Page 103 of His Curvy Distraction

“No one cares,” I said. I’d chosen a seat a little away from the crowd in case she needed a break from the busyness of all the people.

She wiggled on my lap, then sat next to me on the tailgate of my SUV.

“How do you think everything is going?” I asked her.

“Really good,” she said with a happy smile. “I’m amazed we’ve gotten so many of the outside walls done already.”

“There’s still a lot to do, but you have a great team here.”

“Well, thank you,” Andre said, appearing in front of us. “Didn’t mean to interrupt, but I wanted to say how excited I am about this place.”

Natalie smiled at him. “Thank you. Do you have kids who will attend?”

Andre laughed loudly. “No. No kids for me yet. I know how good this will be for the town, though. I’m Andre.”

“Are you the Andre who moved into Haley’s apartment?”

“Guilty as charged.”

“Nice to meet you. Haley speaks very highly of you,” Natalie said.

“Well, I think very highly of Haley. And Knox. I’m very happy for them.”

“Are you single? I have a friend I should set you up with.”

“I am single,” Andre said. “And very interested in single friends of yours.”

Natalie laughed. “I’ll talk to her tonight. Thanks for being here, Andre. We need all the help we can get. What do you do?”

“I have a small landscaping company. Mostly residential, but I’m trying to get into some commercial stuff. I just got the contract for MacKellar Cove Inn for the summer,” Andre said.

“I didn’t know that,” I said.

Andre nodded, looking shy and humble for the first time since we spoke. He never once mentioned his job or that he probably wanted the contract for town hall.

“Would you be willing to help me out with the landscaping for this place when we’re done with the building?” Natalie asked.

“Absolutely. I knew this week was all about the building, so I didn’t bring my trailer, but I was going to ask if you needed any help with landscaping. It’s a quiet time of year right now. I plow driveways and parking lots in the winter, but snow is pretty much gone and we’re not ready for a lot of outdoor work yet.”

“It’ll be here before you know it,” Natalie said. “Can I get your number?”

“Definitely.” Andre took her phone and added his information. “Andre Davidson, and my company is Davidson Outdoors, so you know who that random guy in your phone is. And so he knows.” Andre jerked his head toward me with a wink.

“Ha ha. I will remember you.”

Andre laughed. “I’m not sure that’s good or bad. You’re a powerful man to know my name. Should I be worried?”

“Have you done something that requires it?”

Andre chuckled. “Good point, Mr. Mayor.”

“I’m going to call you, Andre. I have a crew coming out to pave the driveway and parking lot in two weeks, but I’m going to need the landscaping cleaned up before we open.”

“I can bring my trailer later next week if there would be a good day. Trim back everything at the road to start with and take care of the volleyball court. Make sure everything is out of the way for the paving company. Then I can come out before you open and spruce it up a bit.”

“I don’t know if I have a budget for sprucing up, but we can talk about a few ideas,” Natalie said.

“If you let me put up a sign here, or a flyer where the parents sign kids in and out, I’ll do it all for free,” Andre said.

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