Hammer, Nails, and Happily Ever After?

by Mitzi Kelly

  “I’m sorry. I wanted to surprise you.”

  “You’ve been full of surprises today, Todd, and none of them have been welcome. What are you doing here?”

  “You said we could talk.”

  “On the phone, not at my house. I don’t appreciate this at all.”

  He frowned and shook his head as he placed his hands in his front pockets. “I really am very sorry, Ginger. Everything I planned has gone backward. I really do just want to talk to you.”

  She shrugged. “So talk.”

  “Uh…can we go inside?”

  “No.”

  “Oh, come on. I can’t say what I want to say standing outside like this.”

  She looked at him. Finally, she sighed and motioned to the chairs on the porch. “Have a seat.”

  He gave her a wry smile, but he took the chair she indicated. She fastened Jack’s leash and walked outside, sitting across from him.

  “Aren’t you going to put your dog up?”

  Jack was still watching Todd carefully.

  “No. Now you can start by telling me why you thought you had the right to find out where I work and where I live, and how in the hell you found out I have a dog.”

  He leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. “I can tell you’re angry, Ginger, and I know all of this must be very confusing. I have to start at the beginning for you to understand.” When she gave an audible sigh, he continued, “Please, just hear me out.”

  She leaned back in her chair. “Go ahead,” she said impatiently. “If it will make you feel better, say what you came to say. I’m going to tell you up front, though, nothing can change the way I feel about you. I really couldn’t care less, but you’re determined to have your say. I’d appreciate it if you’d just get it over with.”

  He lowered his head and looked at his clasped hands dangling between his knees. “Wow, you’re really bitter. I guess I deserve that, but I hope you’ll look at things differently after we talk.”

  She bit back a sharp retort. He guessed he deserved her bitterness? By the time they were through talking, he wouldn’t have any more doubts about that at all.

  “I’ll never forget the look on your face the day you came to my office and saw my wife,” he began quietly, a pained expression on his face. “I wanted so badly to run to you and tell you what was going on, but I couldn’t. Then when I came to your apartment to explain, you wouldn’t give me a chance.”

  She closed her eyes. She remembered that day well, of course, and she battled the old feelings of betrayal and hurt. That was in the past, though, and she wouldn’t let that memory consume her. She had moved on and forged a new life for herself. But selfish as usual, Todd needed to get this off his chest, and he wasn’t going to let the matter drop until he did so.

  “I’m so very sorry I lost control that day. You see, I was one week away from filing for a divorce, and I couldn’t let my wife know that. I had to make her think everything was fine until I had moved some more of my assets. Otherwise, she would be entitled to half of everything I had. You may not have realized it,” he said with a self-important smirk, “but I’m a pretty wealthy man. I wanted to start a new relationship with you, and I wanted to shower you with all the things my money could buy. I had to do it the right way, though. I wasn’t about to give that bitch half of everything I had worked so hard for.”

  She slowly opened her eyes. “That’s it? That’s the best you can come up with?”

  His mouth dropped open. “What do you mean? It worked. My divorce will be final in two weeks, and then I can give you a life of ease and comfort. You’ll never have to work in some construction office again.”

  She gripped the arm rest tightly to keep from screaming at him. She loathed him in a way that made her tremble with disgust, but she kept her voice under control. “You manhandled me, Todd. When I wouldn’t melt at the sight of you and pledge my complete forgiveness, you tried to physically force me to listen. And that struggle aroused you. You made sure I felt that.” She leaned back in her chair and looked at him. “Tell me, how far would you have gone to make sure I listened to you if my phone had not rung?”

  He shook his head. A look of regret crossed his face. His voice was quiet. “I am ashamed of my behavior that day. I just couldn’t believe you wouldn’t want to hear my explanation. But I did come to realize it was too soon, you were still too hurt, and you didn’t understand. I knew I had to give you some time.”

  He honestly believes that. He was so shallow, so self-absorbed, that he thought given time, she would get over his actions. “How did you find out so much about my life here?”

