Give Us a Chance (10 page)

"Yeah, well, I'm trying to turn over a new leaf," I say, annoyed by his comment.

"Meaning you'll actually take the girl out on a date?" He shakes his head, like he's ashamed of me for not doing that in the past.

I don't know why he's so critical of me when it comes to this. It's not like he's a saint. I'm sure he was with plenty of women when he was my age. He even knocked up one of them—Nash's mom, who didn't even stick around after Nash was born.

"I was on a date just last night. And no, it didn't end at my apartment."

"You actually took her out?" he asks.

I roll my eyes. "Yes. Ask Nash if you don't believe me. He and Callie went out with us."

"Where did you go?"

"To Hoedowns, then we met up with Nash and Callie at Rodeo Freddy's."

"You took a girl to Hoedowns?" He leans across the table and swats my arm. "What the hell is wrong with you? You don't take a girl to a place like that."

"It was
her
idea, not mine. Her sister works there."

"Oh." He sits back. "Still, it's not appropriate for a date. I taught you boys better than that. And Rodeo Freddy's isn't much better. Why didn't you take this girl to a nicer place?"

"I will. I'll take her to a better place tonight."

His brows rise. "You're taking her out again? Tonight?"

"Not because of what you're thinking. I actually want to get to know this girl. This isn't about...you know."

He smiles a little and crosses his arms over his chest. "So who is this girl who's captured your attention?"

"Ivy. You know her. The girl who worked on the Victorian."

"Ivy Nikols? The carpenter?"

"Yeah. She works for Nash now on the library renovation."

"Yes. I saw her just last week when I was over there having lunch with Nash. He didn't say you were dating her."

I chuckle. "Because we don't tell you that shit. You know that. We have to practically be engaged before we bring a girl home."

"That may be true, but in this case you should've told me. I don't want you dating an employee."

"She's not
my
employee. She's Nash's. And if I keep dating her, I'll make sure I don't put her on any of my projects. In fact, Nash has already said he's hiring her for the historical museum."

He nods. "She'd be good for that. There's a lot of detailed trim work that'll need to be done. Has he asked her yet?"

"I don't think so."

My dad rubs his chin. "I don't know about this."

"About what?"

"About you dating this girl. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad you're finally interested in a woman for more than just sex, but if you date Ivy and then break up with her later, or even worse, cheat on her, it could cause problems for us as a business."

"Like what?"

"She could charge you with harassment. Say that you forced her into a relationship in exchange for keeping her job."

"Ivy would never do that. She's not that type of person."

"You say that now, but when someone is angry and wants revenge, you can't predict what that person will do. I've been in this business long enough to know that a person can turn on you in an instant. You think they're your friend and next thing you know, they're suing you. Our business is really taking off now and I don't want anything interfering with that. This is your future, Jake, and your brothers' futures. It's what's going to pay the bills for all four of you and I'm not going to put it at risk."

"I'm not putting it at risk." I sigh. "You seriously think I'd do something to jeopardize the business? I know how important it is. To all of us. And I'm telling you, Ivy would never make up some story so she could sue us. You've met her. You know she's not like that."

"Like I said, you can never be sure, no matter how nice someone seems. That's why I keep my business life separate from my personal life."

"I really like this girl and I just want to get to know her. Can you just let me do that?"

"You're a grown man. I can't exactly stop you. But I want you to be careful. And I'll be having a talk with Nash as well."

"Why would you talk to Nash about this?"

"Because he's her boss and I want him to get to know her to make sure she's as honest as you think she is. If you like this girl, I can't trust you to make an accurate assessment. And I need Nash to make sure you're not doing something stupid, like making out with her at the workplace. I don't want the other workers seeing that."

"I know better than to do that." I say that and yet now that I've kissed her, it's not going to be easy to control myself around her. If I'm near her, I'll want to kiss her, and I can't do that when she's at work.

 
"I want to give this girl the benefit of the doubt," my dad says, "but at the same time, I have to protect my business."

"Yeah. Got it. Message received. Now can we talk about the meeting?"

"Yes. Go ahead."

