Flirting with Disaster (11 page)

Then he glanced up and caught Maggie staring in his direction. Judging from the glint in her eye, she was not happy about something. He sighed and the contentment died. He had no idea what might be bothering her today, but he didn't have a doubt in his mind that sooner or later he'd be hearing about it. In detail.

 

Well, that had been a touching little scene, Maggie thought with annoyance. Amanda's kid crawling all over Josh, then the lip lock and finally Amanda planting one last kiss on him right here in front of God and everyone. Maggie wasn't sure why it grated on her nerves so badly, but it did.

In fact, a lot of things grated on her nerves, including Josh's stubborn refusal to accept that he was mostly wasting her skills. When she spotted Cord arriving at the site at the end of the day, she headed straight in his direction, determined to deal with at least one of her major annoyances.

“Hey, handsome, what brings you by?” she inquired, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Don't let my wife see you flirting with me, Magnolia,” he taunted. “She's the jealous type.” He studied her. “So, what are you after?”

“What makes you think I'm after anything?” she asked testily. “Can't I just greet an old friend?”

Cord laughed. “You can, but when you go all Southern and syrupy on me, it's usually because you want something. You and Dinah learned that technique at your mothers' knees.”

“Does it work on you? Or have you gotten immune to it?” she asked, her curiosity piqued.

“It depends on how far she takes it,” he admitted with a grin. “I think it might be better if you take a more direct approach and just tell me what's on your mind.”

“I want to see the plans for the house,” she said at once.

“Then why are you talking to me instead of Josh?”

“Because he guards them as if they're some sort of huge secret or maybe more like the rest of us are too incompetent to understand them.”

“Have you actually asked him?”

“Of course I have,” she said, not even trying to hide her disgust. “He told me to stick with the assignments I was given. The man is on a serious ego trip. I have no idea why you put him in charge of a job that requires cooperation.”

“Maybe it's because he's the one on this site with actual construction experience,” Cord suggested. “And he's never had any problem getting people to do their jobs before. Maybe you're the one who's crossing the line.”

“I can read a damn blueprint,” Maggie said, chafing at the implied criticism.

“But why, precisely, would you want to?”

“Because something tells me this place fits some sort of cookie-cutter plan that's all wrong for Amanda and the kids,” she grumbled.

“It's what we can afford to build,” Cord corrected.

“That doesn't mean it can't be improved on,” Maggie argued.

“Then talk to Josh,” Cord repeated. “I'm staying out of it. I just came by to take a look around and make sure things are on schedule.”

“Okay, then. Why don't I give you the fifty-cent tour?” Maggie suggested, tucking her arm through his.

Cord regarded her with undisguised suspicion until he spotted Josh bending over the blueprints. “Oh, no, you don't, Magnolia!” he said, disentangling his arm from hers.

“What?” she asked innocently.

“You are not going to pit the two of us against each other by implying that I back your desire to see the plans. Work it out with Josh. He's a perfectly reasonable man.”

“Oh, for goodness' sakes, it's not like they're secret blueprints of the White House.”

Josh looked up, saw them and put down the plans. “What's going on, you two?”

“I'm just taking Cord on a tour, but he'd probably rather you took him around so you can discuss all the technical stuff,” Maggie said, devising a whole new approach, since the last one had failed abysmally.

Cord's gaze narrowed. “No, I'm perfectly happy to let you take me around.”

“Uh-uh, that's okay. You two go right ahead,” she encouraged. “I'll be leaving in a few minutes, anyway.” She gave Cord another peck on the cheek. “Tell your wife I said hey.”

“Will do,” he said, amusement lurking in his eyes when it finally dawned on him what she was up to. “Josh, shall we?”

Josh cast another suspicious look over his shoulder, but he walked away with Cord, leaving all those lovely blueprints behind.

Maggie spread them out and studied them. It was just as she'd feared. The house was going to be cut up into little boxes barely big enough to turn around in. She knew they couldn't change the overall size of the place, but surely there were ways to make it seem more spacious. She'd told Cord weeks ago that she was going to turn this house into a home, and she intended to do it. After that intimate little scene she'd witnessed between Josh and Amanda, it might turn out that she was doing it for the two of them. Well, so be it.

She pulled a pencil and pad from her pocket and began jotting down notes. First thing in the morning she and Mr. Control Freak were going to have a chat about this house.

 

Josh had never worked a job where so blasted many people had an opinion about what ought to be going on. Maggie was the worst of the lot, just as Cord and Caleb had predicted. She seemed to have some misguided notion that she knew as much about construction as he did. He'd done everything he could to keep the blueprints away from her to minimize her input.

Unfortunately he'd left them in plain sight yesterday when he'd gone off with Cord, and apparently she'd had herself a field day. He'd come by the site this morning to check on a couple of things, and Maggie had been right here waiting for him. He'd wasted an hour trying to explain why she couldn't have the wall between the living room and dining room taken out to “open things up,” as she put it.

