

  “It’s going really well,” Lily told her as they rolled up their mats and grabbed their water bottles. “I’ve got the bulk of the work almost finished, I think, and I’m ahead of schedule, so that’s a good thing.”

  Before Angie could ask anything else, Lily cut her off. “So what’s going on with you? You doing a cake this week?”

  Besides being the main bartender at the Blonde Bear, Angie ran a side business baking cakes out of a friend’s shop. It had started out more of a hobby, as favors to friends and family, but word of her delicious and beautiful cakes had quickly spread throughout Crystal Falls and to neighboring towns and after only a few months she’d had more orders than she could handle.

  “Yeah, two actually. I’ve got a wedding cake I’m really excited about - there are polka dots involved and you know how I feel about polka dots - and a birthday cake for Mrs. Morgan’s nephew. I should be done with it all by Saturday afternoon though if you want to hang out.”

  “Sounds good to me. I could use a little down time.”

  Angie waved to the instructor as they left the room and headed for the parking lot. Before they could reach the car, Angie asked the dreaded question.“And Noah? How are things with him?”

  “Things are fine. We’re staying away from each other.” Lily was glad they were in the dim parking lot and Angie couldn’t meet her eye. She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to keep Noah’s apology and her own changing feelings from Angie, but she did it anyway.

  “That’s good to hear. I don’t want him getting anywhere near you. If that man so much as thinks about hurting my best friend again, he’ll hear from me.”

  Lily laughed and gave Angie a quick squeeze. “Thanks, Ange. I’ll see you later, okay?”

  Angie waved as she got in her car and Lily felt a tug of regret that she hadn’t told her friend the truth. It bothered her so much that she almost flagged Angie down as she pulled away, but in the end she let her go. There would be plenty of time for the truth later, she decided.

  Chapter Five

  Lily cringed as she pulled up to the cabin and found both Mrs. Upton’s BMW and Noah’s truck already parked alongside several other vehicles. Damn, so much for getting in and out quickly. If she’d been by herself she might have turned around. But she had a full furniture delivery truck following her in so she didn’t have the option. It was finally time to face him. And to see Mrs. Upton, who she hadn’t had any contact with since that first horrible day.

  She got out of the car and spent a few minutes talking to the furniture delivery guys, directing them to start bringing the furniture into the very back bedroom.

  Heading inside, she was impressed to see how much work was already done on the place. The living room windows had been enlarged and re-framed and the kitchen was coming along nicely. She thought it was almost time to start picking furniture for the living room, one of the last things she would need to do for the cabin.

  She didn’t see Upton or Noah and figured they were probably in one of the back bedrooms. She headed down the hall to make sure there was plenty of room for the furniture to be stored.

  As she came into the bedroom she caught sight of Noah and Upton in the bathroom, Upton’s arm around Noah, pulling at him. It looked almost as if they were about to kiss and her heart beat a wild pace as she watched the two of them.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” Lily finally said from behind them when she didn’t think she could take another second of the torture.

  Noah whipped around, detaching Christina from his neck as he did, and turned red as soon as he saw her standing in the doorway. He took a step toward Lily but Christina grabbed his arm and kept him where he was.

  “Can I help you?” Christina asked Lily with a glare.

  “I’m just here to finish up the room. Don’t mind me.”

  She shot Noah a cold look. How could she have thought so much into what he had said the other night? He wasn’t sorry. Hell, it looked like he was right back at it, flirting with other women. It was obvious that he and Mrs. Upton were a little too friendly with one another. She couldn’t believe she’d actually started feeling something for him. She wondered quickly if he’d already slept with her. She gritted her teeth.

  Christina waved her away. “We’ll be done here soon. You can come back later.”

  Just then two burly men came through the d
oor with a headboard. Christina rolled her eyes.

  “Take it back, come on, out of here.” She shooed at the men, who turned to Lily for direction.

  “Don’t look at her. I’m in charge here. You need to come back later,” she told them. The men flinched and backed out of the door as she came toward them.

  “No wait a minute. Wait just a minute,” Christina called after them. The men froze where they were, confusion obvious on their faces.

  Christina stepped out of the room and touched the headboard, a gray fabric that Lily thought worked perfectly with the stone of the fireplace.

  “Is this, fabric? On my headboard?” She looked at the men and waited for an answer. One of them finally shrugged. She turned on Lily.

  “You’re the decorator, right?” Christina crossed the room again. Lily stood her ground but her cheeks flushed. She had no idea what was going on.

  “Yes?” she replied.

  “Obviously I’ve made a mistake. This isn’t going to work. Absolutely not.”

  Lily bit her tongue. Not going to work? She so badly wanted to point out that the woman could have filled her in on her design preferences at any time.

  “I’m sorry. I’ll take it back,” Lily said instead, but Upton cut her off.

  “No. Not good enough. How can I trust you now? Who knows what ungodly thing you’ll to bring into my home next. This isn’t going to work. I’ll need to replace you.”

  “Christina, for God’s sake, it’s only a headboard. She can get a different one,” Noah crossed the room and stood between the two women.

  Christina fumed and paced along the plush carpet, the carpet that Lily had so carefully picked out for her. Obviously the effort was lost on the hateful woman.