She held out her hand. Dale captured it and pulled her up. The urge to kiss her was so overwhelming that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to fight it, but at that moment he was even more concerned with the worry lines creasing her forehead.
“You do realize we’re still on schedule, right?”
“I know, I know,” she said, her shoulders slumping. “It’s just that you never know what can go wrong. Take what happened with the shampoo sinks. We couldn’t anticipate the company sending the wrong ones. Do you know how much of a bind I’d be in if the shipment had been delayed?”
“But the sinks got here in plenty of time for us to send them back, and the ones you ordered will be here by the end of the week. We’re good, Nyree.”
She nodded, but worry still clouded her eyes. “April 4th will be here before we know it.”
Dale smoothed his hands up and down her arms. “I told you I’m going to make sure the house is done in time. I’ll find a way to squeeze in a few more hours every day. As long as I make time for my sessions with Kendrick, I’m good.”
She frowned. “Who’s Kendrick?”
“He’s this kid I’m, well, tutoring, I guess. Tutoring in football.”
“You’re a football tutor?”
“Basically,” he said. “He plays the middle linebacker position for Magnolia Bend High School. Kendrick’s dad hired me to give him one-on-one instruction.”
“I didn’t even know people do that,” she said.
He snorted. “If only you knew the lengths some people go to when it comes to high school football around here.”
“I grew up around it, remember?”
“Yeah, I guess you do know,” Dale said. He gave her upper arms a squeeze. “Now, can you promise me that I won’t come in to find you hammering baseboards?”
She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’t know about that. I don’t like to make promises I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep.”
“Nyree,” he said with a sigh.
“Okay, okay,” she said. “I’ll try to stay in my lane when it comes to the rest of the renovation. It’s just that my friends are coming to see the house today. I was hoping to at least have one room that looked less, well, unfinished.”
“But your friends knew the house would require a lot of work before you all could move in, right?”
“Yes, but you have to understand my friends to know where I’m coming from.” She pulled her cellphone from her pocket and held it up to him. “They’ve sent at least fifty group texts this morning debating the theme for the downstairs bathroom.”
“I didn’t know bathrooms had a theme.”
“You and me both. Yet, they see that as the biggest dilemma.” She huffed out a laugh. “I just know they’re going to walk in here and freak out over the state of the house.”
Dale captured her shoulders and pulled her in close. He caressed her jaw with the backs of his fingers, lingering over her smooth skin as he tipped her chin up and stared into her eyes.
“Let your friends sweat the small stuff. I want to make sure you understand that we’re going to get the big things done in time for the grand opening. I’ve got this, Nyree. I won’t let you down.”
He dipped his head and captured her lips in a slow, easy kiss. It was so damn easy, as if he’d been kissing her like this all his life.
Dale angled his head to the side as he moved his hands from her arms to the small of her back. He pressed his body close to hers, reveling in the feel of her soft curves moving against him. Her mouth opened readily, inviting his tongue inside and setting his blood on fire.
Both he and Nyree jumped at the sound of several throats clearing.
Dale looked up over Nyree’s head to find three women standing just outside the doorway of the makeup studio. All with their hands on their hips.
The one with the blond streaks in her shoulder-length hair, said, “Is this what you call hard at work?”
~ ~ ~
“And this is what I was trying to avoid,” Nyree said
She sighed, turning around to find Reesa, Cheyenne and Amara standing in the middle of the vestibule, which had become the staging area for all of the building material. Their expressions ranged from amused, to curious, to upset.
Nyree held her hands up as they all came into the makeup studio. “Before you all start to freak out, understand that it looks worse than it is.”
“I wouldn’t call this ‘practically finished,’ Nyree,” Cheyenne said.
“Is that what you told them?” Dale asked.
“Not exactly,” she answered.
“Yes, exactly,” Reesa said. “Just yesterday you said this place was practically finished.”
“I can’t bring clients in here,” Amara said.
“You work out of your house right now,” Nyree pointed out.
“Yes, but my house doesn’t have holes in the ceilings,” she pointed up to the circular cutouts that would soon house recessed lights.
“Those are for the lights you said you just had to have,” Nyree said. She turned to Reesa, who still stood there with her hands on her hips, her jaw tight with tension.
“I know what you’re going to say, but I’m telling you, this house will be ready in time. Just trust me on this.”
“Can I?” Reesa asked. “Do you know how many appointments I already have lined up for April? Do you know how quickly those people will turn to Salon Nouveau if I’m not able to come through?”
“I know, Reesa.”
“Apparently, you don’t. Because if you did you would be working instead of standing here in the middle of a halfway finished house getting it on with Mr. Hot Construction Guy here. ”
“Actually, it’s Dale,” Dale said, a heavy dose of sarcasm coloring his voice.
Reesa barely glanced his way, but Cheyenne’s brows lifted with interest. She took a step forward, but Nyree stopped her with a don’t-even-think-about-it glare.
“Dale has been working around the clock to get the house done on time,” Nyree said.
“I haven’t done it alone,” Dale interjected. “Nyree has been putting in her share of hours here, too. She probably could have used some help over these past few weeks.”
