Notorious

by Leanne Davis

  And her next day usually involved work of some sort, or finding work. There wasn’t ever anyone close and trustworthy to be with. All the people around her could only be trusted for business purposes, not for anything personal. So to be working for someone else, even Luke Tyler, made Kelly feel like she was contributing to someone else’s life. It was worthwhile to try and make this move that Luke needed to make a smidgen easier for him. It just felt good. Being needed, just a little bit, even if Luke didn’t know he needed her.

  Besides, he did need her. Luke’s entire life seemed to be all shadows. There was always the specter of his grief, his loss, his wife hanging over him. Whenever anyone interacted with him, they didn’t treat Luke like other people because his misery separated him from everyone around him.

  And this carried over to all aspects of Luke’s life. That was why Luke lived like he belonged in an army bunkhouse in order to avoid setting up a house without his wife. Luke needed to forget the house that held his old life and embrace something new and different, even if he didn’t want anything different. He needed to change, or he’d wither up and be doomed for the rest of his life. He would be as dead as he had been the past three years. Kelly had no illusions that Luke would get over Shelly or his grief by relocating. But this move might just make him think of the future, instead of wishing he didn’t have one.

  Kelly glanced at the clock. It was already seven. She’d worked the entire day away and was suddenly starving. Luke should have shown up hours ago.

  Finally, the garage door opened and moments later, Luke came up the stairs. In the entryway he paused and looked around, his face impassive. Kelly started to say hello, then snapped her mouth shut. Luke’s face was frozen in a scowl. She took a step back in confusion, what had she done wrong?

  “Where have you been?”

  Kelly straightened her back at his sour expression and rude tone. “I think it’s obvious, I’ve been here.”

  “Yeah, but why? I’ve been waiting at the house for two hours, wondering where the hell you were.”

  “I told you I’d pick up the list of things and get them here.”

  “And how did a couple of cans of pop and aspirin lead to you spending all day here?”

  Intense weight hit her chest. This wasn’t going well. What had she done wrong?

  “There were more than two items on your list, and your list was obviously incomplete, since you didn’t even have some basic items. Which, by the way, I filled in for you, and you’re welcome. That stuff doesn’t just magically hop into the cabinets, you know, and neither does the stuff we carried over yesterday.”

  He pressed a hand to the bridge of his noise and breathed deeply. Finally, he let out a long sigh. “God, you’re just like Tim. When you do something, it’s all or nothing, isn’t it? You should have grabbed a few items and thrown them in here. That’s it. I didn’t expect you to move all my stuff, do my shopping, and organize my new place. You can’t be doing stuff like this.”

  “Why not? The point was I had the time, so I’d do what I could, and when you got off work, you’d come help.”

  “You’re supposed to be helping me, not moving me. My God! Are those new knobs on the kitchen cabinets?” He lifted his gaze and stared in horror.

  “Yes. You didn’t have any.” What was the big deal? He didn’t have knobs, so she put some on.

  “First of all, a trip to get some groceries does not include hardware, and second, how the hell did you get those on?”

  “I drilled the hole, then screwed on the knob. It’s really not rocket science. Why do you look so perplexed?”

  “How did you know what to do? What if you’d messed up and ruined the cabinet doors? You could have made a mess of this.”

  “Well, I didn’t. There are no wayward holes and your cabinets look just fine, better, in fact than they did. I asked the salesman at the hardware store what to do, so don’t keep looking at me so horrified. It’s not like I dyed your dog pink or something.”

  “I don’t have a dog, but if I did, I wouldn’t put it past you to do just that. Why would you even go about doing this? Who needs cabinet knobs so badly they can’t wait until they move in?”

  “I was just being helpful.”

  “Helpful?”

  “Yes. Helpful. What’s the big deal? Why are you acting so pissed off?”

  “Because you moved into my condo.”

  “No, I moved you in.”

