Sweet Home Colorado (The O'Malley Men) (5 page)

Chapter Six

They were ugly. Unbelievably ugly. Grace groaned at the
steel-toed boots Jack had insisted she purchase to wear on the job site. She had
half a mind to tell him to forget it. Footwear this hideous was almost a deal
breaker; she was half-tempted to tell him she was going to Europe instead.

But Grace wasn’t a quitter—well, apart from quitting her
pediatric practice to trek halfway across the country on a whim. And she hadn’t
really quit, she was taking an extended leave. She’d arranged with other
pediatricians at the practice to cover her caseload.

A couple of attractive college-age girls sauntered past the
store window and it gave Grace an idea. So Mr. Jack O’Malley thought he could
ignore his attraction to her, did he?

* * *

J
ACK
FELT
THE
SUCKER
punch the moment Grace
stepped out of her car and strolled along the sidewalk and through the front
gate. He’d been watching for her car as he worked on the front porch, showing
Tyrone how to fix the railings. Of course, he could’ve been working anywhere
else on the property, but the front porch was the perfect place to keep an eye
on Grace’s arrival. And now he was glad he had because he needed to stop her
before she took another step.

Instead of the coveralls he’d expected, Grace wore a
tight-fitting, scoop-neck T-shirt that left nothing to the imagination, denim
shorts and puffy white socks. The only thing she’d complied with were the
requisite boots. The scant clothing teamed with the boots was an incredibly sexy
combination.

Jack tried to swallow the baseball-size lump in his throat and
said, “Hold it right there!”

Unfortunately, Tyrone chose that moment to look up and managed
half a wolf whistle before Jack spun around and silenced him with a glare.

“Sorry, ma’am. Boss,” he said, not sounding the least bit sorry
and not taking his eyes off Grace.

Jack positioned himself to block Tyrone’s view and growled at
her, “What the
hell
do you think you’re wearing?
Take those off at once!”

“If you insist,” she said with a cheeky smile, and reached for
the hem of her T-shirt.

Jack grabbed her hand, preventing her from lifting her
arms.

“Are you crazy?” he demanded.

Jack took her by the elbow and steered her out the gate and
down the sidewalk to Betsy. He wrenched open the door. “Get in,” he growled.

Grace obeyed without protest. He slammed the door shut with
more force than needed, then rounded the old truck and got into the driver’s
seat. He rested his left arm on the wheel and turned to her. “What do you think
you’re doing?”

He swore she batted her eyelids as she asked, “Doing?”

“Yeah,
doing.
Coming to a job site
dressed like a
Playboy
centerfold.”

Grace’s eyebrows rose at that. “You read
Playboy?
A good Catholic-raised boy like you?”

“Grace!”

“Anyway, centerfolds are naked. But thanks for the compliment.
I think.”

He cursed under his breath, started Betsy up, put her in gear
and pulled out onto the street.

“Where are we going?”

“To buy you some coveralls. You can’t work on the house dressed
like that.”

“But it’s a hot day! I thought shorts would be perfect. I don’t
want to wear sweaty old coveralls.”

The image of Grace getting sweaty in coveralls was almost as
sexy as the shorts. Except then he wouldn’t be able to see her legs. Her
beautiful long legs that he suddenly wanted wrapped around him.

Day one of the job and he already had a conflict with a client.
A
serious
conflict.

He pulled off the road and drove down to the river where they’d
have some privacy.

He cut the engine and turned to her again. “Let me spell this
out for you in case you missed it this morning. That job site is swarming with
young men, some still in their teens. Young men have active hormones. It’s not a
good idea to overstimulate them by wearing suggestive clothing. It’s
unfair.”

Grace undid her seat belt and leaned toward him. Suddenly
Betsy’s wide bench seat didn’t seem so wide. “The only person who was getting
overstimulated
was you, Jack.”

Jack ground his teeth together so tightly he could feel a
headache coming on. “Tyrone was there, too.”

“Tyrone’s just a boy. You’re a man.”

“You need to cover up. That’s nonnegotiable.”

She smiled and he felt that sucker punch deep in his gut.

Some perverse curiosity made him ask, “Why did you dress like
this? Seriously.”

Grace had always been a conservative dresser in high school.
He’d barely seen her legs except at swim meets. And he’d liked what he’d seen.
Now he liked it even more. She’d worn the clothes to make him react. Did that
mean...?

“You’re staring,” she purred, placing her hand on his
thigh.

Jack swallowed and forced his eyes to meet hers. Bad move. Her
lashes were lowered, her mouth pouted. And then she licked her lips.