Later that day, I try not to think about what my dad said, but I keep hearing his warning about dating someone at work. I know it's a bad idea but I also know that I've never felt this way about a girl so I don't want to stop seeing her just because she works for us. And I don't want Nash not to hire her for the museum because of me. She needs that job.

I don't know why I'm worrying about this. I'm getting too far ahead of myself. Ivy and I have been on one date. And if tonight doesn't go well, that may be it. She may not want to go out with me again. But I really hope she does.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Ivy

"Damn." I drop the nail and shake my hand out, trying to shake the pain away. I just hit my thumb with the hammer, which I haven't done in years. Missing the nail? That's a rookie mistake and I'm not a rookie.

It only happened because I'm so distracted by thoughts of Jake. That kiss last night? I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I think I even had dreams about it. I didn't know a kiss could be that good. Or get me that aroused.

"Hey, Ivy."

I turn around and see Nick standing there. He's a trim carpenter, like I am. He works for his dad, who's also a carpenter and owns his own business. They've been contracted by Nash to work on this project because Tom, Nick's dad, specializes in restoring historic buildings. Tom is supervising all the carpentry work so every now and then he stops by and checks my work but rarely says anything. He thinks only men should be carpenters so he doesn't like me working here and tries to avoid me. He talks to all the guys on the crew but he's never even said hello to me. His son talks to me though.

"How's it going?" I say to Nick. He's 26 and married, with a kid on the way, which I only know because one of the other guys told me. Nick has never mentioned his wife and doesn't wear a ring.

"Good." He sits on the stool next to my work table. "You still doing that picture?"

"No. I finished it. It's over there." I point to the wall where it's hanging.

He glances at it but doesn't bother walking over to check it out. As a fellow carpenter, you'd think he'd want to get a closer look. I spent an entire week on it and used a lot of different tools and techniques to give it a 3-D look. But Nick apparently has no interest in that.

"So what are you working on next?"

"Nash wants me to work on the fireplace mantel in the reading room." I sort through my toolbox searching for the right-sized chisel.

"I thought
I
was doing that."

"He said you were still working on the window trim."

"Yeah, but when I'm done, I wanted to do the mantel. I told him that."

"Then talk to
him
about it. I'm just doing what I'm told."

Nick's eyes move down my body, then back up again. I try not to roll my eyes because that would just draw attention to his inappropriate behavior and I'm trying to ignore it.

This isn't anything new. Almost all the guys look at me like that, even married ones like Nick. They act like it's their God-given right to check out a woman, especially when she's the only one around. It's annoying, and I hate it so much I've even considered going into a different field, but this is what l love to do, so I'm not going to be forced to quit because some asshole guys can't keep their eyes above my breasts.

"What are you doing tonight?" Nick asks in a flirtatious tone, a grin on his face. Is he seriously asking me out? When he's married with a pregnant wife at home? He's an even bigger ass than I originally thought.

"I'm going to my dad's house. How about you? Spending time with your WIFE?" I emphasize 'wife' and his grin goes away. "She's pregnant, right?"

"Yeah. With twins." He doesn't sound happy about it.

"Twins. Wow. That's great." I smile. "Congratulations. When's she due?"

"In a couple months. She's on bed rest. Can't do anything."

I'm guessing he means she can't have sex, which is why he's wanting me to do it with him. What an ass. He's disgusting.

"Then you should be home with her," I say. "I'm sure she doesn't like being stuck in bed all day with no one to talk to."

"She watches her soaps all day. Or calls her sister and they bitch about their husbands."

I turn back to my toolbox. "I really need to get back to work."

"You ever want to do something, give me a call." He reaches around me and sets a business card on top of my tools, and when he pulls his hand back, he purposely brushes my side.

When he's gone, I pick up the card. It has his name and number on it, along with the name of his dad's company.

"Ivy."

"What?" I whip around and see Nash standing there. "Oh. Hi, Nash."

"Is something wrong?"

"No." I realize I'm still holding Nick's card. I toss it in the trash. "Did you need something?"

