“Luke brought along the usual. White subway for the walls and stone for the floors.” He frowned. “Why?”
“Although I haven’t worked as an interior designer, I have a few design contacts. Your house is Tudor on the outside, but you have art deco ceiling roses and cornices. I think it would be a shame not to build on the theme you already have.”
“I was going with the vintage look.”
“That’s certainly trending for new builds.” She gave him a dubious glance.
“You’re saying vintage wouldn’t suit Tudor?” He leaned back, staring at her with a crease between his eyebrows.
She shrugged. “Your house was built in the early twenties. The bathrooms would look wonderful in a modern art deco style. You can see that in the cornices you have in your downstairs rooms. You could show that upstairs with glossy white and black, and with the tiling. Modern, but themed.”
“And you think I should use black or white cabinetry in the bathrooms?”
“Not necessarily. I’ll find you some pictures on my phone.”
After a few minutes of thumbing, she passed him her phone. “In these bathrooms, they’ve used black and white, but look at the tiling. Most of the tiles are tiny and intricate. The gray coin marble on the floor of the top picture looks pretty classy. Also that basket cut marble. This bathroom is gray and white. And see this one with blue walls? A pure color looks pretty fantastic with the black and white, or gray and white, and paint color is easy to change. You might want green, or red, or pink.”
“And a similar design in the kitchen? I was going to tile the floors in the kitchen for easy cleaning and use the recycled jarrah for the extension. And match this with reused wood cabinetry. What do you think?”
She made a wry face. “I would keep a hardwood floor throughout the house. That with black and white would be appropriate.”
He tapped his fingers on the table. The bathrooms she had shown him were spectacular, and his business brain told him the edgy tiling would cost very little more while having a far greater impact. “You’re not just a pretty face, are you?”
“I’d settle for that, though.” She gave him a hopeful smile.
“I wouldn’t want you to settle for anything. I would want you to have exactly what you want.” He held her gaze, knowing he really meant that.
She drew a deep breath. “In the case of your kitchen and bathroom, you must make the choice. I’m only suggesting you emphasize the integrity of your house’s past.”
“Integrity. That’s a word I rarely consider when talking about making a profit.” He drummed his fingers on the table, knowing he gave customers the kitchens they wanted rather than making suggestions that might cost them less.
She looked incredulous, which pleased him. “You’re a perfectionist. Integrity is your middle name.”
“Calli! Why didn’t you tell me you were back?” A well-presented fair-headed woman about Calli’s age leaned down and gave Calli a smothering hug. Then, grabbing Calli’s hands in hers, she crouched beside Calli’s seat to talk to her on the same level. “I keep calling your parents, but they won’t say a word, other than you would let them know when you return. And your mother promised to tell me.” Then she glanced at Kell. “I don’t want to break into your date. Give me your new phone number.”
Calli considered the request for some seconds. She locked her gaze with Kell’s for a moment. “I’ve only been back for an hour or two. I have your number on my phone. I’ll call you, and then you’ll have my number. Maggie Masterson, meet Kell Dee.”
Maggie straightened, smiled at Kell, and said, “She’s been a bad girl. A very good friend, who happens to be me, has some stupendous news she wants to share and she hasn’t been able to talk to her for two months. Where on earth have you been? Croatia?”
“Not quite as far as that. What’s the news?”
Maggie held up her left hand, her fingers splayed. “Engaged. Yes, to Drew. And I’m having the official party next Saturday night. You have to be there, Calli. I can’t celebrate without you. Bring a date, or not, but come. It’s too late to send an invitation, but I’ll send the details via the phone. You have to come.”
“I will.”
“I want you to be one of my bridesmaids as well, but we’ll talk about that. I have to go. We just stopped in for a quick drink.”
“I’m glad you found me in time.” Calli stood and hugged and kissed her friend, who left in a tangle of scarves and goodbyes. When Calli glanced at Kell, she had glossy eyes. “I didn’t think about anyone but me and my problems for a very long time. I think she brought me back to reality. Do you want to be my date for the engagement party or should I find someone else?”