She'd finally given up on that idea, but she'd remained undaunted, Right this second she was hovering over the plans yet again, a pencil tucked behind her ear and a list as long as his arm in her hand. He did not want to know what was on that list, but judging from the determined glint in her eye as she turned in his direction, he was going to find out. He swore this was the last time he was ever coming by the site by himself to check on anything less urgent than a reported flood.

He eyed the paper warily as she got closer to him. “What's that?”

“Just a few tiny little changes,” she said breezily. “They don't amount to much.”

“Then why bother with them?” he asked.

“Because they'll make the house much more inviting and comfortable.”

“Didn't we go down this road before?” he asked wearily. “I thought the purpose was to put a roof over their heads, not to build them Tara.”

She frowned at the comment. “I'm not trying to make the house luxurious. I'm trying to make it more livable. Surely you can understand the difference. Then, again, I'm familiar with that dump of a motel where you live, so perhaps you don't.”

Josh ignored the gibe about his living quarters. Better not to get drawn into that discussion. He had a hunch if he gave this woman any opening at all, she'd be all over his place like white on rice with her homey little touches. It was hard enough to keep Nadine from filling his room with her smelly candles.

“That last little change you came up with would have taken out a bearing wall,” he reminded Maggie.

She scowled at him. “Which you explained to me ad nauseam. I got it. I'm not recommending that you take out any walls.”

“Putting any in?” he asked suspiciously.

“Not exactly, just some more closet space. There's not enough built-in storage in the plans.”

“I don't think these folks have a lot of things to store,” Josh said reasonably.

“That doesn't mean we shouldn't plan ahead. The kids will get older. Amanda might marry again.”

She studied him intently as she said that, as if it should somehow matter to him what Amanda O'Leary did with her future. “What's your point?” he asked.

“That we shouldn't be shortsighted.”

Josh barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes. “Who designated you to be in charge of these details?”

She smiled sweetly. “No one. I volunteered. Aren't you lucky?”

“That's a matter of opinion,” he said. “You also volunteering to foot the bill for the extra materials?”

“If need be,” she said without hesitation. She whipped out another paper. “I have the cost projections right here. If there's not enough in the budget, let me know.”

Josh heaved a resigned sigh. “Okay, then, hand over today's list and I'll see what I can do.”

“Thank you.”

“I don't suppose you talked any of this over with Amanda?” he inquired.

She frowned just a little at the question. “No,” she said, then gave him a pointed look. “But I'm sure you'll be happy enough to do that. The two of you seem so cozy these days.”

She whirled around and left him staring after her, wondering what in the hell that last little dig had been about. The kiss, he realized with a sudden burst of insight. She had witnessed his experimental kiss and wasn't one bit happy about it. Well, now, wasn't that interesting?

“T
ell me again why you wanted to treat me to dinner,” Josh said. “Not that I'd ever turn down a chance for free steak and some decent wine, but you and I are not in the habit of socializing.”

“Since we're both so busy these days, I wanted to catch up with you on how the house for Amanda O'Leary is coming along,” Cord said, his expression neutral. “And I've been wanting to try this place. Dinah refuses to come to a steak house.”

“You toured the site less than twenty-four hours ago. Not much has changed,” Josh retorted, amused. “Maybe you should have spent a little more time thinking about your excuse to pump me for information about whatever it is you really want to know. That one's pretty transparent.”

Cord grimaced, then shrugged. “I told Dinah I was no good at this kind of thing.”

The remark caught Josh off guard. “Your wife is behind this dinner?”

Cord nodded.

Josh sighed heavily. “Then I'm guessing it's about Maggie.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because it's always been about Maggie with her. I am building this house because your wife wanted to set me up with Maggie. I didn't get that at first, but we both know it now. You've all but admitted it, so there's no point in pretending otherwise.”

“Maggie's pretty special. You could do worse,” Cord said.

“I can and have,” Josh conceded. “But nothing is happening between me and Maggie, aside from her determination to drive me nuts. She's in a frenzy over closet space at the moment.”

Cord chuckled. “I warned you about that.”

“You certainly did. If only I'd taken you more seriously, I never would have retracted my resignation or, at the least, I could have insisted on hazardous-duty pay. I may still ask for a big bonus.”

“Don't ask me. There's no room in the budget for bonuses.” Cord's gaze narrowed. “So, what do you think of Maggie?”

Josh didn't even hesitate. “She's intelligent, talented and annoying as hell.”

Amusement filled Cord's eyes. “Yep, that's our Maggie, all right. It can make her quite a challenge. You up for it?”

“Are you pushing me to ask her out?”

“Maybe,” Cord admitted. “She's Dinah's best friend. She wants to see Maggie settled.”

