Close to Perfect

by Tina Donahue

  Freddy’s eyes narrowed. “About kissing my daughter.”

  “Pop!”

  He ignored her and squeezed even harder. “I’m not supposed to mention that even though it made the cover of those tabloids. I’m supposed to thank you for the contract.”

  Josh put even more strength into his grip. “No need.”

  “That’s what I told my daughter.”

  Tess finally joined them. She looked from those squeezing fingers to Josh. “Why don’t you help me in the kitchen?”

  “Too late for that,” Hank said. “Even if he recooks what you made, he ain’t gonna be able to make it taste good.”

  Josh laughed.

  Tess frowned at him, and then her dad who was also laughing.

  “Unless you two intend to start dating, you can let go now.” She smacked their joined hands, then took Josh’s. “Help me in the kitchen.”

  They hadn’t taken two steps towards the room when Vic asked, “Hey, Freddy, you want me to go in there, too, and keep an eye on them?”

  Josh stopped; he looked over his shoulder at Freddy. The man immediately stopped rubbing his squeezed hand and spoke to Vic. “You made Tessie frown again.”

  Josh looked at her. She ignored him as she continued to glare at her father.

  “Now, Tessie,” Vic said, “you know that’s the way cops are. They stick together. They protect their own.”

  “So, is that where you got that mean scar on your chin?” Peg asked Freddy. “During your cop days when you were protecting one of your friends?”

  Tess spoke before he could. “Actually, he tripped over one of my toys when I was three and banged his chin on the kitchen counter. Mama had to revive him after he passed out. Right, Pop?”

  He gave her a hard stare, then actually smiled at Josh. “So, I hear you can cook.”

  They were back to that? “You bet,” Josh said, facing the man, even though Tess was trying her best to pull him into the kitchen. “Just a sec,” he said to her, before he looked back at Freddy. “Learned it when I was in construction and between jobs. Had to; I like to eat.”

  “You are a big guy,” Sammie said.

  He gave her a wink.

  Freddy crossed his arms over his chest. “You worked in construction, huh?”

  “Yes, sir.” He moved closer.

  Tess growled, “Josh.”

  He looked at her, then back at her father. “One of the first houses I worked on was a lot like this one.”

  “You really screw that one up?” Hank asked. “Is that why they chased you out of construction?”

  “He wasn’t chased out of anything,” Tess said. “He left on his own to do real estate development, but he still keeps his hand in construction. You should see what he’s doing to his own house.”

  “Yeah, we should,” Freddy said, “before we read about it in a tabloid.”

  Josh gave Tess a look that said, Really walked into that one, didn’t you?

  A blush stained her chest and throat. She spoke to her father. “He’s restoring it to the way it looked in the eighteen-hundreds when the first guy who owned it brought his bride there for their wedding night.”

  Huh? “Where’d you hear that?” Josh asked.

  Tess looked at him, then seemed to realize what she had just said. “Read it on the Internet.”

  “While you were looking for more photos from those tabloids?” Freddy asked.

  Tess lowered her head and shook it.

  Time to change the subject. “So, your house was built by the Sanger Company?” Josh asked.

  “Maybe.” Freddy shifted his weight. “That the company you used to work for?”

  “No, sir. But their work is similar to this.”

  “So, how much damage did you do to that house that looked like mine?”

  Josh grinned. “Not much. That sucker’s still standing—made it through the ninety-eight hurricane.”

  “No shit,” Freddy said, then quickly blushed and looked at Peg. “Sorry.”

  “Not a problem, hon. I’m no Girl Scout.”

  He smiled. “Believe me, I’d be a Girl Scout if they had members like you.”

  Peg laughed.

  Josh held back a sigh as those two continued to flirt. Although that’s what he had hoped for when he thought to invite Peg here, he still had a lot to do to make Freddy like him. He spoke to Tess. “I saw construction material to the side of this house as Vic and I pulled up. Someone thinking about doing a few repairs?”

  “That would be me,” Freddy said.

  “For over a year now,” Tess said.

  He shot her a look. “I got a life.”

