Dating a Metro Man (19 page)

“I’m doing the biggest part of it even as we speak,” Allen said, declining to mention that the security inspection was an excuse. Meeting her was actually what he had come for. He trained people to do the residential inspections, but rarely did them himself. “Be right back.”

He headed out the door again and came back moments later with two more boxes.

“The other men only carried one box,” Mason informed the big man as he set the boxes on the floor next to the other ones. “Are you strong?”

Allen shrugged. “I like to think so. I work hard at keeping in shape.”

“I want to be big like you,” Mason said wistfully.

Allen closed his eyes in pleasure as he fell instantly in love with the kid. It was a heady thing to be admired for something you loved to do.

“I can probably help you with that,” Allen told him. “I work at a gym. When you get a little older, your mom can bring you by to work out with me.”

“Really?” Mason asked, smiling genuinely.

“Really,” Allen told him sincerely, putting a hand on the top of his head. “Let me get those last two boxes.”

“Did you hear that, mom?” Mason asked, as the man headed out again.

“Yes. I heard,” Talia said softly, smiling at her son’s enthusiasm. The man had an excellent body, but his heart seemed to be just as prime as the rest of him.

Allen came back with the last two boxes to find Mason waiting for him. The boy slammed the door shut after Allen got across the threshold.

“Mason! Close the door gently, son. Don’t slam it off the hinges,” Talia said firmly.

Mason rolled his eyes, but mumbled “Sorry.”

Allen couldn’t hold the laugh in anymore. Mason’s gaze swung to Allen’s laughing one.

“I get a little a carried away in my ‘thusisam,” Mason explained.

Allen laughed more because the kid was obviously trying to quote his well-spoken mother.

“I completely understand. Happens to me all the time,” Allen told him, getting a laugh from the boy in return.

He walked over to stand in front of Talia Martin again. “I’m going to need my clipboard back to finish the security inspection. Seth is having us install a modest alarm system for you. The neighborhood is pretty good, but he was concerned about you and the kids being alone here.”

“Do you know Seth well?” Talia asked.

“I work for his cousin—well, at least part-time. I’m also Seth’s personal trainer at the gym,” Allen told her, liking the way her look took all of him in thoroughly before returning to his face.

“Explains the muscles,” Talia said, sweeping his body with one more interested gaze. She liked what she saw. A woman would never grow tired of admiring all that physical perfection.

Then Kendra started complaining as she awoke. Talia walked over to scoop her up from the playpen.

“Hey, sleepy girl. I wish I had had time for a nap today.” She kissed her daughter’s cheek and grabbed the body wrap infant carrier from the side of the playpen. Walking to the small dining room table, she laid her daughter on it, and then wrapped the yards of material around her in loose loops before scooping the now cooing baby into it.

Allen was mesmerized by the whole process. He walked to where Talia Martin stood with her daughter facing out and tied securely to her body by the wrap.

“Fascinating. May I?” he asked, tracing the material and the intricate way she had wrapped it around her with his fingers. “I’ve never been a fan of women’s fashion, but this is amazing. Imagine if clothing was made this way.”

Talia laughed at the man’s genuine appraisal of the baby wrap. “Well, some clothes are made like this, if you’re a supermodel walking down an Italian runway. I don’t quite shop in those markets.”

“You have a body that would look good in anything,” Allen said sincerely, meeting her surprised chocolate gaze with his startled blue one. “Uh—sorry. I didn’t mean that as anything but a fashion observation—I don’t think.”

Talia snorted and laughed, making Kendra laugh too.

Allen looked down at the little girl happily hanging from her mother’s front. “How old is she?”

“Ten months,” Mason answered.

Allen looked down to see Mason standing next to his leg.

“Wow. Your sister is young,” Allen told him. “How about you?”

“Five or six,” Mason answered enigmatically, making Allen laugh again. The kid was as fascinating as his mother.

“Which is it?” Allen asked.

“I don’t know for sure,” Mason said seriously. “Progidees are smart for their age.”

Allen laughed. “How do you know you’re a prodigy?”

“Grandpa Henry says I’m terrible smart,” he answered, doing his best to imitate his grandparents. “Grandma Lily says I’m just terrible.”

