He put his stuff away in his truck and looked up at the house in front of him. There were lights on in several rooms. He thought about little Jason with his hurt knee and knew he shouldn't get close to the boys. As soon as the job was over, he'd be out of their lives. It wouldn't be right to get close to them and then pull himself away. He didn't want to interrupt their nightly routine and needed to get away before she brought up the changes to their plan. He was irritated and didn't want to say anything he would later regret. She seemed to bring that out in him.
Heath got into his truck and drove away. He looked in his rearview mirror at the busy house behind him. For some reason, the thought of going home to a dark house didn't seem as exciting as it had just weeks before.
Chapter 10
Heath
He went straight to bed. There was no way he wanted to think about Tara. That woman was driving him crazy. He'd been through a ton of shit with clients before, but she was taking the cake. Heath had never seen so much back and forth in all of his life. He'd been with his share of women and watched his friends with theirs as well. He had never met anyone like Tara before. She didn't go out of her way to be beautiful, it was just natural for her. He'd seen her a complete mess and still smiled and laughed with her. At the same time, he wanted to grab her and shake her. Not literally. He would never touch a woman in that way. He could always use his charm to talk his clients into his ideas. That had never been a problem for him. Not until her. He was actually looking forward to a drama free day. As long as he put his feelings about Lisa and his friend together to the side, he'd be fine.
Heath was freshly showered. He pulled on a pair of dress jeans and a nice button-up shirt. He combed his hair and pulled on his sneakers. While he wanted to look nice, he also wanted to be comfortable. He never knew what the girls were going to ask him to do at the shower. With all of them pregnant, there was no way he'd turn a single one of them down.
He pulled his truck into the parking lot of the hall and took a deep breath before stepping out. Ethan, John, Gavin, and Josh were carrying stuff from the back of Josh's car. He was the chef of the group. The man fought fires and owned restaurants. He was something else. Lisa had gotten him into having events for the firefighters and their families. She loved showing all of them as much love as she could since her accident. It really had changed her view on life. Heath ran over to help them carry in the trays of food Josh had most likely picked up from one of his restaurants. Heath was very much looking forward to the food. He knew it would taste amazing.
"Lisa's waiting for you," Josh said, as he looked over at Heath. "I'm not sure if it's the whole pregnancy thing or what, but she's been missing you man. If you don't go find her, I can't be responsible for what she does to you. She's been a bit moody lately."
"I'll find her in a bit," Heath said with a shrug.
"Come on, man," Josh said, with a pat to Heath's shoulders. "Jack's been looking for you too."
As soon as they all walked in the door, Heath could smell the food and hear the cackles of all the ladies getting things ready. He leaned back against a counter and took a deep breath. John stopped and stood next to him.
"How's that job going?" he asked.
"I don't want to talk about it. That woman is driving me crazy. I've seen an undecided chic before. This woman takes the cake. She can't decide from one day to the next what she wants. I seriously think I'm going to lose money on this one. She freaking drives me up the wall."
John looked over at Heath and laughed.
"Not funny," Heath said.
"It is," John said. "Is she pretty?"
Heath shrugged and John's eyes narrowed.
"What?" Heath snapped.
"Nothing man," he said. "Not a thing."
"It's not what you think. Don't even let your head go there. I'm not like any of you fuckers. No woman's going to get to me. I'm not some sappy fool. Hell no. Not going to happen. I like my freedom and my quiet. I don't need a woman messing that up. My life is perfect just the way it is. All of you suckers and your sappy lovey faces. Nope. Not for me. I will never let a woman make me look like that. I'm most definitely never having kids. I'm a loner. That's just how I like it."
Kyle walked through the door just as Heath was finishing his argument.
"Right, Kyle," Heath yelled out. "Us single men will stick together. They can keep all this lovey crap while we have all the ladies. There's no need to settle down with one woman."
Heath walked over, wrapped his arm around Kyle's neck, and pulled him through the door as he looked back at John.