  His eyes quickly lit up. “Partly due to luck, and partly due to cleverness. I couldn’t come see you myself—I was still going through my divorce. I was rather pleased you had chosen Texas, though, since I had been thinking about relocating here anyway. The taxes are much lower, and it would do me good to get away from friends and business associates who knew my ex-wife,” he said conspiratorially as if she approved of his reasoning.

  “Anyway, my cousin showed up one day at my office. He had just lost his job and was looking for another one. Wanted to know if I could give him a reference, but I had a much better idea. I did a property search and found out there were a couple of houses for rent on this street. Voila! I contacted the owner of one of them and moved my cousin down here. His ‘job’ was to keep tabs on you and report back to me. He even followed you a couple of times when you weren’t aware of it.”

  Her eyes widened, and she leaned forward in her chair. “Rick Thornton? His job was to keep tabs on me?”

  “Just to make sure you were safe,” he assured her quickly. “And only until I could settle some things and get down here myself. My plan was to take you house hunting eventually. We certainly wouldn’t live in this neighborhood, and I’m sure you won’t want to live in this house.” He shuddered as he looked over the exterior of her home.

  She could only imagine his reaction if he had seen it before she started making the repairs.

  “I wanted to be here a couple of weeks ago, but I was tied up with business. I felt so sorry for you. You thought I had deserted you. Rick told me it looked like you had started dating a construction worker. That’s why I sent you the roses. Well, to be perfectly honest, I had them delivered to Rick’s house. I needed him to remove any identifying features because I wasn’t ready to divulge my intentions yet. He brought them over here.

  “I hoped you’d realize they were from me and that you would gain some comfort knowing I was thinking about you. And then I got here as fast as I could, I promise you. You shouldn’t just settle. Not for a house, and not for a guy.”

  She swallowed. She was so angry she was almost in tears. Suddenly, Jack sat up, and his tail started thumping against the porch. She followed his gaze.

  Her construction worker had just pulled into the driveway.

  Todd’s head jerked up. “What’s he doing here?”

  She ignored him. The last person she expected to see right now was Greg, but his presence alone calmed her frazzled nerves, preventing her from committing a homicide and reminding her that Todd Greene was so unimportant.

  She and Greg would not have a future together, but because of him, she would never again make the mistake of falling for a man like Todd.

  “I saw this same truck leave your house early this morning. This must be the guy you’re dating.” His contempt for Greg was obvious in his sneer. That precious ego of his likely couldn’t accept that she would choose a lowly construction worker over a successful attorney.

  “So you were in my neighborhood this morning. What did you do? Follow me to work?”

  He kept his gaze on the truck. “I knew where you worked before today. Rick told me. I hadn’t planned on surprising you at your office, though, but since Rick told me he couldn’t convince you to come to dinner, I didn’t have a choice. I would have much preferred to discuss everything with you privately over dinner.”

  “It
’s a good thing I listened to my instincts.”

  “What?”

  She ignored him. The door to Greg’s truck swung open, and she released her hold on Jack’s leash. The dog took one more look at Todd and then scrambled to jump off the porch and race to meet his friend. The tension of the last few hours started to melt away as she watched the two most important guys in her life bonding.

  Greg looked up, his expression guarded as he walked toward her with Jack at his heels. Smiling, Ginger rose from her seat and met him at the bottom of the steps. She stood on tiptoe and placed a quick kiss on his mouth. “I’m so glad you came over early, sweetheart. I’m starving.”

  His eyebrows rose as he looked down into her eyes. Then his mouth swooped down on hers again, his kiss lasting a little longer than the one she had given him. “You’re always starving,” he said suggestively and loud enough to be overheard.

  Todd rose from his chair. Ginger had to bite her lip to keep from laughing out loud. Giving Greg a wink, she reached for his hand as she turned back toward the porch. “Greg, I’d like to introduce you to Todd Greene. I don’t recall if I ever told you about the guy from California. We had a short fling before I decided to move to Texas.” There, let’s see what Todd makes of that!

