I sat at the bar and showed my hands to Wendy.

Her head cocked to one side and her eyes went wide.

She walked toward me, her lips puckered in a way where she’d rather punch me than try to kiss me.

“I’m only here for a drink,” I said.

“That’s what you always say,” she said. She got me a beer and as she twisted the cap off, she asked, “Did the cops come and talk to you?”

“Nope. Why?”

“Harrison was here that night,” she said. “Taking statements.”

“Oh, Christ. That guy watches too many big city cop shows. He’s always searching for the big story. What did you tell him?”

“That the guy - Jeff - got handsy with a woman and you socked him in the jaw.”

“Which was the truth.”

“Which bears the question…” Wendy leaned against the bar and grinned. “Why did you do that?”

“Defending a pretty girl’s honor,” I said with a sly grin.

She laughed. “Bullshit, Rams.”

“What? I’m like a knight in shining armor.”

“You’re the knight that everyone runs from. Evil. Dirty. The one the real knight in shining armor fights to keep the woman safe.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Jordyn didn’t seem to mind.”

“Ah, right,” Wendy said. “You’re just using her name now like it’s nothing. Did you two have a good night together?”

“Wildest night of my life.”

“Really?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

That told me more about Jordyn than what she said when we were together.

“No,” I said. “We had a beer and she went home. I apologized for messing up her night.”

Wendy clutched her chest. “It’s going to snow tonight now. Ramsey just apologized for something.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said. “Don’t think I’m getting soft here. I still knocked a guy flat on his ass. Which, back on topic, what happened with Harrison?”

“He left disappointed,” Wendy said. “Jeff didn’t want to press charges. He knew he was drunk and grabby. I told Harrison he was grabbing on someone you were with. Just to keep the story simple.”

The thought made me grin.

Why? I had no fucking clue.

“Thanks,” I said. “I owe you one.”

“Do you now?” Wendy asked. She put her hand onto the bar and leaned forward. “You know, I’m done here early.”

“Wendy… that’s a dangerous proposition.”

“You like danger. I like propositions.”

I gritted my teeth. Wendy had a certain charm about her. She was tempting, that was for damn sure. And she made no joke about her intentions with me. That went back a long time ago too.

“You knew Jordyn way back when, right?”

“Jesus, Rams, you know how to make a woman feel attractive.”

“What did I do now?” I asked.

“I’m giving you the green light to come at me and you want to talk about another woman.”

“Shit. Wendy…”

“You’re lucky I’ve got thick skin,” she said. She stood up straight, taking away the bird’s eye view of her full cleavage. “What do you want to know? You’re obviously on a hunt here.”

“A hunt?”

“When the hell do you come here alone?” she asked. She raised her left eyebrow a mile high into the air. “Huh? You always come out with the guys, and more times than not, they drag you out. But now you’re here digging up information on Jordyn. What, were you too chicken to get her phone number the other night?”

“Stop it,” I said. “Listen, I saw she had a booster seat in her car. I called her out on it and she said she had a kid. But she really didn’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay. And…?”

“And… I was hoping you would,” I said.

“You want me to tell you about Jordyn and her personal life?” Wendy laughed.

“She seemed like she was jumpy about it. I could only assume she’s single, right? The way she kept talking about the weekends. It just caught my attention.”

“You never fail to amaze me.”

“How so?”

“You could have any single woman you want, Rams. Including me. Yet you get the eyes for a woman who’s a single mom, trying to keep things going. You pick the hardest one to figure out.”

I stood up and reached into my pocket for some cash. “I don’t have to listen to this.”

“You don’t like the truth.”

“You don’t like getting denied.”

“Who does?” Then Wendy grinned and pointed at me. “You wanted to make a move on her, but didn’t.”

“Thanks for the beer, Wendy.”

“You’re intrigued because she didn’t just drop her panties after staring into your eyes for five seconds. Not everyone is like you,” Wendy said.

“Says the woman who just offered herself to me.”

“Desperation messes with a person’s mind.”

I curled my lip.

“Hey, Rams,” Wendy said before I could leave.

“What?” I asked.

“It’s not my place to talk about anyone’s personal life.”

“I get that.”

“But I’ll tell you this. She works at Bricker’s Real Estate.”

I nodded and left the bar.

Wendy was right.

I always found a way to find the wrong person to get involved with.

* * *

I opened the door to Uncle Tom’s office. It was a mess like I had never seen in my life. There was no talking him into using the filing cabinets that were across the back wall of the office. He insisted on using old boxes and older tables to stack them on. And in every box were piles of paper. Bills, plans, invoices, payments, you name it, and it was there. For Uncle Tom, what looked like a mess to others, was actually his organized chaos.

He waved at me as he stood up. “Come here, Ramsey. I want to talk to you about something.”

