Construction Beauty Queen

by Sara Daniel

  “Jenny, leave Mrs. Jamison alone,” Matt warned, reaching to peel his niece off the woman’s expensive pant leg.

  “I’m perfectly capable of telling people to leave me alone if they’re bothering me,” Mrs. Jamison informed him, shifting Jenny out of his reach. “This girl is not bothering me. You and Daddy, however, are getting on my last nerve.”

  She dismissed Matt and Ron with a flick of her head and took Jenny by the hand. “I’d love to see you on the monkey bars, honey. Did you know they were Veronica’s favorite part of the playground when she was your age?”

  “Really?” Jenny’s words faded as she walked away, but the skip in her step remained.

  Matt looked at Ron. He was leaning on his cane and staring after his daughter, his undisguised wistfulness and loneliness making him appear old and frail. He caught Matt looking at him and growled, “Wait until that niece of yours gets old enough to leave and ends up in some ritzy Chicago neighborhood where she’s suddenly too good to come back and visit you. Then you’ll know how I feel.”

  Matt knew Ron was trying to rile him up. Still, as he watched Jenny stare adoringly at Mrs. Jamison, he remembered how she’d gazed at Veronica with the same reverence and adoration. And Matt could all too easily imagine Ron’s prediction coming true.

  …

  “Who would have guessed sushi would be the hit of the picnic?” Becca laughed as she helped herself to another one, but her expression quickly sobered. “You haven’t run into Toby anywhere, have you?”

  “No, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled,” Veronica promised. She looked over the park, but the only person who stood out was Matt, chatting with another family a few tables away.

  “Want me to ask Connor to look for him?” Pauline asked.

  “No,” Becca said quickly, panic filling her face before she masked it. “I mean, no need to bother the police. Toby’s around somewhere. Just tell him to check in with me if you see him.”

  “Sure thing,” Veronica said, for now going along with Becca’s desperation to play it cool.

  Becca smiled a weak thanks and hurried off.

  Pauline shook her head. “She’s got her hands full with that brother of hers. And you have your hands full with that hideous car you’ve been driving. Have you met Fred yet?”

  “Fred?”

  “Agatha’s cousin’s son-in-law. He’s the mechanic who’s kept my car running for the past five years. I’ll introduce you. He’s at the picnic table on the far right, wearing the blue shirt and talking to Matt.”

  As if hearing his name, Matt looked up and caught her eye.

  Veronica’s cheeks heated, and she curled her toes as the tingling shot through her body. She said the first thing that came to mind to keep Pauline from suspecting how hard she was falling. “Those strawberry-mango chilled espressos you sent with dinner last night were divine. I love that you’ve figured out a way to offer gourmet options at diner prices.”

  The restaurant owner blew out a breath. “I haven’t figured out anything. Every one of those darn things costs me more that I sell it for, and that’s assuming I charge for it and don’t offer it as a free tasting.”

  “You can’t operate a business that way.” Veronica’s professional concern was instantly on red alert. For all of Matt’s sloppy record-keeping, she hadn’t seen any evidence that he was taking on jobs that cost him more than he charged. He simply needed to do a better job of collecting what he was owed and pulling profit out of services that people were willing to pay a premium for.

  “Tell me about it. For years, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to keep the restaurant profitable while scaling back my own hours, and every year I’m working harder and longer for less. The only part I love is trying out new gourmet options.”

  They were almost to Matt and Fred’s table. Veronica rushed to offer Pauline her services before they arrived and Matt could remind them both she already had a job—one she was intensely bad at. “This is going to sound totally dorky, but I love cranking out that kind of analysis. If you’ll trust me with your financial books and long-term goals, I’ll do it for fun.”

  Pauline eyed her suspiciously. “What’s in it for you?”

  “Sushi and strawberry-mango espressos, I hope.” She tried to keep her voice light.

  “Deal,” Pauline proclaimed.

  Veronica blinked. She’d half expected Pauline to sneer and trample her offer, but she hadn’t. Maybe Veronica was starting to make progress. “Thank you.”