“Therefore it's in your best interests to help the process along,” Josh guessed.

“Something like that.”

“I've been finding my own dates for a long time,” Josh said, phrasing it as diplomatically as he could. “If I wanted to ask Maggie out, I would.”

“Then the thought hasn't even crossed your mind?”

“Sure. I'd have to be dead not to consider the possibility that she and I could stir up some real heat, but she's a handful. I don't think I want the aggravation. Then there's the definite disadvantage of knowing that you and Dinah would be poking your noses into our business every time we turned around. This dinner is proof enough of that.”

“The way I hear it, you've already seen Maggie a time or two away from the construction job,” Cord said, ignoring the complaint, or perhaps just adding to the proof of it. “What was that about?”

“Those weren't dates,” Josh replied. He frowned at his boss, hoping to forestall further questions. The whole discussion was getting damn uncomfortable. If his future with Beaufort Construction was tied somehow to his relationship with Maggie, it was going to make life awkward. He gave Cord a penetrating look. “Are we finished with this topic yet?”

“Not quite.” Cord leveled his gaze with Josh's. “Don't mess with her head, okay? She's been through a lot.”

Josh nodded, accepting that Cord was bound to have Maggie's best interests at heart, since the two of them went way back. “I know all about the Warren thing. I don't have a clue how they got together in the first place, but I do know his ending it took a toll on her. Since I don't do the whole engagement-commitment thing, it's never going to be an issue between us.”

“Which is precisely my point. If you're just playing games, don't even start with her,” Cord warned. “Maggie deserves happily-ever-after, not some summer fling because you've got the hots for her.”

“Who says I have the hots for her?”

“I do,” Cord said. “I recognize the look, since I wore it for years whenever I crossed paths with Dinah. It's on your face every time you spot Maggie. You've got it bad, pal. And, as the song goes, that ain't good.”

No, Josh agreed silently. No, it wasn't, especially if a man like Cord could pick up on it after being around the two of them for no more than ten minutes.

“Let me get this straight. Are you seriously warning me away from her?”

Cord regarded him evenly. “You're both adults. Neither one of you has to listen to a thing I say. I'm just letting you know that Maggie has friends who worry about her and don't want to see her hurt.”

Cord held his gaze until Josh finally broke eye contact. “Duly noted. For the record, though, I'm not in the habit of hurting women. I saw the misery my mother went through with men. I'm not about to inflict that kind of emotional pain on anyone. I always lay my cards on the table up front.”

“One last piece of advice, then,” Cord said. “You can say the words, Josh, but if your actions contradict them, women will buy the actions every time and resent it like hell if you throw those words back in their face when you're on the way out the door.”

“Voice of experience?” Josh asked him.

Cord nodded. “Until Dinah and I got together, I was a whole lot like you. That's what makes me worry about Maggie. She had a little thing for me once and I hurt her without even meaning to.”

Josh felt his gut clench. “You dated Maggie?”

“Only once, in what I thought was a lark. She won the bidding for a date with me at a bachelor auction for charity. We went out, had a nice evening and that was that. It was only later than I found out she'd hoped for something more. There was never any relationship, but that didn't mean her feelings weren't hurt. She's got a tough exterior, Josh, but her heart's been bruised, by me and Warren and who knows how many others. I'd like to see her find the real thing.”

Josh got the picture. Cord didn't think he had what Maggie needed or deserved. Truthfully, neither did he. That didn't mean that somewhere deep inside he didn't wish it were otherwise.

 

Nadine was positively stir-crazy. Going from her motel room to the construction site and back again wasn't half enough excitement for a woman who liked being around people. She'd waited for Josh to come home, hoping they could go out for something besides burgers, but when he hadn't gotten back by six, she'd called Warren, then remembered he was out on a date, one he'd chosen for himself, more's the pity. He wouldn't even give her a name or tell her where they were going. Since the man had no imagination when it came to women, this one was probably dull as dishwater.

Unfortunately, she hadn't come up with a viable alternative for him yet. All the women working on Amanda O'Leary's house were married or such Goody Two-shoes, she wouldn't wish them on anyone. Only Maggie had some spunk, but she and Warren had already been there and done that. Besides, she'd seen something in Josh's eyes when Maggie was around. She'd promised not to interfere, but she sure as heck hoped those two woke up and smelled the coffee before it went cold.

Sitting around her cramped room with time on her hands was beginning to get to her. She checked her purse and found twenty bucks. It was hardly enough for a night on the town, but maybe she could buy a couple of drinks in a nice bar and parlay it into some conversation with an attractive man who'd be willing to buy dinner.