I shut the door and wiped the sweat off my brow. For how cool the last two nights had been, it was like Summer had decided to make one last go at us. Hot and sunny days. Working outside on a new project, sweating for ten hours straight. I had been going right from work to the gym and then grabbing something to eat on the ride home. My nights ended with a couple of beers and some heavy sleep. Rinse and repeat.

Which was good.

Keeping busy kept my mind from going too crazy.

One thing that stuck hard in my head was why did I fucking mention my brother to Jordyn? I kept that shit tight to my chest and told nobody about it. That one single event that became the biggest catalyst in my life. One event took a family and ripped it up like a piece of paper. It threw me off the edge I had been walking on.

And I was suddenly so quick to mention it to a stranger?

“We’ve got some plans drawn up for that development over in Brookshire.”

I blinked to chase the fucking thoughts away. “Looks good, right?”

“I’m heading over to meet Bill right now,” Uncle Tom said. “He’s got the paperwork on the land. Once that gets cleared, we’re thumbs up to go to work.”

“Big project, huh?”

“Maybe someday I’ll leave it all to you.”

I looked around the office. “If you plan on dying soon, old man, you’d better tell me what all this shit is.”

Uncle Tom laughed. “Don’t worry about me. Your aunt will keep me alive for another fifty years, easily.”

“Or maybe she’s fattening you up to get rid of you. For a younger man.”

Uncle Tom frowned. “I’d break their fucking necks with my bare hands if they went near my Millie.”

That was true love, huh?

“I’m messing with you.”

“I know. But I don’t like thinking that shit.”

“Hey. You and Aunt Millie are going together. Don’t worry about it. You two are stuck together. It’s almost sad to watch.”

“I can fire you, you know.”

“You need me. Remember that.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just because your relationships last less than the next sunrise doesn’t mean you get to pick on my marriage. You could have something like this.”

I shook my head. “Don’t go down that road, old man. Stick to being my boss.”

“Deal. I want you to come with me to talk to Bill. He works out of Bricker’s.”

That caught my attention. “Bricker’s, huh?”

“Yeah. You know the place?”

“Yes, I do,” I said.

My mind instantly thought of Jordyn.

“What are we waiting for?” Uncle Tom asked.

“I’m waiting on you, old man,” I said. “Like always.”

“You know, the first time you called me old man I should have backhanded you.”

“Too late now. I’m bigger than you.”

“I’ll send your aunt after you then.”

“Now that’s terrifying… Uncle Tom…”

He started to laugh, closed the folder with the plans and pointed to the door.

He was going to make a deal.

I was going to see Jordyn.

* * *

Bill was well dressed, smelled like a bottle of cologne had been poured on his shoulders, and he talked fast, smooth, and knew how to work over Uncle Tom with ease. But Uncle Tom was shrewd and knew how to battle back. There were offers coming in on the piece of land in question and I had no cares about it. My job was to build whatever Uncle Tom needed done.

For me, in the comfortable, pumpkin spice smelling office, my eyes kept looking around, going from door to door, wondering if I would find what I was looking for.

Then from one of the hallways, Jordyn appeared.

She didn’t see me at first, allowing my eyes to do the typical guy thing, which was to completely check her out. And I made no attempt at hiding it either. She had white shoes on with jeans. They hugged her legs and rounded off curves that made my teeth grit hard. She was in a button-down shirt with a purple and red checker pattern. My first wonder was what was under that shirt. Something like a tank top? Or an actual t-shirt?

I stared so long and obviously that the person she was talking to looked at me and gave her a nudge.

When Jordyn turned her head, her eyes went wide and her cheeks turned a deep shade of red.

She stepped toward me. “Ramsey?”

“I’m looking to buy a house,” I said. “Maybe a mansion. Can you help?”

“Are you serious?”

I smiled. “No, darling. I don’t think there’s a mansion in this town.”

“What are you doing here?”

I pointed to my shirt. “I work for a construction company.”

“Oh. Right. But…”

“I’m waiting out a meeting,” I said. “A land and building thing. Not my kind of thing to mess with.”

“Yet, you’re here.”

“When I found out you worked here and had the chance to come and see you, I had to.”

“Wait a second,” Jordyn said. Her honey-like eyes lit up with a little hesitant excitement. “How did you know I worked here?”

Now, I had to be fair as I studied her. I noticed her left ear had two earrings in it while the right ear only had one. Her hair was pulled back, almost done as though she were running late, because random strands of dark brown curly hair did what they wanted. Her skin was naturally toned without the hint of any makeup, other than whatever the hell it was that women used around their eyes and on their eyelashes. Not even a touch of lipstick on her lips. Which made those damn lips so kissable.

“I know a lot of things,” I said. “Don’t worry about it.”

Jordyn touched my arm. “Seriously though.”