  “No. Thank you.” Pauline smiled and turned to Fred. “This is Veronica Jamison. She’s the sad owner of the atrocious olive-green Oldsmobile that belongs in the demolition lot.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Veronica said, holding out her hand to him. “Do you think there’s any hope for my car?”

  “Hope’s what keeps me in business, honey,” Fred said, accepting her handshake. “I’ll take a look at it and see what I can do. Since you’re Matt’s girlfriend, I’ll give you a special rate.”

  Matt’s girlfriend. She looked at him to see if the words sounded as good and right to him as they did to her.

  He had frozen in the process of turning away. “Better give her the full rate, Fred. We’re not together.”

  She swallowed her disappointment. He was right; he already was in charge of too many decisions that could ultimately dictate her success or failure. She couldn’t allow him to take control of her future happiness as well.

  …

  Matt made his way back to the grill and relieved Connor of the spatula, vowing to concentrate on the burgers. But Veronica kicked off her shoes and started walking around barefoot in her designer dress. The next time he looked down, the meat was black.

  He put another set of raw burgers on the grill, but Veronica’s interactions with the townspeople sidetracked him again. Glenda clucked her tongue at him. “I’ve had several requests for Connor to come back and take over the grill,” she said. “But I think we can call it a day when you finish that set. I’m going up on stage to announce the raffle winners.”

  The burgers were just about cooked to perfection when Glenda announced Veronica’s name as a winner. She cheered with genuine excitement as she made her way to the stage to collect her raffle prize of an oversize Kortville baseball T-shirt. She held it up to show everyone and then slipped it over her head and wiggled it down over her dress.

  “Thanks for helping me dress appropriately,” Veronica said, giving Glenda a hug, the microphone picking up her words for everyone to hear. “Now I need to win some pants.”

  Matt guffawed and laughed along with the rest of the crowd as he watched her stroll back to the picnic tables. Instead of silently watching her walk by and whispering after she was gone, people reached out to talk with her. Veronica laughed and modeled her shirt for her new admirers, looking sexier than anyone had a right to look in a shapeless tee.

  “I was wearing those shoes. Give them back,” a girl shouted across the park.

  “They’re not yours.”

  Matt looked up as he recognized Jenny’s voice. She was holding on to the heels of Veronica’s black shoes and arguing with Stephanie, who was sporting a bizarre hairstyle of multiple pigtails and overteased bangs.

  Matt looked around for someone to hand off the spatula to. Connor had disappeared, but it didn’t matter. The once-perfect burgers had charred beyond recognition. He pushed the meat to the edge of the coals and left it there.

  “Yes, they are. I found them.” Stephanie pulled on the toes of the shoes as hard as Jenny pulled on her end.

  “Girls, what are you fighting about?” Veronica asked, reaching the children before Matt could.

  “These are your shoes. She’s trying to take them,” Jenny said, her face screwed up in an adorable tough-girl stance.

  “They were my shoes,” Veronica agreed with Jenny. She looked at Stephanie. “But I didn’t take very good care of them, did I?”

  Stephanie met her gaze and shook her head.

  “If you h
ad shoes like those, would you take good care of them?”

  She nodded solemnly.

  Matt stood still, not wanting to interrupt when she was handling the situation so well on her own.

  “Then here’s the deal.” Veronica crouched in front of both girls. “You can have my shoes. I think they’ll be great for playing dress-up. I bet you and Jenny could play with them together.” She put her arm around Jenny, and his niece reluctantly released the footwear. “You know what else you girls need?”

  Matt knew what he needed. He needed Veronica to put her arm around him and look at him with that same serious intensity. On second thought, he wouldn’t be able to control his needs if she did.

  “An awesome bracelet to go with the shoes.” Veronica continued talking to the girls as she slid two thin silver bangles off her arm and handed one to each girl.

  Stephanie accepted hers warily. “Do I have to give it back?”

  “Definitely not. If you can take care of the shoes and bracelet better than I did, then they deserve to be with you forever.”

