If I Fall...

by Jennifer Christy

  “I wouldn’t if I were you,” he said, deadly serious. She was shocked by the intense, fierce look in his eyes, but it melted away as quickly as she had seen it. It was replaced with his easy dimpled grin. “I mean, you should let me get back to work.”

  JD nodded and turned to leave. She was outside and heading for her car, before she realized what she was doing. Stopping, she turned and looked behind her at the schoolhouse as the hammering continued. How odd that she had just willingly left so quickly like that, like she was in a daze. JD shook off whatever it was that had come over her and returned to her apartment to begin the day’s work.

  ***

  “So, how was the first day of the project?” Missy asked. JD reclined on the sofa with her legs across the narrow coffee table and a bag of pretzels in her lap, the phone tucked between her shoulder and cheek.

  “Interesting,” JD replied slowly.

  “Yeah?”

  JD crunched a pretzel, wondering if she should tell Missy about the box. Maybe not yet, she decided, not until it was opened.

  “I hired him.”

  “The cowboy?”

  “Yeah, he was the only one who showed up to do demo, so I had to.” JD smiled to herself.

  “Ooh, that’s too bad,” Missy pouted and then giggled. “I didn’t see his paperwork come in. He must really be a distraction. You haven’t sent in his W-9 or his backgrounds yet.”

  “Huh.” JD frowned. “I thought I sent it last week. I’ll check tomorrow. How are things with you?”

  “Yucky.” Missy’s voice dropped a level.

  “What’s up?”

  “Broke up with Mark. Jerk. He reconciled with his ex,” Missy sighed. JD could hear tapping on the other end.

  “I’m sorry, Missy. That stinks. Are you online?”

  “Oh, yeah. Just a sec. I’ve got to send a message to Elaine and tell her the party has been cancelled,” Missy responded distractedly. JD rolled her eyes. Missy was ever the multi-tasker.

  “What party?”

  “The surprise birthday party for Mark. Sorry, I didn’t invite you, I figured you wouldn’t come anyway,” Missy said.

  “That’s all right. Doesn’t look like I’ll be getting out of here until after the project is complete.” JD popped another pretzel in her mouth and leaned forward to grab her soda off the coffee table. She was too tired to heat up a TV dinner for herself tonight. Pretzels and soda would have to do. She’d make up for it by eating a healthy breakfast in the morning.

  “What? You’re not coming back for Thanksgiving or Christmas?” Missy sounded shocked.

  “Maybe. I don’t know yet. Gramps is going to be working as usual, and you have your family. So, maybe I’ll just hang out in Torrey and see what they do here,” she replied.

  “Oh, I see. You mean, see what your cowboy will be doing for the holidays, eh?” Missy giggled.

  JD snickered. “No, well, maybe.”

  They chit-chatted for a little while longer before Missy had to leave. JD hung up reluctantly, finished her bag of pretzels, and turned in for the night. Matthew visited her dreams that night, much to her delight.

  Chapter 13

  The next day, her rental furniture was delivered. A desk, office chair, two extra chairs for visitors, a book shelf, a folding table, a white board and credenza, and the outside stairs she needed to even access the office trailer.

  JD spent the better part of Tuesday morning arranging everything as perfectly as she could. She arranged her desk at the end of the trailer nearest the window facing the schoolhouse so she could work comfortably on her laptop and look at the schoolhouse through the window on her right. Alongside the wall on the right of her desk and next to the door was a table for her coffee maker, donuts, and other assorted goodies for the contractors. This was a very important strategic move on her part. She’d learned from her grandfather that contractors would most likely do a better job if their sweet tooth was satisfied.

  By lunchtime, she had her office perfectly arranged. She even had a couple of fake trees and plants stashed in the corners to make the place look more organic and comfortable. She hung a large calendar with penguins on the wall behind her to add a bit of personality to her office since she would spend more than half of her waking hours there for the next nine months.

