Love Under Construction (Love By Design Book 1)

by M. C. Cerny

  “Besides, you’re a plumber; your ass crack doesn’t belong on my roof,” I told him, nailing in more shingles along my line I was finishing up.

  “Oh, come on, Hunter. Why do you have to be like that?” Damien trailed after me and picked a few shingles.

  “Nail them in straight.”

  “You refuse to talk about this?”

  “There is nothing for us to talk about.”

  “Right, because you’re not after the girl you’ve crushed on for like ten years.”

  “Don’t make me piss your mother off when I have to kill you.”

  “Hunter, she’s probably wondering why you haven’t tried to do it already.”

  “Because I respect her.”

  “That only gets you an extra plate at Thanksgiving and a prayer every Sunday.”

  “Which obviously I will need if I’m going to continue on this righteous path of not maiming and killing you before Christmas.”

  “Guys? You coming?” Taylor Jane yelled up from the second floor, and I followed her voice, wondering what she’d made for lunch. My lunch. Because I wasn’t letting Damien have any.

  “One of us is,” Damien grumbled but stayed far enough behind me, climbing into the window so I couldn’t drop his ass twenty feet to the ground. If he wasn’t careful he’d have those wings before this project finished.

  Climbing back into the house, we made our way downstairs to the picnic table currently situated in the living room and filled with a lunch spread of homemade food.

  “I figured the crew had enough take-out this week, so I made some sandwiches from a roast turkey and all the fixings like Mom used to.” Taylor Jane held out a plate with thick bread and sliced turkey.

  I already knew gravy, potatoes, and cranberry mayonnaise were slathered in between the layers. It was like a holiday in my mouth, except I preferred Taylor Jane as my present, but for now this would have to do.

  “You sure know your way around the kitchen, TJ.”

  Scowling, I watched Damien bite into a sandwich like a greedy jerk.

  “Why, thank you, Damien. I’ve got more lemonade right here.” She turned to get him a glass and I shook my head at him.

  I saw a wave of nuclear red when the asshole pointed at me.

  “Kidney donor.” Whispering between muffled bites of food and wagging his finger at me, he had the audacity to remind me of the childhood pact we’d made to each other the summer I moved here. No matter what we would look after each other and give one another a kidney if we needed to. It was dumb and something kids said, but I had just lost both my parents, and Damien’s offer felt like the first olive branch my harsh upbringing had given me. I wanted to hate him, but I couldn’t. Damien Hart was the closest thing to a brother I would ever have.

  “Whatever.” It didn’t mean I had to share, though.

  “Don’t look so grumpy, Hunter. I made you a separate batch to take home.” As soon as Taylor Jane turned around I stuck my tongue out at Damien, who was giving me the middle finger and mouthing something close to asshole.

  “Aw, BAE, you saved a bouquet just for me?” Kristen joined us, adding extra napkins and plastic ware to our feast, referring to Damien’s protruding middle finger.

  Taunting Kristen, Damien thumbed at her. “Who invited indigestion?”

  “Me, so settle down and eat. I want to talk about changing the crown molding going up the staircase.” Taylor Jane said.

  Everyone groaned hearing another one of Taylor Jane’s design ideas, and I mentally started calculating how much more this alteration was going to cost me.

  It was luck and unfortunate circumstances I had some insurance money invested from the car accident and a damn good financial advisor who didn’t work for Paul Hammond’s bank.

  20

  Hunter

  Everyone on the crew left the house for the day except Taylor Jane and me. I was sitting on the steps watching the sun set, thinking about how the following week was going to go. There was a hole several feet away that would need new wood and support beams underneath it. I picked up the shredded plank, wondering how many sets of feet trod over it the last hundred years before it finally gave way. I sincerely loved old houses even though they were a pain in the ass to renovate and upkeep. I looked at the yellow permit affixed to the window and the historical registration permit on blue paper right below it. I thought about the stories this old house could tell and the secrets kept in its foundation. Hopefully no shit demons remained. I made sure Damien had the septic pumped and the bottom floor was repaired and secure after that incident.

