Page 10 of His Build
She pulled back the tarp and stepped into the darkness of the interior. Only when it fell down behind her in a rustle of plastic did she let out the breath in her lungs.
Six weeks. She had to last six weeks with this man.
4
It wasn’t until Lucy disappeared behind the tarp that Graydon remembered he had operational control over his legs.
The minute he’d seen her coming up the walk, he was thrust right back into yesterday, when he’d been in some kind of bizarre tractor beam created by her presence. All he could see was that flush in her cheeks and décolletage. The way her arms curved. The soft swoop of her hair against her cheek.
He came to his senses faster than yesterday. Maybe it was being on his own turf. Or maybe it was his sense of irritation at himself that he was focusing on the womanliness of this person and not the person herself.
But her effect on him hadn’t changed. He still felt like every synapse came to attention when he was next to her, as if with her, he somehow became more alive.
It terrified him.
Graydon had very purposefully kept to himself for his whole adult life. He preferred his relationships to be exceedingly casual, with women who wanted exactly the same. Like Shelby, or Lisa, an accountant for the landscaping company he sometimes worked with who wouldn’t even let him spend the night at her place. He’d tried dating in his twenties, but things had gone south fast. He’d found himself caring about what that person was doing and worse, worrying if they were safe.
He didn’t like that feeling. At all.
It was hard enough having a sister and nephew he agonized over at all times. Being worried about someone voluntarily was too much. Love always ended in pain. It was inevitable. And he’d had more than enough of that for one lifetime.
Graydon had a flash of his parents in the front seat of the car, of a blinding light. Of darkness after that.
He pinched the bridge of his nose to clear his mind, grateful as he stepped into the house that he found Chris, his second in command, right by the entrance, squatting down in the future guest bath with the building plans spread out on the floor in front of him. It was the perfect distraction for this mess of feelings inside of him. From this woman, who was wandering around his job site.
This woman.Her name’s Lucy, Gray-Man.Her name rolled around in his mind like something soft and sweet. A dessert.Lucy.
Shit, so much for distraction.
“Everything okay?” he asked Chris, forcing himself to redirect his thoughts.
“Yeah, but I can’t figure out what’s off.” Chris tapped at the plans with a pencil. “There’s something wrong with the way this pipe here’s supposed to come out.”
Graydon crossed the hallway towards Chris. The scent of Lucy’s shampoo seemed to linger at the edge of his consciousness. He paused at the threshold, gripping the future doorframe.
“Graydon?” Chris said, brows scrunched. “You okay?”
Graydon gave his head a shake. “Yeah. Fine.” He forced himself to turn his attention back to the drawings.
After a good five minutes of puzzling, they worked out the issue. A hole had been drilled a half-inch off.
“Good catch, Chris.” Graydon said, meaning it.
Not for the first time, Graydon felt eternally grateful Chris had decided to stay on after a couple summers of crew work a few years back. He was sharp as a tack and great with clients. He’d promoted him to VP last year—a title more than anything, given they were the only two permanent in-house employees. He hoped it was enough to keep him in Barkley falls. Chris could go anywhere—he’d spent the year before backpacking around the world. Plus, he had a whole other career before moving here, though he didn’t talk about it much. Graydon would feel better if Chris met someone and settled down. Maybe have a couple kids. Not just for his own selfish company needs, but for Chris. While he was sharp as a tack and never showed his hand, there was something a little lost about that guy.
Graydon clapped Chris on the back and stood up. “Saving our ass once again. If we’d missed that mistake until after the fixtures came in, it’d be a disaster. A very expensive disaster.”
Chris tucked his pencil behind his ear and began pulling the plans back into a pile. “That’s what you pay me the big bucks for.”
“Well, you did learn from the best,” Graydon said, flicking imaginary dirt from both of his shoulders.
Chris raised an eyebrow in deep sarcastic surprise.
Graydon put his hands up. “Okay, fine. There’s a chance I might not have caught it—guess my eyesight’s going in my old age.”
“Your vision still seems to be sharp enough to get a good look at our new designer,” Chris mused, standing and rolling up the plans.
Graydon’s stomach did a little lurch. Was he that obvious? When had Chris seen him with her?
