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“You know kids. They like to snoop around just to think they’re tough. I did all kinds of pointless shit and so did you,” he said with a chuckle.
“That I did,” I admitted. “Thanks again for coming out here. I owe you a beer.”
“I’d rather have a babysitter,” he grunted.
“Dad burnout?” I joked.
“Never. I love my family. I never thought after losing Missy that I’d have another chance, much less with a woman like my wife. I’d just like some alone time with her.”
“You want to get with her bad enough to leave your kids with me? I’m a builder. I boss around construction workers. Do you think I’m qualified to watch children?” I asked.
“I dunno,” he shrugged good-naturedly. “I got one that could out-stubborn you. I don’t care how many work crews you’ve been in charge of. Nobody’s more hard-headed than a toddler.”
“Do you think maybe he got it from his parents?” I suggested.
“That could be,” he laughed. “I’m a lucky bastard, I can tell you that much.”
I clapped him on the back, “Go back to bed, bro. I owe you one.”
“Night, Noah.”
Brody’s headlights cut across the lot, their yellow glow slicing through the skeleton of the community center I was building. I got my travel mug out of the cab of my truck and took a sip. It was warm and strong, the way I liked it. I leaned against the bumper of my truck and stared at the job site. Everything we had to do tomorrow, next week, the week after, ran through my head like a ticker on a screen. Everything was going great. It would all go to plan.
I’d be finished in time for the opening she had planned. She. Her. Somehow, in all this, Nicole had become her, the first woman I thought of, the one I didn’t even have to call by name in my mind. Because of course I was thinking about her, talking about her. Planning to surprise her by finishing up ahead of schedule and pitching in with my crew to get the landscaping in place. I knew how tense she’d been this whole time about coming in on budget and on time. I wanted to take some of that responsibility on myself, relieve her of that burden and give her the gift of extra time to get everything in place for the grand opening. She was planning some big hoopla, attract everybody from Rockford Falls and the surrounding area, get the local media in on it for publicity. She was going to make this community center and this town look good and attract visitors to the farmer’s market and get volunteers to do tutoring programs and give music classes and yoga classes and everything. I knew she could bring in the crowds, charm them into offering donations and their time to make this project a big success.
It was going to be the haven I’d wanted as a kid, and I got to be a part of it. I was so damn proud of what we were doing, what we were capable of accomplishing together. With a shared vision, with her charm and know-how, and my building expertise, we could do anything. If only we weren’t at each other’s throats all the time. Or trying to get in each other’s pants. There didn’t seem to be a middle ground with us. Every second with Nicole was volcanic.
I remembered watching those movies my mom loved, the stupid romantic comedy ones where the leads got on each other’s nerves and then ended up kissing in the heat of the moment. Enemies to lovers, she called it. Her favorite kind of story, where the chemistry between the couple was enough to overcome their opposites-attract personalities. I thought it was a bunch of crap, but I tried to be nice to my mom, watch stuff she liked because my dad was such a jerk to her. So that meant I’d sat through some of them multiple times. She liked all those old movies where they bickered and then kissed. Maybe that was why I’d been attracted to Nicole—I grew up watching irritation turn to attraction on my TV.
Except it had always been a kiss, some embarrassment and then a declaration of love. It had never been screaming matches and then dirty fucking in someone’s office. Not that I was complaining, but it wasn’t exactly a Hollywood happily ever after that we were headed for. We were headed for exactly nowhere.
When Nicole got back from the conference, I wondered if she was still going to dodge me. She probably would. I knew it had to have bothered her a lot when she realized what we’d done in her office, with all of city hall just one locked door away. Her professionalism and her ethics and everything else would have made her feel so ashamed and embarrassed. I gave myself credit for understanding her well enough at this point to imagine how she’d felt. That she gave in to lust and could’ve ruined her career and this community center project might have been destroyed right along with it. She was responsible, proper—I used to think she was so stuck up and icy. She wasn’t icy. Nicole was pure, white-hot flame in my hands. Not that I’d ever get my hands on her again. She was probably relieved to be out of town, not trying to work at the scene of the crime as it were. Just thinking of her sitting in that chair where I’d gripped her hips and ground against her until she orgasmed—that image was enough to make me hard and grouchy as hell. I swallowed the last of my coffee and drove home.