  Kelly stopped. That was it: she moved Luke in too fast. He wasn’t prepared to be settled in or to sleep here tonight. She’d also arranged to have all his furniture taken out of storage and delivered to the condo. She met the movers between working on the cabinets, and directed them where to set the living room up. She then had them pick up the bedroom furniture Luke had at the house and get it here, too. She could afford it and it seemed like a logical time-saver.

  But she went too far. Luke wasn’t expecting to sleep in the condo tonight, or even this week, perhaps. He was going about it slowly, to get used to the whole idea, and maybe even work through his grief at leaving the house his wife and he had dreamed of spending the rest of their lives together in. The problem was, Kelly had just come to this conclusion now, in this moment.

  “Shit,” she muttered, glancing at him. “I messed up, didn’t I?”

  “You just couldn’t help yourself, could you? You say whatever you think should be said, and do what you think needs to be done. And there’s no halfway with you, is there?”

  She fidgeted. What could she say? “The thing is, I don’t get involved much with people. I don’t help out friends. I’ve only ever had Cassie to be involved with, and we never had any boundaries with each other. So perhaps I applied that same theory to this. There are boundaries between you and me obviously; I’m just not sure where they are. Or exactly when I crossed them.”

  “Probably when you got the drill out.”

  “Okay, maybe there. I’m sorry. It’s too fast, isn’t it?”

  He rolled his head back and shifted his shoulders as if relieving tension. “I did invite you to help. And I guess it might as well be tonight as three nights from now. I just didn’t know a house could be moved and settled into in a day.”

  “Maybe it’s better to make the break quickly, like ripping off a Band-Aid.”

  “Yeah, except it’s kind of deeper than that.”

  “I know that. I’m not stupid or insensitive. Okay, I was insensitive today, but I really didn’t see it until now.”

  “Like you had the right to get into my pictures?”

  “Well, maybe if people didn’t always tiptoe around you, maybe you would do better.”

  “Maybe. And I take it you’ve nominated yourself as that person who doesn’t tiptoe around me? The person who drills holes into my cabinets?”

  She straightened her back at his sarcasm. “Yes. But please don’t be mad. I really was only trying to help.”

  “You helped, all right. To a ridiculously inappropriate degree.”

  “Do you hate me again?”

  “I just have to remind myself Tim gets it from somewhere.”

  “Gets what? And you like Tim.”

  “Exactly. Now I have to like that exuberance in you.”

  She looked at him eagerly, now that he seemed to be used to the idea that he was completely moved into his new condo. “So what do you think of it so far? And contrary to what you’re so worked up about, this place isn’t done yet. There’s still lots you can do.”

  “What? Put the paper towel on the paper towel holder you bought me?”

  “Among other things. I’ve got a list.”

  “You’ve got a list? When did you have time for that? Before or after you drilled through my cabinets?”

  “After,” she said, ignoring his sarcasm.

  “Am I allowed to help with your list?”

  “Of course. It’s rather long.”

  He rolled his eyes ceiling ward. “Of course, it is.”

  Chapter Eight
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br />   Luke collapsed onto his newly unwrapped couch that had spent the last few months in storage after Cassie moved them out of the house, and she redecorated the house during the interim.

  He glanced at the clock on the stove. It was ten at night and Kelly was off somewhere, shuffling around. No wonder he was tired. After last night’s shock of finding his new condo not only full of his stuff, but with new kitchen hardware, he told Kelly to leave. They met after work. He made sure to be explicitly clear that Kelly was not to touch or add anything to his condo, without his prior knowledge and approval. She pouted, but agreed to meet him here this evening.

  What began as a simple, move-a-few-things-each-day move had turned into a race to see how much could be finished in two days, with Kelly as referee. She was tireless. And only when he found himself opening a new package of sheets that Kelly insisted he needed, did he wonder if things hadn’t already gone a bit too far. She wanted to make sure he didn’t think too hard about the move, but at the pace Kelly was setting, he didn’t even have a second to breathe.

  She passed him, walking so quickly she was nearly jogging. He snagged her hand as she went by and stopped her.

