Page 29 of Flippin' Cowboy
Then she picked up her tablet again. “Are we going to start demo tomorrow? We both agree that everything down to the studs needs to go except the entrance hall staircase, right?”
“Down to the studs, yeah. Though if we find any original trim, we should try to salvage it,” Nick said. “As for those stairs, I’m willing to bet that there’s beautiful wood underneath all that paint. Maybe even old-growth Douglas fir.”
Winnie nodded. “Great. I’ll alert our demo team to call you in if they find anything that looks original, and you can explain the salvage procedure on camera. Meanwhile, I’ll point out that we’ll need to test for lead before we start stripping paint. Jason Lund, who owns a local carpentry business, is coming in to assess the staircase’s structural integrity. I bet I’m not the only one who noticed yesterday some of those treads are way bouncier than they should be.”
Nick grunted. “Sounds like a plan. What do you intend to do about the entrance hall flooring? Tear it out or put the new flooring on top?”
As they continued discussing their plan for tomorrow’s activities, Winnie found it hard to keep her mind on the details.
Why the hell did Nick have to be so gorgeous and smell so damn good? The faint traces of his aftershave were driving her crazy. And he’d pushed up his sweater sleeves, exposing deliciously muscled forearms dusted with dark hair.Yum.
She reminded herself that despite his efforts to make nice tonight, he was still an arrogant ass.
And since her pink tool belt and hard hat had bothered him so much while she was filmingRestoring Seattle, she vowed to wear them every single day they were on the job site together.
And if he doesn’t like it, fuck him, she thought defiantly.
Except that now, she had a disturbingly vivid fantasy running through her head and heating her face, where she was riding a totally naked Nick Evans like a cowgirl.
Stop it, Winnie, she told herself sternly.Your relationship with Geoff was a disaster. The last thing you need on this new show is the same story with a different guy.Especiallythisguy.
∞∞∞
Cantankerous. That damn woman actually called me “cantankerous” with a straight face!Nick fumed an hour later as he and Kegan tramped down the path leading from the ranch house to the guest cottages.I amnotcantankerous, dammit! I’m just willing to fight for what’s right!
It was a clear night, and a thick blanket of stars twinkled in the icy darkness above them. Snow and gravel crunched under their boots. But Nick was blind to his surroundings.
But what if Winnie was right? What if Karla was setting out to make him look like a bad guy on TV? Nick growled under his breath at the thought. The producer seemed like such a nice, warm person. He couldn’t believe she would stab him in the back like that!
By the time he reached his cottage, he had nearly convinced himself that Winnie had been messing with him in revenge for his attempts to get her fired.
Winnie, he thought, frustrated. She was driving him crazy. Half the time he didn’t know whether he wanted to lay her over his knee and spank her or bend her over the nearest piece of furniture and fuck her.
Usually, he wanted to do both. And he hated that the mere sight of her was enough to fill his head with dirty thoughts.
He’d spent the past nights fantasizing about tasting her soft mouth, gripping her deliciously curved hips, and feeling her generous breasts pressing against his naked chest as he pounded into her. He wanted to hear her scream his name as he drove her out of her mind with pleasure.
Why her?He groaned silently, aware of his son’s happily oblivious presence at his side.
Winnie wasn’t even his type! She was his ex-wife Tiffani’s complete opposite in every way. Where Tiffani had been tall and slender, Winnie was short and extremely curvy. And then there was her temper and her no-nonsense way of calling him on his bullshit.
And more appealing, her unabashed happiness in the company of her parents and siblings.
Hell, Winnie was blessed with the kind of warm, unpretentious family that Nick had always craved. He loved his own parents, of course, but they had always been aware of their position as Montana aristocracy and valued dignity above warmth.
“Daddy, can I go sledding with Jayden ‘n April ‘n Abby tomorrow?” Kegan broke into Nick’s thoughts.
“If it’s okay with Kelsey, it’s okay with me,” Nick replied, telling himself he needed to stop letting Winnie-fucking-Snowberry get under his skin.
He opened the cottage door, unsure whether his nanny was still awake. The filming had taken longer than he expected, and it was way past Kegan’s bedtime.
Bob and Priscilla had invited Kelsey to dinner, but she’d declined in favor of spending the evening on her own, catching up on phone calls and texts with friends.
To Nick’s relief, the living room lights were on, and Kelsey was curled up on the sofa under a crocheted afghan, watching a video on her tablet.
“Hey, guys,” she greeted them, sitting up. “How was it?”
“It was great!” Kegan began, launching into a breathless rush. “I met a new friend, his name is Jayden, and he’s my age and he lives here and he likes Superman, though he says Spider-Man is pretty cool, too. Oh, and we had apple pie for dessert. Warm apple pie. It made the ice cream melt but it tasted really good! Oh, and Miz Winnie and her sisters, Miz Autumn and Miz Summer, are all really pretty! And Mr. Spring is a real livecowboy!”