“What about your brothers?” Amara asked. “I thought Desmond and Lance were helping?”
“My brothers didn’t have time to work on the house,” she said.
Cheyenne folded her arms across her chest and cocked her brow. “According to Lance, you were being stubborn and told them you didn’t want them working on the house.”
“When did you talk to Lance?” Nyree asked. “And why?”
Cheyenne’s mouth gaped. “I—” she started, then stopped.
“Look, whatever Cheyenne has going on with your brother is unimportant,” Reesa said. “The important thing is that this business is operational by the first week in April. Remember, you’re the only one with another career to keep you afloat. We don’t have fallback plans.” She gestured to Cheyenne and Amara. “This is the one promise you made that you have to come through on, Nyree.”
“Don’t I always come through?” Nyree asked, more than a little ticked off that her friends would start questioning her now. She’d never given them reason to doubt her.
Yet, Nyree couldn’t quell the sudden unease that began to roil in her gut.
She’d always considered herself fearless, but when she first came up with this idea, the one thing that had caused her a tremor of fear was knowing that her three friends’ livelihoods would rest in her hands. She didn’t want to be responsible for them losing clients.
And she wouldn’t. She would do whatever she had to do to make sure that didn’t happen.
“I’m handling it,” Nyree said again. “I promise, it will all be done in time. And you know I never go back on a promise.”
The three of them didn’t look convinced, but they didn’t refute her claim, either. Because they couldn’t. She got things done. She always got things done.
“We’re good?” Nyree asked.
“I’m still not sure,” Reesa said. “But I’m going to trust you anyway. You’ve earned that much. Now, how about a tour so we can see how much progress has been made?”
“Absolutely,” Nyree said, straightening her shoulders and feeling back in control. “The biggest project is nearly done. Dale’s divided the two upstairs bedrooms into a sitting area and three smaller private massage rooms for Cheyenne’s massage clinic.”
“I have to see this,” Cheyenne said, leading the way up the stairs.
Before Nyree could join them, Dale stopped her, pulling at the back hem of her T-shirt as she started ascending the steps. Nyree turned, finding herself at eye level with him.
“I thought commemorating your aunt’s birthday was the only reason you needed the house done by the first week in April.” Dale asked. “Why didn’t you give me the full story on the timetable?”
“Because I didn’t realize it would turn into such a big issue. Who could have expected the problems we’ve run into?”
“I could have,” he said. “There are always setbacks, especially when dealing with an older house.”
She closed her eyes, hating the tiny drop of defeat that managed to sink into her bones. It felt so foreign to her to even think this way. She had never taken on anything of this magnitude and the thought of failing scared her breathless.
She lowered her voice when she asked, “Realistically, can this be done by the fourth?”
“I promised you I’d have the house done, and I will.” Dale inhaled a deep breath and blew it out. “But I have to be honest, Nyree, it won’t be easy, especially with me doing the rest of the work alone.”
“That’s why I was here helping today.”
“You’re a chemist, not a construction worker,” Dale reminded her. “You’ve done a kickass job painting all the trim work, but there are things you just physically aren’t capable of doing.”
“Didn’t you say you have friends you could hire?”
“That was before the flu that’s been going around made it to the latest Harding construction site,” Dale said. “Half the guys are out with it, and none of those who are able to work will give up the time and a half overtime pay they can make with Harding.”
He put his hands on his hips and dropped his head. A muscle in his jaw ticked.
“What about Desmond and Lance?” Dale asked.
She shook her head. “No. I’m not going to go back to them and beg. That’s exactly what Desmond said I would have to do and I refuse to give him the satisfaction.”
“Would you rather ruin your friends’ businesses?” Dale asked.
Oh, that was a low blow. Accurate, but low.
“Look,” Dale said. “I don’t necessarily want to work alongside your brothers, but I’ve seen their work. They’re good. And they’re willing to do the labor free-of-charge.”
“With conditions, and I don’t like the conditions.”
He folded his arms over his chest. “You really are stubborn, aren’t you?”
Nyree closed her eyes. “Yes, I am,” she admitted. “But with good reason.”
She knew she owed him more of an explanation, but God, she didn’t want to get into the complicated issues she had with her brothers. How could she explain her resentment over all the attention Desmond and Lance got because they were football stars who could do no wrong, when Dale was once an even bigger star?
How could she describe what it was like growing up in their shadow, having to follow Desmond’s rules because he was the oldest and their mother automatically deferred to him after their father left? It left her both wanting to prove her worth to them, and not giving a damn about anything Desmond and Lance said regarding her life.
“Is there any way possible that we can get this done without having to bring my brothers onboard?” Nyree asked.
Dale hunched his shoulders. “We can try, but—”
He stopped at the sound of Reesa, Amara and Cheyenne coming down the stairs.
“So? What do—” Nyree paused, tilting her head toward the wall where she thought she heard rumbling. She figured it must have been a truck passing the house. “What do you all think?” she finished.
