Love by Design (Crystal Falls Book 1)

by Lee, Lynette

  The only thing she could manage was to head to the coffeeshop. Now after braving the morning sunshine to get in her car and go downtown, she sat sipping her double latte and rubbing her head at a small table in the corner. Her laptop was open in front of her but the screen was a blur. She needed a little time still before she could manage being productive.

  She decided to give Lydia a call. It was almost like working, gabbing with her. And Lily wanted to get her take on what had happened the day before with the headboard.

  Just as she’d expected, Lydia thought the headboard was nothing to worry about.

  “Honey, she blows up at me at least five times a day. It’s totally meaningless. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Lydia promised to call Francis at The Bungalow personally and take care of the headboard. Lily had no doubt that even if she couldn’t get a full refund she’d be able to sweet-talk the owner into store credit. Lydia also loved the new idea for the headboard and wanted to see pictures as soon as Lily found the artist.

  “Christina’s a sucker for artists. I’m sure just the thought of lying under a work of art every night has her wet.”

  Not something Lily wanted to imagine.

  “So something kind of crazy happened yesterday.” Lily wasn’t totally sure she wanted to tell Lydia about her kiss with Noah. But she couldn’t tell Angie or Rachel and if she didn’t spill the beans to someone she thought she might burst.

  “Let’s hear it,” Lydia replied.

  “I kissed Noah.”

  Lydia screeched on the other end of the phone so loudly that Lily had to hold the phone away. She bit her lip but couldn’t quite hold her smile back.

  “That is the best news I’ve heard all day. Quick, give me all the juicy details.”

  Lily glanced around the coffee shop. It was nearly empty, only the baristas laughing with one another as they foamed milk and poured a coffee for a single other customer waiting by the counter.

  “He kissed me at the cabin, after Mrs. Uptight, er, Upton attacked me. I think he was trying to make me feel better.”

  “Mrs. Uptight!” Lydia cackled with laughter. “That’s a good one. Wish I would have thought of it. So did he make you feel better?”

  “I don’t know. He confused me. It felt good, obviously, but I was still so mad at him. I just didn’t know what to do.”

  “You know what I would have done. I say go get him back, woman! Let the past be in the past. And get your hands on that beautiful ass of his.”

  “Lydia!”

  “What? I’m only speaking the truth, and you know it.”

  She had a point. Was it really worth it, holding onto this anger? Especially after everything Noah had said the night before? She still hadn’t had time to really process his apology or explanation.

  “Okay, okay. You might be right.” She felt like she should say more, but nothing else came.

  “Well, of course I’m right. I’m always right, darling. Oh, shoot, got another call. Catch me up on the headboard and on Mr. Sex-God later, okay?”

  “Sure, talk to you later.”

  Lily sat back and sipped at her coffee, letting the hot liquid soothe her pounding head. What she needed was a nap. And a shower. But she still had a million things to do to make sure the design for the cabin would get finished on time. Hard as it was to concentrate with her hangover and her love life spiraling out of control, it was time to get back to work. Noah can wait, she decided and opened her laptop again.

  Chapter Seven

  All the way up the mountain Noah had thought about Lily, alternating between feeling excited at the thought of her soft body beneath him the night before and wondering if she would ever give him another chance. She seemed to believe his explanation about Maggie, but that didn’t mean things were back on between them. For all he knew she could hate him again today.

  Not knowing where they stood drove him crazy. Now that he knew for sure that he wanted her back, she was all he could think about. He knew too that once this job was finished it would be a lot harder to keep in touch with her. He felt like he had to win her back before the end of the remodel job or it might just be too late.

  When he pulled up and saw a big shipment of kitchen tiles waiting for him outside the cabin he was still thinking about her and it had given him an idea, one he thought was too crazy at first. But as the day wore on and Lily still hadn’t made an appearance, he became more and more desperate. Finally at lunchtime he decided to go for it. There was only one way to know how she felt, and that was to see her again. The tiles would surely get her up to the cabin. It was a childish move, sure. But he was feeling desperate. He finally worked up the courage and dialed her number.

  “Yeah?” she answered. Her voice was so neutral he couldn’t pick anything up from her. He kicked at the stack of tiles in front of him as his heart thudded hard in his chest.

  “Hey Lily.” This was it, his last chance to back out of acting like a lovestruck lunatic. He continued on, committing to making a fool of himself. “I’m up at the cabin and I’ve got a question for you.”

  “Sure. Go ahead.”

  “There’s a shipment of tiles here for the kitchen. But I don’t know,” he hesitated before going on. “They don’t look right to me. I hate to have to ask you this, but I really want to know if they’re right before I have my guys install them, and I was wondering if you could swing by and check them out.”

  “It should say on the packing list what they are,” she said. “Just read me the number and I’ll tell you if it’s right.”

  Noah cleared his throat. Shit. He should have thought about that. Obviously, the woman was making him crazy. He hesitated, once more unsure if he should lie to get her up to the cabin or give her the right number and be an adult.

  “Okay, let’s see.” He made noises like he was walking around looking for a tag. “Actually I don’t see a tag anywhere.”

