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“Cold and cut and dried?” she repeated. “Is that what you think? You don’t realize I’ve written six grants and gone through an extensive review process on each before I got this one, and there’s a time limit on our access to this money before it reverts to the foundation and gets awarded to someone else? We have a distinct, narrow window of time to utilize this funding and maximize that budget to get the most out of this project for the people in this town. This is a passion project for me, even if I wasn’t born here, which you seem to think is the only qualification that matters.”
“If you mention your master’s degree, I swear to God I’m gonna throw something,” I muttered.
“I wouldn’t mention it at all if you didn’t constantly treat me like I had no right to an opinion. At the county board meetings when you talk over me and whisper about my charts and slides, at the chamber of commerce dinner when you asked me if I could find my way around town yet when I’d lived here two and a half years plus you introduced me to your girlfriend as ‘that new girl I told you about from Atlanta.” Not the city planner, not a civic employee, a new girl,” she said, cheeks blazing. She looked pissed off and pretty at the same time and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel like rising to that occasion.
“Listen, sweetheart, she wasn’t my girlfriend. That was my cousin Lucy, in town for my uncle’s funeral, and she flunked out of cosmetology school cause she couldn’t remember which glue to use with the acrylic nails, so I guarantee you she doesn’t know what a city planner does. And for somebody that doesn’t like me you sure remember everything I say to you,” I said. “Nobody’s asking for your resume, just maybe for you to quit acting so high and mighty.”
“Excuse me? Because I wear nice shoes and know how to conjugate a verb, I’m high and mighty? That’s insulting and inaccurate at the same time. If we’re talking about attitudes, I could do without the honey and the sweetheart and the good old boy joking around and the hillbilly bullshit. I mean, if you don’t want outsiders to think you’re all a bunch of illiterate intermarried cousins, maybe don’t act like you are!”
“We are not illiterate, and we don’t marry our relatives. What the hell kind of stereotype is that? Don’t move out here if you think it’s the movie set from Deliverance, sweetheart,” I said, chuckling at her visible irritation.
“Stop. Calling. Me. That. And tell me briefly and on-topic, what the cost adjustment will be on the bid when you account for the necessary changes I’ve made.”
“There were no changes needed. That studio for yoga and self-defense classes and flexibility for the old folks—they’ve gotta be able to fit wheelchairs in there. Taking three feet off the end is going to crowd them and limit your capacity.”
“The fire department already looked it over and said the safety capacity would be the same.”
“I’m not talking about evacuation. I’m talking about fitting old people in there with walkers and crap.”
“If they need additional space, they can use the event room.”
“There’s no wall mirror in the event room to see their exercises in.”
“So we hang a mirror if they need one. The farmer’s market will use this space forty-five weeks a year. It helps out the clubs and organizations with a space for outdoor fundraisers, too. It’s where I’m going to hold the grand opening picnic. We’re keeping the changes,” she said.
Nicole tossed her hair back because she was so worked up that it had fallen across her face. Her cheeks were flushed and her honey eyes bright. I never wanted to kiss someone so bad in all my life. I cleared my throat.
“I guess you got an answer for everything then, boss,” I said. “I’ll take these with me and figure the changes. But I don’t have time to keep switching stuff and refiguring if we’re on a timeline here. So make up your mind and stick with it.”
“That won’t be a problem. I know what I want,” she snapped.
I didn’t acknowledge the double meaning there. The fact that the chemistry was thick between us, and every argument, every word practically, seemed to fuel the attraction that we both tried to ignore. It didn’t matter that adrenaline was coursing through my body, that my hands clenched into fists to keep from reaching for her in an intoxicating mix of frustration and lust. She had that mouth, always with an answer, always ratcheting up the stakes. She was magnificent, even when she opposed me. So clever, so confident. I felt half-drunk on her, on keeping up with her and holding my own. I liked matching wits with her. It would be so easy to get hooked on that high, the rush of going head-to-head with Nicole, never knowing who’d come out on top.