A half hour later, she'd put on her best blouse, some formfitting capris and high-heeled sandals, and spritzed herself with White Diamonds for luck. Hey, it'd worked for Liz Taylor…

When she walked into the dimly lit steak house, she paused long enough to survey the bar. There were a couple of men seated together at one end, already hitting on women young enough to be their daughters. A gray-haired man, wearing a perfectly tailored suit, was all by himself in the shadows at the far end of the bar. He was staring morosely into his glass of whiskey. If ever there was a man in need of company, he was it. Nadine had perfected the cheering-up routine years ago. It came naturally to her now.

“Hey, sugar, is this seat taken?” she asked, already sliding onto the bar stool next to him.

He shrugged, but never even glanced her way. Nadine didn't take offense. His lack of interest only made the encounter more challenging. She smiled at the bartender.

“I'll have a double scotch, neat,” she told him, then pushed her lone twenty across the bar.

When the bartender returned with her drink, she took a sip, then turned to the man beside her. “You look as if you've got the weight of the world on your shoulders. Want to talk about it?”

He gave her a cursory glance, then turned back to his drink.

“I'm Nadine,” she persisted. “I'm not coming on to you or anything. I'm just looking for a little conversation. I got tired of staring at the walls at my place. Does that ever happen to you? You start to feel like home is closing in on you?”

This time when he faced her, his expression was a little more open. “Where are you from, Nadine?”

“Right here in Charleston, originally, but I've been away a long time. I came back to see my son.”

“Where is he?”

“Beats me. I suppose he got tied up with work or something.”

“It's not very considerate of him not to let you know,” he said disapprovingly. “Especially if you're just here for a visit.”

“Well, it's more than a visit, I suppose. He put me to work on this job he's doing, so I'll be around until that's wrapped up at least.”

“What sort of job?”

“Construction.”

This time when he looked at her, she could see she finally had his full attention. His eyes glinted with disbelief. “You don't look like any construction worker I've ever seen.”

“Believe me, it's new to me.” She held up her hands and regarded them with dismay. “It's hell on a manicure, I can tell you that.”

“What on earth was your son thinking?” he demanded indignantly. “What's the world coming to when a man treats a lady like that, especially his own mother? It wouldn't have happened with my generation.”

She gave him a rueful look. “Actually I'm pretty sure he thought it might be nice for me to do a good deed for once in my life. We're building this house for a woman who lost her husband a while back.”

To her surprise, instead of the approval or interest she'd expected, a frown crossed his face.

“This wouldn't be the house being built for Amanda O'Leary, would it?” he asked.

“It sure is,” Nadine said, immediately perking up. “You know about it?”

“The whole thing's a bunch of damn nonsense,” he said heatedly. “If Amanda O'Leary needs a house, her daddy ought to be building it for her. She shouldn't be taking the opportunity away from a family that really needs it. Somebody ought to go over there and bulldoze the whole thing.”

Something in his forceful tone alarmed her, but Nadine decided she needed to keep her cool and find out if this man posed a real threat to Amanda or the house they were building. Maybe they needed to beef up security around the site.

“That's not a very charitable outlook,” she chastised him. “Seems to me that a woman who's been forced to declare bankruptcy because her husband left her with a pile of debt could use a helping hand. Did you know she's been working two jobs to try to support her three kids and give something back to her creditors?”

“Bankruptcy!” he scoffed. “Now there's a scam for people who don't know how to manage their money. I still say she ought to go to her family for help, not rely on the kindness of strangers.”

“From what I hear, her daddy cut her off without a dime. Why on earth would she want to go crawling back to a man like that?” Nadine asked, indignation overcoming her intention to remain calm. “So he can throw a bunch of I-told-you-so's back in her face? No woman with even an ounce of pride would do such a thing, and no decent man would expect her to.”

Patches of red instantly colored his cheeks. “What are you saying? Are you impugning my sense of decency?”

Nadine refused to back down. She'd been around too many mean blowhards like this one and kept her mouth shut. Not this time. “I'm saying that any man worth his salt would be siding with Amanda and doing what he could to help her, instead of sitting here badmouthing the folks who care about her and her kids. That attitude of yours explains a lot about why you're sitting here all by yourself,” she said, no longer finding him half as attractive as she had when she'd first noticed him. A bully was a bully, no matter how well dressed he was.

“How dare you!” he said, his tone suddenly filled with icy fury. He rose to tower over her. “Do you have any idea who you're talking to?”

“A self-important lowlife, from the sound of it,” Nadine retorted loudly, not even flinching under his glare.

The bartender approached them then, looking worried. Nadine noticed that several people in the bar were studying the two of them curiously.

Before she could give the man an earful about what else she thought of anyone who'd display such a remarkable lack of charity, two men appeared behind her. She was about to elbow the closest one in the stomach when he spoke.

“Mother, why don't we get out of here?” Josh said, his tone pleasant but his gaze hard as he stared down the man who was unmistakably trying to intimidate her.

“Not until I speak my mind,” she countered. “Do you have any idea what this old windbag said to me?”