  The rest of the day was spent organizing the files containing the contracts she had signed with the assorted contractors who would come arriving to perform their work during the progression of the project. At the end of the day, she looked around her office and smiled with complete satisfaction, pleased with the way it was organized. She could hardly wait until the inspector from Richfield arrived to scrutinize the work going on. JD would bring him in, offer him a cup of coffee and a donut, chat amiably about the status of the project, and he’d be impressed with how thoughtful and organized she was and not give her a bit of trouble during the construction.

  Rick had called earlier to tell her to expect a visit any day from the Inspector and to make a very good impression on him. That went without saying. Building inspectors could cause all sorts of havoc with a project if they were so inclined. She was ready for him though. She had been practicing what she would say as she gave him the tour of the site. JD was sure the inspector would be impressed with how well she was managing the project, how organized and tidy everything was, from the parking signs out front, to the way the dumpsters and port-a-potties were arranged out of sight behind the schoolhouse to the north. She smiled smugly. No other project manager she had ever met kept as tidy an office and project site as her.

  JD glanced at the wall clock. Quitting time. She stood, grabbed her purse as she looked out the window, and noticed that Matthew’s truck was still parked outside. She locked up and headed for the schoolhouse to let Matthew know that she was leaving and to ask him to lock up when he was finished. She reached the door just as she heard a vehicle pull into the parking lot.

  She turned to see a mid-size dark blue truck pull in and park in the visitor’s spot at the far end of her trailer. The driver stepped out of his truck and slipped on a tan cowboy hat before he headed straight for her. He wore khaki cargo pants, a white crewneck t-shirt, and shades.

  “Can I help you?” she called as soon as he was within hearing range.

  He didn’t respond until he stopped directly in front of her. “JD Halstead,” he said authoritatively.

  “Yes, and you are?” she asked with apprehension.

  “I’m Nathan Parker,” he said as he removed his shades and extended his hand. She grasped it warily. It was pleasantly firm and warm, not rough and coarse like Matthew’s. Nathan appeared to have light brown hair, from what little she could see under his hat. His eyes were as blue as the azure sky above, with lashes that would make any girl jealous. But there was something more about him that seemed to tug at her. She almost felt like she should know him. She studied his face, trying to remember if she had met him before.

  “Oh, are you related to Officer Parker?” she asked conversationally, wondering if he might be the inspector from Richfield. He regarded her momentarily before he replied, “Yes, he is my brother.”

  She couldn’t see the resemblance. Where Roy Parker was tall and slender, this Parker was broad in the shoulders and probably twenty pounds heavier−not in fat, but solid muscle.

  “What can I do for you?” she inquired.

  “I just came by to check on things around here,” he said as he looked toward the schoolhouse, squinting against the late afternoon sun. He had to be the inspector, she concluded as her anxiety level increased. JD smiled warmly at him despite the perspiration that began to pool under her arms and make her palms damp. “I was just closing up for the night. Did you want to look around a bit?”

  Nathan looked back at her without any expression. “Sure,” he responded.

  She motioned for him to follow her and led him inside the Schoolhouse as she launched into her rehearsed spiel on the status of the project. Matthew and a couple of his other
crewmembers somewhere upstairs making a ruckus. The crew had been creating a pile of debris on the floor at the foot of the makeshift stairs all day. She hoped they would relocate the mess to the dumpster before they headed out that evening.

  “When did construction start?” Nathan interrupted her chatter. Concern creased his brow. Stink, she thought. Did I miss something here? Didn’t I have a permit to begin demolition? She wanted to race back to her office and double-check the folder of permits Rick handed her. She hadn’t reviewed them at all, assuming that Rick had taken care of all that, including the permit to begin construction.

  “Yesterday,” she said slowly.

