Chapter 2
The following morning, Rocco parked along the curb in front of the address Daisy-Barbie had given him yesterday. Looking around, all he saw were houses that should have been demolished ten or twenty years ago. The town of LowPoint only had one traffic light. One! The storefronts were nice, but many of them were empty, which was a good reason why most of these houses were empty. The few that were in use seemed to be selling artwork or high-end jewelry. He’d noticed one consignment shop and a bakery that was bright and sunny, but not much else.
What the hell was he doing here? Rocco slammed the door of his pickup, looking around. The tiny town of LowPoint wasn’t nearly as bad as he’d heard. There were several houses that looked nice, but the rest…he shook his head, everything looked so abandoned.
Years ago, some reporter had done a series of stories about coal mining towns that had died. LowPoint had been one of the featured towns and had appeared to be about to crumble at any moment.
But as he’d driven through town, he’d seen stores and people walking along sidewalks filled with flowers and trees that had just burst with leaves as the warm spring sun heated the earth. The downtown area definitely was different than the images he’d seen on television so many years ago.
These houses though? Yeah, they looked ready to be demolished. The whole street looked…abandoned. There were broken windows, lawns filled with weeds, doors and windows missing on some of the houses, and…he did a double take at the house across the street. Was that a toilet on the lawn?
Rubbing the back of his neck, he wondered what the hell he was doing here. There were no buildings going up, no construction anywhere to be seen.
It was just a run-down neighborhood. Yeah, his mind immediately began cataloguing all the ways that he could improve the houses. A bit of...
“You showed up!”
Rocco turned, looking at the woman approaching him with a breathless smile. She wasn’t wearing a business suit and killer heels like she’d worn yesterday, but the loose jeans and cotton top were pretty damn nice! Were those steel toed boots? Damn, she looked hot! Much more intriguing that the Barbie-look-alike he’d seen yesterday.
And much more enticing!
Keeping his features neutral, he waited for her to approach him, unwilling to give anything away.
“I’m here,” he agreed, when she was a few feet away although it was obvious.
She sauntered up to him and he was startled to realize how short she was. Maybe five feet, five? Not more. Since he was several inches over six feet, that caused him to look down at her more than he’d anticipated. He hadn’t noticed the height difference yesterday because she’d been sitting down. And yeah – because he’d been a bit too focused on her mouth.
His eyes dropped to take in that particular body part, thinking back to his dreams from the previous night. He’d woken up hard and aching and it was due to this woman and her full lips that….
“Why am I here?” he demanded, sounding a bit more gruff than he’d intended, but those damn lips stretched into a grin.
Hell, he’d thought that she couldn’t get prettier but that smile lit up her features and…
He was a gonner. Better to get out of here before he got any deeper. One night of hot and heavy dreams was about all his libido could take. It had been too long since he’d had a woman in his bed.
“Follow me,” Daisy-Barbie invited.
If it had been anyone else, he would have just gotten back into his truck and driven away. But one other feature he hadn’t noticed yesterday, besides her height, was her amazing butt! In jeans, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from that enticing feature. It wasn’t even that the jeans she wore were tight. Just the opposite in fact. But if she was trying to hide her figure in those baggie clothes, it wasn’t working!
So instead of getting into his truck and driving off, as he should, Rocco followed her up the weed-choked lawn and into the dilapidated house, shaking his head. He was following a woman, ignoring his instincts, just because she had a nice ass.
Daisy pushed open the door and stepped into the dark interior of the house. “This is the job,” she announced, spreading her arms wide.
He looked around, still thinking about her lips and her ass. “Tearing down the house?” he asked, trying to make sense of everything.
Daisy laughed, shaking her head and moved deeper into the room. “No, silly! I need a team of people to remodel the houses.”
He frowned at her and it took all of her concentration to keep from squirming. What was it about his blue eyes that unnerved her so completely? She’d thought she’d just been nervous yesterday about confronting him since he was so big but…maybe there was more to it.
“Houses…plural?”
She couldn’t hide her eagerness, even in the face of this man’s derision. This was her passion. Fixing up LowPoint, renovating each of these houses so that people could move in and find a safe place to raise their families. After gaining such incredible wealth with her lottery winnings, her life had changed dramatically. This was her way of giving back to the world.
“Yes. LowPoint’s population dwindled to about two hundred families several years back. The town was kept going only through low paying jobs. But it wasn’t alive,” she explained, seeing the surprise in his eyes and taking that as a positive sign. “I wouldn’t even say that the town was on life support. It was dying. There were no jobs, no true source of employment, other than commuting to Louisville but many people couldn’t even afford that. Most families left the area for cities that offered more jobs. As you can see from driving down any of the streets, most of the houses haven’t been lived in for about ten years, some longer than that. The owners simply abandoned them when they couldn’t sell them and moved on.”
He was looking around at the interior now instead of staring at her as if she were a lunatic. That was a positive sign.
She watched in fascination as he moved over to one of the walls and knocked on it. When it didn’t crumble at his touch, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“And your company is renovating these houses…why? There still aren’t jobs in LowPoint. Everyone I know lives in Louisville.”
She laughed, relief surging through her since he hadn’t outright rejected the job or laughed at her dream of revitalizing the town. “LowPoint has two things going for it and the company I work for is banking on that to put this town back on the map.”
“What are those?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. He moved into the kitchen now, opening and closing the cabinets. One of the cabinet doors fell off in his hand and Rocco jumped back so that the heavy wood didn’t smash his foot, causing a loud clatter to break the tense silence.
