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CHAPTER SIX
At the sound of the doorbell, Tim hurried to the door, put his hand on the knob, and then paused when he noticed the coat of dust on the console table in front of him.
“Fuck.”
He’d left the windows open to ventilate the house the day before, and in that time, his furniture had apparently managed to gather an unwanted yellow sheen from pollen. “Maybe she won’t notice.” He wasn’t usually so sensitive about that sort of thing, but he cared what she thought.
Tim had given his cleaning lady the week off, so him not being home much in the past month was working in his favor. He’d been spending so much time at the factory trying to get productivity up to meet the summer boat delivery deadlines, and when he wasn’t there, he was on one of hisownboats. He’d developed a habit of sailing out into the Atlantic with no destination in mind and just floating. He’d sit on the deck and ponder his lot in life as he watched the waves crash or do some fishing.
He had a freezer full of fish already, and he also had a pretty good idea of what his lot in life was. Single, when he didn’t necessarily want to be. Empty nest, except for the one kid who seemed to get a perverse sort of pleasure out of mortifying his parents at every possible turn.
He opened the door right as Valerie put up a fist to knock.
She dropped her hand and grinned at him. “Tim, you’re gonna have to back my SUV out for me. Your driveway is steep, and I suck at reversing. You should have told me you lived on the side of a cliff. I might have said no thank you and spared myself the embarrassment.”
He chuckled at the “cliff” hyperbole, leaned out the door, and spotted her SUV parked nose-to-tail with his truck. “I’ll eventually get the driveway situation straightened out. I was going to reshape it into a U so no one has to turn around. I know the lack of visibility is an issue. My ex-wife had more than her fair share of near-collisions when backing out.”
“Are you sure that’s not the reason she divorced you?”
“Woman, that mouth of yours…”
She shrugged and kept on grinning. “Do something about it.”
“Keep pushing me, and I will. And regarding the driveway—one thing at a time.”
“Fix it when you fix the house, right? I’m sure there are…” Her gaze tracked up the side of the doorframe and her brow furrowed. She put a hand against the weather-worn wood and paint flaked off. “…Um, a lot of things to fix.”
“Hey, I made no promises. All I said was that it’d be clear why I didn’t tear it down when you stepped inside. So, come on in.” He got out of her way and watched her walk past him, using the opportunity of her back being turned to him to admire her long, shapely legs in khaki shorts that did nothing to distract from the luscious ass he’d enjoyed kneading so much on his boat. He’d dreamed about laying her across his lap and teasing her naked ass relentlessly as she begged him todosomething.
He wanted to do something about that mouth of hers and make her beg. At the moment, though, it was him who felt like the one who needed to be begging. He wasn’t used to that.
She spun on the heels of her flip-flops and shifted her laptop bag to her other shoulder. “So, where should we start?”
“What’s the hurry?” He closed the door and locked it. He considered engaging the deadbolt just in case Kevin had a backup key Tim hadn’t thought to collect from him but didn’t want Valerie to feel like he was locking her in or that he was some kind of predator. “I told you I’d feed you. I even cooked.”
Evidently incredulous, she pushed up an eyebrow. “Really?”
He grimaced. “Well, Iheatedit, anyway. I’m competent when it comes to defrosting and warming. My housekeeper makes a mean veggie lasagna. All that’s left to do is pour the wine.”
“You really know how to tempt a girl.” She turned her wrist over and studied her watch. “You win this round. My stomach is bossier than my brain right now. That said, I do need to take some measurements outside before dark, so don’t try to distract me at the table.”
“You don’t trust my architect’s measurements?”
She scoffed and took ground-eating strides toward the kitchen.
Of course she’d know where it was. He figured she could probably memorize a floor plan upside-down and backward.
“How’d you find the guy, anyway?” She paused in the kitchen doorway and he caught up with her in time to see the cringe.
“It’s notthatsmall,” he balked. “Compared to my boat galleys, anyway.”
“Tim…” she warned.
He didn’t want to argue. “Okay, maybe it is.”
“No, it’s not that. The measurements were way off. It’s smaller than indicated.”
“Oh, yeah?” Standing so close to her, with her smelling so good—like coconut and some other fruity essence he didn’t know the word for—he couldn’t resist touching her, so he did. Just a gentle skimming of his fingers down her graceful neck that ignited an immediate shudder.