"Maybe we'll go out and pick some ladies up tonight while the rest of you suckers are stuck at home," he yelled back.
The door closed behind them. All the ladies looked up at Heath with narrowed eyes. Just as he went to open his mouth again, he saw her. Their eyes connected and his step faltered for a second. He pulled his eyes away and looked to Lisa. What the heck was Tara doing there, he wondered? He had never heard anything about her from the girls, did he? Oh shit! When he first met her, he thought she looked familiar. What if she knew Becky? Crap! He had to keep his eyes turned away from her. Lisa gave him a look. He knew it well. It was the "what the hell did you just say" look. He smiled a huge smile and walked toward her. Just as he approached, little Jack starting moving around to get out of Lisa's arms. His little arms went up to Heath and he started laughing. Baby Jack was going to save him. Heath reached forward and grabbed the little guy from Lisa's arms.
"Hey there, big guy," he said, as he lifted the baby into the air and smiled up at him. "Daddy said you missed me. Why don't we go hang out with the men and leave these girls to their girlie shower."
Jack laughed and grabbed onto Heath's hair.
"Hey now," Heath said. "Uncle Heath still needs his hair. You should pull out all of daddy's."
"All of daddy's what?" Josh asked, as he walked up and wrapped his arms around his wife's waist.
"Nothing," Heath said with a laugh. "We were just having a private conversation."
"That's what I thought," Josh said with a laugh.
Josh leaned forward and gave Tara a peck on the cheek.
"Hey there, Tara," he said. "How's it going? I haven't seen you since our wedding."
That's it, Heath thought. That was where he had seen Tara. She was at Lisa's wedding. When Josh's lips landed on her cheek, Heath felt his body tense. What the heck, he thought? What was that for? No, no, no. Stay away from that, he told himself. As soon as he turned to walk away with Jack, Lisa reached out and grabbed his arm.
"I want you to meet my friend," she said. "Keep your women comments to yourself. Guests are arriving. You're lucky Tara wasn't offended. Another comment like that and you'll be in deep stuff pal."
Heath shook his head.
"Women," he mumbled.
Just like that, Lisa got him on the back of the head.
"If you weren't pregnant, woman," he said. "I'd have you on your ass for that. Your man would have to save you. It's not any different than it was twenty years ago. You better watch that shit."
Lisa burst out laughing and Heath couldn't help the smile that spread across his face as well. Josh shook his head and walked out of the room.
"Watch my woman," he said. "Make sure she doesn't lift anything while I'm in the kitchen."
"You just let her lift her hand to my head like that," Heath said.
"Take that up with her. I don't stand in the way of her and her best friend. That's between you two."
Josh left, and Lisa pulled Heath by the arm so he was closer to her. She wrapped her arm around his waist, stood on her toes, and kissed his cheek. Heath could have sworn he saw Tara wince when it happened, but he knew he was mistaken.
"Heath this is my friend Tara. We worked together at the airline," Lisa said. "Tara this is my best friend Heath. You two probably saw each other at the wedding."
Tara's hand went up to cover her mouth.
"You gave her away," she whispered.
> "I did," he said.
Lisa looked between the two of them for a moment.
"I've heard a lot about you, Heath," Tara said. "I had no idea."
John walked out of the kitchen with Sandy. He looked over at Heath and smiled.
"Hey Lisa," John said. "Have Heath tell you about his new client. He's actually on the job. I hear she's a real."
"John," Heath snapped.
"What?" John asked innocently.
"She's a real what?" Tara asked.
John looked from Heath to Tara and back to Heath.
"Nothing," John said.
"Tara was just talking about getting her house fixed up," Lisa said. "You should look at it, Heath. I bet you'd do better than the guy she has now. I've been dying for the two of you to meet."
"You know I don't want to meet anyone, Lisa," Tara said. "Stop trying to fix me up. Not every relationship turns out like yours. You're one of the lucky ones."
