Page 79 of The Opposite of Romance
“You, hon?” I place a hand around Liv’s shoulders.
She shoots me a pointed look, not dignifying my question with a response. Her eyes are glossy, like she’s been holding back tears.
“How about you take your stuff upstairs, Ash? Get those dirty clothes into the hamper?”
He doesn’t respond, but rushes inside the house to, hopefully, do what I said.
With my arm around her, I lead my daughter into the house and sit on the stairs. “What happened, Liv?”
“Same old.” Her voice is barely above a whisper.
“Want to tell me about it?”
Unsurprisingly, she averts her gaze. Surprisingly, the next words out of her mouth are, “Will Logan be here in the afternoon tomorrow?”
“I’m not sure. I can ask him if you want me to.” She dips her head, before grabbing her bag and heading upstairs.
I’m so glad she feels confident when she’s working with Logan, but soon he’ll be gone, and I don’t know which one of us will be hurt more.
Chapter Thirty
LOGAN
I getto her house as soon as I’m sure she’s back from the school drop off. She opens the door in skimpy shorts and a flowy top, her silky hair pulled back into a ponytail.
“Morning,” she says with a smile.
She’s beautiful. I want nothing more than to kiss her, but I don’t think she’s at that stage yet. She’s been skittish since we started, and I get it. She got out of a long-ass marriage only a couple of months ago. And even though she never fully explained what happened, I know he did a number on her. Made her believe she’s unworthy when she deserves the entire world.
So I need to take this slow. Let her accept it on her own terms. Though the wait is making me jittery. It kills me to be just her contractor, as much as it kills me to pretend as if I don’t want to kiss her every minute I spend at this house.
“Morning,” I finally drawl back.
She heads to the kitchen, and I follow her, taking the coffee she offers me. She’s biting her inner cheek, obviously nervous about something.
I wonder if she’s thinking about the same thing. How she wishes to kiss me.
“Do you think you’ll be here in the afternoon one of thesedays?” she says, all in one breath, before explaining, “Olivia asked me if she’ll have a chance to work with you.”
Oh.So she wasn’t thinking about me kissing her. Just wanted to take care of her daughter.
“Yeah, sure. I was planning on working longer this week, anyway. I want to finish this for you.”
Her mouth stretches into an infectious smile, one that connects straight to my chest. But as I walk out on the nearly finished deck, I take a gigantic sigh.
What I told her was a lie.
This could have been done days ago. I’ve been tinkering with stupid shit for weeks, to stay near her for a little longer. Just so I can be rewarded with her presence when she walks outside and greeted by one of her smiles.
Already deciding on it, I dial Jim, my second in command.
“I won’t be coming in today,” I say, hoping to avoid further discussion.
“What? But you need to approve of those materials that arrived. We’ve been doing this all on our own…”
“Deal with it,” I bite out and end the call.
I’m a good boss, typically, but they’ve been hounding me for weeks for leaving them out to dry. And it’s difficult to explain to your employees that you took on a huge extra job, because there was something about the divorced single mom that needed her deck built. Or that you’ve been stalling the project because you might have fallen for her in the process.