“What are you doing tonight?”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s Friday. Once I’m done with this meeting I’m part of, I’m heading back to the job site to make sure it’s still standing. Then I’m done for the weekend. Want to grab a drink or something? I’ll tell you everything I know.”

Jordyn eased back. “It’s not that simple, Rams. You know that.”

“I know what?”

“You asked me questions about it already.”

“About you having a kid?” I asked. “What’s the big secret, Jordyn? Why is that a big deal for you?”

“It just is,” she said. “And I can’t meet up with you tonight. Not sure if I would want to anyway. This weekend isn’t my… alone weekend.”

“So, I should bother you next weekend then?”

“Or how about you never worry about it,” she said. “Don’t try to be some tough guy hero for me. I don’t need it.”

Jordyn turned and walked to the front desk. She sat down and reached for a bunch of papers, trying to make her face look mean. But she wasn’t mean. Or mad at me. It was something else inside her.

Hell. It was sadness.

Between that and her telling me not to worry about bothering her, that should have been my hint. Kind of like that guy at the bar trying to touch her, only nobody was there to punch me in the jaw to knock some sense into me.

So, I stood there and watched her as she moved shit around her desk, trying to pretend to be busy. I didn’t understand why the whole having a kid thing was such a big deal for her. Then again, if she only knew the truth hidden behind my eyes too. And to think that I was the one quick enough to say something about my brother the other night. Something inside me wanted to trust her. Hell, if she was only able to get out and enjoy herself on alternate weekends, that meant she worked her ass off the rest of the time to keep things normal for herself and her kid. That struck me. As messed up as it felt in my head, it was damn near a turn on.

Behind me, I heard Uncle Tom’s deep voice hitting the walls. He didn’t exactly look as thrilled as when we had got there. Bill stood in the doorway to an office, one foot crossed over the other, one hand in his pocket, the other slightly outreached for Uncle Tom.

“How’d that go?” I asked.

Uncle Tom curled his lip and walked toward the door.

I looked back at Bill and nodded. “Nice to meet you.”

“Sorry things didn’t go as planned,” he said. “Please tell your uncle there’s still opportunity there. This happens all the time.”

I stepped toward Bill and he pushed from the doorway and stiffened. He swallowed hard as I stood over him.

“My uncle built his company from nothing. He supported himself, his wife, and in so many ways, my ass with that business too. He might not be young anymore, but that’s why he brings me to these kinds of meetings. Don’t confuse dirty hands for stupidity.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning if you fuck with my family, you won’t like the outcome.” I paused for effect. “As I said, it was nice to meet you, Bill.”

He quickly turned and slammed the office door shut behind him.

I felt a little better.

I walked toward the desk where Jordyn made a fast push away from it to a printer and stood up to stare down at it.

“Not sure what I did exactly to piss you off, Jordyn,” I said.

She started to shake her head.

“In case nobody told you today, you look beautiful.”

“Excuse me?” she asked, turning.

“You look beautiful,” I said. “And whatever you’ve got going there with being afraid and trying to be tough and hiding, I respect it. But everything I said still stands. You’re busy this weekend. But not next weekend.” I plucked a business card off the desk and flipped it around. I wrote my number on it. “If you have nothing to do, give me a call. Sitting around at Shammy’s waiting for a fight isn’t as much fun as you’d think.”

“That’s good to know,” she said.

She came toward me, the desk still separating us. She took a business card and leaned forward to write something on the back of it.

“Here you go,” she said, handing me the card.

“So, if I wanted to sell my house, I should come talk to you?”

“You call, and I transfer you to someone who can help.”

“Why not become one of them?” I asked.

“Because I sit here and do this stuff. I like it. Any other questions or attacks on what I do for a living?”

“I’m not attacking, darling,” I said. “I’m talking. There’s a difference.”

“If you’ll excuse me, I have things to do,” she said.

I took the business card with a smile and left. Uncle Tom was already gone. I was sure everyone would hear about the meeting with Bill. But knowing him, he would go home to talk to Aunt Millie first. They fiercely loved, trusted, and leaned on each other.

For me, I sat in my truck alone, looking at the business card. Ironically, it was a business card for Bill.

I flipped it over, wanting to get Jordyn’s number so I could call her.

The urge inside me to talk to her and make her smile was more than I cared to understand at that moment.

Only there wasn’t a phone number on the back of the card.

Just a little note from Jordyn.

Enjoy your weekend. Forget about me.

I rubbed the card between my thumb and index finger. I flicked it across the truck to the passenger floor. As I stared at the corner building, whose old bricks had been painted bright red, I saw Jordyn through the large glass window. Even with text on the glass and autumn colored fake leaves hanging in the corners.

I hated to admit it, but she was right.

I needed to just forget about her.

Not for my sake…but for hers.