  Lunch was over hours ago and cleaned up. Damien drove into Poughkeepsie to the supply house to exchange some toilet fixtures and order more piping. Hopefully, he was picking up holy water from his arch nemesis’ father’s church in town to drive away the bathroom spirits or anything else negative lingering in the house. Taylor Jane was fresh out of sage to burn to cleanse the energy in the air, or at least that was what she’d informed me. To be honest, it wasn’t sage. I didn’t know where she got her hands on a butt load of pot or how she got through college having no clue what that particular smell was baffled me. She claimed a nice guy outside the witchcraft store in town sold it to her for twenty bucks, but I was afraid that could mean anything. I’d assume ignorance; the holy water would work just fine. I heard Evian made a good brand bottled right at the source upstate from us.

  Kristen got a call from her brother during lunch and left, something about needing her help to organize a fundraiser for the animal shelter. Naturally, I would have assumed she meant Damien, but no, these were real cats and dogs needing homes and pet supplies. Somehow she got a slick hundred dollars from me as a startup fee and asked me what my tuxedo size was currently. I wasn’t even going to ask.

  Logan, the kid with the video camera, stepped out onto the porch earlier and went right through. He was okay, but he might have cried a few tears for the camera that got a bent frame when he went down. I sent him to the clinic with Matt, his co-film producer, so he could get checked out. He texted me five minutes ago that he was fine. Perfect. All I had to do was fix the hole. One more item on my list.

  “Oh, hey. You’re still here. I was about to lock up.”

  Half turned, I watched Taylor Jane pull the door to the house shut and lock it. Vandals weren’t a major concern, but I didn’t want to invite an insurance liability if I could manage it. “Yeah, I was waiting for you. Get everything?”

  “Yes, my planner and the paint chips. I still can’t decide pink or teal in that bathroom, you know?”

  Uh, and I prayed pink was the loser. At least teal had a shot of doing good things in the early morning light.

  Taylor Jane sat down on the step next to me, flipping through her book. “I don’t think I ever properly thanked you for agreeing to this project.”

  “No, no, you didn’t. Hey, that’s what friends do and when I need my house redecorated I’ll call you in for a favor.”

  “Of course. I was thinking maybe we could cover up some of the exposed wood in the living room and paint the—”

  I put my finger over her lips. Shit, lips that felt way too soft for my finger to be touching. “Shhhh. There will be no talk of covering those planks or painting. I’m going to call in this debt years from now.”

  “Right.” She scoffed, pushing my hand away. “I’m sure your wife by then will appreciate your friend redecorating.” And there it was, that crazy undeniable tension between us.

  “Do you want to go—” I almost said for drinks. “Never mind.”

  “No, what were you going to say?”

  “It’s not important.” Don’t go there, buddy. Friend zone, remember? That happy, safe place where no one gets hurt and you can live in limbo for years. Yeah, let’s stay right there.

  “Fine.” Taylor Jane husked herself up and off the steps, ready to walk away, and I didn’t like it. In fact, I hated it and something primal snapped.

  I grabbed her hand, muttering, “Fuck i
t.” I pulled her in to my chest, grabbed that stupid planner, and tossed it to the ground. Blue eyes met hazel in a storm that no longer had the useless buffers to kill it before it raged on crashing the shore. No wildlife, no nosey friends, and no weird circumstances of own making about to interfere.

  “Hey!” Thin arms hit me once, twice before succeeding the battle.

  “Stop talking.” It sounded like an order. Maybe it was one. Her shocked face made an O shape and opened her mouth enough for me to kiss. Grabbing her face in my hands, I squared my legs off, ready in the event she bolted, and slipped my tongue inside her sweet mouth, locking us together. I stroked the inside of her mouth tasting a dessert I never knew I had been missing. Her kiss was better than skydiving from a plane. It was the purest rush, the finest drug ever made, and it was finally mine.