  “Wasn’t there a shipping list? Didn’t you sign for them?”

  “They were here when I got in this morning. They must have been delivered early.”

  “Well, what color are they?”

  “A sort of grayish, bluish color?” He hoped it was vague enough to leave her doubting.

  She sighed and he knew he had her. “I’ll be up there in a bit. I’ve got a couple of things to finish up here first.”

  “Okay, but the sooner the better. I’ve got a crew of tilers sitting around.”

  “Sure, okay. See you soon.”

  As he hung up the phone, Noah made his way into the cabin. Only the head contractor was there, looking over the spare bedrooms they’d completed the day before. The place was coming along nicely, he thought. Although the cabin was a rush job, it didn’t look it. The new floor-to-ceiling windows let in a lot more light. Long honey plank floors, Lily’s perfect choice, made the room seem even bigger and were a vast improvement to the old brick that had been there before. The kitchen was still a disaster, but although it looked like a tornado had hit it, most of the ground work was done. The tile and other design work would go fast.

  “Looking good, Noah,” the contractor Paul, a chunky middle aged guy Noah had worked with since he’d first arrived in Crystal Falls said as he came out from the long hall where the bedrooms were.

  “Yeah, you guys are making a hell of a lot of progress. Thanks for working so quickly on this.”

  The contractor shrugged. “Hey, no problem, man. We all know the snow’s coming, right? My guys hate mountain work once it starts snowing. They’ve got some motivation to get this one done.”

  “You’re not kidding. That road is a bitch in a storm.”

  “I ever tell you about the time I got caught up here?” The man put his clipboard on the counter and leaned back, pushing his already large belly out even further.

  Noah shook his head and leaned an elbow on the other counter. He loved Paul’s stories.

  “It was a job kinda like this one, actually. Cabin renovation, ric
h client who wanted the thing done yesterday. Well, this was back in ‘98, the year we had all those blizzards. My crew had just finished plumbing the place when it started to snow. I told them to go on ahead, get off the mountain before the snow really started to fall.”

  Paul smiled and Noah shook his head. He could see where this was going.

  “The guys got off the mountain fine. But of course I stayed to get a couple of things finished up. Wanted to at least put a lid on the plumbing part of the job.” He chuckled, shaking his belly up and down. “An hour later when I looked up I was all but snowed in. Couldn’t even get my truck out of the driveway.”

  Noah raised his eyebrows. “Shit, how long did you get trapped?”

  Paul raised his own brows with a grimace. “Three long days. At least the guys had left behind a couple a donuts and some instant coffee. I could’ve starved to death.”

  Noah laughed and patted Paul on the shoulder. “Well, that’s not going to happen up here. We’ve got this baby all but wrapped up, don’t you think?”

  “Maybe another week or two, but yeah. She’s coming along nicely.” He grabbed his clipboard and pulled out his keys. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Noah nodded and turned back to look out the big living room windows. All was sunny and bright on the mountain today. It was hard to imagine that only a few weeks from now the place would likely be covered in snow. Part of him couldn’t wait to finish the job and get Christina out of his hair. But another side of him wanted it to go on and on. He wasn’t sure if Lily would see him anymore after the job was finished. He had only a short time to change her mind and win her back. Whether he liked it or not, the cabin and the relationship were on the same timeline and he knew he needed to pick up the pace with Lily before it was too late.

  Thinking about Lily, he realized she would be coming soon. He needed to get rid of that shipping list. And get a crew up to the cabin, fast.

  Once Lily hung up with Noah, it took her fifteen minutes to choke down her lunch and pack up her laptop at the coffeeshop. She thought about calling her contact at the store who’d supplied the tiles to double check her order had been placed correctly but in the end it made more sense just to go up to the cabin and verify it for herself. The last thing she needed was another screw-up. What she’d thought would be an easy first job was quickly becoming a pain in the rear.

  Only Noah’s truck was parked in the drive when she pulled up. She saw the stack of tiles wrapped in plastic sitting in the dirt and went straight to them with her cellphone in hand. Not only had she made a detailed project list for everything she’d ordered, she’d taken pictures of every sample so she would be able to double check the real thing in case of a screw up. A screw up just like this one.

  Walking around the tiles, she checked quickly for a shipment list, usually stapled to the outside of every construction delivery, but found none. She heard Noah come out just as she was ripping into the plastic to grab a tile off the top.

  “I thought you said you had a tiling crew here waiting for me.”

  “Oh, yeah,” he said with a shrug. “I sent them to get lunch. Figured it would take a while to figure this out.”

  She held the tile up next to the picture on her phone and verified that they were exactly the same light blue ceramic.

  “It’s right,” she told him, tucking her phone back into the pocket of her jacket.

  “Well, that was easy,” he said with a laugh. He began to come closer but when she frowned at him he stopped.

  “Easy for you, maybe. I had to cut lunch short and drive all the way up here.” And she mentally slapped herself in the forehead as she realized she could have just sent him a text with the picture of the tile. She really needed more sleep. Or more caffeine, she wasn’t sure which.