Allen looked at Talia, who was turning all sorts of interesting colors. The smile he gave her was automatic, genuine, and he hoped just a little bit revealing of his interest.

“Can I come back tonight and bring pizza? I really like you all, and I haven’t had this much fun in a long time,” Allen told her.

Talia blinked a couple of times trying to absorb that he wanted to spend more time with them. “Sure. I guess that would be okay.”

“Okay. Well, I need to get this check done and the results back to my boss before the day ends. Rain check on the beer? I’ll have it tonight.” Allen started to walk away, but then stopped. “There isn’t a husband or boyfriend I need to worry about is there?”

How amazing is this?
Talia thought, as she shook her head in reply, smiling at the man over her daughter’s head. She wasn’t going to need Seth Carter to hook her up. Mason was doing the job for her by charming this really great one.

“Come around six-thirty or seven. These two go to sleep around eight-thirty. Make at least a quarter of the pizza plain cheese. Mason doesn’t eat anything interesting.”

“Unhealthy food will kill you,” Mason said, wisely, “but I like pizza.”

“Mason quotes more miscellaneous facts than Seth,” Allen said, grinning. “If you ever give that kid access to the Internet, he’ll take over the world.”

“He’s five and half. I think Mason is growing a super brain to compensate for other things,” Talia said, liking Allen’s husky laugh.

“Well, let me get this check done so I can get out of your way,” Allen said kindly, walking off to the bedrooms.

Behind him, Allen heard the clink-clink of metal leg braces as Mason tagged slowly along wherever he went in the house. It made him smile and think of when Casey used to walk with a cane. Allen made conversation with the boy while he made quick work of checking where sensors would need to go.

“So what will happen next is that some very nice men will come by to install your security alarms sometime next week,” Allen said to Talia, smiling. “Now I’ll just leave you to your settling in and come back later.”

Talia walked him to the door. “Thanks for bringing in the boxes. I really do appreciate it.”

“Glad to help,” Allen said, winking. “What do you like on your pizza?”

Talia shrugged and smiled. “I’m pretty easy to please. I like everything.”

“I tend to like a lot of variety myself,” Allen said, watching indecision flash in her gaze as she tried to decide if he was flirting with her or not. Deciding he liked her off-balance, Allen left it as it was, not bothering to confirm or deny. “Well—see you later.”

“Wait,” Talia called after him, hearing her daughter giggle at the tone of her voice as she yelled. “What’s your name? I never got it. I should have looked at your badge when I had the chance.”

“Sorry. It’s Stedman,” Allen called, lifting a hand to wave. “Allen Stedman.”

Talia stood open-mouthed and gaping as the man and his shapely rear end disappeared down her sidewalk on his way to the visitor’s parking area.

The man bringing her pizza tonight, and who had been charmed by her son, was the twenty-six-year-old weight lifter slash clothing designer Seth had mentioned to her. The laugh bubbled up inside her as she realized how smoothly she’d been maneuvered.

Well, the man was as nice as he was nice-looking, she conceded. Talia could definitely see why he’d been able to lure Seth’s girlfriend away. Truth was that Allen Stedman could lure any woman. If a woman wasn’t hot for his muscled good looks, the niceness alone made him good enough to eat with a spoon.

Her mind raced, wondering if she could put her hands on anything other than exercise clothes and mom-wear for this evening. Stedman was a little younger than Talia preferred, but then a pizza and beer wasn’t really dating anyway. And with two kids as a chaperone, it wasn’t likely to get very far.

Still, it would be nice to make a decent impression on the first man she’d agreed to spend any time with in quite a while. Besides, you could never tell what kind of connections a person would bring to you.

One thing for sure, Stedman had just helped her learn a valuable lesson about her employer. Talia would never underestimate Seth Carter in any of her future dealings with him.

If Seth made a serious comment about anything, it was now blatantly obvious to her that the man meant it.

*** *** ***

With the sheetrock in most of the house finished, Jenna was now able to see her creation really coming to life. There had been fewer compromises to be made than she had anticipated and the job was still three weeks ahead of schedule.