  “Exactly,” Peg said to him, then spoke to Tess. “Those repairs can wait if your dad’s dating some—”

  Freddy interrupted, “I’m not dating anyone.”

  Peg pressed that dainty handkerchief to her neck. “No?”

  Josh held back another sigh as they started flirting again. He needed to get the man back on track and the best way to do that was to focus on Tess. “So,” he said to her, “what’s your dad thinking of repairing?”

  “Like she would know?” Freddy asked.

  Tess made a face. “Excuse me?”

  The man seemed to have no clue why she was pissed. “Well, do you?”

  Of course, she didn’t. But that hardly excused his rude behavior to her and Josh. “He was only asking me, because you refuse to tell him.” Tess spoke to Josh. “Could be that Pop just doesn’t know what he’s going to repair.”

  “The hell I don’t.” He left Peg’s side and went to Josh. “I’m gonna upgrade the kitchen and the bath and do some repairs on the roof, if that’s any of your business.”

  “It’s not, though I would like to know where you got your materials.”

  “Why? They’re not good enough for you?”

  Tess frowned.

  Josh took it in his stride. “I think you might have paid too much if you bought them at Taylor’s.”

  Freddy looked surprised. “Their prices are high? That’s not what I heard.”

  “Then you heard wrong. You want rock bottom prices, you go to Robard’s.”

  “Where’s that?”

  “I’ll give you the address before I leave. You need anything there, you ask for Tommy Bell and tell him Josh Wyatt sent you. He’ll pull down those prices faster than if you used your gun.”

  “Oh, yeah? Think old Tommy can get me a cheap hot tub?”

  “What?” Tess asked. “You’re going to put in a hot tub now?”

  Freddy’s gaze slid to her. “I might.” He looked at Josh. “So, can he?”

  “Let me know when you want it and I’ll have it delivered. What else do you need?”

  Freddy told him. Josh nodded to some of that junk, but shook his head at others, telling her father that he should use another type of bolt or nut or something.

  As the two of them got into an animated discussion about studs that Tess found boring as hell Peg pulled her aside.

  “What?” Tess asked.

  Peg leaned close, keeping her voice low. “I just wanted you to know, I think your dad’s very nice.”

  “He can be when he wants to.” She shrugged. “He’s ruder than usual tonight, but that’s only because Josh is here.”

  “Forget Josh,” Peg said, her expression serious. “Your dad’s a nice man. And I’m nice, too, really. So, don’t you worry.”

  Oh, Peg. She touched the woman’s arm. “Josh trusts you and so do I.”

  “Then you don’t mind if we maybe have dinner sometime—me and your dad?”

  “Not at all.” Tess wished they’d do that right now as she noticed Josh and her dad leaving this room. “Hey,” she called out, “where you two going?”

  Josh spoke over his shoulder as he followed her dad down the hall. “We’re going to see where the hot tub should go.”

  Tess didn’t believe it for a minute. She was afraid the moment her father got Josh outside, he was going to lay down the law and t
ell him that if he so much as touched her again he was a dead man.

  “I’ll go, too,” she said.

  To her surprise, it was Josh, not her father, who stopped dead and frowned. “You’ll just get in the way,” he said.

  “Yeah,” her father said, “you stay here.”

  “I’ll make sure she does,” Vic said.

  Tess swung her head to him, then looked back to her father and Josh as they turned the corner, disappearing from view. Damn.

  “Where you going?” Vic asked.

  Tess stopped at the hallway entrance. “The bathroom, all right?”

  “Fine with me. But I expect to hear water running.”

  God. As he, Hank, Sammie, and Peg went to the poker table to enjoy the munchies Josh had made, Tess went into the bathroom and sat on the edge of the tub worrying about tonight and the future.

  Ten minutes passed before Vic apparently remembered her and shouted down the hall. “You okay, Tessie?”

  She rolled her eyes, splashed cold water on her face, dried off, and came out. “Fine.” She moved past him to the kitchen, then stopped to Josh lying on the floor, looking at something under the sink, which her father was trying to illuminate with a flashlight.