  “Enough, it’s ten o’clock and I’m tired. It’s enough for tonight.”

  “Oh.”

  “Don’t look like I just stole your puppy. I promise you can come tomorrow and work some more.”

  “I can?”

  “You started this, so you get to finish it. Besides, I’ll be calling you for weeks wanting to know where all my stuff is, and for that matter, what some of the things are that you stocked my kitchen with. I mean, a garlic press? I would have pondered that one for weeks, trying to figure out what that gizmo is. Why, exactly, was it so essential that I have one?”

  “Because your kitchen utensils were sparse. I added in some things that will make meal preparation so much easier, you’ll want to cook more often.”

  “You know this how?”

  She finally sat down, lulled into a break by his conversation. “Well, when I moved into my own condo, after finally making some decent money, I threw out every hand-me-down and thrift store special that I had and started from scratch. I didn’t want to waste my money, so I researched what basic cooks used and stocked my kitchen accordingly.”

  “You researched how to stock your own kitchen?”

  “Sure. Doesn’t it make sense to buy the best product for the best price? Why waste your money? Consumer Reports is out there for a reason.”

  “You read Consumer Reports?”

  She turned toward him eagerly warming up about the subject. She didn’t notice the amusement in his tone.

  “What do you do? Walk up and pick the first thing off the shelf you see? How do you know it’s the right product for the best price?”

  “I can’t say in my lifetime, I’ve ever thought this deeply about my purchasing habits.”

  “You should.”

  He studied her face. She was eager to explain how she spent her money. “Don’t you have a lot money? Like rich and famous kind of wealth?”

  She hesitated. “Yes, I have money.”

  Luke grinned at her cautious tone. God, had he been wrong about this woman at every turn. “You’re cheap, aren’t you?”

  She bristled. “I don’t think watching where my money goes and what I buy makes me cheap. I think it’s responsible. Why would a sensible person waste money? You never know what’s around the corner.”

  He laughed out loud. She was completely serious, even earnest, judging by her tone and the set of her shoulders.

  “I didn’t say anything funny.”

  “Sure you did. You make as much sense as the outfits you wear.”

  She stiffened. “What do you have against how I dress?”

  “You wear knee-high boots with sweat pants. Then the next day, you come out in a cocktail dress to do errands in town. You make no sense. Then you add a flower to your hair, or a floral scarf dangling over your flannel shirt. Actually, I think your wardrobe choices reflect how erratically you live your life in general.”

  “I’m not erratic. And since when do you notice what I wear? You’ve never even looked at me before.”

  “Oh yeah, I have. Plenty. I was just quieter about it than you’re used to. And it didn’t take me long to start noticing the odd array of clothes you wear at the strangest times.”

  “I wear so many stylish things modeling, it’s nice when I’m away from work, here for example, to be freer in my choices.”

  “And the floral thing? You wear a flower everywhere you can. I wouldn’t be surprised if you had one tattooed on your ass.”

  Her eyebrows furrowed. “I do not. I don’t do tattoos or piercing, even my ears. Yuck. Putting holes in your flesh or permanently branding yourself, no thank you. And what’s prettier than a flower?”

  “Nothing I guess. I’ve just never seen a woman wear them more than you.”

  “Everything was so ugly when I was growing up. I just like pretty things now.”

  “You have flowered furniture, don’t you?”

  She hesitated. “Yes. But why is that a bad thing?”

  “It’s not. I’m just beginning to see that.”

  He didn’t add she was the antithesis of her persona. Pretty flowers and wacky outfits were a far cry from the cold, party girl image she portrayed. His head was reeling at how odd she was compared to who she should be. What woman who had the millions she was rumored to have, bargain-hunted to make sure she got the best deal out there? Hell, to his surprise, Kelly made him smile—period. Here she was, handy with tools, yet she made any average swimsuit look like an invitation to sin.

