A week and a half after their ramen dinner, Charlotte got a surprising call from the city, saying her permit had gone through. Someone would be by later to let her know what requirements had to be met, and she could get started with the project immediately.

With Taylor already gone to school, Charlotte had no way to release the burst of excitement in her chest other than to scream out loud. “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

It had come through so much faster than she’d hoped. The thought that Nate might have had something to do with it froze her in place for a second, but the lady on the phone hadn’t mentioned him at all. And if he had? Well, maybe she could let that slide this once. Because this was awesome.

“I get to open a beauty salon,” she said in a sing-song voice as she washed up the breakfast dishes. Time to decide on a name for her new business. And order supplies. And order a pre-manufactured shed to use for her salon. Then a flash of white caught her eye, and she looked through her kitchen window. Funny enough, a beautiful, white utility building was coming down the road on a large flatbed trailer.

She laughed. “Something like that would be perfect.”

Soap bubbles dripped off her fingers as she stood watching its slow progress. But then the truck pulling the trailer pulled to a stop in front of her house.

“Huh. I wonder where they’re going.”

She finished washing her dishes, and was drying her hands, when her doorbell rang. With her eyebrows drawn together, she opened the door to find a man holding out a clipboard. He had on an official looking polo shirt and a hat with a logo for some farmer’s supply company.

“Charlotte Mabry?”

“Yes.”

“Can you sign for this, and show me where you want it. My team will be here with the lift in a few minutes.”

“Sign for what?”

The man looked at her like she was an idiot, but quickly smoothed his expression into polite impassivity. Clearly, he was used to dealing with stupid customers. “For the custom-ordered and assembled twelve by sixteen-foot engineered wood utility shed on the back of my trailer.”

“Huh? But that isn’t mine.”

The man stepped back and looked at her house number. He scratched his head. “Well, the address is right. The name is right. As far as I’m concerned, it’s yours. And I need to get this unloaded. I have another delivery to make today.”

Charlotte stepped around him and followed him over to the trailer. The shed was gorgeous. It looked more like a little house with its white siding and gabled windows on the roof. With black shutters. Then her brain caught up. “Nate.”

His name fell from her lips like an accusation, and the man beside her quirked his eyebrows. He flipped through the papers. “Oh, yeah. Nate Haverton is the name on the invoice. Well, glad that’s solved. Where do you want it?”

“I don’t want it anywhere. I want you to take it back.”

Now the man really did look at her like she was crazy. “Sorry, but there’s no returns on a custom order like this. Not unless you find any defect or damage from transport. He waved his arm. “But I’ve never delivered damaged goods yet. Take a look-see.”

Barely holding on to her temper, Charlotte said, “I can see that it’s perfectly fine. But I didn’t order this and I don’t want it. You can just take it to Nate Haverton’s house and drop it off on his front lawn.”

The man took off his ball cap and swiped at his forehead with the back of his sleeve. “Well, Ma’am, I can’t go dropping it off any old place I want. My permit only grants me permission to travel over a specific route.”

“You had to get a permit to bring it here?”

“Sure did, lady. It’s an over-sized load.”

Time to get Nate over here. She pulled out her phone and dialed his number.

“Hello?” he said, sounding perfectly at ease with the world. It made Charlotte’s blood boil.

“Hello,” she responded in a sweet-as-peaches voice. “There’s a man parked in front of my house with something that belongs to you. You’d better get your butt over here and tell him where he can stick it before I do.”

She hung up without waiting for him to answer.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t catch your name.”

“Eddie,” he said.

“Eddie, would you like to step inside until Mr. Haverton can join us and clear up this mess.”

For the first time since he arrived, Eddie smiled. “Sure. That’d be fine.”

By the time Nate’s truck pulled up in her drive fifteen minutes later, Charlotte had given up trying to convince Eddie to turn his trailer around and take it back. He’d chugged down a glass of ice water and dug in his heels. There was nothing he could do except unload the building. So, when she opened the door and saw Nate’s calm expression, she let loose. “I can’t believe you went and bought that thing after I explicitly told you I didn’t want your help!”

Nate just smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if he’d bought her a set of Lincoln Logs instead of an actual building. “Look, I’m sorry. It wasn’t supposed to get here until tomorrow.”

Even the fact that she had known he was responsible, didn’t stop the flash of anger she felt at hearing him admit it. “What the heck does that have to do with anything? Do you even remember our last conversation about how I don’t like people throwing money around to solve problems?”

“Yes, and I agree some problems can’t be solved that way. Getting your salon going as soon as possible isn’t on that list. I was planning to talk to you about it before it got here though.”

“But not before you bought it.”

“Would you have said yes?”

“No.”

“Well, there you go. Can I come in?”

She stepped aside, but said, “Why, Nate?”

“Why do I want to come in?” he asked with raised brows. But she knew he was being purposefully obtuse.

“Why did you do this without consulting me? Are you trying to buy my affections? Make me feel indebted to you?”

“What? No. I’m trying to help you.” Then his jaw clenched. “I’m glad you think so poorly of me, but I help people all the time like this.”

