“Jane, you still have the best legs of any woman I know,” Harrison said. “It was very kind of you to share such an incredible sight with an old man like me today. Gets the ticker beating harder.”
Jane snorted. “You big flatterer,” she said, running a hand over Harrison’s shoulder as she smiled.
“If you’re passing them out today, where’s my kiss?” another male voice demanded behind her.
Jane straightened, turned, and blinked at Walter’s teasing grin. He didn’t see her surprise because his gaze was trailing down her legs. Since she was thoroughly enjoying the sight of Walter in his tight jeans and polo, she could only conclude that Harrison was right. Walter’s long denim encased legs definitely got her heart doing double-time. Those shoulders of his were appealing also. She remembered exactly how nice they had felt under her hands.
Seriously glad now that she had spent time looking for her best shorts and fixing her hair that morning, Jane let a laugh escape to lighten the moment. It didn’t help much though. Sucking in a breath, she walked over to where Walter stood in the doorway. She motioned for him to bend over and then chastely kissed his cheek. He smelled like aftershave and heat. Lots of heat. Her lips quivered with regret as she pulled away.
“Hello, Walter. I thought I would see if you have time for a tour today,” she said, wondering if she sounded as breathy and silly as she felt.
Walter felt his heart pounding hard as he straightened away from Jane. He congratulated himself on not doing something totally dumb, like crushing her to him and devouring her in single bite. Or worse, dropping to his knees to run his hands over those incredible legs of hers.
“I was hoping you would show up this morning,” Walter said.
Jane lifted her quivering hands in the air for a shrug, laughing nervously at how self-conscious she suddenly was. And quivering hands? When did that start happening? “Well. You can stop waiting, Walter. I’m here.”
“You’ve come at the perfect time,” Walter said, trying to bank the longing her words had evoked. “The architects are still looking for the best places to drill. Now you can meet them.”
“Sure. Sounds interesting,” Jane said, dropping her hands and shoving them into the pockets of her shorts, hoping Walter hadn’t noticed her discomfort. She was always cool. Always collected. Always. Like a woman who was almost forty was supposed to be.
“Aaaaah!” Jane called out, yanking her hands from her pockets after feeling Walter’s fingers on her arm. “Sorry, Walter. Guess I shouldn’t have had that second cup of coffee this morning.”
Walter grinned, reached down, and took her hand gently into his, tugging her toward the door. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t do caffeine much. Come on.”
He looked at Amanda. “Heads up,” he said, tossing her the keys to his van.
Amanda laughed and caught the keys. “At least you throw straighter than Daniel. He usually beans me in the face.”
Jane wrinkled her face as Walter propelled them out the door. Daniel? Who was Daniel? She heard Harrison laughing again, but couldn’t quite catch what he said.
“Going completely off the grid is not possible in most established locations. When I did the feasibility study. . .”
“You did a feasibility study?” Jane asked.
Walter laughed. “Well it seemed like a good idea before I started spending thousands of dollars doing more renovations on North Winds. You did quite a lot before I bought it.”
Jane swallowed. “Yes. I did. Of course. . .I didn’t mean. . .” She halted her speech when she and Walter cleared the door of the building.
“Jane,” Walter said, laughing as he looked down into her wide scared eyes, “do you want me to kiss you until Mrs. Cochran over there starts blushing. . .”
Jane’s gaze swung to the older woman, walking toward the pool house with her flamingo beach towel over one shoulder.
“. . .or can we just have an agreement that we’re going to explore all this sexual tension later? I would like to talk to my architects while the blood is still mostly in my brain,” Walter finished, chuckling as Jane bit her lip in thought.
“I didn’t come here for. . .” Jane stopped when she saw Walter was still smiling. “Would you believe I don’t know why I’m here? Are you still dating that woman you were with the other night?”
Jane’s question made him dizzy. . .and oh so incredibly happy. Walter’s slow head shake from side to side was accompanied by a grin that stretched his face. Harrison was going to laugh his ass off again, but Walter couldn’t find it in himself to care.
