Chapter Five
Caldwell
“How are things going with the Streamline house or should I ask, how things are going with the blonde goddess?” Ashton inquired as I worked on a modification for a cabinet I picked up from an antique shop I stumbled upon downtown. Really it was what most people would call a junk store. A place filled with a lot of stuff where nothing was nicely on display and required a bit of hunting and digging through piles to find treasure.
“She’s slowly killing me every damn day.” I groaned, setting down the drill I was using and reaching for the beer my brother was offering me. “A couple weeks ago she insisted on helping me.” The full visual was clear as day. “The goddess climbed up on a ladder in tiny shorts and a halter top to paint a bookcase I had installed—”
He interrupted me with laughter and smart remarks. “What’s wrong? Don’t tell me! You lost focus and fucked something up?”
“No, smart ass! I have control…too much apparently.” I took a big swig of some fancy IPA shit Ashton insisted on drinking—who wants to drink fruity beer? “It was a good thing that I was gawking at her…she lost her balance and I caught her.” I had to stop, just talking about it had me all worked up. “I swear to God she was waiting for…or wanting me to kiss her. I just looked at her while holding her longer than I should have…”
“Why didn’t you kiss her if you felt like she wanted it?” Ashton made it sound so simple.
“What if I was wrong…I questioned myself… Chickening out, I set her on her feet and pointed out that she had paint all over her. She went off to shower and told me she had a very big stall before she backed away. Fuck!” I shook my head, recalling the look on her unforgettable face, like she was inviting me to join her and the way she tossed her top before disappearing.
“Fuck is right. Why didn’t you scoop her up and scrub her down?”
Ashton’s question had me remembering every little detail that could’ve affirmed my suspicions and made it alright to do as he suggested. I stood there stunned, listening to the water running, thought about going after her, and then came back to my senses. Instead I cleaned up, wrote a note, and got the fuck out of there. I truly had no desire to fuck things up and end our daily visits. If I read her wrong and she fired me, I would’ve been kicking myself over and over for making such a dumbass move.
Of course, at home as I stepped under the spray of my own shower, my mind wandered to what could’ve happened. Would I have her on her knees or would I be on mine…I wasn’t sure if I had the patience for either of those choices. More than likely, I saw her bent over with me holding her in place while taking her from behind with my hand stroking between her thighs. So much pent-up frustration that needed to be released, there was no way I could’ve lasted long. I already knew that my jacking off never lasted very long while I thought about her in the shower, daily. I needed to turn off the visual running through my head as I didn’t need my brother teasing me about getting a boner just thinking about Daphne.
“One of these days, you’re just going to have to test the waters, bro.”
“Maybe…maybe after I finish the job.”
Yes, maybe I would ask her out for dinner, do things the right way—date, get to know each other on a different level, and ease into sex. I was sure that she would agree to more than me working for her. I didn’t think I was crazy or imagining her interest in me. The looks I caught her giving me, subtle remarks that sounded like they had double meanings, the way she held onto me tightly and wet her lips with closed eyes.
Then a few days after telling Ashton about the paint incident, there was no mistaking that there was heat going on between us. Daphne walked in the door and I nearly lost it. I had seen her dressed in some pretty sexy casual clothing. But fuck me! She strutted in like a runway model in a fitted dress that molded to her every fucking amazing curve. Her tits! They had to be in some kind of a pushup bra because they were popping up and out of the top of her above the fucking knee dress.
Damn! My eyes couldn’t stop their journey right down her tan legs—
“You like my come-fuck-me heels?” She had caught me looking and was having a laugh with a sexy grin before kicking off the shoes and moving toward the kitchen. “Let me make you lunch.”
“How about you be my lunch?” I couldn’t stop the words from slipping from my mouth and they were definitely loud enough for her to hear them clearly.
“Oh, naughty boy,” she said with a smirk and a wink.
“Man…” I corrected her as I moved closer to her. “All man.”
“Yes,” seemed to hang in the air after her breathy voice uttered it and I nearly missed the rest of her words. “I have seen just how much of a man you are.”
It was my turn to wear a shit-eating grin and I wanted to ask her if she had been checking me out…what she meant exactly. Unfortunately, we were interrupted by my cellphone ringing over and over.
“Umm…” I said as I pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked down at my screen. “I need to take this.”
Just like that, the moment was over and I had to pack up my things and run off to my real job an hour earlier than normal. I begged her forgiveness and did something completely unprofessional. I leaned forward and placed a chaste kiss on her forehead before walking out the door—forgetting to clean up my mess. It wasn’t that I left a dirty workspace that hit me so much…it was that I had kissed her. What the fuck was I thinking? Kissing her like it was the right…or natural thing to do as I ran out the door to work. That was a couple’s thing to do, for sure… an “I’m off to work, Honey, be back later” kind of thing—it wasn’t what a construction worker did to his employer.
I didn’t really think about the move I had made until after I had called my brother and was on my way into work without changing clothes or picking up my car. But then again, the problem at work didn’t require me to look any other way.
“Ashton, I need your help. Someone crashed their car into the front window of my place. Bring a cleanup crew, builders, and glass guys. I will pay whatever it costs. I can’t afford to be closed down right now. One night and one day is all I can afford. The day after is tour day. Dude, I cannot pull out and miss out on the busiest day of the month, the tourists, and the potential buyers…new clients—”
“Breathe! I will gather a team and be down there within the hour.” He was right, I was practically hyperventilating—not a good thing to be doing while driving through the crazy ass downtown traffic. “We will get this fixed…I promise, bro.” His words put me at ease and allowed me to focus on not hitting pedestrians by running red lights which I nearly did a couple times.
When I arrived the damage wasn’t nearly as bad as I had imagined and I was happy to hear that no one was hurt on the sidewalk or inside my building. Normally, I would have waited for insurance companies to take care of the damage but I didn’t have the time to wait for the battle lines to clear as to which insurance—the driver’s or mine—would be paying out. I had big things on the horizon and they were coming my way quickly. I just needed the cops to take all of their photos, measurements, and log their evidence so I could get work underway. Looking the structure over with Ashton and his crew, we could see that the major damage was shattered glass, splintered wood, and dislodged black brickwork. With the extra cash I planned to pay under the table as a bonus to their regular fees, they were more than willing to work around the clock until it was fixed.
I hoped photos and invoices would be enough for the insurance company to pay, but if they never mailed me a check, I was fine. My business was up and running within thirty-six hours, my employees didn’t lose too many hours, and the most important part—only the building front sustained damage. None of the items inside came in contact with the car.
To prevent the same thing from happening again, I went ahead and added an iron railing with built-in plant holders that the city had already approved for a future patio. I guess you could say that things were better than before—new and improved. Not that the accident was a good thing, but sometimes one thing leads to another like it had with Daphne.
I couldn’t wait to have her see my place and the new addition that I hoped to use for events. A closed-in patio allowed me to have libations outdoors as long as people stayed within the area. Of course, I needed to figure out a good way of telling her the truth about me. Maybe she would be flattered that I took an interest in her and her house. With my line of work, owning an art gallery, it would make sense that I would know about her house, but I should’ve been up front with her.