“It looks awesome,” Cheyenne exclaimed. “Those prints I bought from that street artist in the French Quarter will look spectacular on the walls. I am so happy you convinced us to do this, Nyree.”
“I am, too,” Reesa said, “But I’m still not convinced all of this will be ready in time.” She gestured at the spools of insulated wires, baseboards and sheets of lumber scattered around the vestibule.
“It will be,” Nyree said. “There’s nothing to worry about. Just trust me.”
Just as the words left her mouth, a loud creak rang out and the wall inside the downstairs bathroom burst open. Water blasted through the open bathroom door, dousing them all.
“Oh, my God,” Nyree yelled.
“Shit!” Dale barked, taking off for the kitchen.
Reesa, Cheyenne and Amara all stood there screaming while Nyree ran into the bathroom, futilely trying to stop the water from coming out of the busted pipe. Several seconds later, it stopped.
Nyree stood in the middle of the bathroom, her t-shirt and jeans completely soaked.
“Are you okay?” She turned at Dale’s inquiry. He gestured toward the kitchen with his head. “For future reference, the main water line is just outside the back door that leads to the kitchen.”
Of course it made more sense to cut off the main water line instead of trying to stop a raging stream with her bare hands. She considered herself pretty kickass, but she wasn’t that kickass.
Nyree held her arms out, looking down at her clothes again.
“I’m soaked,” she said.
When Dale didn’t comment, she looked up to find him staring at her chest with the most heated look anyone had ever directed her way. Nyree realized how she must appear to him, standing there in a soaking wet pink t-shirt, her bra visible through the transparent material. It turned her on despite the fact that her three best friends were in the next room.
“We should, uh, get this cleaned up,” she said.
Dale nodded. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed and then cleared his throat. “Yeah,” he said. But he didn’t make a move. Neither did she. They just continued to stare at each other. Nyree’s nipples tightened with each second that passed, straining against the sodden bra and t-shirt.
“Well, don’t just stand there! Move!”
Dale and Nyree both jumped at Cheyenne’s demand. Her friend pushed her way into the crowded space, ushering both Nyree and Dale out of the bathroom.
“Is there anything around here that we can use to clean this up?” Reesa asked.
Dale’s head jerked slightly, as if being knocked out of a daze. “I, uh, I’ve got some rags in my truck,” he murmured. He looked over at Nyree again. “You should take those wet clothes off before you get sick.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him if he wanted to help, but after the way her friends had caught the two of them kissing earlier, Nyree knew it best she refrain.
Besides, with this latest setback, having Dale rip her clothes off should be the furthest thing from her mind.
Nyree went upstairs and dried off as best she could, changing into a set of scrubs she’d packed in one of the boxes she’d brought from her apartment. Unfortunately, she hadn’t put any clean underwear in there.
By the time she got back downstairs, Reesa, Cheyenne, Amara and Dale were moving with military precision, clearing out the water from the busted pipe. Nyree looked at the hole the high-pressured water had blown out of the plaster wall, and nearly sank to the floor.
She never gave into defeat. Never.
But there was only so much a girl could take before she reached her breaking point. After yet another mishap that was certain to cost both time and money she couldn’t afford, Nyree was pretty sure she was there.
Chapter Sev
en
Dale tapped his thumbs in a nervous rhythm on the steering wheel as he stared across the parking lot at Nyree’s SUV. He opened the door then immediately closed it. On a previous try he’d gotten as far as the fifth step up to her second floor apartment before turning around and coming back to sit in his truck like a damn stalker in a Dateline special.
“This is ridiculous.”
He threw open the door and stepped out of the truck. His purposeful strides ate up the asphalt as he propelled himself across the parking lot. He marched up the stairs, put his hand up to knock on her front door, then dropped it and backed away. Turning, he started for the stairs, but stopped mid-step at the sound of the front door opening.
“Dale?”
Nyree’s voice sent a shiver down his spine. He turned back around to find her standing in the open doorway holding a wooden cooking spoon and dressed in cutoff jean shorts and a cropped t-shirt. The sight of her lusciously bare thighs and midriff nearly brought him to his knees.
“How…uh, how did you know I was here?” Dale asked. “I never knocked.”
She pointed the spoon to a small rectangular box with a tiny blinking red light just above the door.
“Motion sensor,” she said. “It alerts me whenever someone comes within two feet of the front door. A gift from Desmond, who hates the fact that I live alone in big, bad St. Pierre,” she said with a heavy dose of sarcasm.
A small smile curved up the corner of his mouth at her obvious distaste. “You did say your brothers were overprotective.” His eyes trailed up and down her body again. “I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing.”
All that time he’d spent sitting in the parking lot was worth seeing the instant blush that reddened her brown cheeks.
She tilted her head to the side. “So, what are you doing here?” she asked.
Making a mistake, he thought.
He’d known it was a mistake the minute he started heading east on Highway 421, but not once did Dale consider turning his truck around. Not after the way she’d stared at him standing in that bathroom, arousal pulsing between them. Not after seeing the way her nipples had grown tight under his gaze.
Any Way You Want It Page 11