ZAC
On pulling up behind Tyler Vance at the Sanderson place, I'm pissed. I had a chance with Lily, the owner of the place we'd been helping flip. I just know it.
It's always been this way. Well, at least from high school when I'd shot up to my current six-foot-one. And yet, I'm a short-ass next to Tyler and the others on the crew. Sheesh, the Kendrick brothers are massive, with Josh being a complete unit.
Lucky for me is the woman who answers Tyler's knock is just the right height, and damn if I don't love those curves. Although, they aren't what hit me hardest.
That would be her dark brown eyes and that curly explosion of tiger striped brown hair. Both hint at hidden depths and a wild side. One I'll be happy to plumb, or tame, or maybe even both?
While Tyler outlines how the job will progress, I keep my eyes on Kelly Sanderson as she's introduced herself. Odd, but after staring at me long enough for me to smile and wink, she's ignored me.
I'm left feeling invisible, which annoys me more than it should. I'm used to women fawning over me, not cutting me dead like this. Still, I'm always willing to take on a challenge. Especially one as cute as this.
It's when she invites Tyler inside and shuts the door in my face that I see it mightn't be that easy. What have I done to have her pulling that stunt?
I'm working alongside Tyler, so wouldn't it make more sense for me to be inside for the briefing? Her shutting me out like this has me wondering if she's worth the trouble. That stuck up…
As the days' progress, I decide I don't like Kelly Sanderson, with her clearly hating Coogan's Break. Sure, she's gorgeous, but from the little I see or hear of her, she's your typical city girl.
Uninterested in the beauty of Coogan's and our laid-back lifestyle, she comes across as only killing time until she can return to the city.
Despite all this, she still does it for me. Maybe her being unavailable has her doing it for me in a BIG way. As with our first day on site, she's continued to ignore me.
My preoccupation was obvious enough that even the grunts taken on to help with demo and general labor had noticed it.
For a start, Tyler had even laughed about it. Now he's getting annoyed, using every excuse he can to have me leave the site to collect supplies.
"Zac, you need to give it a rest. If Ethan sees you drooling over the client like that, he'll fire your ass."
There's no need to ask him what he's talking about. Ethan, our boss, while easy going, has one rule with clients. And that's that the only screwing allowed on site is the type that involves power tools.
For all the notice that some of the crew take. Case in point being Brad, who's now living with a jewelry designer whose studio Lucky Break had built.
With Tyler off site, the grunts decide it's safe to rib me about my obsession and my lack of results. It's enough to have me hammering harder than I need to in order to drown them out.
Far better, I take my frustrations out on a piece of wood. Despite coming close to obliterating the nail I'm working on; I still hear the loud crash from inside the house.
My head jerks up, and I'm surprised to see Kelly standing at the kitchen window, her face a mask of shock. I drop my hammer and am on my way to the backdoor in a flash, because something spooked her.
A brief knock and I open the door, although only far enough that I can ask if she's okay. Her response being gibberish, I risk walking inside. It's only on rounding the corner and entering the kitchen that I see the chaos.
As is common with these older places, our hammering away has highlighted a few problems. Here, it's one of the upper kitchen cabinets coming away, leaving an unpainted patch behind on the wall.
The solid wood cabinet now lies on the floor next to Kelly, its contents strewn from one end of the kitchen to the other. As quick as I've been to take stock of the chaos, I'm next to her in a heartbeat. I then guide her to put the French press of hot coffee down on the counter.
The last thing she needs is third-degree burns when she drops it, as she is likely ready to do.
"Are you okay?"
While she starts off nodding, this soon changes to a shake, shock clear in her eyes. With her trembling intensifying by the second, I wrap my arms around her.
Despite my attraction, the move is one of comfort. That cabinet must have missed her by a whisker. If it had connected, we'd now be on our way to the emergency room, or waiting for the paramedics with a backboard.
Instead, I steer her away from the other cabinets, and over to the dining nook. Once seated, I return and grab the French press of coffee, along with the mug that had been next to it.
Rather than sit down, I pour her a coffee and step back. While I want to stay and comfort her, I can't. I've seen something out of the corner of my eye that needs attention more than this stunning woman.
The next cabinet along is also hanging on by a thread, something that has me making quick work of emptying the contents onto the counter.
A gentle tug on the empty cabinet, and it comes away from the wall, with me then lowering it to the floor. She was lucky not to be flattened after the recent earthquakes.
It doesn't take long to see the other cabinets are also an accident waiting to happen. I don't bother asking for permission, instead emptying them and ripping them off the walls. It's a good thing we're renovating the kitchen, because it was only a matter of time before someone got taken out by a falling cabinet.
A quick gander at Kelly, her coffee still untouched, and I have to wonder who, or what, hurt her in the past? Despite her stonewalling me, her coming close to being brained by that cabinet had her walls coming down.
And even though it'd missed her, there'd been plenty of hurt showing in those dark brown eyes.
