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After I was done at work, I’d call my friends for a post-mortem. If nothing else, it would be funny to reenact the smarmy dinner invite from Forrester. Michelle would crack up. She might snort her margarita laughing at my imitation of Noah’s death glare that he leveled at me. See, there was a bright side to everything.
7
Noah
I was used to clients checking up on my builds. And the groundbreaking was kind of a big deal for the town. The mayor came out and the local papers and stuff. A couple city council members were there, and Nicole. I realized that she was the person ultimately responsible for the success of the project. I could pretty much expect her to hover over my work every step of the way making unwanted suggestions like she’d ever built anything. She probably didn’t know what was going on and would rather bury her face in her phone, but she had to look like she was interested.
I was surprised she didn’t turn up in a skirt and stilettos like the city girl she was. Maybe her local friends gave her some tips on dressing for a build site, because she had on jeans and boots, a flannel in some blue plaid. I liked it—more than liked it, in fact. The shape of her, the curves of her body somehow more blatant to me in casual clothes than in her shapely skirts and blouses. My palms itched to skate up those hips, her waist, up and up. I gripped the handle of the shovel a little too hard. The whites of my knuckles showed. Easy, tiger, I told myself, you have a hole to dig for the cameras. Smile at Mayor Dipshit and make a few nice comments for the TV crew.
The whole thing took maybe thirty minutes, including shaking hands with a lot of people who showed up to say how excited they were that we were finally getting this project off the ground. Max had come to cheer me on, and he clapped me on the back afterward.
“Good work, bro. Just dial down the murder stare at Nicole. It’s kind of obvious. If you’re planning to have her killed, wait till after the build is done to hire the hit man. Keep your hands clean on this project,” he laughed.
“I’d never hire a hit man. If you want something done right, never outsource when it’s important,” I said sourly.
“Take a joke, dude,” he said. “I know you’re pissed off but let it go. You have the community center that you’ve wanted for as long as I’ve known you. Don’t let a personality conflict get you down.”
“I won’t. I want all these people to clear out so I can get on with the work that needs to be done.”
“You gonna shake your fist and tell them to get off your lawn, old man?”
“Maybe,” I said with a half-smile. “I just don’t like Forrester hanging around here.”
“Maybe he thought you’d drop the shovel on your foot and have to sit the bench the rest of the season. Let him swoop in and take over.”
“Fat chance,” I said. “I’d do this job in a full body cast before I’d let him near it.”
Or near Nicole, my traitorous brain muttered. I scowled.
“See, that’s the look. I’m no PR person but scowling at everyone on a big day like this is not a great plan.”
“I smiled for the cameras,” I said.
“I got some lumber samples in the truck when you have time,” he said. I nodded and walked off to talk to my foreman.
Truth was, I wasn’t pissed at Nicole. I didn’t like Ray Forrester crowding her, showing up at my groundbreaking and my build site. I had seen her, how she crossed her arms, tilted her body away from him. Her body language was clear. She was uncomfortable. I’d wanted to throw down the cheesy ceremonial shovel and stalk over there and slam him into a tree. Some primitive instinct was riding shotgun today, and I felt protective. It had taken a lot of will power for me to stand back and let her handle it. In a few minutes she had clearly put him in his place and stalked away.
It felt good to watch her deal with that loser, to know she had the confidence and brains to do it. I was proud in a way, though I didn’t really know why. It was handled, and without making a scene to distract from the community center project that we all wanted to look good in the media. No scandal, no slapping or him grabbing her ass or me beating his face in. The drama was kept under the radar as it should be, and we were safe to proceed with the construction of something important and positive for this town. I didn’t want it sullied with any talk of trouble behind the scenes and didn’t want any second-choice jerk showing up to bitch about my methods. If he showed up again to talk trash, I’d coolly remind him that he had other things to do, like go build a shoddy convenience store that wasn’t up to code or redo a falling down hunting cabin that would probably catch on fire next season. I smirked to myself.