  An awkward moment passed when Todd tried to figure out whether to offer his hand to Greg or not, but since one of Greg’s hands was holding the pizza boxes and the other was trapped in both of hers, Todd ended up just nodding at Greg. He was sizing up Greg, probably thinking she was dating Greg on the rebound. His arrogance wouldn’t let him believe she would choose Greg over him.

  Greg was good, honest, and compassionate, the exact opposite of Todd. Greg had become her friend with no ulterior motive in getting to know her, and his many acts of kindness had chipped away at her reservations before she was even aware it was happening.

  Greg’s hand had tightened painfully at the mention of Todd’s name, but she tried to reassure him she was fine by squeezing back lightly. She was not only fine; she was actually starting to enjoy this. Todd had harassed her on the phone, invaded her privacy by having his cousin spy on her, and now he had the nerve to show up and think she would gratefully accept him back into her life. He most certainly had a screw loose, but thankfully, he wasn’t her problem.

  “I thought I was losing my mind,” she said, speaking to Greg as though they were discussing the weather. “You met my neighbor up the street, right? Well, it turns out he lied. He isn’t house-sitting for his ailing aunt. He’s actually Todd’s cousin, and he’s been spying on me for Todd. Todd rented the house Rick is living in. Imagine that. He was keeping tabs on me until Todd could get here.”

  It all made sense now. The footprints under her window, the strange noise at the fence when she and Greg had camped out in her backyard, and the roses—all of it just to keep track of her activities.

  Greg turned his head slowly to look at Todd, his eyes narrowing. But she wasn’t finished. She wanted Todd to realize how outrageous his plan was when he heard it systematically laid out. She wished Greg would loosen his grip on her hand, though.

  Todd planted his hands on his hips, a defensive gesture that belied the embarrassed flush creeping up his face. “Ginger, I hardly think our conversation needs to be aired out in public. This is a private matter.”

  She shook her head and gave him a patient look. “I don’t have any secrets from Greg. Our relationship is built on honesty and trust.”

  Greg looked at her with an unreadable expression on his face. He’d better not ask what she was talking about, or she was going to kick him in the shin.

  “Whether I tell Greg now or later that you came to Texas to marry me is irrelevant, because I will tell him. You see,” she said, turning to Greg, “Todd never told me he was married. I had to find that out by myself. But he has just informed me it was all part of a grand scheme to bide his time and hide most of his assets from his wife. Now that their divorce is almost final, he wants to save me from myself, to take me away from the mediocre life I’ve had to settle for while he’s been making these elaborate preparations in order to offer me a fresh start with him. Of course, I’m supposed to ignore that this fresh start is based on lies and deceit. And I’m also supposed to ignore he made all these plans without even once asking me if I would be willing to settle for him.”

  The complete silence that followed her remarks was rewarding. Todd had raised his head slightly, and more than once he had shifted nervously from one foot to the other. Greg stood as still as stone, his eyes focused on the man in front of him.

  Damn, I feel good! It was time to make her dramatic exit. “So, Todd, the answer to the question you never bothered to ask is, no. I do not want to marry you. I don’t even want to see you again. I am completely happy here in this neighborhood, and I am deeply in love with my construction worker. Now, if you’ll excuse us, our dinner is getting cold.” She turned toward the door, but Greg held her hand fast.

  “Honey, take these pizzas in the house, and I’ll be right there. I forgot the beer in the truck.”

  She couldn’t remember if Todd had ever popped the top of a beer or not. “Certainly.” She reached for the pizza boxes. “Come on, Jack. There’s a biscuit with your name on it.” Then she looked Todd right in the eye. “Goodbye, Todd. I don’t expect to see you—or your cousin—on my property ever again.”

  Jack emphasized her parting remark with a slight curl of his lip before he followed her into the house.

  The minute Ginger closed the door, she did a couple of quick dance turns with Jack jumping along beside her, whether to try and grab one of the boxes or just to share in her joy, she didn’t know.

  “You are an excellent judge of character, mister,” she said to Jack.