  “Good,” he said softly. He turned away from her abruptly and wandered to the back rooms where the box was still standing, covered by a large, blue tarpaulin. She followed him into the room, at a loss for words to explain the box. Nathan walked straight to it, lifted the edge of the tarpaulin, and took a long look at it. She expected him to make some comment about the oddity of its presence there. After several long moments, he let the edge of the tarpaulin fall back over the partially revealed box. Apparently satisfied with the brief excursion, he said, “Thanks for the tour.”

  “Sure,” she said, baffled as he turned to go. He stopped and turned back to her, tipping his hat. “It was a pleasure to meet you,” he added. Then he left. As odd as that first meeting went, she heaved a sigh of relief as she trailed after him. She hoped their meetings in the future, as there were sure to be at least a few more, were as abbreviated as this one had been. JD watched him climb into his truck and drive away. Matthew and the rest of his crew came down the stairs as if they weren’t the least bit concerned that the frail, makeshift stairs might fall apart beneath their weight.

  “Who was that?” Matthew asked as his crew strode past JD without a glance.

  “Just the inspector from Richfield,” she said. “Are you finished for the day?”

  Matthew pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and wiped the dust and sweat from his brow. “Yup. Can I take you to dinner?”

  She hesitated to reply.

  “As friends?” he amended.

  “I can do that,” she said and smiled and all thoughts of Nathan’s visit vanished from her mind, like the evening light behind the distant mountains.

  Chapter 14

  Matthew, freshly showered and smelling faintly of sage and pine, picked JD up an hour later on his motorcycle. Before he helped her onto the seat behind him, he asked, “are you an adventurous eater?”

  “A what?” she said.

  He rephrased his question, “do you like to try new foods?”

  “Sure,” she said uncertainty, which made him chuckle.

  “Ok, I’m going to hold you to that,” he said in a teasing tone.

  Twenty minutes later they were sitting across from each other at the Café Diablo on the outskirts of Torrey on Highway 24. Matthew extended his fork towards her with a bite sized morsel of the adventurous food he had asked her about earlier. JD declined.

  “C’mon, it’s free-range rattlesnake,” he urged.

  JD peered at Matthew over her forkful of domesticated poultry, trying to keep a straight face as she quipped, “So is my chicken and it doesn’t slither on the ground.” They both laughed.

  “You have a nice laugh,” he told her. JD bit the insides of her lips together to keep from smiling as she ducked her head and felt her cheeks warm. Matthew reached across the table and with his index finger lifted her chin, “and a nice smile,” he added. She was frozen beneath his brief touch as he gazed into her eyes. He leaned away but held her gaze with his own. She didn’t know what kinds of thoughts were pulsing behind his eyes, eyes that at once seemed so inviting and so mischievous at the same time. Her heart and head were at odds. She liked being with him, he made her feel special and wanted, yet those good feelings were tainted with guilt that she was crossing professional lines with him, or at the very least, flirting with crossing those lines. Gramps would be furious.

  It was a precarious balancing act she found herself on, conscious of the fact that he was off limits while he was under her employ. If it went bad, if Gramps found out, if Rick found out, she could be jerked off the project faster than Gramps’ blood pressure could go up.

  You’re too impulsive and you don’t think things through, Gramps had scolded her once in front of the entire office. Everyone got scolded at least once by Gramps, so Rick was very sympathetic to her and went to her defense afterwards. She didn’t even remember what the issue was about, but the scolding and the humiliation that followed, she’d remember forever.

  But, it didn’t change her. When she saw something she wanted, she couldn’t get it out of her mind until she got it. She had wanted this project so badly and had pestered Rick about it until he relented and went to her grandfather to get the job for her. Now, gazing at Matthew, she felt that old, familiar feelings of longing. She wanted him.

  “You are very beautiful,” he said softly. She hadn’t the slightest notion of how she was supposed to respond to that. No one had every called her beautiful before. No one! She drew in a breath, quickly, as her vision began to tunnel, and looked away feeling her heart rate accelerate behind her ears. She had forgotten they were supposed to be dining together as friends. Apparently, he had, too. But who was she kidding? Girls didn’t forget to breathe when a friend gave them a compliment. Their hearts didn’t accelerate when a friend flashed a dimpled smile, or when their fingers brushed against each other when they both reached for the salt.

