“Then, I guess you’ll just have to find out for yourself,” Connor said with a careless shrug as he watched the asshole reluctantly move to make his way up Rory’s driveway, only to rethink that decision when Bunny decided to block his path.
“Easy,” the man murmured nervously as he slowly backed away from the dog. Even though it probably should have been enough that the dog made the man piss his pants, Connor felt that he needed a little extra incentive to get the hell out of here and never come back.
“What the hell!” the asshole yelled as Rory’s sprinklers came on full blast. Connor waited until he ran back to his car, stumbling along the way before diving into his car and threw his car in reverse, peeling out of the driveway before he turned the sprinklers off.
Best damn thing he’d ever built, Connor decided as he gave his partner in crime a mock salute and headed for his front door. It really was too bad that he couldn’t stand the little bastard since he came in handy from time to time.
“Why are you covered in mud, sweetie?” Rory asked as she bent down and cupped Bunny’s mud-splattered face in her hands. When she caught a whiff of peanut butter and hot dog, she knew exactly how her poor baby ended up covered in mud.
“Connor,” she bit out, momentarily forgetting that she couldn’t kill him for at least five months.
“You called?” the annoying bastard said, sounding amused.
She looked up and wasn’t surprised to find Connor standing on his second-floor balcony, shirtless and holding a bottle of beer. Sometimes, she really wished that he hadn’t cut down those damn trees. At least with the trees, she could have pretended that he didn’t live next door. Then again, he would have just found another way to annoy the hell out of her.
“You want to tell me why you felt the need to douse Bunny in mud?” Rory asked, resigning herself to waiting a few more hours before she ventured out onto her porch. Not that it would make much of a difference since he’d just come back out again to annoy her, but after three years, she was used to the jerk wrecking what should have been the best part of her day.
“I will if you tell me why you named that poor dog Bunny,” he offered, taking a sip of his beer.
Because the dog was her little honey bunny, but she would never tell him that. “Forget it,” Rory said, sighing heavily as she headed for her front door.
“Come up here and join me,” he called after her.
“I’ll pass,” Rory said, wanting nothing more than to enjoy a hot cup of cocoa as she went over the new plans McGill had given her earlier and figure out a way to work them into the plans that she came up with before calling it a night. She also needed to figure out a way to speed up this renovation to meet that deadline. Even with Connor’s men and equipment, they were looking at long hours and she needed to figure out how to get it all done without destroying their profit margin with overtime.
“Don’t you think that the two of us should sit down and go over the plans for Strawberry Manor?” Conor asked casually, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew that the only reason he wanted to talk to her was so that he could find out what resources she had at her disposal. It’s exactly what she would have done if she hadn’t already managed to corner one of his men an hour earlier and sweet talk him into spilling his guts about Highland Construction’s equipment, men, and their skills. Now, she just had to work all of that newfound knowledge into her plans.
“Not really,” Rory said as she unlocked her front door and sent up a silent prayer, asking for a Connor-free night. Of course, her prayer was ignored. They usually were where Connor was concerned.
“That’s too bad. I guess I’ll have to tell McGill that you’re not willing to fulfill your end of the contract,” Connor mused loudly with a satisfied sigh.
Rory didn’t say anything as she slammed the door shut behind her because there was nothing to say. He knew that he had her exactly where he wanted her and had no problem doing whatever it took to screw her over. If she didn’t play nice, he would cost her the contract and more importantly, her reputation.
Clenching her jaw, Rory stormed into her kitchen and dropped her stuff onto the light oak kitchen table. If she was going to deal with Connor without killing him, then she was going to need a hot cocoa fix. As she waited for the water to boil, she fed Bunny and sorted through her notes. If he wanted to pretend that they were going to play nice, then that was fine with her since none of this bullshit mattered anyway.
The real battle wouldn’t begin until tomorrow. So, if he wanted to play these pointless games now, that was more than fine with her. After she mixed up her special hot cocoa, took a sip and sighed happily, Rory grabbed the top folder and made her way through the house.
If she didn’t absolutely adore her house, she would have sold it and moved a long time ago, but she did, so she couldn’t. This was her house, her baby, and nothing and no one was ever going to make her give it up. As she’d restored the house to its original condition, she’d fallen in love with it and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. Her only hope was that Connor got sick and tired of playing these games and decided to sell his house and move far away.
Just the idea of having a Connor-free day had her releasing a heartfelt sigh. Now, if it would only come true, she might actually cry tears of joy, Rory thought as she headed up the back stairs to her room. As she walked across her large bedroom, she wondered if Connor was going to use their new situation to his advantage and make her life a living hell over the next five months. Then, she snorted at her own stupidity.
Of course, he was going to make her life a living hell. He’d been doing it for over twenty-five years now and wasn’t showing any signs of boredom yet. Every single day for the last twenty-five years, he’d gone out of his way to make her life difficult. It didn’t matter what she was doing or where she was, Connor found a way to leave his mark on her day.
She still couldn’t forget her eighteenth birthday. It had started off great. Her brothers woke her up at two in the morning by tying her up and gagging her, a James tradition and one that her father tried to make her brothers skip that year. Thankfully, they hadn’t thrown her in the trunk of Craig’s car as tradition dictated. Instead, they’d tossed her in the backseat, threw a black pillowcase over her head and teased and tormented her for ten hours by refusing to tell her where they were going.
When they finally pulled the hood off her head and she saw where they’d brought her, she’d sighed happily as she gave all of her brothers bear hugs. Really, how many brothers were sweet enough to bring their little sister to Canada on her eighteenth birthday to get her drunk?
Best. Brothers. Ever.
For the first four hours, everything had been perfect. After she ate, because her brothers refused to let her drink unless she had food in her stomach, she’d tried beer, wine, and started doing shots. Her brothers had taken turns watching her, doing their best to keep her out of trouble, but after the first hour, she’d barely noticed them.
She’d danced to every song as she savored the delicious beverages the bartender sent her way. All the men at the bar had been super nice, too. They’d bought her drinks so that she didn’t have to spend a cent of her own money and they’d all jumped at the chance to dance with her. The night had been going perfectly until she thought she spotted Connor lurking in the corner, watching her.
When she couldn’t find him again, she just shook it off as an overactive imagination and yummy alcohol. Sometime after that, things got kind of fuzzy. From what little she could remember of that night, she knew that it was all Connor’s fault that she woke up the next morning handcuffed to him on a bench while a Mounty with a fresh blackeye glared at them from across the room.
If it hadn’t been for Connor, she wouldn’t have needed to be placed in a cell for her own protection while her father tried to plow through a dozen officers so that he could wring her neck. The only pleasure she got out of that awful experience had been watching her father take a swing at Connor, who must have been hungover, because he’d just stood there and took it.
“Stay,” Rory told Bunny as she pushed back the thick dark curtains that helped her pretend that the asshole didn’t live next door and opened the sliding glass doors.
