His throat tightened. Doyle had pointed out that Evan was a salesman. So now was the time to prove it. He idly twirled his coffee mug on the counter and said, “Hmm.”
He waited.
Jess sent him an annoyed look but didn’t say a word.
He cleared his throat and said it again, but louder this time, “Hmmmmmm.”
She rolled her eyes. “Stop that. I’m not going to ask what you’re thinking.”
He grinned. “I guess I should just tell you, then. Let’s strike a bargain. I’ll pay you top dollar for the room. I won’t even ask to stay in one of the updated ones.”
She slid her glasses back to the top of her head. “Evan, go home.”
“Without a car? Plus, I hate being at the house since you left. I feel like a loose pebble in a huge, empty box.”
“You’d feel the same here.” Her gaze was hooded, cautious. “I’d rarely see you. I have a To Do List as long as my leg.”
“That’s fine,” he lied. “I have to work every day, too. Although, if I do find myself with some extra time, I could help you out. Do a few chores around the place, maybe—”
“No. This is my project, Evan. Not yours.”
He frowned. “Of course it is. Who said otherwise?”
Her gaze narrowed. “You know how you are when you get enthusiastic about things. You take over, even if you don’t mean to.”
He opened his mouth, ready to argue, but the anger he saw in her eyes made him stop. She makes me sound pushy. I’m determined, sure. And capable. And like all good leaders, I like to be in control, but only because I know more than everyone el—He winced as he heard himself.
I’m pushy. Ouch.
Now that he thought about it, Brad had said something similar, claiming Evan had “a tendency to bulldoze.”
Evan scowled. “Fine. Maybe I do tend to take over. I don’t mean to, though.”
Her eyebrows rose and she leaned back in her office chair. “I never thought I’d hear you admit that.”
“It wasn’t easy.” He had to take a drink of his coffee to get the bitterness out of his mouth. “I understand why you’re hesitant to let me stay, but here I am, and Trav isn’t bringing my car until Friday. If your biggest concern is that I’ll take over, why don’t we do this? Let’s come up with a safe word.”
“A what?”
“A safe word. I promise I’ll do my best to stay out of your way, but if at any time you feel that I’m infringing in some way, just say the safe word and I’ll back off, no questions asked.”
She eyed him with suspicion. “Is this a new trick of yours?”
“What?” He shook his head. “I would never try to trick you.”
“You attempted to bribe me last night,” she pointed out. “So why wouldn’t you also try to trick me?”
“I wasn’t trying to bribe you,” he replied stiffly. “I was trying to prove my sincerity. But I can see now that bringing you gifts was a stupid move on my part.”
“It wasn’t smart,” she agreed. “In fact, it was a remarkably asinine move.”
“Point taken. You don’t need to belabor it. Between you and Brad, my ego is taking a beating this week. If this coffee wasn’t so good, I might be reduced to tears.”
“I’m glad you have the coffee, then.” As she spoke, her lips quirked, and he could tell she was hiding a smile.
He’d take amusement over sadness and anger any day of the week, even when it was at his own expense. “Come on, Jess. Let me stay.” When she hesitated, he added, “What will it matter? You made it clear that we’re over. Why would my being here make any difference?”
“Because you’d be standing right here, bothering me.”
“I would not.”
“You’d stay out of the lobby?”
“For the most part, yes.” When she hesitated, he pointed to his coffee. “I have to be here some of the time.”
She regarded him for a long moment. Finally, she sighed. “I suppose you’re right; it won’t make any difference. But a safe word is a good idea.”
Yes! Yes! YES! He forced his voice to a calm level. “All right, then. Pick an unusual word, one you wouldn’t use in a normal, casual conversation.”
She bit her lip and stared into the distance as if reading from a list. “Rhino.”
“Rhino. Got it.”
“Good.” She slid her glasses from the top of her head back to her nose. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have work to do.”
He picked up his plate and coffee cup. “I’ll leave you to it, then. But if you need help, I’d be glad to—”
“Rhino.”
“Hey, I was just saying—”
“Rhino!” she yelled, but she shot him an amused glance as she did so, one he hadn’t seen in forever.
Laughing, Evan backed away from the counter. “Okay! Okay! I’ll just head over here to this lonely corner and finish my breakfast which, by the way, is excellent.”
She rolled her eyes as if she didn’t believe one word of his compliment, but before she turned back to the computer, he noticed that her cheeks had pinkened.
Well. That was something, wasn’t it? Last night had been an abject failure, but all in all, it had been a good morning. He’d gotten permission to stay on-site for another week, they’d found a safe word to keep him from accidentally making an ass of himself, and he’d made her both laugh and blush. Doyle would be pleased, Evan decided. Not bad for one morning.
Smiling to himself, he retreated to a table near a large window, ready to enjoy the rest of his breakfast while thinking of ways to spend time with the woman he loved more than life itself.
4
Jess
Later that afternoon, her truck window rolled down to let in the spring breeze, Jess rested her elbow on the door and pretended she wasn’t obsessively watching the people leaving Target. A half hour ago, Evan had worn his wrinkled suit into the big store, his wallet at the ready.
