Romancing the Holiday (6 page)

“We do because we’re respectful.” He winked as he said it. “Did she tell you I was a catch?”

“She’s your biggest fan.”

Spence waved when a passing car honked its horn. “Oh, that’s new. Trust me. I was ‘that other Thomas boy’ when she tried to have me arrested at fifteen for stepping on her hedges.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Austin is her favorite.” He slipped Lila’s coat from her stiff fingers and put it over her shoulders, guiding her arms inside. “She turned her sights on me after Austin got married and Cassidy moved in with Mitch. I’m pretty sure Cleo views me as a dating charity case.”

Lila held her breath as Spence zipped her jacket. His hand lingered just below her breasts for an extra second as his gaze went to hers and an unexpected warmth flooded through her.

“She seems determined to marry you off.” Lila fumbled the words when Spence let his fingers trail down her jacket to her waist before he pulled back.

“Worse, she had coffee with Dad a few times before he left for D.C. Between the two of them I’m getting the full-court marriage press.”

Something in the lightness of Spence’s voice and the way he smiled over the clear annoyance in his voice grabbed her attention. “You’re close to your dad.”

“Very. He grew a business while raising two rowdy boys. No one ended up in jail or rehab or under an overturned tractor.” Spence’s eyes glowed with admiration. “I’d call that a miracle.”

“What about your mom?” Lila asked before she could weigh the question. She didn’t want to break the spell or stop him from talking, but she could almost see the shield rise the second the words left her mouth.

Spence’s shoulders stiffened and the light went out of his eyes as if something inside him dimmed at the thought of the woman who gave birth to him. “Not around.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No big deal.” He opened the passenger door. “We may as well give the town something to talk about and leave together.”

She wanted to stay and talk and learn more about him. In all those hours together he’d guarded every word, careful to share little and ask even less. Having him open up, even that small amount, left her wanting more.

But the moment had passed and that was clear in the way Spence morphed back to his mix of charm and control. She sighed at the loss. “Where are we going?”

“It’s time to rebuild that campground.”

“You’re still planning to help me.”

“Yeah, Lila. I’m going to help.” He motioned for her to get in the truck. “You’ll survive it, I promise.”

She wondered if she’d survive being this close to him. She knew from experience that forgetting Spence was not an easy thing to do and when his campground work was done, she doubted he’d want her to do anything else.

Chapter Six

Spence walked around the main cabin at the campground the next day. It was the one Lila would eventually move into, likely sooner than he thought was smart or necessary, so he wanted it perfect. No cheap materials. No half-assed work. No cutting corners.

Not that he did any of those things anyway, but he’d spent the last four hours barking orders at his employees to make sure none of it happened here. He’d also yanked two guys out of the warehouse and another out of the Christmas tree lot at the back of the nursery to help out on the building project.

The thud of a car door had him moving to the front of the cabin. Travis stripped off his gloves as he left his truck down the path and maneuvered around the stacks of wood and makeshift tool bench they’d set up in the courtyard in front of the semi-circle of falling-down buildings. A saw buzzed and a steady pounding filled the air.

Travis ignored it all as he joined Spence. Didn’t even look around for Lila, which Spence thought was a smart move.

Reaching behind him, Travis pulled out a stack of receipts and handed them to Spence. “We’re in luck. So long as we repair rather than rebuild, we can avoid the pre-construction permit process. We’ll need all sorts of inspections at the back end before she can open up, but at least we don’t have to hold off on doing any of the actual work now.”

Spence glanced around, swearing he could hear the wood creak and break just from the bit of wind blowing around. “Guess that rules out knocking these to the ground and starting over.” Which was a shame since Spence truly believed that would be faster and easier.

He’d sent Travis out to doublecheck the permit requirements rather than risk fines and government red tape because Travis was the one with the builder experience, having worked for one before getting hired at the nursery. His carpentry skills rivaled most professionals and he built nicer furniture than what you could buy in any expensive store in D.C. His basic plumbing and electrical skills would also come in handy, which was why Spence named Travis the unofficial project manager.

Spence attached the papers to his clipboard and paged through them, mentally calculating the cost of reconstruction. He already paid for the labor through the workers’ usual nursery salaries, but that left the cost of materials, which wasn’t insignificant. He’d moved some money over from his savings account to the checking account he set up for the job. Looked like he’d need more. “Thanks for doing this.”

“It’s my job.”

“Not really.”

Not that Travis complained. Travis never complained, which was one of the many reasons Spence liked him and the business provided a small cabin at the back of the nursery property as part of his employee benefits. They were desperate to keep Travis happy and on staff.

“You think I’m going to leave her out here without help?” He glanced around, clearly searching for Lila this time.