Suddenly he was reaching for her, his hands beneath her butt,
lifting her to straddle his lap. Grace wrapped her arms around his neck, leaving
his mouth nowhere to go but against her throat. He kissed the soft skin there
and she moaned.

She kissed his forehead, the bridge of his nose. He raised his
mouth to meet hers and kissed her with all the love he’d held in his heart. The
realization that he still loved her shook Jack to the core. This was Grace, the
woman he’d
never
stopped loving, if he was honest
about it. He took what he wanted and demanded more. And Grace, bless her, met
him halfway and gave and gave and gave.

Jack pulled her hard against him. Grace complied by wriggling
even farther into his lap as they kissed like desperate teenagers—and adult
lovers. It was the most erotic moment of Jack’s life and he never wanted it to
end. So much for keeping his distance, so much for his principles.

Grace tore her mouth from his and said, her voice raspy with
desire, “Your place or mine?”

It took time for the sexual fog to clear and for Jack to
process her words. When he did, it was as if a wet blanket had been thrown over
him. Reluctantly, he lifted Grace off his lap and placed her on the seat as he
fought to calm his breathing.

She frowned in confusion and he wanted to stroke that
indentation between her pretty brows away.

“I don’t...I don’t have relationships with clients,” he managed
to say.

Smiling with relief Grace asked, “Who said anything about a
relationship? This is sex, Jack. No strings attached.”

They were exactly the words he didn’t want to hear. Not from
Grace—
especially
not from Grace. He slid behind
the wheel and gripped it as though afraid that if he didn’t, he’d be pulling
Grace into his arms again and damn his principles.

“I don’t do no-strings-attached sex, sweetheart.”

Her eyes widened at the endearment and he wished he could take
it back. He couldn’t get in any deeper with Grace, couldn’t let her know he
still loved her. Couldn’t let his heart be broken a second time.

“Oh, come on, Jack! We’re adults now, not fumbling virgins
making out at Inspiration Point. We’re both single, so what’s the harm?”

More harm than you could ever
imagine,
he thought as she reached out and touched the exposed skin
above his collar. He longed to hold her hand over his heart but instead he
caught it and placed it on the seat between them.

“We’d better go. I have work to do,” he said as he started
Betsy.

“And I don’t?”

He glanced over at her. “It’s pretty obvious you think this is
some kind of game. Since you aren’t prepared to come to work dressed
appropriately, it’s best if you stay away from the job site altogether.”

“You must be joking! That’s
my
house. You can’t keep me away!”

“Maybe not. But if you ever come to the site dressed like that
again, you can find yourself another contractor.”

* * *

H
IS
WORDS
FELT
LIKE
a slap in the face. A couple of
minutes ago, Jack was kissing her as though she was the last woman on earth and
now he was threatening to quit?

Tears burned the backs of her eyes.

“What did I do wrong?” she asked shakily.

He cut the ignition. “What part of ‘you can’t dress like that
for work’ did you not understand?”

“I don’t mean that!” she snapped, the tears gone. “Why don’t
you want to make love to me?”

Jack stared out the windshield for a frustratingly long time.
So long that Grace became aware of the sounds of the river rushing by, birds
twittering in the willows, vehicles lumbering along the road above them, kids
playing baseball. Everything seemed amplified and she wanted to close Betsy’s
window, shut it all out so there was only her and Jack. But Betsy was so ancient
she didn’t have air-conditioning, and the day was getting hotter.

“I already told you. I don’t sleep with clients,” he said,
starting Betsy up again. Her wheels spun on the gravel as he turned and drove to
the main road. At the intersection he stopped and said, “Do I go left to the
hardware store for some coveralls for you, or right and back to town?”

“Where am I more likely to find another contractor?”

Without missing a beat, he said, “Probably at the hardware
store. Guys looking for work leave their cards there all the time.” Not waiting
for her answer, he went left.

She crossed her arms and slouched in the seat. “When you’re no
longer my contractor, we can finish what we started back there.”

“Whether I’m you’re contractor or not, I don’t do casual sex,
Grace. Never have. Never will.”

She sat up and glared at him. “You’re making me sound like some
kind of skank!”

He shrugged, which only infuriated her further. They parked
outside the hardware store. “I’ll drop you off here to check out some leads.
Since you no longer need my services, I have to get back to the house and pull
the guys off the job.” He opened his glove box, found a business card and handed
it to her. “This is the local cab company. You can take a taxi back to the house
to get your car.”

“You can’t leave me here like this!”

“You want another contractor. I don’t have time to wait around
while you find one.”

Tears of confusion burned the backs of Grace’s eyes. What the
hell had she done? She’d called his bluff and it had come back to bite her on
the butt. Not wanting him to see her cry or realize how much he’d hurt her,
Grace snatched the card from his fingers. Then she opened Betsy’s door, climbed
out and marched into the store.