  “No,” Freddy said, “it’s over to the left. You see it now?”

  “No—uh—wait—move the light a little more to your left,” Josh said, “yeah, that’s right, got it.”

  Tess lifted her gaze from his fly. “Got what?”

  Freddy looked at her. “Never mind. You wouldn’t understand.”

  “Oh, right. I forgot. I didn’t inherit your plumbing gene.”

  Josh laughed.

  “You say something?” Freddy asked him.

  “Got it,” Josh repeated, then slid out of the cabinet, and propped himself up on one elbow as his gaze lifted from her naked feet to her naked legs to her eyes.

  At least, until her father directed the flashlight beam into Josh’s eyes.

  “Pop.”

  “What?”

  Tess took the flashlight from him and turned it off.

  Her father looked as if he hadn’t any idea why she was pissed this time, then spoke to Josh. “Let’s have the wrench.” He put out his hand.

  “I’ll take that.” Tess snatched it from Josh before her dad could whack him over the head with it. Josh may have fixed whatever it was under the sink and he may have given her dad some good pointers on how to fix the stuff that was falling apart in this house, but he wasn’t out of the woods yet—not by a long shot. “You go on and play poker.”

  As Josh pushed to his feet, he was still blinking from having that flashlight beam in his eyes. “What are you going to do?”

  “You don’t have to cook,” Freddy said.

  Tess looked at him.

  “Okay, okay,” he said, “I’ll be in there if you need me.” Instead of moving in that direction, he frowned at Josh. “You coming?”

  “In a minute,” she answered for him, “he has to tell me how to heat up this stuff he brought.”

  “I can tell you that. Use the oven or the microwave.”

  “Pop.”

  His eyes narrowed. “I’ll be in there with my friends. We’ll hear you if you call.”

  Once he was out of earshot, Tess mumbled, “They’ll hear us if we breathe.”

  Josh leaned close and whispered, “What was that?”

  She looked at him, then quickly averted her gaze before her thoughts got tangled and her heart made her do something stupid. Keeping her voice low, she asked, “What happened when you were outside with my dad?”

  “What?”

  Tess hesitated, then finally looked at him, and repeated her question.

  Josh shook his head, then touched his ear as if he couldn’t hear her.

  She leaned closer and whispered, again, “What happened when you were outside with my dad?”

  “Nothing. You smell good.”

  Tess stepped back.

  He mouthed, You do.

  She spoke in a normal voice. “How can you tell with all this stuff you brought?” She gestured to the serving plates. There were two kinds of burritos, three dips, beans smothered with cheese, rice smothered with hot sauce, several pizzas, marinara sauce, and lasagna. She lowered her voice, again. “Is that how you plan to get them off your back? You’re going to cholesterol them to death? And don’t you dare say that you can’t hear me.”

  He murmured, “I like it when you’re mean.”

  Tess closed her eyes. He was picking now to flirt with her?

  “Not to mention unreasonable,” Josh said, then quickly added in a lowered voice, “all the stuff I brought is healthy and low fat.”

  Tess opened her eyes and looked at it. “Wow, you’re good.”

  “You’re just now noticing that?”

  Of course not. The first day they met, Tess knew he could kiss like nobody’s business, while his touch could revive the dead. Even when he was clear across the room, she could feel his male power and heat.

  “Yo, Wyatt,” Hank called out from the other room, “you gonna play or what?”

  “I’d like to,” Josh said in a voice only Tess could hear.

  “I think Hank means with them, not me.”

  “Not what I had in mind.”

  “You do like to live dangerously, don’t you?”

  “Don’t you worry, Teressa, I have everything under control.” He shouted to Hank, “Be right there! I have to write down the heating instructions for Tess so she doesn’t mess up this food!”

  She arched one brow as he looked at her.

  “Well, I do.” He smiled.

  “Teressa?” she asked.

  “Beautiful name.” He held her chin between his thumb and forefinger, then lifted her face to his.

  Tess was a goner. She whispered, “Josh, I really don’t want to live this dangerously.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Her gaze drifted to his rich mouth. Her eyes fluttered closed as he gently brushed his lips over hers.

