Jack had to keep going. He’d started this and now he was going to finish it. Resolute, he reached for her hand. Her skin was just as velvety smooth as it looked, and his fingers practically swallowed hers up. “Lexi, you’d better set the record straight with Ross, don’t you think? It’s early days, but we’ve got a pretty good thing going.” As he peered down at her, wordlessly trying to explain his plan, he was tempted to dive right into her crystalline green eyes. Especially when she arched one eyebrow at him, silently telling him that he was nuts.
But then she surprised him by knocking back her head and unleashing a musical giggle. She returned her sights to Ross. “I was a little afraid to say anything since the rumor mill refuses to stop talking about me.”
Ross’s stare narrowed. “You and Jack? You’re dating?”
Jack realized what a close call that had been. He hadn’t even told Lexi his name. “Yep,” Jack said. “How lucky am I?”
A skeptical smile crossed the other man’s face. “That’s great. I’m very happy for you.”
Jack squeezed her hand a little tighter.
“Thanks,” Lexi said. “That’s why I came to the festival site today. Had to check up on him.”
“Checking up on the boss. I like it.” Ross’s cell phone rang and he fished it out of his pocket. “Oh, shoot. I really need to answer this. It’s one of the other festival board members. I’ll talk to you two soon.” He wandered off, leaving Jack and Lexi alone.
It took a fraction of a second before she yanked back her hand. “The boss?You’rethe boss?”
Jack swallowed hard, sensing exactly how angry she was. It was radiating off her in waves. He would’ve been lying if he said it wasn’t a turn-on. “That’s me. Jack Bowden. Bowden Construction.” He extended his hand, admittedly afraid she might bite it off.
She shook her head in utter disgust, surely not realizing what it did to him, sending wafts of her sweet perfume in his direction. “And was there a reason you lied to me when I asked to see the site supervisor?”
Jack didn’t have a good answer for that. He’d only looked at Lexi, with her designer clothes, sky-high heels and flawless face, and assumed she was going to give him trouble. That had been the totality of his life experience with women who came from money, and he knew the Alderidge family was as wealthy as they came. “I was just kidding around.”
“Is it your gut instinct to give a woman a hard time? Just because I don’t look like I belong on a construction site?”
Jack felt bad now. His propensity for joking around often got him in trouble, but he’d learned long ago not to take everything so seriously. “I’m sorry. Truly, I am.”
“I just don’t think it’s appropriate in a professional setting. I’m here to discuss business, and you’re trying to play a prank on me? And then you jump in with that ludicrous story about us dating? It’spreposterous!”
Jack took issue with that last part. “Why exactly is it, as you put it, preposterous?”
“I think that’s fairly obvious.”
He tried not to be too insulted, reminding himself that he was wearing jeans, a T-shirt and work boots. Lexi was obviously more accustomed to men like Ross, who didn’t think twice about wearing a Rolex and eight hundred-dollar shoes to a site that was all dirt and grime. “I was trying to help you out of a jam.”
“I don’t recall asking for your help.”
Something told him that it wasn’t going to go over well if he explained that he had a real weakness for a damsel in distress. He’d save that excuse for another time. “I couldn’t listen to him talk to you like that. I don’t know what happened with your wedding, but I’m sure that whoever left you at the altar is a certifiable idiot. No woman deserves to be on the receiving end of that, but especially not one who’s so beautiful.”
Lexi’s posture softened and Jack was struck by an image of her in his arms, breathless from his kiss. Logic said he should swipe it away, but he didn’t want to. “I’m the dumb one. But thank you. I appreciate that.”
“Can we start over?” He offered his hand, trying to shake free his illicit thoughts of Lexi and the way he couldn’t stop wondering if the rest of her delectable body was as soft as her hand. “Jack Bowden. Bowden Construction.”
The faintest smile crossed Lexi’s luscious lips, which wasn’t helping Jack focus. “Lexi Alderidge. Alderidge Bank.”
“What can I help you with today, Ms. Alderidge?”
“I came to check the progress on the festival construction. I was hoping you could tell me more about it. Show me around a little bit.”
Jack didn’t want to ogle Lexi in a professional setting, but his vision dropped to the impractical heels she was wearing. They made her lithe legs look impossibly good. The contrast of the sleek black leather and her creamy skin was too much to take. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you walk around the site in those shoes. It’s not safe. You’ll hurt yourself, and if that happens, it’ll be my fault. I could never forgive myself.”
“Are you saying I came all this way for nothing?”
“If you’d let me know ahead of time that you were coming, I could have planned accordingly.”
“You can’t show me anything? I need to be able to tell my dad something when I get back to the office.” There was an edge of desperation in her voice that hadn’t been there a few moments ago, not even when she’d had Ross reminding her of her personal problems.
“I take it your dad is Winston Alderidge?”
