Page 36 of How Dare You

He nods. “It is.”

His broad shoulders and long, lean legs fill the doorway, leaving me a little overwhelmed at his presence. Even though the walls are nothing but open wood framing that I could step right through, I feel surrounded by him. And it’s nice.

I take a step closer, but he doesn’t budge. “It’s nice to know you didn’t lie.” Also nice to know he hasn’t been at Shephard with Trina.

His entire demeanor shifts, confusion pulling his lips into a frown. “Lie about what?”

“Your place, your project, whatever you’ve been calling it. You never said you had a house, and there is no work for me at the trailer,” I explain.

“Nothing for you to do? My neighbor from the next property up says he sees you running across his land every morning.”

So, the neighbors can definitely see me trespassing. Lovely. “Nothing for me to do professionally. I thought you were just using the auction to trick me into spending time with you.”

He brings one arm up to rest on the doorframe over his head. “Do you feel tricked? You really didn’t know?”

“Obviously not, no. All I knew was my friends were using you as the catalyst to force me to take a break.” Stepping back, I look around the shell of a closet again. “This house is a welcome surprise.”

“Nobody can force Devon Blake to do anything.” He smiles, already delighted with the words he’s about to speak. “You’re here because you want to be, and you didn’t even know there was a house. You wanted to spend two weeks alone with me.”

He’s not getting a response out of me on that count. I take a deep breath, shuttering my joy at the prospect of working here. “So, what is it that you’d like me to do with your house, McCoy?”

“Okay,” he laughs. “I won’t make you admit it yet.” His arm brushes my shoulder as he walks into the closet. “Everything. I need your help with all of it.”

“That’s not a clear direction.” But my excitement starts to build at the prospect.

He laughs again, the sound echoing across the poured concrete subfloor. “I have plans for getting the walls up, windows in, insulation, all that done. But I don’t have any interior selections. I need flooring, wall colors, tile, plumbing selections. Truly, all of it.”

“That’s far too much for me to do in two weeks.” Although, I already have ideas forming. I picked this career for a reason. Most of the time, although less often lately, I love it. I’m not built for idleness, so I picked work I would be fulfilled by. It’s forefront in my mind that I should be doing every single thing I can to save my business, but it is possible that resting and allowing my creativity to resurface, could be helping me.

A project like this, a literal blank slate, might be exactly what I need. Just like my friends said.

“I know, mama. Just see how far you get. Take the breaks you need, and we can talk about it after you head back home. See if you’ll let me hire you for real.”

“What about if you want to hire me for real?” I ask, a faint smile ticking up my lips.

“Oh, I want to,” he says.

Rhett

She smiled. She was in my closet. Well, my future closet, but she smiled. A real, unbridled smile. I’ll have to wait until she’s on her run tomorrow to add that to my list.

Chapter 16

Day Four

Keys are in the truck. Meet me at the house when you’re ready.

-Trailer Daddy

Note on the whiteboard by the door, August 24th

Devon

Allie: How about today? Do you hate us today?

Devon: I don’t hate you.

Sadie: Omg, was it the gray sweatpants that changed your tune?

---