  Once she warmed up to my touch her tongue matched mine in a duel that increased in intensity, quickly followed by moans and our bodies melting into a grinding rotation of hips and a seductive dance. My hands left the anchor of her hips to travel north pulling her shirt with it and finding breasts that fit my hands like a key to a lock. Taylor Jane Bryant had always affected me so and I was terrified to let her go now that I had come to my senses.

  I didn’t care if her eighty-five-year-old neighbor Gloria saw us in the dying daylight. Our kiss had the kind of energy that could rejuvenate an old spirit. Her hands twisted up, tugging the tuft of shaved hair on the back of my neck. Her short nails grazed my skin and I wanted more. I wanted whatever she was willing to give me because, fuck it, I’d waited so long.

  Ten years to damn long.

  We slowed down, gasping for breath, and her forehead rested against my chest. I was almost afraid my heart was beating so violently it might launch her off my chest.

  “Hunter, what the...?”

  “I don’t know, but you feel it too?”

  “I’ve had years of feeling it. I never thought you would give it a chance.” Her words made me smile.

  “Then I was an idiot.” All this time I’d tried to be the good guy, but she’d wanted me just as I was all scars and baggage. How wrong I had been.

  “Yes, you were, but friends forgive friends.”

  “Don’t tell Damien, all right? He’s the only idiot we keep around here.” We shared the laugh like we shared our breath, one continuous wave I refused to let go of now that I had it in my grasp.

  “Are we really going to do this?” she whispered.

  “I can’t imagine going back to fighting it every day.”

  21

  Taylor Jane

  “So now that we’ve decided to try this thing out, how do we start?” Nervous didn’t remotely encapsulate how I felt right now. We were standing six feet in front of each other and it was as if we were seeing each other for the first time. How did your best friend and a decade of history suddenly become a stranger? You throw sex at it, that’s how.

  I noticed how short he kept his hair and I knew already how soft it would be if I brushed my fingers through it. His broad chest held his heart, his beautiful big lion heart beating strong under thick ribs. I felt like I finally had the permission I needed to look him over, to see what I was about to get myself into. His ribs were countable through his tight-fitting T-shirt. He was safe and he was a tempest, but I wanted to ride the wave until we drifted out to nothingness and back again.

  Hunter and me.

  Me and Hunter.

  Inconceivable and yet inevitable it would seem. No matter how many times I said it to myself it sounded both wrong and right. All these years of playful banter and history finally culminated in this… a deep wanting and a boundary we were terrified to cross. My own heart was strung taut across a tight rope, the fall tempting. Hindsight was always twenty-twenty, I supposed, as my feelings circled back to dizzy, strange, and on the verge of hyperventilating with all my dreams coming true at lightning speed.

  “Hmm, usually there’s touching to start.” Hunter stood still and patient. I nodded unsure how to explain what he was about to discover. The gift I hadn’t meant to save, but knew belonged to on one else but him.

  Standing this close to him, I’d never noticed how tall my best friend was until I was our chests were almost touching. My arms wouldn’t reach around him, but they didn’t have to because I knew he’d pick me up and carry me the rest of the way when the time was right.

  “I know that.” Tensing my foot came close to stomping and Hunter chuckled. This all started when he finally put his mouth on mine and now I wanted more despite the frustration he left me in.

  “Just trying to be helpful, sweetheart.” And he was helpful, oh so helpful. I was the one completely out of sorts now that we were finally here at the impasse. His fingers rubbed a lock of my hair between his callused digits. I didn’t feel anything except locks of my long hair slipping through his grasp, a soft sound following. He tugged on it enough to make me step forward closer to him, flush against his chest that took a steadying breath, as shaky as my own.

  “Any place you suggest?” My arms hung limply at my sides and my palms filled with slick sweat. My nerve endings were hypersensitive to the movement of air between us. What if this didn’t work out? What if it felt wrong? What if it felt right? What if he thought my hands were gross and slimy? My head ran straight to the negative, I couldn’t focus on the fact he was he here in front of me.