“Don’t even consider that,” he said in a growly voice. “If you’re sleeping with me, you’re dating me. Those two things go together.”
“You mean if I don’t date you, I don’t get sex?”
He had a moment of taking her seriously and his heart thumped. “Isn’t that the way a relationship normally goes?” he asked, his face stiff.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever had a healthy relationship with a man. I have dated men that I rarely had sex with, and I have supported men that have sex with other women. If I date you as well as have sex with you, I’m liable to take our relationship a little seriously. Is that what you want? I had the impression that you don’t want to get too close to me.”
“I couldn’t get closer than naked.”
Her phone chimed and she shook her head. “That’s what happens when a conversation starts getting interesting. I’ll turn it off. One moment.” She scrabbled around in her bag and pulled out the lit-up phone. “My sister again. Oh, no. Now she’s sent a text. She says to pick up the call because it’s urgent. Do you mind?”
“Go ahead.”
She pressed reply. “This had better be urgent, Tiggy. I’m at the Toz waiting for a meal.” She listened and then her face froze. “Is he okay?”
She sat very still, her forehead propped on her closed fist. “Yes…yes…yes…he would be devastated. I’m with someone. We’ll eat, and then I’ll come over. Maybe an hour.” She ended the call.
She lifted her head and stared at him. “My sister-in-law was killed in a car accident this afternoon. The family is rallying around my brother. He is with my sister and our parents at their house. My brother will be heartbroken. He was madly in love with Mercia. She was his whole life. I need to be there for him, too.” Her expression looked pleading.
“Do you want to leave right now?” he asked. For sure, he would lose his appetite if either of his sisters-in-law had been killed.
She thought for a moment before she shook her head. “We’ve ordered. If you don’t mind, though, I would like you to drop me off right after we’ve eaten. It won’t be out of your way. In fact, my parents’ house is on our way home. St. Peters.” She picked up her wine and drank the rest in her glass. “Dutch courage. I haven’t seen my family since before I took the judge’s job. I swore I wouldn’t until I had earned enough money to salve my pride, and I haven’t until I have paid back my father. That won’t be for at least another few months, and only if I get a design job after this one. So, I won’t be running home a success after all.”
“I’m betting they couldn’t care less.”
“You’re right. They don’t. I do. I think you’re the same, trying to prove yourself to yourself. It’s a human failing.”
He thought about that after he dropped her off at the front of a gracious two-story Georgian home built on one side of a double block.
Yes, he had spent a lifetime trying to prove to himself that a man with his background could have a work ethic second to none.
Chapter 12
A purring furry head snuggled under Kell’s chin. He automatically made accommodation for the soft little feline in his camper bed, a vague thought wandering through his half-awake mind that his window was open, and he fell asleep again. Sometime la
ter, he heard a car crunching down Calli’s driveway, and he knew she was safely back.
In the morning, the cat was nothing but a memory, and Kell left early for work. The earlier he started, the earlier he could return to begin on the extra tasks in the house. Trent could have the new extension walls built in a week, as soon as Kell had the go-ahead. In the meantime, Kell could prepare the floorboards he had salvaged and measure out the rafters. His days would be full, with scant time to be with the woman who occupied his constant thoughts.
He dropped by to see Calli when he arrived home a little after four. The cat bounded up the path to greet him with a yowl, and walked her front paws up his shin. He lifted her to face height so that she could inspect him and then he tucked her under his arm while staring at beautiful Calli who strode toward him, her eyes big and sad. Apparently the funeral arrangements would need to be delayed because of the coroner. “Next Wednesday,” she told him, holding his upper arm lightly, and placing her forehead on his shoulder.
“Do you want me to go with you?” he said, his hand slowly rubbing the back of her neck.
She shook her head. “But thanks for offering. Do you want to stay tonight?”