The sunlight warmed her face while a noisy bee hovered outside the front windshield, searching for a way inside and too silly to realize both side windows were wide open.
Sleepy from the sun, she leaned against the headrest, the scent of fresh cut grass and sun-warmed asphalt wafting into her truck as she wished for the hundredth time that Evan would hurry. She’d brought him here so he could buy clothes and toiletries and whatever else he needed to make it until Friday. She hadn’t meant to offer to drive him, but he’d looked so un-Evan-like standing there in her lobby with his wrinkled white shirt and creased suit pants, his face darkened by a five o’clock shadow, that she’d folded. And so, here she was.
She was being way too nice to him. Had she any sense, she’d have just left him to make do with the clothes he’d shown up in. After all, he was the one who’d wanted to stay in her motel. But somehow, when he’d asked, before she could think, she’d heard herself agree to drive him here.
“I’ll be fast,” he’d said.
She glanced at her phone to check the time. To be fair, he’d only been gone about thirty minutes. Still…
She dropped her phone back into the cup holder. I’m so weak. But at least I have the safe word. All I have to do is use it on myself. She snorted at the thought. So far, she’d only had to use it once but she suspected she would be saying it to him at least a dozen times before the week was over. I should embroider “rhino” on a pillow and just throw it at him when I need to. Thunk! Right in the head.
The vision was satisfying and she found herself smiling.
A robin flew to a tree beside the parking lot and she watched it hop along a branch, scolding a nearby squirrel. If she was honest—which she didn’t really want to be where Evan was concerned—she’d admit that only he could make a crumpled suit and a lack of a razor look hot. Hot. Stop that. Don’t think of him that way. Don’t think about him at all.
She’d be better off thinking about other men. Men who were the opposite of Evan. Men like the guy who was even now walking through the parking lot two rows
away. His jeans rode low on his hips, his flannel shirt hung open, revealing a colorful T-shirt, his broad shoulders and narrow waist a perfect balance. A baby blue Tarheels ballcap cast a shadow over a face with a pleasingly square jaw. Mm-mm. Now that’s the way to wear jeans and flannel—
The man suddenly stopped and glanced around, obviously looking for his car and unable to find it. She started to grin but then she got a glimpse of his profile. The man was Evan.
Oh God, no, no, no! She covered her eyes and slunk lower into her seat. What’s wrong with me? I know the cost of that poison. And yet…and yet, she couldn’t seem to walk away from it. She was like an addict, yearning for the very thing that could hurt her. He’s worse than chocolate. I can’t get enough.
“I hate parking lots.” His voice came from the open passenger window. He opened the door and set his bags into the floorboard. “Do you know how many trucks are parked in this lot? Dozens. And they all look alike.” He slid into the seat.
“All done?”
“All done. Except for getting lost, it was relatively painless.”
Speak for yourself. She started the truck, ready to head home where she’d chill her overactive imagination with a deep dive into the ice-cold reality of refinishing the furniture she’d bought for Room Number Four. She didn’t have time to lollygag in the Target parking lot with a man she should be avoiding like the plague. She backed the truck out of the parking space.
“Where are we going now?” Evan asked.
“Back to the motel.”
His smile slipped. “I thought that since we’re in Asheville, we might as well grab some lunch and—”
“No.” She hit the brakes as a Honda Civic backed out in front of her. “We can do a drive-through on the way home if you want, but I need to get to work. I have a lot to do.” And you don’t.
She didn’t say it, but he must have known she thought it because he slanted her an amused look that made his eyes crinkle in the darnedest way. “I have work to do too,” he said. “Or rather I had work to do, but I did it this morning while I was waiting on you to finish entering those invoices.”
“Good for you.”
“Which means I’m free now.”
She didn’t offer a comment, turning the truck out of the parking lot and heading down the street.
“Since I’m free,” he continued, “maybe I can help you with whatever you’re doing.”
“No.” She turned on her flasher, changed lanes, and headed for the interstate.
“Jess, I’m here, so you might as well let me help.”
“No,” she repeated.
“Why not?”
Because I can’t handle being close to you for that long, not without feeling confused and lonely. “Thanks, but I’ve got it covered.”
“Come on. Everyone needs help.”
She shot him an annoyed look. “Didn’t you promise to leave me in peace if I let you stay until Friday?”
His jaw tightened. “Right. Rhino. No lunch and no help. Got it.” Looking put out, he tugged his hat lower, rested his arm on the window, and stared straight ahead, leaving her in peace.
Normally, she’d have made the same suggestion—that they grab something to eat, as Asheville was known for its excellent cafés and brunch locations. But she needed some breathing room, especially with Evan dressed as he was now. In his jeans and flannel, he reminded her far too much of the Evan she used to know, the one who’d swept her off her feet and into his bed.
The silence stretched as she pulled up on the interstate and drove out of town. Soon, the buildings of Asheville fell away and then disappeared altogether. Moments later, they were surrounded by blue and green mountains, the sunshine spilling over the dashboard.
Evan shot her a glance. “Since helping you is out of the question, then what should I do to kill time until Friday? I can’t sit in that motel room the entire time. I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I’m starting to believe that orange carpet is alive and possibly hungry.”