“No. That didn’t really work out well, though I did make the number one slot on her ‘worst guys to date list’. She updated the online version with her phone right after I paid the check for dinner. How about you? You still dating the suit guy you were with? He seemed mostly decent.”
“Kenneth?” Jane asked, swallowing hard as she scrambled for a way to explain. “Not really. . .well sort of, I guess. It’s not. . .I found Kenneth when the guy before him stiffed me for dinner. Kenneth got to hear the waiter inform me that the guy had run out the side door.”
Walter laughed. Guys could be such idiots. “Nice save. . .I suppose. Are you seriously interested in your rescuer?”
This was the moment, Jane thought. This was the moment she could move on or do something about the tug inside her that was stronger than Walter’s grip on her hand.
“Kenneth kisses well, but. . .” She bit her lip when Walter raised one eyebrow. “But it wasn’t anything like kissing you. Nothing has been like kissing you. That’s my problem.”
Walter let out the breath he’d been holding and tightened his grip. “Have dinner with me, Jane Fox. I haven’t kissed anyone since I kissed you. Just know that at the end of the evening, I will definitely want to kiss you again. We’ll flip a coin for who pays for dinner though. I’m about to sink the rest of my savings into this project and I may lose my ass.”
Jane giggled with panicked relief that all Walter had asked for was a dinner date. Her fluttering pulse and the throb between her legs meant she’d have probably done pretty much anything. It was shameful, but still true.
“That would be a terrible shame, Walter Graham. Your ass is really cute, especially in those jeans you’re wearing. I don’t think I can just stand by and let that happen.”
Two seconds later, Jane squealed when Walter lifted her in the air and spun her around. “Put me down. What was that for?” She pushed out of Walter’s arms the moment her feet touched earth again. Her instant reaction to being plastered against him made her extremely glad she had worn the padded bra today.
“You are the smartest woman I’ve ever met. I want to hear what you think of their estimate. It’s due today,” Walter said, grabbing a hand to tug her forward with him again.
Jane rolled her eyes. Had she agreed to dinner? She didn’t remember doing so. “Walter, not that you asked exactly, but I might not be able to do dinner tonight. I’m on call for babysitting JD. Lauren almost never calls, but I did offer.”
“Ah yes. . .you’re being the Super Aunt of Super JD,” Walter recited. He wondered what Jane would be like if she got to start from scratch with a baby. His gaze went to her breasts before falling to her stomach. It was pretty easy to imagine his child there.
“I don’t think I like that look in your eyes. It reminds me too much of Harrison,” Jane said.
“Maybe I’m trying to channel him today. He refuses to have anything to do with the eco improvements. Time to sink or swim, boy,” Walter said, mocking his grandfather’s gruffness.
“Harrison does not sound like that. Never moonlight as an impressionist, Walter,” Jane ordered, liking the low snicker she got in reply.
Behind the pool house, Jane saw three men talking as they studied the area. Two had tools in their hands. A third carried a computer tablet, which he wrote on with a stylus.
“Are those your architects?” she asked.
Walter raised his hands and cracked his
knuckles. It was his one nervous tell. “Yes. Their original guesstimate was high. If I can’t get them to come down to something reasonable, it will take most of my savings just to install the geo thermal system.”
“I know how those work. What are they asking?” Jane demanded.
Walter quoted the number and watched Jane shake her head. “No way. Half that I think.”
Walter snorted. “If you get them to go half, I will definitely buy dinner.”
“Deal,” Jane said, smiling as they made their way forward. Excitement climbed as she met their surprised gazes. She hadn’t spoken a word yet and this was already the most fun she’d had in days.
***
Walter leaned across the table, stared into dancing green eyes, and smiled. He could feel his own crinkling in response. Jane was holding out on him still. Only tonight he was determined to get her to give in to at least some of his demands. Failing to do so was simply not an option. He had been trained by the most shrewd negotiator on the planet.