  He tipped my chin up to look into his eyes, eyes that already knew my imperfections and faults. “Hey, you with me here?”

  I was definitely overthinking this.

  “What?”

  “You’re a million miles away.” His eyes searched my face as his tender touch grounded me.

  Technically I was light years away and running scared.

  “Then pull me back. This is where I want to be, I just never thought we’d ever get there.” The past came rushing back and all of a sudden I was that emotional fourteen-year-old girl, thinking about him for the first time in a way other than friendly.

  “We start here.” A deep breath in and out, Hunter placed my hand on his chest over his heart. The beats pulsed through thin cotton, my fingers tingling as I touched his clothed chest.

  I closed my eyes savoring this connection between us. I remembered him playing football, the boys teamed up as shirts and skins. Hunter bare chested, a hundred yards away on a football field felt like miles in this moment. My hand opened, fingers contracting and expanding. I placed my palm fully over his heart. How could an organ be so powerful yet tender beneath strong muscles and bone? Hunter’s jaw tightened and his eyes followed my every breath and move. Skittish energy zapped me standing under his scrutiny.

  “Always so warm.” Heat changed to a flame of desire pooling in my lower belly.

  Chuckling, Hunters responded, “And here I thought you were the warm one.” Wrapping his arms around me, he pulled me in closer. A hand tangled in my hair. I didn’t know it could feel this way, so good and so right. I was equal parts mad we hadn’t done this before and hurt that I’d possibly missed out on years of this with my best friend.

  “Why did we wait?” Surprising myself, I asked the question that had been lying heavily on my mind.

  “I think because it never occurred to us before that we could. At least not once we got so close. I mean, heck, we talked about our firsts with each other and went to prom to avoid the awkward dates and expectations.”

  “You mean, you talked about your firsts.” I mumbled between excited breaths.

  “Of course we did.”

  “No. You did.” I corrected him. Hunter needed to know the distinct difference in my mind. “Of course I heard it first from Becky and that girl in my home economics class. What was her name?”

  Hunter linked his hands with mine pulling me with him. “She was a foreign exchange student.”

  “You kept seeing her the entire year.” I complained and teased.

  “Damien was seeing her sister. They hung out at the house a lot and she kept taking her clo
thes off.”

  “Uh-huh, likely story. Would it have worked if I took my clothes off back then?”

  His lips pursed thinking. “No. I would have pushed you away.”

  “I think that’s when I kind of gave up hope that you’d ever see me that way.”

  “I couldn’t see you that way, not back then. I wasn’t ready.”

  “Is anyone ever ready?” Our eye searched the other as we swayed standing together.

  “I shouldn’t have been with her.” Hunter frowned. “Because when I was with her all I could think about was you and how much I had to lose if I ever crossed that line.”

  “We’re crossing it now.”

  “We are.” The words were softly exchanged as his head dipped down to kiss me and I turned up my chin to meet his lips halfway. I wanted to always meet him halfway from this point forward.

  “Did you know.…” He paused. “No, it’s stupid.” Hunter’s neck turned pink and if I wasn’t mistaken, my big guy was showing signs of embarrassment.

  “Tell me, Hunter.”

  “It’s your smile.” He stopped to look up taking a moment to catch his breath before speaking. “Your smile is like crazy glue bonding the broken parts of me. You’re the only one who can calm me down when the anger and rage threaten to take over.”

  “Damien owes me for keeping him alive, doesn’t he?”

  Hunter belted out a barking laugh. “Yeah, he does.”

  “I was terrified of losing you, Hunter. I settled for whatever attention you would give me.”

  “I still have my inner demons to battle. I don’t handle my anger well, sweetheart.” It wasn’t a secret that when Hunter got mad he could explode but that was years ago and I wasn’t afraid of him.

  “Is this your way of warning me off?” I shook my head. “It’s not going to work big guy.”