  Tess inhaled sharply.

  Josh murmured, “I better go before your dad sends out a search party.”

  “Like he’d even care if you’re gone with Peg here?”

  Josh straightened and got serious. “Are you pissed that I invited her?”

  Tess opened her eyes, but kept them lowered. “No.” Not only was her dad going to benefit from Peg’s company, Tess figured when this was all over, she could at least grill the woman about Josh’s romances that no longer made the tabloids.

  She sighed.

  “You’re sure?” Josh asked.

  “Very,” she said, her voice still lowered. “Thanks for asking her. My dad’s been very lonely.”

  “You’re welcome.” Josh cradled her face in his hand, until Tess smacked it away.

  He frowned, but kept his voice low. “That’s the way you treat a guy you’ve just thanked?”

  “Yeah, when that guy’s trying to get himself killed in my father’s house. Believe me, I’m on your side. I’ll even call nine-one-one if you need it.”

  “I won’t. Just you wait and see.”

  “Uh-uh. I’m staying in here.”

  “Chicken.” Josh playfully patted her butt, then headed for the living room to continue winning over her dad and the rest of this crowd so that they’d finally trust him, leaving him and Teressa alone.

  It was going to be a piece of cake. Already they were attacking the second plate of munchies, while Freddy was still making eyes at Peg. If the man needed even more convincing after that, Josh had an ace in the hole... all those helpful hints on how to fix up this place.

  Oh, yeah.

  Feeling ready for anything, Josh pulled back his chair. “So, we going to play, or what?”

  Freddy was the first to look up. Gone was the smile he had just shared with Peg. Now, his expression was asking what right Josh had to even pose such a question when it was his first time in this house.

  The others weren’t any bet
ter. They had all stopped mid-chew to exchange glances with each other, before lifting their gazes to him.

  Josh suddenly knew what a cornered felon felt like.

  He looked over his shoulder at the kitchen. Tess was leaning against the doorjamb, arms crossed against her chest, head lowered as she slowly shook it.

  “Well, guys,” Freddy said, “are we going to play—or what?”

  One after the other said they were ready as their gazes remained on Josh.

  “Then, let’s play,” Freddy ordered.

  Josh sank into his chair.

  An hour later, the crowd was enjoying the main courses he had prepared, and the poker game, and making him the butt of every joke.

  Peg had tried to defend him, for about three seconds. After that, she switched sides and gave this group even more ammunition by bringing up his past.

  “I kid you not,” she said now, after a lengthy story that had everyone howling, “Josh actually did that on his first job.”

  “Not the brightest jewel in the crown, huh?” Hank asked.

  “Oh, shut up,” Sammie said, then patted Josh’s hand. “He’s cute. He doesn’t have to be smart.”

  “Lucky he didn’t become a cop,” Vic said, “can you imagine him with a gun?”

  “Not even one that shoots glue,” Freddy said.

  They all laughed, again, after which Peg revealed yet another stupid mistake in his past.

  Shit. Josh hadn’t been treated this badly on that first construction job when he was eighteen. Then, Peg had been the only woman around to see everyone laughing at him. Now, he also had Tess to consider.

  Forty minutes ago, she had padded into the room, sprawled on the sofa, then became quickly engrossed in a paperback police procedural that couldn’t have been as gory as what was happening to him.

  “Aw, he didn’t do that,” Freddy suddenly said to Peg, then laughed so hard he actually got up from the table and bent over at the waist. “You’re making it up!”

  “I kid you not,” Peg said, as she stared at the man’s ass.

  Josh rolled his eyes, then finally slid his gaze to Tess.

  She was already looking at him.

  It was so unexpected Josh lowered his beer to the table without tasting it. It was so welcomed, he could hardly breathe as her gaze drifted to his mouth and lingered, before she, again, met his eyes.

  In that moment, her expression was filled with such honest regard, Josh finally understood what it meant to be a man. All the sex in the world couldn’t give him a tenth of what Tess was providing now—the approval of a woman who was his equal in everything that mattered.