“Okay, you already know I’m on the hook for dinner. Now tell me how you did it,” Walter ordered. “I wasn’t gone more than ten minutes to deal with a phone call. When I got back the three of them were all like, ‘Mr. Graham, I’m sure we can work something out’. Hell, they did everything but kiss my ass. The bid they turned in was for sixty-five percent of the original estimate.”
Jane laughed at Walter’s escalating excitement. “Well, the one guy was seriously checking you out. I doubt he was just admiring your clothes or shoes.”
“Very funny, Ms. Comedian,” Walter declared, but grinned about the fact that she would tease him that way. It meant she wasn’t truly the jealous type. “It’s a masculine challenge for my generation, and it’s always the big, muscle guy that gets hit on the most, regardless of which gender interest he attracts. I have turned down as many offers from men as from women. Go ahead and laugh if you want, but it’s hell.”
Jane laughed at his complaints about being attractive. She studied his polo, stretched across shoulders and biceps to die for. The memory of their hardness fueled her dreams. She would bet every bit of Walter felt just like that. No, his attraction had nothing to do with his clothes or shoes, and everything to do with the grinning man who wore them.
“Well, maybe the architects gave you the discount today just because they thought you were cute. Still happens to good-looking women all the time, even when they aren’t trying to be sexy.”
“Sure. I’ve seen it happen. So is that your secret? You used your sex appeal today to get them to cut the price?”
Walter peered at Jane over his glass of wine. Her low laughter was making him far more dizzy than the alcohol. He wanted inside her head as much as her body. He wanted to make her laugh while he blew her mind.
“Me? Use sex appeal to get a discount?” Jane heard the belly laugh escape, but she couldn’t prevent it. “Those tactics never worked for me, not even in my shortest skirts. Oh, that’s a good one, Walter. Let me tell you something. Smart business people are immune to that when it comes to their bottom line profits.”
“It’s okay, Jane. I get why you won’t confess. It would sound pretty bad for someone as smart as you are to admit that you charmed a discount out of someone,” Walter said, smiling at her amusement. His contentment to be sitting across from Jane Fox just kept growing every second. It was what all great dates should be like.
“Well, the taller, good looking one did ask me to dinner. What was his name? Let me think. Oh yes—Brenner—it was Brenner. He’s the lead, isn’t he?” Jane recalled, shrugging the man’s interest off as the nothing it had seemed to her at the time.
Her mind had been on winning and anticipating Walter’s pleased surprise. Her mind had been only on pleasing the man across from her.
Walter frowned at her answer. Date? She hadn’t mentioned one of them had asked her out. “So you did use your sex appeal,” he said flatly.
Jane laughed softly again and narrowed her eyes at the accusation in his words. “No, I mostly certainly did not. If you must know, I told Brenner that you were going to have to take bids from three other companies because their original estimate was double what you had budgeted to spend. Then I casually expounded on the high visibility of your family tree, making it useful to you for once. I also told them that I knew business wizard Morrison Fox was personally following your progress. . .which was also true because Dad is following your progress. In the end, they decided it was in their best interest to make sure they were affiliated with the project.”
Walter shook his head. “Just what are you saying? You used honesty? Now why didn’t I think of that? Sorry that I insinuated it was your incredible legs. Instead, it was your incredible mind. I guess I should have known.”
“I’ll let it go this time,” Jane said, laughing off the compliment, even though it warmed her all over. Harrison had taught his grandson well. “In all fairness, I guess it might have been my shortest shorts and my bare legs that solicited the date offer.”
“Good thing you turned the guy down though,” Walter said, leaning back in his chair at last. “I would have hated to start my business relationship with them by issuing a threat to stay away from my girlfriend.”
“I beg your pardon. Your what?” Jane demanded, scoffing at the comment. But she put her hand over her stomach as the crazy butterflies inside it did a happy dance on her behalf.