“Do you ever stop to consider if they want your brand of help? This is too much.”

“Can we please talk about this inside?”

Charlotte stepped back and crossed her arms, glaring at him. “You aren’t going to convince me this is okay.”

His arm brushed her as he passed by because she didn’t leave enough room for him in the narrow door way. It angered her that she was so aware of even that slightest touch, especially when he’d done something so stupid.

He reached over her head and swung the door shut, then faced her with his arms folded. “Consider it a rental if you want—or rent to buy. We can figure out the details later. For now, we need to get it off the trailer.”

“I’d appreciate that,” Eddie said, nodding in approval.

Charlotte rolled her eyes and focused a hard glare at Nate. “You are not leaving that thing here.”

“Where else are we going to put it? I know you’re upset, but let’s be practical. That thing would be a monster to move twice.”

“But the lot isn’t even ready for it,” Charlotte protested.

“I know. That’s why it wasn’t supposed to be delivered until tomorrow,” Nate said, holding out an imperious hand for Eddie’s clipboard. He flipped through the pages for a second. “They must have scheduled it wrong at the store. Dang it. Well, I have a crew coming out in…” Nate looked at his watch, “Ten minutes.”

Charlotte crossed her arms and smirked. “Well, Eddie has another delivery today. There’s no way they can get it done it time.”

“Not till three,” Eddie supplied. “I could call the guys I got coming with the lifts and push this back a few hours if it would help.

Charlotte stared at Eddie with her mouth agape. “But you’ve been telling me for thirty minutes that you were in a hurry.”

Eddie’s eyes flashed to Nate. “Not a huge hurry,” he said earnestly. “In fact, I might be able to reschedule the other delivery since it doesn’t need a permit.”

“Sounds great,” Nate said. “I’ve got a tab down at the cafe if you want to go relax somewhere cool while you wait.”

“That’s nice of you, but I’m a handy guy to have around if you could use an extra man.”

Charlotte glared at Eddie. But that wasn’t fair. It was Nate she was mad at. He exuded power and people automatically responded to it like lemmings. “Eddie, you do not have to rearrange your whole day for his convenience.”

But Eddie wasn’t listening to her. Nate had stuck out his hand for Eddie to shake, and that seemed to be all the man could focus on.

Nate patted him on the back in a chummy gesture as he led him toward the door. “Glad to have your help. Let’s go outside and figure this out. I think I heard a truck pull up. It’s either the plumber or the landscaping guy.”

“What?” Charlotte asked, the word coming out more like a squawk. But neither man answered her since they were already heading out the front door. Feeling as if she was being swept away by a riptide, she followed them and saw two work trucks pulling up on the street in front of her house. Nate was going to get it as soon as she got him alone, and she was looking forward to it.

Five hours later, Charlotte sat on the back porch watching every step of the efficient and unauthorized process of getting the plumbing roughed in so the building could be moved into place. Against every instinct screaming at her to make Nate take the building away, she’d finally resigned herself to what was going on. A potent combination of outrage and disappointment simmered inside her. She’d started to believe he was different than her husband and every other rich person she knew.

When Lanelle came over, Charlotte wasn’t surprised. She had figured it was only a matter of time before her neighbor gave in to her curiosity.

“Have a seat,” Charlotte said, waving her into a chair.

“What in tarnation is going on over here?”

Charlotte waved her hand toward the giant lift currently moving the building into place over the old foundation under the watchful eyes of Nate and his five minions. “Apparently I’m getting a beauty salon today.”

“Why do you sound more like your septic tank backed up?”

Raising her voice so Nate would be sure to hear her, she said, “Because I didn’t agree to this.”

“It sure is pretty though.”

Charlotte narrowed her eyes. “That’s beside the point.”

In no time at all, the building was settled into place and the plumber and some man with a giant compressor and a nail gun went inside. Nate talked to Eddie, signed some papers and jogged over to them.

He nodded at Lanelle, but spoke to Charlotte. “Want to come see the inside?”

“Not at the moment. Right now, I want to discuss terms with you.”

“Terms?”

“Yes. You mentioned a rent-to-own option. I think that sounds great.”

Nate stared down at her with absolutely no expression on his face, though his eyes narrowed slightly. She wondered if that was how he looked at his business associates when they said something he didn’t like.

“Is that the only way you’re going to be okay with this?”

“Yes.”

“Fine. Let me call Sam.”

“Who’s Sam?”

“My personal assistant. He’s the best contract drafter I know.”

“Great. Sam and I need to have a conversation. Lanelle?”

“Yeah, honey?”

“Want to come in for some pie? I got one of those frozen chocolate cream pies.”

“No thanks. I’m gonna go have a look-see at your new salon.”

As Lanelle walked away, Nate crossed his arms and leaned against a support post. “I could take a piece of pie.”

Charlotte stood and poked a finger into his chest. “As far as I’m concerned, you can take a flying leap.”

And with that satisfying bit of childishness, Charlotte stormed inside to await her introduction to Sam, the contract man.