* * *

J
ACK
STARED
AT
HER
retreating back,
noticing her cute butt as she sashayed across the parking lot.

Her words had bitten deep, but he’d been determined not to show
her he cared. He’d wanted to work on the old house, but he couldn’t do it
playing cat-and-mouse with Grace. If she wanted to fire him, it was her
right.

He cursed and hit the steering wheel. What the hell had he just
done?

Chapter Seven

Jack pulled out his cell phone and punched in Al’s
number.

“What’s up, boss?” his foreman asked. “Having trouble taming
that little filly?”

“She fired us.”

“
What the hell?
What did you do to
her?” Al demanded.

“It’s not going to work, that’s all. So start packing up and
get the men ready to move on to Adam’s house.”

“I thought your brother didn’t want his house built yet.”

“He was being polite,” Jack growled.

“But I just got a huge load of lumber delivered.”

“We’ll bill her for it. Not our problem anymore. Pack up the
site. I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”

“But—”

Jack cut the connection. He was in no mood to argue with Al. No
mood for anything except maybe a long ride at the ranch. He called Luke.

“Hey, Jack, what’s up?” his oldest brother answered.

“Where are you?” Jack asked without preamble.

“Mending fences up in paddock seven. Why?”

“I’ll meet you there. That okay?”

“Sure, but aren’t you working today?”

“Not anymore,” Jack said, and disconnected.

He called Al back and said, “Once you’ve cleaned up the job
site, give the guys the rest of the day off. I’ll talk to you later this
evening. And tell the guys I’ll see them tomorrow.”

He put away his cell and watched the doors of the hardware
store, willing Grace to come out. That was a lousy thing to do, giving her the
cab company’s card. Maybe he should go in and find her. He shouldn’t have let
her go in the store dressed like that. The place was full of men. And men liked
to stare at pretty girls, especially half-dressed ones.

* * *

G
RACE
HAD
GONE
straight to the restroom inside the store. She
slammed the door of a stall, sat on the toilet and let the tears flow. What was
Jack’s problem? He’d fired her? Just because she wanted sex?

Lord, how she wanted him! She’d been more turned on in those
couple of minutes with Jack than she’d ever been during her entire lousy excuse
of a marriage.

Maybe she didn’t turn him on in the same way? That thought
produced a fresh flood of tears.

“Hello? Are you okay?”

Grace heard a woman’s voice outside the stall. She grabbed a
handful of toilet paper and blew her nose.

“I’m fine,” she muttered.

“You don’t sound fine, honey,” the woman said. “Come on out and
let’s talk.”

“I...don’t want...to talk. I just want to...to cry.”

“You can do both. Come on. I’m a good listener,” the woman
said. “It’s a man, isn’t it?”

“How...did you know?” Grace asked, and blew her nose again.

“Usually is.”

Grace stood and flushed away the paper. She opened the door and
went to the sinks to wash her hands and splash water on her face. The woman
offered her a wad of paper towels.

“Name’s Sally,” the woman said.

“Thanks,” she said, taking the towels and blotting away her
tears. “I’m Grace.”

“Pretty little thing like you shouldn’t be crying over a
man.”

At five-eight, Grace had never been described as little, but
since Sally towered over her by a good few inches, she guessed she could let
that slip. Sally looked to be in her late thirties. She was broad-shouldered,
fair-haired and freckled, and had the look of a woman who worked hard. Her nails
were short, her hands weathered.

Grace forced a smile. “I don’t know why I gave in to that pity
party. I never cry!”

Sally patted her shoulder. “You cried because you care. So who
is he? I’ll go track him down and break an arm or something.”

Grace’s smile relaxed. “No need to do that. Although I’m
tempted to smack him in the head with a frying pan.”

“Hmm,” Sally said, “So he hasn’t so much broken your heart as
bruised your ego?”

Grace thought about that. Sally was right. “How did you get so
wise?” she asked. She bent to splash water on her face again, then looked into
the mirror. She was a mess.

Sally held out more paper towels. “Feel like talking about it
over a coffee?” she asked.

“How about I buy you lunch instead?” Grace offered. “I think my
situation will take longer to explain than that. And I’m starving.”

“Done! What are you driving so I can follow you?”

“I don’t have a car here. He and I sort of...parted ways in the
parking lot.”

“This is getting more interesting by the minute,” Sally said.
“And it sounds like he really does need a frying pan to the head. Come on, we’ll
take my truck. I know a great place to eat.”