  Matthew slid his fingers under her hand and curled them around her fingers. She couldn’t and wouldn’t move her hand. His touch electrified her. He studied her face. She couldn’t meet his gaze. She felt like every eye in the place was staring at them, though hardly anyone noticed the two strangers at the corner table by the front window holding hands. For Pete’s sake, she thought, friends didn’t hold hands like this.

  Matthew’s fingers stroked the back of hers, shooting slivers of excitement through her body. As she examined the whole situation from a project management point of view, she realized a few things. Matthew Rigo was amazingly gorgeous and well-built, he loved his work, watched football on the weekends, drove like a maniac on his motorcycle, danced to country music, and found it fun to watch rodeos. What could he possibly see in a bookish nerd like her? At times, she could be very anal retentive about little things, she couldn’t stand country music, she detested contact sports, and she thought rodeos were a cruel sport. But, on the other hand, she did like the motorcycle.

  What in the world had her glued to her seat, letting Matthew touch her like that? Was she so shallow as to fall for his looks alone? She hardly knew him aside from the things he had revealed about his general likes and dislikes during their dinner conversation. Logic told her that real love was based on more than just looks alone. Real love was the stuff people did together to show each other their feelings. They had things in common, right? She wasn’t sure. All she knew about love came from movies, poetry, and books. But it started somewhere, with something that caught one’s interest, right? So, why not his good looks and charm?

  JD didn’t remember the rest of their meal as her mind raced through an ongoing analysis of her budding feelings for Matthew. Was it her impulsiveness that Gramps warned her against, which made her want him, or was she falling in love?

  When dinner was over, JD climbed onto the back of his motorcycle, leaned forward and wrapped her arms about Matthew, trusting him as he sped Highway 24 in the mid-evening hours. The cliffs behind Torrey were a vibrant red against the deepening velvet blue of the desert night. She clung to Matthew tightly as they leaned right for a sharp turn in the road. She didn’t know where they were going. All she could think about was how good it felt to be with him, feeling his warmth against her chest, her arms around his massive torso, her hands resting against his firm stomach and wicked thoughts of touching his skin assailed her.

  They returned to the cliffs overlooking Torr
ey and the surrounding countryside, but things were different now. There might not have been fireworks popping in the distance, but her senses were jumping and exploding when he helped her get off the bike. Without letting go of her hand, he dismounted, and then leaned back against the motorcycle, inviting her to come closer to him.

  Her logical side was trying desperately to argue reason with her more capriciously-minded self and hesitated in taking that step into his arms, but her yearning for his touch was overwhelming. She took the step forward. There was no going back after that.

  Matthew’s hands slid around her waist, drawing her closer till their noses nearly touched. She laid her hands on his biceps, felt them harden. His eyes flicked over her face, then gazed at her lips. She bit the side of her lip out of habit, nervous. She had seen enough movies to recognize the look of an anticipated kiss on a man’s face. JD understood the mechanics of kissing, but she had never experienced a real one herself. She was suddenly terrified.

  JD had always fantasized that her first kiss would have happened years ago, with someone she truly loved, but it never did. She couldn’t help but feel like Gramps had ruined any chances she might have had with someone who lived within a 100-mile radius of Los Angeles. At twenty-one years of age, she had worried that her poor, withered old lips might never taste true love’s first kiss. She sincerely believed that a kiss, especially a first kiss, was much more than just for pleasure. It really meant something special. Here she was, standing on a cliff, the wind blowing her hair in all directions, wrapped in the arms of a man from beyond her wildest dreams, and she was about to kiss him. Would this kiss mean as much to him as it did to her? What was it going to be like? She could hardly wait for it!

  What are you doing? she asked herself, in one last attempt to talk herself out of doing this thing with her contractor. JD sighed. I’m falling in love she answered herself.