“Don’t you have mergers to oversee and contracts to argue about and stuff like that?”
“A few, yes. But this morning I realized that meetings were eating up a lot of my time, so I called Ashley and asked her to handle them for the next few days.”
That was surprising. Jess shot him a curious look. “All of them?”
“Every last one.”
“Really? You’re going to let Ashley attend every meeting, decide what needs to be done, and then make it happen.”
“Not exactly. She’s taking notes, but then she’s to call me and we’re going to develop an action plan.”
And there it was. “You’re still going to be making all of the decisions.”
“Yes, but I’ll have a lot of extra time in between those decisions, which could be to your benefit.”
She didn’t answer.
Undaunted, he flashed his smile, his damnable dimple enhanced by his shadowed face. “Just come up with a list of things you want done, and I’ll get to work.”
“No, thank you. There are other ways you can keep busy that have nothing to do with my motel.”
“Like what?”
“You could read a book. There’s a library in town. You have time. They have books.” She shrugged. “Sounds like a perfect match.”
“I need something more active to do. You said you were working on Rooms Three and Four.”
“Exactly. I am working on those rooms. You are not.”
“Jess, I’ve got to do something to kill the time, and I’d rather be helping you than sitting in your lobby just staring at the back of your head while you’re working on the computer.”
She cast him a dark look. “You promised you wouldn’t hang out in the lobby.”
“Well, in the parking lot, then. There’s a bench right there by the door, which is convenient. You know I can’t stay in that motel room. It’s depressing.”
She couldn’t argue with that. She still felt a little guilty for putting him in the worst room.
They drove on in silence as she turned the truck off the interstate and onto Highway 9. To be honest, if anyone else had offered to help, she’d have taken them up on it. She had tons of work to do, far more than she could handle. There were carpets that needed pulling, walls that needed painting, and (worst of all) furniture that needed refinishing. She planned on hiring professionals to do the bigger jobs, but she could save both time and money by jumping in where she could. So much to do and so little time.
His soulful sigh broke the silence. “What if I promise not to talk while I work?”
She couldn’t keep from grinning her disbelief. “Are you serious?”
“As serious as a heart attack, although I’m not sure why it would matter.”
“If you couldn’t talk, then you couldn’t convince me to do something stupid like taking two hours of my precious time and driving you to Target so you can buy clothes and a razor.” She turned off Main Street and headed for the motel. “By the way, how did you get them to let you change clothes right there in the store? I’d think that was against some sort of policy.”
His grin returned. “The manager happened to walk by just as I was checking out. I explained that my car had broken down and I was stuck and I really, really wanted to change out of my suit. She was very understanding.”
Looking the way he did, Jess would bet every woman in that store had been “understanding.” It was a wonder they hadn’t offered to help him tug on his new jeans, too. Heck, for all she knew, maybe some of them had.
She turned the truck into the motel and parked near the lobby, then she climbed out and waited while he collected his bags.
He joined her on the sidewalk, resting the bags at his feet. “Thanks for the ride. I don’t know what I would have done without it.”
She shrugged. “It was nothing.” Which was a lie. Just sitting in the truck with him had stirred emotions she’d thought and hoped and prayed were long gone.
“Jess, can I ask you somet
hing?”
She wanted to say no, that they’d already talked way too much. But she didn’t want him to realize how something as simple as talking to him affected her, so she stiffened her resolve and said in what she could only hope was a cool, unconcerned tone, “What’s that?”
“When I offered to help, I meant I was willing to do the things you hate. You understood that part, right?”
“Really? You’d strip old wallpaper off of walls?”
“Sure.”
“And rip up dirty orange carpet?”
He grimaced, but said, “Why not?”
That was promising. “What I really, really hate is refinishing furniture. There’s a lot of sanding involved.”
“Sanding?” His smile was almost dismissive. “That’s not hard.”
Oh, if only he knew how hard sanding could be. This was getting to be a difficult decision. The only real problem with accepting his offer was that it threatened to soften the anger she’d been holding onto.
She needed that anger. She needed to remember how lonely she’d been, how lost. She needed to remember all of that so she wouldn’t fall back into the same hole again.
Still, she was painfully aware that her To Do List was growing by the minute. Just a half hour ago, while sitting in the Target parking lot, she’d thought of five more things that needed to be done.
He rubbed his chin, his fingers scraping over his shadowed jaw. “Let me remind you that I’m pretty good with a hammer.”
“Used to be,” she corrected.
“Hammering skills are permanent, like teeth.” He grinned as he spoke.
She had to fight an answering laugh. To be honest, he’d been good at everything he’d ever put his hand to, including her.
Rhino! she told herself. Rhino! Rhino! Rhino! She took a steadying breath.
See? She could handle this situation, and him, too. All she had to do was keep her feet firmly on the ground. You can do this, she told herself. Just be honest and set firm boundaries. “All right, Graham. Let’s see what you can do.”
He looked as if she’d just given him a gift, something wonderful like a bottle of the most delicious, expensive wine in the world. “You mean that?”
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