“You heard me. Got another name you prefer?” Walter asked. “I can think of a few good ones that I’m hoping to make reality soon. I have an extensive vocabulary.”
Walter’s flirting had cranked up to a point where Jane was finally forced to drop her gaze from the dual laser beams trying to weld her to her seat. His power to fluster her was growing exponentially. It was not a good sign that her ‘friends only’ plan was on track. Could she really constrain her attraction to Walter until it turned into friendship?
“How about we just go with saying we’re friends for now?” Jane suggested, staring at the plate of amazing food the waiter slid in front of her.
Walter smiled at the waiter delivering their food, and then studied Jane after the man left. Her gaze was on her plate, but she hadn’t taken the first bite yet.
“How about you tell me what it’s going to take for you to believe that I want more than to just be your friend? I admire you, Jane. . .but I also want more. . .a lot more. I’d tell you how much more right now, but I’d much rather show you later. Isn’t that what you want too? I got that impression earlier when you hugged me back so tightly.”
“I suppose that’s a fair assumption,” Jane said.
Her reluctant nod in answer to his raised eyebrows made her feel wimpy and unsure. Walter was right of course. But she was still incredibly wary about letting him show her any more than he already had.
The photo of him pulling off his dirty t-shirt was already burned into her brain.
What if she really fell in love with him? A relationship with Walter would never last.
Another woman, someone closer to his age with perpetually perky boobs and the ability to walk in four inch heels was going to capture his sincere interest one day. She would only have more droop and more wrinkles by that time. No amount of facial work was going to stop the changes her forties would be making to her face, not to mention the rest of her. Having to watch Walter pack his things and leave her. . .well that would be bad. . .really, really bad. Probably ten times worse than it had hurt when Nathan did it.
Their waiter appeared at their table again, this time with a tray loaded with several different kinds of drinks.
“We’re fine,” Walter said absently, hoping the guy would leave so he could ask Jane what she was thinking that had caused her to frown so hard.
“Sir. . .all these are for you. Compliments of the ladies sitting over there.”
Walter followed his finger as it pointed to a table full of giggling women. He squinted, trying to see if it was anyone he knew.
“They said they were
waiting anxiously to see which one you picked. They said your mother could pick one from the rest.”
Walter’s gaze shot immediately to Jane’s. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“I told you,” she said.
Walter turned back to the waiter. “Tell them I said thanks, but I don’t drink much serious alcohol. Wine is about it for me. And tell them the woman I’m with is not my mother. She’s my date.”
He reached into his pocket, pulled out a fifty dollar bill, and put it on the tray. “Buy them a round on me to soften the blow, but make sure we aren’t disturbed again.”
The waiter nodded once, and then took the fifty and the tray away.
“Jane. . .I hadn’t had a chance to tell you. . .”
“. . .that you’re Mr. March in your fire station’s charity calendar?” Jane finished.
Walter huffed out a breath. At least she had known before she came to see him today. That gave him hope, despite his inability to wind back time two minutes and head off the drinks before they could be delivered.
“Yes—I’m in the calendar—but I wasn’t posing. I was helping the photographer set up. Somehow my goofy photos got mixed in with the real ones and. . .the chief said it was too late to pull the pictures from the first printing. That’s what my mother was calling me about the other day. ”
Jane sighed, picked up her fork, and took a bite of the best Chicken Kiev she had ever tasted. “The food here is great, Walter. You should eat before your dinner gets cold,” she said.
“Jane. . .”
“Those drinks were a reality check. For the record, I think you handled your new fame wonderfully just now. I expect you’re going to get a lot of that kind of attention. If you get asked to do a TV interview, make sure you mention the North Winds reno. You might as well capitalize on the limelight while it shines on you. Stephanie Sawyer will likely be in touch soon to invite you to her show. She loves highlighting the eligible bachelors in Falls Church.”
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