He nodded and wrapped his arms around her. She needed him, and that was a warming thought. The cat struggled out of the embrace, bounding onto the ground, but Kell kept Calli in his arms, resting his face against her soft hair. “But I can’t. I’ll be plastering in the upstairs rooms until midnight.” He kissed the tip of her nose. She smelled of lavender and sunshine. “I don’t want to wake you.”
“If you need help, say so. I’m not bad with a broom, and I can paint.”
“But can I afford you?”
She laughed and reached up her face to kiss him on the mouth. “Some things are free. I won’t be here most of Wednesday. I have to go home early to change for the funeral. All my proper clothes are in storage at my parent’s house. And then Ma is catering after the funeral. If you want to make a date with me for Wednesday night, I’ll be able to offer you leftovers. My mother is a habitual over-caterer.”
She spoke the truth. Her haul after the funeral included Greek pastries, a large bowl of salad, keftedes, an untouched dish of moussaka, and a basket of shortbreads. He stayed the night and he wished he could be with her every single night for the rest of his misbegotten life. He loved the softness of her skin, he loved the fragrance of her hair, and he adored the sensual expression on her face while he made love to her. Each time he left her bed seemed harder than the time before.
He couldn’t be in love after knowing her for not much more than a month, but somehow his heart had made a space that expanded each time he saw her.
The next day, while buying new folders for his files in his lunch break, he grabbed up a newspaper, too. Normally he only read the football pages but while he idly bit into a Greek pastry back at the works, he flicked past the politics and a story about a young family with a sick child. Then a half page photo of mourners outside a city church stopped him. With funerals on his mind, he began to skim through the narrative.
Mercia Allbrook, wife of Hagen Allbrook, died on impact when her car hit a tree on Strathalbyn Road. Allbrook. Frowning, he quickly scanned the photo and saw an almost unrecognizable Calli—Calliope Allbrook dressed in black and wearing one of those big hats that women wore to the races, with a pair of sunglasses hiding her face. Nothing hid her graceful posture, the clean line of her haircut, or the curve of her cheek that he knew so well. He put the paper on his knee, his head spinning. Calli Opey. Calliope. Allbrook.
He sat perfectly still, filled with dread and with a kind of sadness, a loss of hope.
He could aspire to marry the daughter of wealthy parents, but the Allbrooks were more than wealthy. They numbered on the rich list, not at the top, but there, nonetheless. He was a tradesman and always would be, not an architect like his brother.
At Jay’s house, Kell had mentioned her family’s company and she had not said a word. She could have spoken then, although he would have looked like a fool if she had done so at that time. Knowing his aspirations, she should have told him who she was later. Had she tried? He rubbed his forehead. Not that he recalled. She said she’d been used before for her money. Clearly she didn’t intend the same thing to happen again. Apparently she didn’t trust the man she had been sleeping with not to take advantage of his relationship with her.
He couldn’t remember having ever met the families of his dates. That would imply a relationship and he couldn’t say he had ever had one until this past month with Calli, but he knew and she knew that a cabinetmaker didn’t fit into an Allbrook’s social calendar any more than his trade had suited most of his other dates. Had he known she was an Allbrook, he wouldn’t have touched her, but he had and now he had to pay for wanting a woman so badly that he had taken her, losing his sense of self-preservation in the process.
Within the next couple of months, he and she would finish up in this area. Until then, he would take as much of her as he could get. He hadn’t had that same chance before he had lost his mother to breast cancer and his father to drink.
Now older and harder, he knew that no matter how little a person could have of someone he loved, that would have to suffice him forevermore.
* * * *
Kell was the perfect escort for Maggie’s engagement party. Not only did he look jaw droppingly fabulous in dark trousers and a tan striped shirt, but he took the time to learn the names of her friends and their friends, and he stuck to her side. He didn’t ogle other women, and he didn’t get loud with drink. She had never been so proud to be with a man in her whole life.
