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“Oh, come on. I’m at least sixty percent as cute as I think I am.”
“I’ll be downstairs. Waiting.”
Fighting a smile of her own, she flounced away, hips swinging nicely, and he shamelessly watched her go. Next ti
me, he might break a few of his own rules about how fast he got intimate with a woman and haul her inside to let her examine his war wounds a little more closely. Hands-on. But for now he’d honor her request to keep things casual until it suited him to change her mind.
The car ride to La Grange might have been considered torture in some places. But Caleb kept his cool and pretended an unhealthy fascination with the landscape, which wasn’t any different than the scenery between Austin and Superstition Springs.
Scott answered the door of his hotel room completely dressed in a suit and tie, not that Caleb expected anything less. The man had probably been born in a suit.
“Damian, thanks for seeing us on short notice,” Havana interjected smoothly, apparently picking up a thread from the text message she’d sent him earlier from the Yukon. “We have a proposition for you.”
As he ushered them inside, Scott’s gaze cut to Caleb and back to Havana, clearly trying to figure out the vibe that he surely sensed. That made two of them.
“Don’t mind me, I’ll just stand over here,” Caleb suggested in an attempt to assure the other man he wasn’t a threat and leaned up against the wall unobtrusively as Scott showed Havana to the scarred table near the window.
The Best Western was probably a far cry from the luxury Damian Scott was used to, but he didn’t seem to mind, taking the seat farthest away from the door and angling his chair toward both Havana and Caleb. He gave them both his full attention, no cell phone in sight.
Classy. Now that he knew Scott and Havana weren’t really an item, some of their awkwardness around each other made sense. And Caleb had to give the man all kinds of props for doing the fake engagement thing without taking extra liberties with the woman in question.
Havana jumped right to the point. “Let’s find a different place for the shopping center. Caleb wants to give his town-refurbishment idea a shot, and I’d like to help him.”
To his credit, Scott didn’t register an iota of surprise, which was more than Caleb could say about his own shock level. When Havana committed to something, the woman went ballistic. The little nugget of heat that had pretty much lived in his gut since the Dorito aisle crash grew into something a great deal bigger.
“Tell me more,” Scott said sincerely and steepled his hands. “The text message you sent me didn’t have enough details. I have to take it to the group, and I’ll need solid numbers.”
Figured Havana would have gotten in front of the deal early, which was where her skills really shone. She didn’t leave things to chance.
“Sure,” she returned agreeably. “Caleb knows your investors aren’t thrilled about an old falling-down mining town marring up the landscape. But his vision for changing that is pretty inspired. You heard most of it the other day at the diner. All we’re asking for is a chance to show your investors what a complement a historic town with an artisan soul can be to the resort. I can get you similar projections as what I did for the shopping center by, let’s say next Thursday?”
Well, he didn’t know about Damian Scott, but Caleb was sure sold. More on the woman than the town though. She was something else, her blue eyes flashing with passion and her red hair nearly bristling. He might be a little more in over his head with her than he’d been pretending.
His heart hurt when he looked at her, and he didn’t seem to be able to do anything to stop it. What was he supposed to do with that? Nothing—she’d laid down the law about what she was and wasn’t looking for from a man. Odds were good that a sudden declaration of deeper feelings wouldn’t go over well.
Scott just nodded as if he had these kinds of conversations twice a day. “If the projections line up, I’d be willing to give you six months to get the plans in order and prove the execution. Otherwise, I think you owe it to me to bow out.”
Uh… so that was it? Havana had gotten what she’d come for in under five minutes? Was this the same woman who claimed she didn’t have the ability to influence people?
Havana offered her hand for a perfunctory shake, all smiles. “That’s more than fair. You’re good people, Damian.”
He returned her smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Not good enough. I did honestly expect that thing we talked about to take a couple of weeks though. Guess I was more right than I thought.”
A fascinating blush stained Havana’s cheeks that only heightened her outrageous beauty as she studiously avoided Damian’s gaze. “Don’t be silly. You’re every bit good enough, and that’s way more than needs to be said in present company.”
Wait, what present company? Did she mean him? “What am I missing?”
“Nothing.” Refusing to look at Caleb too, Havana shot to her feet, nearly toppling her chair backward. “Thanks, Damian, for being a good sport about the shopping center.”
“I’m still going to build it,” he said, his voice even. “You just won’t be on the project. You have six months to convince me I should find a new place to break ground on it. Otherwise, I’ll start the hard sell on the residents. Piles of cash turn almost all noes to yeses.”
Havana nodded and tried to hustle Caleb out of the hotel room. But he stopped to shake Scott’s hand because after all, the man was giving them a chance, no questions asked. The flash of red hair in his peripheral vision vanished before Caleb had cleared the door.
“What was that all about?” he called after her as she strode four lengths ahead of him toward the Yukon. He easily caught up, holding the key fob out of her reach as she tried to fight him for it, presumably so she could unlock the door to escape. She fumed about it for exactly two seconds, then switched gears ultrafast.
“It was about Damian agreeing to give us six months,” she said brightly like she thought she was fooling him. “Weren’t you paying attention? That’s the best news ever.”
Oh, he’d been paying attention all right, and the undercurrents had been fierce. Because Scott had been referencing how they’d talked about Caleb’s lack of ability to take on a mission of this magnitude? He was missing intel on this, and that wasn’t going to fly. “What thing was supposed to take a couple of weeks?”