  A breeze picked up leaves and whipped her hair around her face. She pulled her jacket tighter around herself and wished she would have worn a sweater. Although snow wasn’t in the forecast, the air smelled fresh and crisp, like it was just on the horizon. Winter was coming, whether she was ready for it or not. It was always a gamble, working in the mountains. Snow could hit at any time.

  “Sorry about that,” he replied and leaned against the porch railing. He stuck his big hands in the pockets of his jeans and she gave him a quick once-over, trying but failing to ignore the bulge in his pants. She knew she could just go to him right now, slide herself up next to his big beautiful body and have him. Nobody was even around. She felt again his tongue in her mouth from the night before, his fingers reaching up her bare thigh-

  “Hello?” he asked. He raised his eyebrows at her. “Did you hear me?”

  “Oh, no. Sorry. Just kind of out of it today, I guess.”

  “I said, you want to go inside and look around?”

  “I was just here yesterday.”

  “Yeah, but you’re here now too.”

  She let out a sigh. Why not? “Okay,” she replied.

  He pushed himself off the rail and followed her up the steps and into the cabin.

  Noah couldn’t help but watch the swing of Lily’s hips as she ascended the stairs in front of him. Her skinny jeans hugged her legs in the most seductive way.

  Hands to yourself, buddy. Don’t need her running off as soon as she gets here.

  The cabin was quiet and warm as Noah followed Lily in. It was more peaceful than it had been since he’d started the remodel and he walked around the room, taking time to really survey the work that was being done. They’d hung cabinets the night before and the kitchen was starting to look like the real thing again. The tiles Lily had picked would make it shine, especially with the new sunroof he’d installed in the ceiling.

  “Looks like it’s all starting to come together,” Lily called from the other side of the room.

  He turned to her and smiled. “We make quite the team, huh?”

  She only frowned and headed down the hall. Noah folded his arms and knitted his own eyebrows together. It seemed like Lily was angry at him. The way they’d left things the night before at his place had been a little confusing, but he didn’t think their make out session had been. She’d seemed as willing and needy as he. And now she almost seemed to hate him again. He thought if he knew Lily for a hundred years he probably still wouldn’t be able to figure her out.

  He shook his head and dropped his arms, pacing the living room. Nothing left to do but talk to her.

  He found her in the bathroom, running her hands over the blue and gray backsplash.

  “Looks good, huh?” he asked, leaning against the door frame.

  She turned to him with a smile. “Sure does. I think the shower is the masterpiece in here though.” She moved to the shower and swung the door open. It was a steam shower, with glass spanning three sides from floor to ceiling, more of the blue and gray tile covering the fourth wall. Several shower heads protruded and a long bench curved around a third of the space. “I wish I had something like this in my apartment.”

  His heart thumped wildly. If she liked this one, he couldn’t wait to show her the shower he’d put in the master bathroom at his new place. It was almost twice the size, even more luxurious than the one here. If only that was enough to convince her to come back to him. He pictured her naked in the shower, streams of water hitting her body from every angle. He cleared his throat and had to turn away from her. There was no sense in getting so worked up if she was going to push him away again. It would only make it harder once they were apart again.

  “Look, I know you probably don’t want to,” he began. She turned to him and he leaned back against the granite countertop. “But we need to talk about last night.”

  She folded her arms and leaned against the opposite counter. “I don’t know, Noah. I haven’t even had time to think about last night. I don’t have much to say.”

  “Hear me out, then.” He crossed the room and took her hand, pulling her through the doorway and into the master bedroom where he angled them toward the perfectly modern but slightly rustic wh
ite couches sitting in front of the fireplace.

  She was so close he could smell her skin, like warm sunshine with just a hint of perfume.

  “I want you back, Lily. I think that’s pretty obvious.”

  “How could I possibly take you back after everything you’ve put me through?”

  He held back his anger. She’d put him through plenty.

  “I know. You have every right to be angry still. But like I told you last night, it was all just a big misunderstanding. I love you Lily. I always have. And I don’t know what I have to do to win back your heart,” he said, taking her hand again and moving closer to her so their legs touched. “But I’ll do it. Even if it kills me.”

  She looked into his eyes then and before he knew what was happening, she was on him. Her hands pressed into his thighs and her lips met his, sending waves of excitement through his body. He brought his hand up to her cheek and then moved it to her neck, pulling her into him even more deeply. The bulge in his jeans grew as she ran her hands up his chest, clawing at his shirt until she’d gotten her hands beneath it and onto his bare skin. Her hands were cold against his warm body and he flinched but loved the way it made every inch of his skin feel alive.

  She was practically lying on top of him now, her hands beneath his shirt, his hands sliding up her thighs and up under her t-shirt. Her tongue pushed into his mouth and tangled with his. He knew he couldn’t wait much longer to have her.

  A noise in the front of the house startled them both and Lily sat up quickly. Noah straightened his shirt and Lily raised an eyebrow.

  “Tilers,” he said with a growl. She stood up quickly and before he could grab her hand to stop her she headed to the bathroom. Damn. It almost felt like the universe had it against him. Every time he got anywhere near her, someone interrupted.

  He stood and followed her to the bathroom. She was leaning over the sink, replacing the lipstick she’d smeared all over his mouth.