  She had always imagined if she ever saw Todd Greene again, the pain would rip her heart out, and she’d become some blubbering idiot demanding to know why he had betrayed her. Instead, she had remained calm and poised. “Poised,” she reiterated to Jack with her nose stuck in the air. She wasn’t hurt and she wasn’t in pain. She just…felt good.

  She opened one of the boxes and placed a couple of slices of pizza on two paper plates. Her stomach growled just looking at the overloaded toppings. She waited another minute, but when Greg still didn’t come inside, she walked into the living room and peeked out a corner of the window. Hmm…strange. Nobody was on the porch. She turned her head. Greg was standing out on the sidewalk. His feet were planted slightly apart, his arms were crossed over his chest, and he was looking down the street toward Rick’s…or Todd’s house.

  The late afternoon was coming to an end, the sky turning from the bright blue color of summer to the silvery-blue shade of a calm clear evening. The breeze barely ruffled the leaves on the trees as Greg stood tall and strong against the backdrop of the close of another day. Funny, she’d started this day with Greg beside her, and it now appeared she would be ending it the same way. A sudden pain in her chest had her blinking back tears. She wouldn’t be sharing any more sunrises with him.

  What would it have been like, though? To begin and end every day with him, knowing there was someone she could talk to who would listen without judging, comfort her when she was down, and share life’s ups and downs with support and love.

  He’d opened up her eyes. She’d been unfortunate in her choice of partners, but it wasn’t her fault the men she thought she’d been in love with were full of serious flaws. And he’d made her see that she was strong enough to leave the losers when their less-than-desirable traits surfaced.

  Greg’s chest rose as he took a deep breath. For the first time she wished she could paint a portrait instead of a house. His profile was so perfect she didn’t think she’d ever tire of looking at him. Standing there now, he resembled a powerful sentinel, protecting her from whatever danger might be near. He had no way of knowing, though, that the greatest danger she faced was making the mistake of letting him know how she felt.

  He finally turned to come inside, an
d she walked back into the kitchen. It was time to celebrate, not get all sentimental and melancholy. She’d just accomplished one of her major goals—telling Todd Greene, a.k.a. Mr. Scumbag, exactly what she thought of him.

  Tomorrow she would deal with the challenge of accepting she and Greg would move forward in different directions.

  She was carrying the plates and pizza boxes to the table when he walked into the kitchen. He scratched Jack behind the ears and then went to the sink to wash his hands. She raised her eyebrows. “Did you forget something?”

  He cocked his head. “What?” Then he grinned. “Oh, the beer. I didn’t bring any. I just used that as an excuse to make sure Todd left.”

  “Hmm, good excuse. You’re lucky I have a couple of cans in the refrigerator.”

  He caught her arm as she started to pass him. “Ginger, are you okay?”

  She looked up at him in surprise. “Of course, I’m okay. Why would you ask?”

  He raised both hands to her shoulders and looked at her. “Facing Todd couldn’t have been easy. I wish I had known he was here. I wouldn’t have let you handle that by yourself.”

  A lump formed in her throat as she gazed up into his eyes. He was looking at her as if she were someone he cherished, as if the thought of her being hurt was more than he could bear.

  She swallowed and cleared her throat. “I’m fine,” she assured him. “I’m better than fine, actually. This is something I had to handle on my own. Let’s sit down and eat, and I’ll tell you how Todd came to be sitting on my front porch.”

  He looked at her for several seconds before lightly squeezing her shoulders and giving her a smile. She turned to the refrigerator when he walked to the table and sat down. Blinking quickly several times, she grabbed the beers.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “How did Todd find out where you live?” Greg asked, taking a bite of his pizza.

  Ginger sat down and handed him his beer. She was still on a high from the confrontation with Todd. She couldn’t wait to tell Greg about the insane idea her ex had come up with. “You’re not going to believe the convoluted plan he concocted.” They devoured one of the pizzas while she filled him in on what Todd had been up to, including the scheme to defraud his wife from the majority of his assets.