Heath grunted and shifted Jack to his other side.
"No," Heath said. "They don't."
"I wasn't trying to set you up. I just thought you two would get along. I swear. You're not even divorced yet. You're home with the boys all the time. I just wanted you to make more friends. That piece-of-shit cheater."
"I need to use the restroom," Tara said.
She turned and walked away before Lisa could finish what she was saying. Heath looked down at Lisa.
"Leave that poor girl alone," he said. "You can't always fix everything for everyone."
He walked away with baby Jack. John and Sandy were watching Kelly as her husband ran up to stop her from what she was doing. When John realized he was going to be a grandpa, he acted exactly like the other guys. It took all Heath had not to give John shit about it. Another baby, he thought. They were all pregnant. He looked around at all of the women and felt his heart pull in his chest. They were all so happy. He looked over at Kyle and smiled. They both walked toward the kitchen. Heath heard Lisa apologize to Tara when she walked back to the table.
The shower went on for a long time. The guys stayed in the kitchen and ate while the ladies did the whole girlie thing. Heath peeked out the door to see Tara laughing hysterically at another woman at the table. She looked up and her eyes connected with his. He smiled before turning away and letting the door close.
Kyle was standing right behind him. He looked at Heath with a smile.
"What?" Heath asked.
"Who's the girl sitting next to Julie?" Kyle asked.
"That's Gavin's secretary. Her name is Jenny. Why?" Heath asked.
"No reason," Kyle answered. "I was just wondering."
"Sure," Heath said. "Don't get any ideas. Gavin would have your head."
All of the guests left the shower. Heath hadn't been out of the kitchen once until Tara was gone. Becky and the girls were busy looking through all of the cool gifts she got. They were all so excited for the girls to be born. The guys cleaned everything up. Gavin filled his car and asked Heath if he could put stuff in the back of his truck. They had that filled in minutes as well. It was crazy how much stuff two babies needed, Heath thought. Lisa walked up next to him. His phone buzzed in his pocket, but he didn't pull it out.
"What did you think of Tara?" she asked.
Heath didn't want Lisa giving him a hard time, but he had heard something during the shower he was curious about.
"She seemed okay, I guess," he said. "You said she's not divorced. Why would you even think about setting us up?"
"She's in the middle of a very nasty divorce. He's a total prick. I told her not to marry his ass in the first place. He made her quit working the moment she said I do. The guy is loaded. He thinks he's all that. I never liked the way he treated her. When he cheated on her, I think she finally realized what a jerk he was."
"He's giving her a hard time," Heath said, acting as if it wasn't really important. "That stinks."
"Oh yeah," Lisa said. "He's fighting her on everything. She moved to a house they bought in the woods. She always wanted to live there, but he wouldn't have it. He'd go for holidays or in the summer, but there was no way he was going to live there. She loved the place. He gave it to her, so she moved there to keep the kids away from him and the drama. He's fought her for over a year. The poor girl, she doesn't deserve it. She did tell me something today though."
Gavin's secretary walked in while Heath and Lisa were talking. She had gone to the office after the shower to pick up some stuff for Gavin. He decided that he was going to work from home that week to get the nursery ready in case the girls showed up early. Heath looked up to see Kyle watching Jenny. He motioned for Lisa to look and she laughed.