Not knowing whether to introduce him as a cabinetmaker or as a neighbor, she chose the former, which might boost his business. All her friends were either married now or about to be, and would need referrals to a good tradesman some time or other.
She couldn’t count on the fingers of both hands how many times she was asked if he was the one, and she could only say she needed to wait and see, but of course she already knew she was hopelessly stuck on him. Unlike his predecessors, he was smart and hard working. Her parents would be proud of her if they knew, after the poor choices she had made previously, but she couldn’t build up their hopes of her finally settling down. Although she thought Kell was the one, she had assumed the others were, too. But none of them happened to love her. Kell also hadn’t mentioned the L word.
“You have a fan,” he said to her in the car as he drove home through the swishing rain. “While you were doing your girl-hugs, an older woman sidled up to me and told me she has known you since you were very young and you’re one of her favorite people.”
“Was that Maggie’s mother?”
“No, you introduced me to her mother. This woman was a bit shorter than you with gray hair. Nice looking. She said you were a good catch.”
She tilted up nose. “I hope you told her that I have other attributes.”
“I told her that you are perfect, and in fact the woman of my dreams, the sort of friend who’ll help sand down a wall so that she can help paint it.” He gave a casual laugh, a throwaway laugh that said the opposite.
She ran her tongue across her lips. “Couldn’t you have said something more romantic?”
“More romantic than you being the woman of my dreams?”
“You have a point.”
“She mumbled something about working toward a common goal and then she disappeared.”
“You should have pointed her out. I would love to know whose favorite person I might be.” And then she shut her mouth.
She couldn’t expect Kell to return her feelings. She knew he liked her, but love was a whole different bunch of roses. Most people didn’t fall in love over incidentals like good sex, laughing at the same jokes, and liking the way the other person kissed. Or because their cat had fallen in love with that person. More than likely, she and the cat simply had a crush.
She couldn’t imagine who might
have said Calli was one of her favorite people and she rubbed the back of her neck, thinking. Far and Ma could easily have been invited to pop in on Maggie’s casual engagement celebration if they had the time. Forewarned was forearmed in the case of her mother. She liked thinking Ma had heard she was Kell’s dream girl, though she would be more thrilled if Kell meant what he had said. But if her parents had dropped in to see Maggie, why hadn’t Calli seen them?
To find out, she drove over to visit her parents on Monday night. After a hug and a kiss, she mentioned Maggie’s party.
“We did drop by.” Her mother evaded her gaze. “But just for a quick moment to give Maggie our best wishes before we had to dash off to another function.”
“Do you have anything to confess, like trying to find out from Maggie where I live?” Calli used a severe voice. “Because it’s not a secret any longer. I’ve been working in Adrian Ferguson’s garden, but I’ve finished the job, and I’m still living in his guesthouse. I only have to earn another three thousand dollars, and I will have paid back all I owe to Far. For sure, he will see the money in the next month or two.”
Her mother laughed. “That’s good to know, darling, but if you didn’t want us to know where you were, you should have turned off the location thing in your phone.”
Calli placed her fists on her hips. “You’ve known all along?” She frowned.
“We knew you wanted privacy. I hope you have been spending your time productively.” Demi, her mother, spoke in dulcet tones.
Calli drew a deep breath. “I think I’m in love.”
“In love?” Her mother grabbed her and examined her face.
Calli shrugged. “I’m sure it won’t be fatal.”
“Does this man love you, too?”
“I’ve wondered, but he hasn’t said so.”
“I’ve never heard you say ‘in love’ before.” Her mother frowned. “Is he suitable?”
“Not at all. He’s the son of an alcoholic from the wrong side of the tracks. And even worse, he wants a job with you.” She aimed her words at her silent father. “But if he gets one and he finds out I’m your daughter, he’ll think I used my influence. He’s a very proud self-made man. He would then refuse the job and dump me.”
Perfect Scents Page 17