Chapter 10
Audrey answered her door in the morning and found Phil had arrived to go to work on her wiring. She welcomed him and felt a little relief Josh wasn’t there. Yet, as she readied for work, she couldn’t take her mind off him. Today was supposed to be the last day of the work and she may well have power by the end of the day. Would she see Josh again after that? It was certain he was Carly’s rotten ex-boyfriend…so it was definitely a conflict of interest. She grumbled, thinking about how she wanted to ask him so many questions but couldn’t reveal anything Carly had said about him. Why should she want answers anyway? Because he was ruggedly handsome, made her laugh, liked to listen to her instead of only wanting to be listened to… And his gorgeous face wouldn’t get out of her head. He’d charged over to save her from the angry opossum in the back yard, and whatever else had been out there. If there really was something else.
She sighed and leaned forward over the sink to toss water on her face. Maybe she had real feelings for Josh. Maybe she wanted to hear his side of the whole story. Maybe he was the one.
She stood and dried her face by the light of her mini lantern. “It’s time to go to work and forget about this, Toby.” Her sleepy hound had found a napping place below her on the fluffy bathroom rug, and he looked up at her when he heard his name. “When the work is done, he won’t be my electrician anymore and there shouldn’t be a reason for us to see each other…except Allie might try to set us up some more. I might have to tell her why I can’t date him.”
Toby answered with a little moan and a wagging tail.
“I know, you like Josh, don’t you?”
“Audrey?”
Josh’s voice startled her, and she stepped over Toby to walk out of the bathroom. Toby waddled over to Josh and sniffed his shoes till Josh petted him. “This is the last area for wiring. We should be able to finish up by later today.” His matter-of-fact tone was very professional, and his eyes didn’t meet hers.
“Oh, okay. I’ll be on the way to work in a few minutes.”
“We’ll wait till you leave.” He rubbed Toby’s back and then turned to leave.
“Is something wrong, Josh?”
He sent her a tight smile. “Everything’s fine.” Then he left and closed the bedroom door behind him.
She knew he wasn’t fine, but got the message he didn’t want to talk. She hadn’t seen him in a bad mood before. But she didn’t know everything about him…what she knew from him directly was so different from anything Carly had told her. So either there were two very different sides to the story, as occurred in many relationships she’d dealt with…or Josh had another side she didn’t know about yet. Either way, she couldn’t get any closer to him. Her heart ached.
“Why am I so attracted to crazy guys, Toby?” He tilted his head and wagged his tail. “Okay, I’ll feed you now.”
***
Josh wasn’t sure what to think. His desire to talk to Audrey and ask her how she felt about him was playing a violent game of ice hockey with his anger over her deception. He threw his energy and frustrations into finishing his work on the house and when five o’clock came, he knew Audrey would likely be on her way home. He should just finish the work, get her to sign the paperwork, and walk out of her life forever.
He wiped sweat from his forehead and went to flip the power back on. After turning on every light in the house, he was sure they were good to go and, as he was packing up, Audrey walked through the front door. Her face brightened when she saw the lights working,. and her glowing smile wrenched his heart. She had the most beautiful smile. Would he ever get it out of his dreams at night?
“This is amazing!” she said, turning in a full circle in the foyer so she could see into the connecting rooms. Toby barked at her, his tail swinging wildly back and forth. “Oh, hey, Toby.” She bent down and massaged his ears. “We have light!”
Josh shook his head. She was even more heart-melting when she was crouching next to an adorably sad-looking hound.
“I have some papers for you to sign for the financing, they’re on the kitchen counter in here.” He gestured the way and she followed, eyes on the ceiling surveying every working light fixture.
Audrey balled her fists and shook them in the air as if she were cheering. “I have a table on the way, it’s all so exciting how it’s coming together.”
“That’s great.” He went to the counter and she walked up next to him. The scent of her perfume was incredibly distracting. He struggled to focus with her so close by as he placed papers in front of her, one by one for her to sign. As he went through the motions of explaining each paper, he found himself in the emotional predicament of wanting to take her in his arms and kiss her like he’d been picturing for some time.
Audrey’s mere presence threatened to fade away his frustration completely, but he found he also blamed Carly for throwing a wrench in the whole thing. Ignorance had been his bliss. But at least he’d found out the truth about Audrey before they went any further.
As Audrey signed her name to another form, Josh cleared his throat. “How was work?”
“Went well.” She didn’t look up from scanning through the words of the document he handed her next. “How did the work here go?”
“No issues.” He pointed at the next line for her to sign. “Did you meet with any angry people? Anyone going through a bad breakup?”
Audrey paused, her pen hanging over the signature line, and looked at him sideways. “My clients have a variety of issues…”
“I don’t know if I mentioned, but I recently got out of a bad relationship.”
She signed her name in a fast, sloppy line and clicked the pen on and off a few times. “I…uh…think you did say something about that.”
“It didn’t work out. She never got my sense of humor. Have you ever met someone who has no sense of humor? I mean none at all?”
“Well…”
“’Cause let me tell you, this girl had zero.” He knew he should stop talking, but he wanted her to tell him the truth so much it hurt. “She was clingy, needy, an emotional rollercoaster. You can only imagine what I thought when she started talking about marriage.”
“Um, I don’t know if we should be talking about all this.”
“Do I need to book a session first? I hear you’re an excellent therapist.” He raised an eyebrow and stared at her without blinking. Audrey rubbed the back of her neck and took a step back. His heart was thudding in his chest. Slipping a hand in to his pocket, he pulled out the card. “It’s funny, I ran into my ex-girlfriend today…and she gave me this.”
He handed her the card and she took it. Her face went white and she looked up at him with wide eyes. “You know?”
Josh folded his arms. “I know.”