Good thing she had no idea what head actuallywasgrowing; she’d probably run screaming out of the building and never look back. Time to get this under control. “What brings you here?” He gestured to a guest chair. “Can I get you some coffee?”
She unzipped her jacket and flopped down, grinning at him. “I got the house!”
He slapped his palms down on his desk. “You got the house!”
“They didn’t even try to negotiate,” she announced proudly.
“Guess they knew you meant business.”
“Damn straight.” She lifted her chin, looking every inch the confident negotiator, and he was hit with another wave of heat. She didn’t need to be wet and naked to be breathtaking; she carried it off just fine in jeans and a Brick T-shirt.
“Now, let’s talk timelines.” She folded her hands on her lap and neatly crossed one leg over the other, adopting an all-business tone. “I close in three weeks. Will I be okay to move in right away?”
Business. Yes. Good thing one of them was focused. He pulled up the project outline on his laptop. “We’ve got paint and gutters and grout and steps on the exterior. Tear out the shag carpet and refinish the floors. Destroy that drop ceiling. Strip the old wallpaper and paint everything. Let me add that skylight.” He grinned at her as he tapped his pen on his desk, mindlessly banging out the drumbeat for “Mr. Blue Sky.” “And of course there’s that kitchen. But if you’re okay living with dust and chaos for a while, you can move in the instant they hand you the keys.”
“Yay!” She gave a little bounce in her chair.
“Well. We’re talking weeks and weeks of me and my crew underfoot. That’s a lot of clutter to live with.” The last thing he needed was her getting fed up and ending their agreement when the equilibrium of the business was still off.
“I’m highly adaptable, and besides, you’re doingmethe favor.” The corners of her mouth tipped down. “Are you sure this is a fair price for your work though?”
He waved a hand dismissively. “It’s a mutual favor, and you’re still paying for materials and some labor.” Weird to think about faking feelings as a mutual favor, but this was a weird situation.
“Thank you.” She met his eyes with her serious brown ones. “Truly, I wouldn’t have been able to make this leap without you.”
“It’s my pleasure.” He reached forward and squeezed her hand, pleased to be playing a role in bringing her dream to life. She jumped a little at the contact, and he couldn’t pass up the chance to tease her a tiny bit. “Gonna have to get used to having my hands all over you.”
Pink flooded her cheeks, and she looked down. “You’re really sure you want to do this? With me, I mean?”
Had any woman underestimated her charm more than Thea? “We already covered this.”
But the fantasy of a bubble-covered Thea surged in his mind again, and for a moment hewasn’tsure this was a good idea. One of the biggest reasons he’d suggested this agreement was because she was a safe choice. They’d known each other forever, and neither of them was interested in the other one like that. His brain just needed to get with the program and stop picturing her tits.
It was probably just that he hadn’t slept with anyone in way too long. Celibacy was messing with his focus.
“Hey, how’s your dad?”
Her soft voice was a bucket of cold water on his wayward libido. “He’s… well, he’s pissed. He doesn’t understand why he’s not allowed to drive anymore, why we’re not letting him come into work. Good news is, he got accepted into a clinical trial in Chicago.”
“That’s great!”
If only her optimism was contagious. “Yeah, but the bad news is he and my mom are moving up there while it’s ongoing. So now we’re losing our office queen too.”
“Office queen?”
“Mom says it sounds better than office manager.”
Thea grinned. “Cool. Does it come with a crown?”
“Don’t give her any ideas.”
Losing his dad in the business was one thing, but their mom was an equally important lynchpin keeping the company running. She kept track of bookings and inventory, sweet-talked angry clients, and generally solved problems and offered a listening ear for every person who came through the doors. His dad was the growl, but his mom was the purr. You needed both to keep things afloat, and Aiden was worried. Trip was taking control of the office-manager portion of the business right now, but it wasn’t sustainable. How long did they have before his brother pissed off some important customer? Aiden pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead where a stress headache threatened to form.
“So do we need a signed contract or anything?”
Her question stopped him cold. “I’m not sure that’s smart.”
“Not about the…” She circled her hand between the two of them. “But for the house stuff. Not that I don’t trust you.”
