“You forget you paid a considerable amount of money for my work.”
I wasn’t forgetting much when it came to him. Most of it came back to me when I was trying to sleep.
He dug a small notepad out of the pocket of the flannel shirt he’d draped over the other end of the pool table. “I can replace toilets, Maddy. And sinks. I made a list of supplies I’d need.”
“What about awful wallpaper that’s probably been peed on?”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “I don’t know about the women’s restroom, but if pee is all that’s on the walls of the men’s room, I’ll be surprised.”
My laughter took some of my stress with it. Another reaction he didn’t have a problem coaxing from me. “I didn’t mean...” He’d been nothing but a decent man. He might’ve taunted me with Mad Maddy, but he’d left me wanting to hear him say it again. I thought I’d get thrown in jail if I heard someone utter that awful nickname at the wrong time, but now it turned me on. He might be a bastard for that, but only because I needed to sleep, not masturbate. “I didn’t mean for this to be immense. Project managers make bank.”
“I already make bank.” He tossed the notepad onto his shirt. Then he pointed to the roof, the walls, and the floor. “The basics are good. The electrical hasn’t caused issues up to this point, so I don’t anticipate an electrician finding something. Same with the plumbing. This building has been through a lot, but it’s been kept up.”
The nerves in my stomach calmed. “I just need it to make money.”
“Other than because life is expensive, is there another pressing reason?” He gathered up the papers with the estimates he’d collected like he was giving me space to answer. Or he was preparing to get his head bitten off.
I ran my bottom lip through my teeth, debating how much to share. His collection had to have taken a good couple of hours. I owed him something and I had little more than words. “Just Mom. Long-term care is ungodly expensive. It’s why I used the fifty-grand for you. It’d buy only six months, and I needed long-term. But it’s better than living with her again.”
His look wasn’t pitying, and for that, I was relieved. “I understand.” He fell quiet for a moment, his forehead wrinkling. “Can I ask you something?”
I wanted to smooth my fingers over those lines across his brow. He was one of those guys who got better with age. If he started graying, there’d be a rash of silver fox obsessions popping up all over Bourbon Canyon. “I can’t promise I’ll answer.”
He grinned and it shot straight to my belly, curling and winding, yearning for his touch. “If I know anything about you, it’s that. Mad Maddy.”
I shot him a glare, but I preened inside. He kept smiling and stoking that fire only he lit inside me.
“Why did Scooter leave everything to you? Or did Wendi and their kid get something?”
“Logan has a trust he’ll get access to when he turns twenty-five.” My brother had called me drunk one night after the divorce and told me that he was changing everything so I was his beneficiary. “I’d like to leave this bar for Logan when I’m gone.”
“You miss him?”
“He’s one of my only family members left.” I had my nephew and my mom and that was all. “I wish I could spend more time with him, but I refuse to use him as a pawn in Wendi’s games.”
“Her games can wreck a person. I doubted my decisions when it came to women a long time after her. How could I have been so clueless?”
“Sex does that to a man.” I was only half teasing.
“Did it to me then, and I’m not about to let it happen again.”
“You’ve never let anyone close after her?” He’d asked probing questions and I’d told him none of it was his business. He had every right to do the same. Had he been struck with this same yearning to learn more when he’d been bugging me?
The shake of his head was small. “I went to the far extreme of no attachments until I had to finally admit that I was becoming the bad guy. Just because I claimed I didn’t want commitment didn’t mean that I wasn’t fully aware the girl I was dating wanted more. Then when I finally did want more... Eh, it’s a small town. The dating pool is a koi pond.”
“Nothing but orange speckled fish?”
“Nice enough fish, but none I’d build a pond for in my backyard.” Why was that so satisfying to hear? He glanced out the window. “It’s getting late. Since tomorrow’s Sunday, I can be back after I help with chores.”
The reminder that he worked two jobs weighed on my conscience. “No rush. Really. You need to rest too.”
He rose. “I get into trouble if I’m idle. That’s what Mama used to say.”
“Used to?”
He chuckled and I went to the front door to close the cheap-ass blinds I’d bought for the windows while we were renovating. A light rain fell outside and the streetlights glared off the pavement. I almost didn’t want this night to end.
There was no almost about it. He’d leave for the night, but I’d sense his presence everywhere.