* * *

“S
O
YOU
’
VE
HAD
a fight with Grace already?”
Luke said as Jack dismounted.

“How’d you know?”

“Al called, said she’d fired you and that you’d be starting on
Adam’s house in the morning. I thought Adam didn’t want his house built
yet?”

“Tough,” Jack said, picking up a pair of pliers to help mend
the fence.

“Why’d she fire you?” Luke asked. One thing about Jack’s
brothers, they could be downright blunt.

Jack decided to be equally blunt. “Because I wouldn’t sleep
with her.”

Luke’s head snapped up and for the first time he stopped
working. “Whoa! When did this happen—or, rather, not happen?”

Jack refused to answer and instead concentrated on the
fence.

“Why don’t you want to sleep with her? She’s turned into quite
something.”

“How would you know?” As far as Jack was aware, Luke and
Grace’s paths hadn’t crossed since she’d returned.

Luke shrugged. “Al.”

Jack cursed as he worked the wire.

“Did you two ever do the deed in high school?”

“That is
so
none of your business,
I’m not going to answer it.”

“Don’t need to, you just did.”

Jack ran his hand through his hair, wishing he’d worn a hat.
The sun was beating down as if it was already mid-August. “I told her I don’t
sleep with clients.”

Luke grinned. “So she fired you and now you
can
sleep with her. Smart girl.”

“You have such a simplistic view of life. I have no idea how
we’re even related.”

“Because our parents had sex.”

“Very funny.”

“I’m known across three counties for my sense of humor,” Luke
said.

“No, you’re not. You never crack a joke.”

“Megan’s been teaching me.”

Jack had to concede that since he’d married Megan, Luke had
lightened up. A lot. He’d been married to one of the worst women on earth and
now he was married to one of the best. Luke and Megan had met during a holiday
romance eighteen years earlier, and it had taken them a long time to find each
other again.

“So, now that you’re no longer her contractor, why aren’t you
two steaming up the bedroom?”

“You’re so crude.”

“And curious. I’ve got Will on speed dial. He wants to hear
what’s up, too.”

“How did Will get involved in this?”

“He stopped by the old house just after you took off. Tyrone
told him you and Grace left in a big hurry. Naturally, with Will’s overactive
imagination, he’s dreaming up all sorts of scenarios. Most of them probably
wrong.”

“This conversation doesn’t go beyond this paddock?” Jack
insisted.

“O-kay,” Luke conceded. “But I want all the details.”

“There are no ‘details’ and you wouldn’t get them if there
were,” Jack said as they started to pack up their tools, then mounted up and
rode along the fence line looking for breaks.

“I don’t do casual sex.” Jack said it brusquely, repeating what
he’d said to Grace—and referring to Luke’s wild ways when he was in college.

“Maybe you’re right. We aren’t related, after all,” Luke said
with a wink.

Jack ground his teeth. Talking to Luke hadn’t been such a great
idea, after all. He should’ve seen Matt instead. Matt would take the matter
seriously. Matt would probably have some good advice. He dug into his horse’s
flanks and took off across the paddock, needing to feel the wind against his
face. Hoping it would help clear his head. What was wrong with him? He and Grace
were adults, so why not make the most of it while Grace was in town and then
they could part with no regrets.

Because you love her,
his inner
voice echoed as he slowed his horse and then began to pick their way through the
boulders littering the hillside.
You’ve only ever loved
her.

He halted his mount and took in the scenery unfolding below
him. They were so high up here, Jack could see all the way to the next county.
The ranch house at Two Elk, where he’d grown up with his four brothers, lay in
the valley to the left of him. Leading away from the ranch was the road to town,
which forked in the other direction to the valley where Will and Matt lived with
their families and where Adam would settle with his family when Jack built him a
home there.

Meanwhile, Jack lived in an old miner’s shack he’d converted at
the far end of the same valley. It had been a burned-out shell that had proven
to be a good project for his apprentices, a lesson in preserving and restoring
old buildings. Most of them had laughed when he’d driven them out there to start
the job, but by the end of it, they’d all taken pride in what they’d done. In
the process, they’d learned the history of the area and the hardships the early
settlers had endured to scratch a living from the land. The settlers’
perseverance against the worst that the landscape and life could throw at them
had been a salient lesson for many of the kids....

He heard Luke’s horse approach, his hoofs scraping the
boulders.

“Sorry I was so flippant before, buddy,” his brother said. “I
keep forgetting how different you and I are.”

“’S’okay.”

“You’re still in love with her, aren’t you?”

“Yup.”

“And you’re scared of getting hurt when she leaves town
again?”

“Yup.”

“But how will you feel if she leaves town in a couple of months
and you never told her how you really feel?”