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“What’s this?” Wes asked, coming up behind her. He wiped his dirty hands on his jeans, and his bare chest glistened with sweat. As usual, his half-dressed state had Sarah’s heart pounding. How was she supposed to have a conversation with him when she was continually distracted by the toned, sculpted, tanned muscles?
Could she make it mandatory for her hired workers to wear shirts? Then again, she’d really only be hurting herself. This daily viewing of Wes’s hot body was the only “action” she was getting or had gotten in a long time.
“Just some stuff I ordered,” she said casually. She suspected he’d be annoyed by her plan, and she’d already decided to take care of most of the work involved with the upgrades herself—like installing the TVs in the bedrooms and internet modems, projectors and screens in the large meeting rooms, and the like. She would only need Wes and his crew for the big stuff…
He squinted to read the boxes the delivery men unloaded from the back of the truck. “Flatscreen televisions?”
“I decided the B&B could use some upgrades.”
His hands on his hips only drew her attention to the oblique muscles disappearing beneath the low-hanging denim, weighed down even farther by his heavy tool belt.
How did one even get stomach muscles like that?
“Dove never wanted televisions in the guest rooms.”
Sarah sighed. Her grandmother hadn’t watched television a day in her life. She never owned one herself and insisted that guests on vacation didn’t need one, either. No one ever complained, but that was before Yelp reviews gave everyone a public voice to share their opinion.
“All rental properties have televisions,” she said. It was a basic expectancy.
“The inn was great the way it was,” Wes said tightly. His jaw was tight, as though he were clenching his teeth. But this wasn’t his decision to make.
“In your opinion,” she said, waving to the delivery truck driver. “The front door’s open. Just bring them inside.”
“I thought you were trying to keep the reno costs low?”
Sarah averted her eyes and shrugged. She had dipped further into her savings than she’d planned, but with a quick sell, she’d recoup the extra expenses. “Let me worry about that,” she said, taking a list out of her pocket. “And you can worry about these.” She handed him her new list of construction improvements, and he lifted his sunglasses over his dark hair to read.
Sarah stared at the soft-looking, messy locks. What would it feel like to run her hands through his hair? She’d always been tempted to. He’d always had great hair. He hadn’t buzz cut it like most of the other athletes in high school and he hadn’t let it grow long like the stoner, surfer kids. It was always clean-cut but just long enough to fantasize about.
Fantasies that had just left her heartbroken. Time and distance hadn’t changed the fact that Wes had only ever seen her as his tutor. After that night in the water, they’d barely spoken, and once school had ended and she’d moved away for college that September, they hadn’t kept in touch. She may be stuck there longer than she planned, but that didn’t mean she had to get sucked right back into old habits and unrealistic hopes and dreams.
“Solar panels…” he was saying, as though she were asking for spaceships to be installed on the roof.
She waited. He was going to love the next one.
“You want to put balconies off the rooms?” His eyebrow rose as he glanced up at her. “All of them?”
She’d considered only adding them to a few of the bigger rooms but then decided to go all in. Even if she wasn’t going to be running the inn herself, she wanted Dove’s Nest to be special for everyone who stayed there, not just the guests who booked premium rooms. She knew her grandmother would approve of that choice as well. “Yes. The rooms have an amazing view of the ocean. Both sides. It’s a shame that there isn’t a place where guests can sit and enjoy the view with their morning coffee or evening glass of wine.” The reviews online had been significantly higher for resorts and hotels that provided that extra outside comfort.
“That’s why they leave their room and go to the beach or sit out on the existing deck,” Wes said, folding the list and handing it back to her as though her requests were never going to happen.
Which just fueled her fire even more. Sarah took a deep breath. “And I’m sure most guests still will, but I’d like to give them an option. It’s their vacation. They can choose if they want to go outside or watch Netflix all day.”
Wes winced, as though that sounded like a horrible vacation to him. Well, not everyone was into surfing and swimming and beach volleyball. Some people went on vacation to relax or get away or be alone. To catch up on binge-watching shows their demanding, fourteen-hour-a-day jobs didn’t give them the opportunity to enjoy. She didn’t expect an extrovert like Wes, who had the freedom to make his own work hours, to understand.
“These decks are a lot of work,” he said, obviously attempting to sway her with a more logical approach. “We’ll need extra support beams, and depending on the dimensions, you may need to get a building permit.”
She shook her head. “I’ve already checked into that with the mayor’s office.” Thanks to Whitney. “As long as the decks don’t extend farther than the existing wraparound deck on the lower level of the house, no extra permits are needed.”
“Wow, you did your homework,” Wes mumbled. “But, Sarah, I don’t think you understand how much extra work is going to have to be done in a short period of time. My quote was for the work I’d discussed with Dove.”
She refused to let him discourage her. She’d watched episodes ofFlip This HouseandLove It or List It. Under pressure, things could get done fast. “Can you do it?”
“I can, yes,” he said through gritted teeth, “but I don’t want to.”
Damn, he was hot when he was annoyed. The stern expression with the tight jaw combined with the slightly reluctant look that said he knew he wasn’t going to win this battle only made him that much more attractive.
Not attractive enough for her to back down. “Okay.” She shrugged. “I’ll hire someone else,” she said, turning to head inside.One, two, three…