Spence didn’t bother to help him out with locating her. “Not your style.”

They didn’t say anything as Spence flipped through the pages. Then Travis piped up. “You know I’m not making a move, right?”

“Excuse me?” Oh, Spence knew exactly what Travis was talking about but chose to keep his head down and off the subject.

“You can relax. She’s all yours.”

Spence’s hand stilled. This time he looked up, drilling Travis with a we’re-done-talking-about-this glare. “She’s not mine.”

Travis ignored the warning...as expected. “You sure?”

Spence blew out a long breath, even put a low growl behind it. “We had something quick and hot months ago.”

Travis tucked his hands in his back pockets and shifted his stance. “Uh-huh.”

“What?” Spence let the papers fall back down on the clipboard.

“Nothing.”

“Why hold back now? Say what you want to say.”

“Honestly? You do the quick and hot thing all the time. I’m surprised I’m not doing work for a whole list of your women.” Travis snapped his fingers a few times as if the answer just popped into his head. “Oh, that’s right. You’ve never stuck around long enough to introduce any of us to those women.”

“I can fire you, you know.” Spence wouldn’t but it was good every now and then to re-establish who was in charge, because even he wondered sometimes.

Travis just shook his head. “That’s not going to keep it away.”

“What are you talking about now?”

“Whatever you’re wanting to do with her.” Travis glanced behind Spence and smiled.

Spence knew without turning Lila was coming. Around them, all the men hesitated in their work to spare a smile. Something about having her on-site cleaned up their language and stopped the low level of understandable grumbling that often came with standing outside in the cold for extended periods of time.

“Travis?” Lila stepped off the repaired porch of the main cabin and walked right into the middle of the conversation. “That receipt you dropped off this morning? There isn’t an amount for labor.”

She held out a sheet of paper, stuck it right under Travis’s nose then showed it to Spence. He answered because Travis appeared to be too busy grinning to come up with a response. “That’s right. Travis gave you what you need.”

She turned to Spence. “But how am I supposed to figure out if I can afford the estimate if you’re forgetting huge chunks of costs?”

“You’re not.”

She scanned the list, as if he hadn’t said a word. “Like electrical and labor and...is there even an amount for materials on here? It looks like I’m being charged for some random supplies but that’s it.”

“You’re the one insisting on a bill.”

Her head shot up. “Well, yeah. I’m not a brainiac like you’re supposed to be.”

“I’m not.” Interesting how she didn’t believe that rumor. That one was at least based on a sliver of truth even though he did everything he could to avoid the topic of his IQ while Austin brought it up whenever possible.

“But how do I pay you without the information?”

“You don’t.”

The paper crumpled in her hand. “That’s ridiculous.”

Spence let his scowl travel over to his workers. They must have gotten the hint because the saw started humming again and the low rumble of conversation and sounds of hammering picked up a second later.

He looked back to her. “The word you want is neighborly.”

“This goes beyond helping out a neighbor, don’t you think?”

“No.”

When her gaze shot to Travis, he piped up. “No, ma’am.”

She rolled her eyes then brought her attention straight back to Spence. “You’re telling me you paid for Cleo’s house or Darla’s?”

He’d paid an electric bill or two for Cleo after her husband died and the amount of her Social Security check dropped, but Spence wasn’t sharing that because even Cleo didn’t know where the emergency funds had come from. Darla had figured out a way to make the older woman take the money as a temporary solution and agreed to keep his secret. He didn’t need the whole town standing at his front door with hands out, but sometimes he could help. With Lila he was doing more and he refused to think about that either.

“You need help. If your Uncle Ned were the one trying to put this place back together, I would do the same thing,” Spence said.

She shot him a get-real scowl. “I find that hard to believe.”

“Look, Ned saved my ass more than once growing up.”

“How?”

Not that Spence wanted to get into this but that determined look on her face told him he had to. “I was a typical teen. Did dumb things. I got into the habit of skipping school—”

She smiled. “Because it was too easy?”

“Something like that. Bottom line is your aunt and uncle gave me a place to go when I needed it. In return I had to buckle down at school, Ned’s words by the way, and go to class. There was a threat about dragging my sorry butt to school and embarrassing me in front of everyone if I didn’t stop fooling around.” Spence left out the part about how his had mother left and the loss screwed up his dad. How Lila’s uncle and aunt provided a small window of normalcy when Spence craved one and until his dad found his emotional equilibrium again.

Lila’s head fell to the side as her gaze searched Spence’s face. “But that’s a debt you owe Ned, not me.”

That’s not how Spence saw it. He lived in a paid-for house and did fine financially. Money was the one thing he had and paying back Ned, no matter if it was directly or through his niece, was an obligation he took seriously. “You asked and I answered. Now we should get back—”

“No.” She tightened her jaw so hard he thought he heard it snap.