  She was full of surprises all around. Who’d have guessed she was so ridiculously cautious about her money, health, and life in general? He started picking up on it over the last week, and now he wondered how he’d ever missed it. It was glaringly obvious. She worried about everything and was more safety conscious than most mothers. She still checked Tim’s seat belt, his bike helmet, and made him wear kneepads when Cassie didn’t. She refused to let him near the water, or even the balcony railing at the condo. She was constantly asking if this was safe or that was okay to do. To sum it up, the girl wouldn’t even drink a decaffeinated Diet Coke. Even all the false rumors kind of suited her. She created her own image and went about making a fact in calculated moves that let the public think she was everything she wasn’t.

  Luke glanced at her. “I should be sorry for how I judged you so harshly, but in a way, that’s what you want, isn’t it? No one to know you? Or make any observations about you? You stun everyone with that face of yours, and they don’t bother to look past it, to look at you. Obviously, I did that, too. It makes me the idiot, doesn’t it?”

  “No. It’s how people react to me. Always have. It used to make me uncomfortable and self-conscious. But nothing would stop it. So I embraced it, made people intimidated by me so that they wouldn’t want much more from me. It was easy once I figured it out.”

  “You convince the world you have too much self-confidence when in fact, it’s the opposite, isn’t it?”

  “I have self-confidence.”

  “Sure. That’s why no one but your sister and nephew know you? I mean you, the cheap, drill-handling, dress-outside-of-the-box you.”

  “I haven’t had a lot of luck in letting anyone get to know me. People gawk at me; they don’t see me. Why bother trying to change that? It’s never worked in the past.”

  “It worked this time,” Luke said quietly.

  Her gaze came up to his face. Then she snorted, “Only because my sister made you.”

  He nodded. “Yes, she made me take that second look at you, but I should have on my own. It didn’t take more than a few days to see that you were everything, but what you pretended to be. Changing my opinion was all you.”

  Kelly eyed him for a moment as if to see if he were mocking her or not. Finally, she answered in a weary voice, “Thank you.”

  Luke stared at her do
wn-turned face, she was nearly perfect, and breathtaking from any angle. Her face was so stunning, it could make a man forget to breathe. No matter how much he’d ever hated her, or tried to treat her as casually as he treated Cassie, it was nearly impossible, because, as she was fully aware, she was that beautiful. Her face made even he, who proclaimed to dislike her so much, treat her differently than he would another woman. She was a woman he doubted anyone could treat casually.

  Yet Kelly didn’t see it as a blessing. That face and body seemed to be the hindrance that kept her personality tucked away from prying eyes. That made her self-confidence nearly nonexistent.

  Luke didn’t miss that Kelly’s whole goal today was to keep his mind off moving from the house he shared with Shelly. Kelly didn’t want him to be in pain, and though she went about it a bit too zealously, she did accomplish just that. The condo was now dark after the long June twilight had finally faded. They hadn’t yet turned on a light. He was just now realizing that he had officially moved out of the house on Seabreeze Way, which he had once planned to share with his wife and child.

  Kelly managed to keep that realization at bay.

  “Are you all right?” Kelly’s voice cut through Luke’s thoughts. He looked at her in the gloom of the new condo. Their eyes met and locked. A shiver ran down his spine. What was this look?

  “I get what you were trying to do these last few days.”

  She looked him in the eye, her face just shadows created by the porch light.

  There was pressure in his gut, a warm rush of blood through him. All from looking at her. All along, Kelly was always interesting, but suddenly, it was different, deeper, and sexual.

  He sighed. Christ he hadn’t meant for this to happen. Sure, he’d been attracted to her. He was pretty sure there wasn’t a straight man alive that wasn’t attracted to her. But to go from mild interest, to feeling this sudden awareness between them was drastic.

  He didn’t know quite how to feel about lusting after his sister-in-law’s sister. Not a good idea. No matter what, they’d be seeing each other in the future now that they shared family and a nephew. Kelly was far from being the best candidate to have a one-night stand with.