"I just wanted to ask when you'd be able to start on the fireplace mantel."

"Right now. I was just heading over there. But um..." I glance behind Nash to make sure Nick isn't there.

"What is it?" Nash asks.

"Nick was here just a minute ago and told me he wants to do the mantel. He wasn't happy when I told him I was going to be the one doing it."

"He doesn't have time to do it. He's way behind on the window trim."

"I know, but he still wanted to do it. I'm only telling you because Nick was going to come talk to you about it and I didn't want this turning into a bigger deal than it needs to be. If you want me to work on something else, that's fine. It doesn't matter to me."

"Come on." He motions me to follow him and we go in his office and he closes the door. "I want you working on the mantel. You have more skill than Nick and you're a hell of a lot faster. I never told him he could work on the mantel. I'm guessing his dad did so he assumed that meant I was okay with it. Tom is always trying to take over like that. You probably already know this but Tom and I don't always get along." That's for sure. I've heard them fighting in this office on more than one occasion. "Unfortunately, there are only a handful of restoration carpenters around here and Tom was the only one available when I took over this project. So we're stuck with him. He's under contract. I could get rid of Nick, but if I did that, I'd have even more problems with Tom. Anyway, I didn't need to tell you all that. The point is, you're in charge of the fireplace mantel."

"Okay. Thanks. I'll get to work." I go to leave but hear Nash again.

"Was he bothering you?" he asks, referring to Nick. "When he talked to you earlier?"

I shake my head. "He was just talking about work."

"You know you can tell me if any of the guys say or do something that's out of line. You don't have to put up with that shit."

I nod. "Yeah, got it." I go to open the door and see Nick walking by. He looks through the glass partition and sees Nash and then me. He jerks his head forward and storms off, as if he thinks I was in here tattling on him. Shit. This is bad. "I'll see ya later, Nash."

I go back to my work area and gather my supplies and bring them to the room where the fireplace is located. We're doing intricate trim work on the mantel because this is a special reading room where authors will be invited to do public readings of their books. The fireplace is huge and a centerpiece of the room. The author will sit in front of it while reading from his or her book, so a lot of eyes will see the fireplace, which is why the library wants the mantel to be impressive, almost like a work of art. I'm honored that Nash is letting me work on it. Normally, a carpenter with many more years of experience would work on something like this, but Nash chose me to do it, which says a lot.

My phone buzzes and I see it's Jake. I consider letting it go to voicemail. I'm not in the mood to talk right now. I'm nervous and my mind is racing, trying to figure out what Nick is going to do to get back at me for something I didn't even do. Maybe I should go talk to him and straighten things out, but I doubt he'd believe me. He always thinks people are lying to him and going behind his back, probably because that's what
he
does.

The phone is still vibrating so I answer it. "Hi, Jake."

"Hey, how's your day going?"

I relax a little at the sound of his voice. I've always found his voice to be soothing. It's smooth and deep and never rushed.

"I've had better days."

"What's wrong?" he asks, concern in his voice.

"Nothing. It's just one of those days." I don't want Jake getting involved in this. I told him I'd be honest with him, but that was about our relationship, not my job.

"So we still on for tonight?" he asks.

"Yeah. I'll see at you seven."

"Could you be ready any earlier?"

I smile. "Why? Seven isn't soon enough?"

"Truthfully? No." He laughs a little. "I'd like to see you right now but I'm helping out Bryce at a house reno on the west side of town and then I have a meeting at four."

"How about six?" I say without even thinking.

"Six would be great. I'll see you then."

"Yeah. Bye."

Why did I suggest six? I have to check on my dad, then go home, shower, get dressed, do my hair. Six doesn't give me enough time to do all that. But I really wanted to see Jake, which is bad. Really bad. I can't get attached to him. This is only temporary. But when I heard his voice just now, it took me out of the bad mood I was in, and the thought of seeing him in just a few short hours made me feel even better. I actually had butterflies jumping around my stomach, knowing I'd soon be able to kiss him again. Does he have this effect on all women? Is this why he gets so many girls? I don't know, but I certainly didn't expect to feel this way.