“Excuse me?”

“You can’t tell me this isn’t related to sex.” She practically shouted the last word.

Travis pointed in the general direction of the cabin farthest away. “I’ll go find something to do over there.”

Spence waited until they were alone, or as alone as they could get while standing in the middle of eight working brutes. He pivoted until his back was to his workers. “You’re scaring the kid.”

She snorted. “Oh, please. He’s a grown man and I bet his sex life would make us both blush.”

“Why are you thinking about his sex life?” That was just about the last thing Spence wanted her thinking about. Strike that,
the
last thing.

She waved a hand in front of his face. “Stay with me for a second, Spence.”

As if he could ignore her, with her cheeks all pink and her eyes flashing with fire. He’d never been in to angry women, but he was finding he couldn’t resist any part of Lila. And the passionate side...well, he’d spent almost every hour since she’d dropped into town wondering how to get her back in a bed.

“I get your friendship with Ned, but you’re doing everything for free.”

“Not everything.” He planned to charge a very fair, very nominal, almost non-existent, fee.

Instead of thanking him, she crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down. “Why?”

“Why?”

“That’s the question on the table. What are you getting out of this?”

“I just told you.” He held his finger and thumb an inch apart. “Is it possible, just possible, I’m not a total dick?”

Her mouth dropped open. It took two tries for her to get any words out. “I never called you that.”

“Lila, come on.” He glanced around to make sure his men were at least pretending not to listen in. “The lying about my identity thing when we first met. I admit I deserve some of whatever name you want to call me.”

She looked like she was going to smile then clamped her lips together. “I thought we weren’t allowed to mention the name switch.”

“That’s my preference, yes.”

“But you can talk about it.”

“I apologized.”

“Whether you understand why you needed to is still up for debate, but okay.”

He decided to ignore that. “Some people think I’m a little controlling.”

Her eyebrows lifted. “A little?”

The guy working the saw picked that minute to shut it off again. The guys closed in, or at least it felt that way to Spence. Suddenly the wide-open space and acres of land crushed in around him.

“My point is, in addition to the Ned piece, I want to do something nice for you to make up for what I did before.” There, he said it, quiet and a bit less sure than he wanted, but he said it.

Truth was, something about her touched off a need in him. He wanted to help, protect, maybe stick around for more than one meal together. He didn’t understand it and refused to analyze it, but he was smart enough to know she made him smile. For a guy who spent almost every hour of every day working, having a person move into his life who made him want to chuck all that responsibility if only for a short while was a new experience.

She dropped her arms to her side. “Okay.”

He rushed to get the words out before they could pile up in his throat. “Is it really so hard...wait, okay?”

“I said okay.” She was smiling. Looking at him and smiling, all traces of argument gone.

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

He had no idea what just happened. His stomach kept churning even though the battle appeared to be over. “After all that fighting, you just concede?”

“I knew you were a good guy all along. I was wondering if you knew.” She shrugged. “Hopefully after all of this you do.”

That didn’t clear things up one damn bit. “So this was some sort of game.”

“No, the idea of letting you pay for things makes me twitchy and I will pay you back. Eventually.”

“There’s no need—”

“But, really, I was worried about us being thrown together and you mixing up sex and help.”

He didn’t even know what that last comment meant. She was talking in some woman language that had his brain misfiring. “And now?”

She stepped closer to the main cabin and leaned her back against the newly installed porch post. “I realized a smart woman doesn’t turn down free help.”

He followed because he hoped moving around would send blood to his brain and help him work this through. The logical answer came to him as his hand went to the post behind Lila’s head. “You sound like Darla now.”

“Actually, that bit of wisdom came from your dad.”

“What?”

“He called this morning to check on me. He’s very sweet.”

“Not the word I’d use to describe him.” Tough, fair and hardworking, yes. Sweet? Never.

“He was very clear that he’d been friends with Ned for years and insisted the Thomas family owed some sort of friendship debt.” She let her hand trail down Spence’s arm until he caught her fingers with his. “Honestly, I didn’t get that part but your dad said you were doing the right thing by helping and that I should do my part by accepting it graciously. I pointed out that I planned to repay you, but he refused to listen. Like father like son, I guess.”

Of course he ignored her because knowing his dad, he had an ulterior motive here, and Spence feared he knew what it was. “What else did Dad say?”

“Worried?”

Spence turned her hand over, rubbing his thumb against her soft palm. “The man is itching for a grandchild.”

“He mentioned that.”

Spence knew he should drop her hand and step away. Should but didn’t. “Ignore his matchmaking.”