  The girl smiled at Veronica for the first time. “Thank you. Jenny and I are going to be the fanciest ladies ever.” She clutched her new shoes to her chest and grabbed Jenny’s hand. Their matching bracelets rattled as they ran off together.

  Matt closed the distance as Veronica straightened, rubbing her knees where the soft ground had left damp imprints. “Why did you do that?” he asked.

  “Let’s see, because I have fifty other pairs of black shoes, because I prefer gold to silver, because I’m bribing the kid so her great-aunt will consider selling me that awesome farmhouse just outside of town, because I get off on flaunting my wealth. I’m sure you could come up with a laundry list of reasons.”

  She’d pegged him. He was guilty. She’d been proving him wrong and destroying his misconceptions from the beginning. Everyone else at this picnic had reversed their opinions of her. Although he was beginning to understand what Veronica wasn’t, he still didn’t know who she was. How could he comprehend what he could offer her if he couldn’t figure out her motivation? “Why, Veronica?”

  She shrugged, rippling her oversized shirt with her shoulders. He could too easily envision her climbing out of his bed and wearing one of his shirts as she padded around his house. “Because wearing those shoes made Stephanie happy.”

  “And your goal is to make people happy?”

  “It certainly beats making them unhappy.” She stepped toward him and lifted her hands to his shoulders. “What can I do to win you over?”

  Matt looked her up and down. He couldn’t admit that she already had. The more she focused her gaze on him and touched him, the deeper he was drawn in. “Another kiss would probably do the trick. But I’d settle for you coming to work on Monday wearing that T-shirt.”

  Chapter Nine

  Veronica didn’t kiss Matt, and she didn’t make any foolish, flirty promises about what she’d be wearing come Monday morning. Not that she hadn’t been tempted to do both.

  The picnic was winding down. Her mother had long since left to prepare for the dinner party in the city, and Ron had disappeared about the same time.

  Before Veronica could move forward with Matt, she needed to call Paige and tell her to cancel the application to the Help the Less Fortunate foundation. She finally felt that Kortville had enough local passion to make the food pantry and community closet come to fruition without outside help. And that meant she was free to cut her final ties to Trevor.

  “Veronica, thank you so much for your dedication to the community needs center,” Agatha said. “I now have faith that we’re going to get it off the ground regardless of what Ron decides to do with his money. This is a lifelong dream of Wilbur’s, and we never could have done it without the financial support from the Help the Less Fortunate foundation.”

  She nearly choked. “They contacted you?”

  “Someone by the name of Mr. Cunningham the Fourth. He said they’d give us everything we asked for. I don’t even know what we asked for.”

  All the progress and contacts and possibilities Veronica had seen coming to light today slipped through her fingers. She’d made her decision to scrounge and improvise, instead of taking Trevor’s money. Except he had gone ahead and held up his end of the deal. Everything would be taken care of. She looked at Matt heading to his pickup with Jenny. Everything except what she wanted.

  She forced a smile for Agatha. “I’m glad I can do something that makes a difference.”

  “Honey, you’ve made a huge difference. We are so proud to have you call Kortville home.” Agatha wrapped her arms around Veronica and hugged her hard.

  Veronica’s stomach clenched. This was her town, and she couldn’t let it down. As Agatha walked away, she opened her phone and dialed. “Paige, where’s that car you promised me?”

  “You read my mind.” She laughed. “We’re in a limousine, entering the edge of town.”

  Her one hope that logistics would make the journey to Chicago impossible tonight was dashed. “We?” If she had to do this, she at least hoped to have the four-hour drive to mentally prepare herself.

  “I talked Trevor into coming with me. Where are you right now?”

  She gave Paige directions to the park and waited by her defunct car for the limousine to show up.

  It pulled around the corner just as Matt got back out of his truck and walked toward her. “I can give you a ride to your trailer if you need.”

  “Thanks, but I’ve got one.” She willed him to leave quickly. Seeing her jump into the back of a limo would reaffirm every spoiled thought he’d had about her since they’d met.