Jenna had intentionally remained behind when everyone else had left for the day. Needing some time alone to think, the mostly finished house provided the safest, most solitary place she had available at the moment. So she sat on the hearth of the stacked stone fireplace in the family room and sighed in contentment to be sitting still for a change.

If she had a pillow and blanket, she would have stretched out on the hearth and been fast asleep in minutes. The long days and long nights were rapidly catching up to her. Not that she minded the long nights; she just needed some sleep to better enjoy them.

She opened her eyes when she heard a car crunching on the gravel. Moments later, Seth walked in carrying a picnic basket.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“Look, try this greeting—
Hi Seth. It’s nice to see you
,” he suggested, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Jenna laughed. “Sorry. I swear I’m never this bitchy with anyone else. I don’t know why I do it with you. It’s like an automatic response to your presence.”

Seth shook his head. “I don’t know why you do it either, but it’s getting old.”

He set the picnic basket down on the hearth beside Jenna. “This place is seriously looking like a house now. Love the double office spaces on each side of the loft. You really are designing this space for a couple, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess I am. The office spaces offer privacy, but don’t cut the person in them off from the rest of what is going on,” Jenna said. “And I put skylights above those spaces instead of the center of the room, so the workspaces will be well lit during the day. The light filters down into the great room enough. That was the argument I was having the first time you visited.”

“Glad you won. Fireplace is nice too,” Seth commented, looking at the stacked stone that went all the way to the ceiling. “It’s like a piece of art in the room.”

“I spent more on the stacked stone than I should have, but it makes a strong visual statement in the space. I hope like hell the client likes it. His answers about materials were too vague to know, so I did what I liked,” Jenna complained with a shrug. “I end up sitting on this hearth now a good part of the day. It’s wide enough to nap on, and I can’t tell you how tempted I’ve been.”

“The client will love it,” Seth said with confidence. “It’s the first thing you see when you walk through the door. The fireplace visually screams
you’re home
so loud that even the busiest brain would have to register it.”

Jenna looked at Seth in open-mouth shock. “That’s exactly what I wanted it to do.”

“Congratulations,” Seth said sincerely. “You’re as talented as you are beautiful.”

“Under other circumstances, I’d physically reward you for your moral support, but I’m too damn tired today to even offer a hug,” Jenna told him with a weak smile.

Seth laughed. “Glad to hear I finally wore you out. It only took sleeping with me and this huge project to find the limits of Jenna Ranger’s inexhaustible energy.”

He put one hand in the pocket of his dress slacks as he looked down at her sitting on the hearth, doubly glad he’d followed his instincts. “I brought dinner with me. I was going to chase you down wherever you were and convince you to eat whether you wanted to or not. I’m calling this a date, but you can call it being a friend if it makes you feel more comfortable. We’ll argue the semantics of this out-of-bed time together when you’re less tired. I don’t want to take advantage.”

Jenna looked away from Seth’s gaze. She could feel tears threatening. “It’s like we’ve switched places. You spent the whole time we were dating before ignoring me. It bothered me much more than I ever told you. Now it’s like I want to keep my emotional distance, and in the process I end up being just as bad to you as you ever were to me.”

Jenna sniffed a little when she felt Seth moving her work things and sitting down beside her. “When you’re nice to me, Seth, it’s hard to remember that I’m still seeking retribution.”

“Don’t worry—I’m sure to make you mad at me again within a few days,” Seth said softly. “Right now I just want to take care of you a little. I’m trying to be more attentive to what’s going on in your life than I was before. I can’t undo the past, Jenna. I can only be nice to you now.”

“Congratulations,” she said, sniffing as tears rolled down her cheeks. “You’re doing a great job of being nice to me at this very moment. It has the same impact on me that this fireplace has on the house.”

“I know you’re too tired for a hug. Can I kiss you instead?” he asked, dipping his head even as she nodded.

Seth lifted her into his lap and kissed her softly, lovingly, uncaring that the truth of his heart was in every move. “Whatever our problems, I have always cared for you. I was just really bad at showing you before. But I’m learning. I’m sorry it took me so long to figure it out.”