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“Maybe I’m just in a good mood.”
“No, you’re definitely making fun of me. What is it this time?” The way he stared at her made it clear he wasn’t going to let this go.
She sighed, though her smile remained. “You just said you have a normal roof.”
“Yeah, so? It’s a normal roof. It’s pointed and it’s got two sides. None of that curved nonsense.”
She stared at him and then laughed. “That’s an open gable roof. And no, it’s not any more normal than the gambrel roof or the gothic arch or the saltbox style.” Ella laughed again.
He peered at her, his eyes inquisitive. “You have a pretty laugh. Has anyone ever told you that?”
Ella sobered. His words more than threw her off guard. They made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside, reawakening the crush she’d tried to keep locked up all these years. She turned away, frustrated. If one compliment was all it took for her to forgive him, then what did that say about her?
Lucas heaved a sigh. “There it is again.”
She glanced at him sideways.
“You’re throwing up those walls.”
Ella would have argued with him, but they were beyond that. He wasn’t the same person he was in high school, though he was still the kind of guy she needed to stay far away from. She glanced down at her half-eaten sandwich. “This is really good,” she murmured. Anything to change the subject.
He eyed the sandwich and then continued to eat. Their conversation was over at that point. For a moment they’d almost had a normal conversation.
Just a moment.
Now they were back to being on opposite teams.
Well, she was on a different team. At this point she wasn’t sure if Lucas understood that. Ella forced herself to avoid looking directly at him. Not when he got to his feet and told her he was getting back to work, and not when he’d climbed the ladder to the roof. No more daydreaming. It didn’t matter if he liked her laugh or if he made excellent sandwiches; Lucas wasn’t the kind of guy for her.
When Lucas and the other men cleaned up to leave, her feelings on the matter were even more solidified. Lucas joked around with the other guys about their plans for the weekend. He was going to take a pretty girl on a date to the country club.
She pretended not to eavesdrop as she gathered up her blueprints and placed them in their tube, but then Lucas had to go and get under her skin again.
“… and if I’m lucky, I’m gonna get some action. But don’t worry, guys. I’ll definitely kiss and tell.”
Ella’s face burned hot, and she huffed while shoving her tubes into the satchel she threw over her shoulder. She glared at Lucas as she charged past him to her car. One day of being nice didn’t mean he had changed.
It was clearer, now more than ever, that Lucas would never change to be the kind of guy worth falling for.
9
Lucas
Lucas showed up bright and early Monday morning at the job site before anyone else arrived. He’d made it a sort of game to be there before Ella made her appearance. The first time had been an accident. After that, it was just hilarious to see her pull up and stare at the barn in disgust.
He figured if he couldn’t get on her good side, then he was going to toy with her. Things couldn’t be any worse than they already were. She was going to hate him no matter what. The only thing that bothered him now was that she wouldn’t tell him why.
So, he’d given up on that.
Last Friday, he’d thought he’d made a breakthrough with her. He’d never heard her laugh before. It had been a pleasant surprise and one that he’d wanted to duplicate, but he had no understanding of how to do that.
There was just something about her that he felt drawn to. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was, but Ella was unlike any other woman he’d met. Maybe it was the fact that she disliked him so thoroughly that made him want to spend more time with her. That probably said more about him than it did about her.
It shouldn’t matter why Ella wanted to stay away from him. She had every right to her opinion, and he should just accept it. Lucas glanced to his side at the two paper lunch bags he had sitting on the passenger seat of his truck.
Leaving her alone didn’t mean he wasn’t allowed to make her a sandwich every now and then.
From the outside perspective, people probably thought that he was just toying with her. No one in their right mind would try as hard as he was to get on her good side. Maybe they had a point.