  The limo pulled to a stop. The back door opened, and Trevor himself stepped out, wearing a starched suit and blinking in the sunlight. His eyes widened in horror as he focused on her. “Get in before anyone sees you looking like that.”

  Hello to you, too, Veronica thought. “What’s wrong with how I look?”

  “You look like a teenager who just rolled out of bed.”

  The T-shirt she’d pulled on over her dress had helped the townspeople see her as one of them and had made Matt look at her with the same gleam that Barney’s dog had when he was eyeing the unattended plate of burgers earlier. “It’s an unintimidating look. People here seemed to like it.”

  Trevor adjusted his earpiece, no doubt tuning in to a phone conversation only he could hear. He glanced back into the limo. “Paige, are you taking notes on the Myers offer?”

  “Yes, sir,” was the faint reply from inside. With both of them consumed by their earpiece conversation, Veronica would essentially be alone with her thoughts after all.

  Trevor held the door and motioned for her to climb in. “I hope you have a change of clothes and some shoes for tonight. We’re already running late.”

  “What are you doing?” Matt asked, his voice low.

  She hazarded a glance at him. His jaw was clenched, and his gaze was lethal. It was sweet that he was so protective of her. “Trevor, this is Matt Shaw, my boss at Kortville Construction. Matt, this is Trevor Cunningham the Fourth.”

  Trevor held out his hand and added, “Veronica’s fiancé.”

  …

  Matt looked from the hand to the prick it was attached to and then to Veronica. She looked surprised as well as guilty. Apparently, she thought she could play him and assume he’d never find out the truth.

  And he had been played. She’d kept up the sham of construction work with such dedication that he’d believed she was doing it for the career she’d claimed she wanted to start. Then she’d shuddered and melted with such conviction in his arms that he’d believed her attraction to him was genuine, that the other guy had never touched her, that she was thinking of no one but Matt.

  He squeezed the guy’s soft, cold hand. It was immature, but he didn’t care. In fact, he hoped he broke a few fingers. Matt felt like the clichéd all-brawn, no-brains lowlife who someone else’s fiancé had been slumming with.

  “I as
sume you’ll have her back for work by seven a.m. sharp on Monday,” Matt said, although he had no such delusions. No wonder she hadn’t kissed him or promised to wear her sexy shirt to work on Monday.

  “I hope not to have her back here at all,” Trevor said, confirming his expectations as well as his fears.

  “Stop it, you two. One way or another, I will return,” Veronica said with a cheerful smile.

  “I won’t hold my breath.” Matt reluctantly released the jerk’s hand.

  “I don’t know why you’d want to,” Trevor told her, tentatively flexing his fingers.

  Veronica gave him a light push on the back, nudging him into the limousine. Then she looked back at Matt. “It’s not what you think.”

  “Are you going to marry that puffed-up guy with the dorky thing sticking out of his ear?” Please say no.

  “We’ll talk about it when I come back.” Veronica slid into the limousine and closed the door.

  She didn’t say no.

  She wouldn’t return. For the second time in three years, Matt watched a woman drive away from him back to her sophisticated city life. Fool me twice…

  …

  “I think he broke my knuckles,” Trevor moaned.

  Veronica’s instinct was to defend Matt, but she had no plausible explanation for his behavior, other than he was extremely angry with her and took it out on the guy who had stepped in the middle before she’d had a chance to set Matt straight.

  “Let me see.” Paige inspected his hand and bent each finger. Then she dug a highball glass out of a cabinet and filled it with ice. “Hold this. It’ll make your hand feel better.”

  “It’d feel better if you topped the ice with whiskey,” Trevor said.

  Paige rolled her eyes. “Don’t be a baby. You’ll be fine.”

  Veronica sat on the seat watching them, feeling like a fifth wheel. Of course. Why hadn’t she seen this before? Trevor might be a typical clueless man, but it was obvious to her that Paige was more than a dedicated personal assistant. She was completely in love with her boss. What woman wanted to see the man she was in love with marry another woman?