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It didn’t hurt to fix the house, anyway.
She just squinted at the plans and kept rolling the glass. “Good idea for resale in this market.”
“I don’t have plans to sell any time soon, but I’d still like to upgrade. How would you fix it to accommodate for a couple of kids?”
“Kids of what age?”
“Little kids.”
“Shit, you only have one full bathroom.”
“Yep.”
“I…” She looked up, shaking her head. “Tim, there’s no easy way to fix this. You could add a second story, and I don’t readily recommend that without surveying the ground beneath it. Your foundation is probably pretty new, but the earth beneath it is going to sink a lot with that much added weight. I think what I’d do is reconfigure what there and add a wing in this part, heading toward the water. I dunno.” She cringed and sucked some air through her teeth. “I’d need to sit down and plot something out based on where the support walls are. You’ll probably have to rerun all the wiring and central air ducts.”
“I can afford it.”
“I bet you can, Richie Rich.”
“I work hard for my money. And besides, I don’t even have central air yet.”
She drummed her fingers on the table and stared at him.
“What?”
“You sure you don’t just want to put a new house there?”
“Shit, now you sound like the folks at Clay’s. I like my house, for the most part. I think if you stepped inside it, you’d understand why. You shouldn’t be so quick to throw things away just because they’re not new or because they need some work.”
He didn’t mean to sound so fucking defensive—and he must have, judging by how she flinched—but he was sick of dealing with people he didn’t want to try to get close to things—and people—that were a little messy. Folks rarely learned anything when they looked for the easiest tasks and the easiest people to be around.
“I don’t have a problem with repurposing things,” she said in a professional, placating tone. “I’m simply wondering if you’re martyring yourself in yet another way. We’re talking about alotof work. You wouldn’t be able to live there while it was happening. You’d having missing exterior walls and parts of the roof gone.”
“I’ll deal with it, even if I have to live with Clay, which is undesirable for a lot of reasons.”
For a few long moments, she just stared. He was getting used to that from her, though. She was sorting him out. Trying to make sense of what he said. He didn’t want her to have any doubts, so he waited. He was good at waiting when he wanted to be, and he wanted her to be clear about how he operated.
He didn’t play games, and he didn’t want her to, either.
And then, all at once, some of the tension between the two of them dissipated. She made a playful clucking sound with her tongue and shook her head at the architectural plans. “Duly noted.”
“So, you’ll come take a look at it and let me know what you think?” He picked up a bit of cheese and popped it into his mouth. “I’d like to get work underway sooner than later. I’ll make it worth your while.”
Her lips quirked up at one corner as she dragged her index finger around the rim of her glass. “Unlimited carnal favors paid under the table, you mean.”
“Under, over. Wherever you want ’em. You’d have to tell Uncle Sam if I paid you in cash, but fucks are tax-free.”
“You’re a mess. You know that?”
“Mm-hmm.Somessy.”
Do you care?
“Do you come on this strong with every woman you meet at your brother’s place, or am I special case because I possess a certain professional profile?”
“You’re definitely a special case.”
Professional accomplishments aside, she definitely fit a particular profile he liked—the type of woman who’d very sweetly take to her knees for him should he ask a certain way. He was tempted to ask, just to see what would happen, but he resisted. If he got her there, he might want to put her through her paces, and he didn’t do that anymore.