"Tara said that she realized something over the last couple of weeks. It was after I mentioned you looking at her house. She said she had already hired someone but she was driving him crazy. It's a good thing you didn't go look at it. She said that she realized she needed to do whatever it took to move on with her life. I was relieved. She had been hanging on, fighting for what she could get so she knew she would be okay. I couldn't believe she said she had finally given up. She met with her lawyer, his lawyer, and him this week. He was a total asshole while she was there. When he said he wanted to fight for custody of the boys that was it. She said it was like something snapped in her. I knew she didn't want him back, but if was more clear than it has ever been today. She said something happened the last few weeks and she realized the boys were better off without him. A stranger had treated them better than their father. She knew her ex was fighting to keep control over her and was using the boys to do it. After the shit he put her through, she has sworn off relationships forever. Her boys are her only concentration now. She wants them to grow up to be real men. They are her life. I was proud of her. She walked away with a house, a car, and a little bit of money. I guess the guy couldn't believe it. He told her she was stupid for giving up. She gave him all the money, the business, and all their property. The only thing she wanted was for him to sign over the boys he hasn't seen in over a year. She said he was in shock when she walked out. I would have been scared, but she said she had never felt that free in her life."
Heath was shocked but wasn't showing it. Tara had really been through a lot. She had just come back from the lawyer when she told him she needed to cut the budget by at least half. He was pissed when she said it and hadn't been the nicest about it. All he knew was that she couldn't make a decision if her life depended on it. He never stopped to think what may have happened for her to decide that and how hard it must have been to tell him. He felt like such a jerk. He hadn't even told her he was leaving that night. He'd just left.
Gavin walked up and interrupted their conversation to hand Heath his truck keys back. Heath looked at Kyle watching Jenny. He nudged Gavin's arm and Gavin looked between the two. Jenny had made eye contact twice while they were watching. Heath watched Gavin's eyes narrow, as he called Kyle over. Heath laughed and gave Kyle the "I told you so" look.
"Don't even think about it. She's my secretary and the only one I trust. I've been home a lot lately. If it weren't for her, I'd have to be there watching things. Don't even think about messing with her. She's a great girl. I won't have you messing with her head," Gavin said.
"I wasn't going to say a word to her. That's not my thing. I need to concentrate on work and impressing Ethan. He's been really awesome with teaching me things. I want to own my own company one day. I don't have time to waste on a relationship. Besides, I wouldn't want to leave Heath hanging as the only single guy. What would he do?"
Heath looked over and grunted at Kyle. His phone buzzed again. Everyone was still with him. The only person that would text him that wasn't there was Tara. He wasn't very excited about getting that message. Not after the comment he made coming out of the kitchen. Hopefully she wouldn't mention it. He was going to ignore his phone. He figured he would just deal with whatever it was the next morning.
He couldn't stop thinking about the things Lisa had said about Tara a
nd her ex. It kept pulling his thoughts away from his friends. He couldn't stand it anymore and pulled the phone out.
Tara: I just wanted to let you know not to come tomorrow. You can pick up your tools and stuff later in the week. I'll pay you for everything you have done so far and the supplies that are here. Write me up a bill, and I'll get you the money. I no longer need the work done.
Heath let out a growl, and Lisa turned quickly to look at him.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine," he snapped. "Fucking women."
Heath was pissed. He knew she'd get pissy that John said something about his client, but he didn't think she'd fire him over it. Why wouldn't she, he thought? She made decisions in seconds. It was like she never stopped to think before she acted. She was being a baby. It was ridiculous. He was finishing the job no matter what. There was no way she was getting away with firing him for no real reason. He began typing a heated message back quickly.
Heath: That's bullshit. Not happening. You're pissed about something at the shower. I didn't know Lisa knew you. I thought I had seen you before but had no idea you were friends with her. I'm not letting you fire me over something stupid that happened today. I'm not accepting that. I'll be there tomorrow with my crew. I'm not letting you throw away what you want because your reacting this way. It will be all business. I won't try to be your friend. You made clear that you don't need any of those.
Tara: It's not what you think. It has nothing to do with today. I'll be waiting for your bill. I'll let you know when a good time is for you to come by.
Heath: No. I'll be there tomorrow. You're pissed at me. I get it. I deserve that, but I'm not letting you stop what you were doing. There was a reason you wanted that house to look different. I'm going to do just that. I'm going to finish the job.
Built for Love (Bachelor Billionaire #5) Page 4