Page 27 of Silver-Tongued Devil
“Right,” he said. “I’ll check it out on Monday.”
Dakota sighed. What was the point in this? So she’d said it. How had it helped? Losing her temper felt strong at the time, but it always felt weak later. The self-controlled one—that was the one who won, who came out looking strongest, and that sure hadn’t been her. “Nothing to check out. Russell’s right. OSHA investigated. The case is closed. He’s getting his workers’ comp, and even you can’t make anything else happen.”
“If it’s my responsibility,” Blake said, “I’ll take care of it.”
“How?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ll check it out.”
Her anger had drained away, and now, she just felt tired. The hours of work on her glass, her swim, what Russell had said… it was all trying to swamp her. And she didn’t want to hope anymore if nothing was going to happen. She was right about one thing. Therehadbeen an investigation, and the casewasclosed. “Don’t tell Russell whatever it is you’re thinking. Don’t make him hope that …”
“I don’t think Russell gets his hopes up. I think that’s you.”
She laughed, a ragged sound. “Could be.”
“Come on. I’ll walk you home.”
“You don’t have to do that. It’s Wild Horse. It’s not even dark.” Not far off, though, with dusk closing around them.
“Well, yeah, I do. My truck’s there.”
“Oh. Right.”
They walked back in silence for a couple blocks, and Dakota tried not to notice how sore her feet were getting. Finally, Blake said, “You’ve got maybe another week at the resort, right?”
“Four days. We’ll be done by the end of the day Thursday. A day ahead of schedule, because we’re going to earn that bonus. The difference is, we won’t cut corners to do it.”
“How about after that?”
“What, you want me to drag out all the details of my pitiful life for you?” Seemed she wasn’t done with emotion after all.
“No. I want an answer to my question. I have a reason for asking.”
Calm down.“We have a job lined up painting that empty block of storefronts next to the Heart of the Lake. The wine bar.” Then she remembered that she’d seen him there. When he’d been out with Beth Schaefer. Another rich person. “And then a couple of houses.”
“Doesn’t sound like that’s going to keep a crew busy all summer.”
“No. Thanks for pointing that out.”
“Want to paint my house?”
“What?”
“I bought this house on the lake. It’s all right, but the colors inside are funky as hell. Somebody’s going to have to paint it. How about you?”
“Uh…” She didn’t want to do it. She didn’t want to take his money. “I’d have to talk to Evan.”
Blake jerked his head toward the house, where Evan’s van still stood at the curb. “No time like the present.”
Why are you doing this?Blake asked himself. He was a decisive guy, but he was an analytical one, too. His former career had required lightning-quick judgments, and so did his present one. He was good at that by nature, and he’d gotten better with practice.
His decisions might be quick, but when he analyzed them afterwards, he could always figure out the path he’d taken to arrive at them, even if the neurons had fired too fast to follow at the time. So what was the reason for this decision?
There were a couple of possibilities. He decided to stick with “helping somebody else out at no cost to himself.” Sounded good. Noble, even, when he didn’t even know the full circumstances yet, whether Russell’s accident had been any more than unfortunate, and one thing he didn’t do was leap to conclusions.
Besides, his housedidneed painting. He wasn’t the world’s fussiest man, but he’d have gotten around to it sooner or later. M & O were doing a good job at the resort, and it sounded like they had the time. There you go—two reasons. He had a need, and he’d found the answer. Bingo.
Dakota didn’t say anything else, just walked up the sidewalk and went into the house. He knew her feet were hurting, but she didn’t show it. She knew a thing or two about pride. A thing or two about loyalty, too. And if those were qualities he admired—well, that was good, because that meant this wasn’t about those other qualities she’d showed him. The passion and the temper, and a will that could stand up to his own. The set of her shoulders, the tigress-stalk that had set his heart pounding when she’d been walking out on him, then giving him a piece of her considerable mind. Not to mention when she’d jumped up from that curb with a powerful flash of thigh and turned on him like a wild thing.