Daisy tried to ignore the tug of something deep inside of her as she took in the lovely view of those muscles flexing underneath the plaid flannel of his shirt as it pulled tight across his broad shoulders. Every time he moved, her eyes were drawn to those shoulders or his trim waist, the impressively tight butt revealed by his soft, well-worn jeans that hugged his butt and strong thighs. Yummy!
She jerked slightly when he turned to look at her over his shoulder, obviously waiting for an answer. Daisy stepped back slightly, as if that could somehow keep her eyes from roaming. Focus, she admonished herself firmly.
Blinking, she pulled her eyes away from his butt and focused on his eyes. Okay, actually, she was now looking at the scruff of his jawline. The man hadn’t bothered to shave this morning. It was probably a sign of disrespect, but she loved the rough look.
His dark eyebrows lifted when she forgot to answer him. Daisy turned away and walked towards a sliding glass door that used to be clear, but was now covered in so much dust, it was just a filmy, cracked piece of glass. “First of all, Ivy Taylor’s studio is here. Ever seen her photos?”
His expression didn’t change in any way. “Everyone knows of Ivy Taylor’s photos. Every time she comes back from one of her trips, everyone talks about nothing else.” He shrugged. “I saw her gallery when I drove through town.”
Daisy laughed. “Yep. That’s the one. You can only buy her prints from her gallery on Main Street.”
He watched her for a moment before one of those massive shoulders shrugged. “Okay, so you got that going for you. What else?”
“Ever eaten at one of Tony Itola’s restaurants?” she asked.
Another delicious shrug. She wondered what his shoulders would look like without the flannel covering them.
“Can’t afford to.”
She brought her eyes back to his and clapped her hands together. “Well, Tony’s gourmet restaurant is on Main Street, about a block from Ivy’s gallery. In addition to his flagship restaurant, he has a sandwich shop located right next door to Ivy Taylor’s studio. Most people don’t know that the shop is owned by Tony, but it is and people love it. He also owns the diner right off of the highway, but that’s also not a well-known fact.”
He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Okay, so the town gets art snobs and foodies coming through occasionally. What’s your point?”
She rolled her eyes. “We don’t just get art snobs and foodies coming through, but those people make special trips out here for the experience. With the help of another foundation, the other shops in town have been refurbished and are filling up with artisans and artists. LowPoint is becoming known as a quaint enclave for artists and dealers. Plus, there’s the warehouse district on the west side of town and the shipping industry is starting to realize that LowPoint is a good midway point for transitioning products.”
Daisy watched the giant man carefully and she realized that the last point really got to him. Rocco Barnes might not understand art and gourmet food, but he grasped the financial implications of easy highway access and storage facilities, distribution hubs and transition points. He dropped his arms and started looking around the house with renewed interest.
“Okay, so LowPoint is going to eventually become a thriving metropolis,” he drawled but she heard the sarcasm in his voice.
“I don’t think anyone in town wants a huge metropolis, Mr. Barnes. The goal is for LowPoint to retain its small town flair. But in order for people to come back and live here, these houses need to be renovated and cleaned up. That’s where you come in.”
“Your company wants me to renovate this house?”
She grinned, suspecting that he was starting to understand her dream. “Not just this house. My company has been hired to renovate all of the houses here in town. There’s a financial team working with the owners of the mortgages on many of the houses. We’ve bought up most of them,” she explained.
His eyes widened slightly as he took in this new piece of information. “How many?” he asked, stopping his tour through the dingy house to stare down at her.
She laughed, almost clapping her hands with excitement now that she could see the interest in his eyes. “Well, my company bought up about two hundred houses. Originally, the idea was to tear them all down and build new ones, but we discovered that these houses were made back in the fifties and are surprisingly solid. They just need to be updated, fixed, cleaned, and…well, decorated.”
He stopped and turned back to her, his hands fisting on his hips. “I don’t decorate.”
She grinned, trying to avoid another chuckle because he seemed to give her an odd look whenever it happened. In a “tough-guy” way, his disdain was charming. “You don’t need to decorate. That’s my job. You and I will work together to make each house unique. The inside and outside have to be as different as possible, while still buying materials and furniture in bulk to cut down on costs.”
There was a long silence as he continued to look down at her. It took all of her self-discipline to not squirm or fidget with those intense, blue eyes looking down at her like that. “Two hundred houses, each looking different?”
“Yep,” she confirmed, smiling again at his astounded expression. “You’d be in charge. You’d have a budget and could hire as many workers as you need. We have an accountant who helps with the budgeting. There’s an admin assistant who orders supplies for you and ensures that the orders arrive on time. Once we have more houses ready for sale, we’ll hire a realtor or a sales team. I don’t know the exact plans for that area, but they will be in charge of finding buyers for the houses, once they are complete.” She paused, wondering what else she could say to convince him to take the job. “One of the downsides to this project is that we need to get several houses, maybe all the houses on a block or a street, fixed up before potential buyers would feel safe enough to consider moving to LowPoint. So it’s a pretty big job.” Daisy recognized the wary look he gave her. “The foundation is well funded. There is funding aplenty, so you don’t need to worry about taking on the project and then having it fold up in just a few months.”
Rocco rubbed the scruff on his jaw, thinking he should have shaved this morning. But he hadn’t really thought that Daisy-Barbie was for real. So he’d fully expected to show up this morning and have a chuckle, then head back to Louisville to search for a job.
But this…looking around at the house that was pretty much in shambles, he started to think through the process. If this was for real, he would really enjoy renovating something like this. It was one thing to build an office building. There were challenges and obstacles that made the work interesting. But the job he’d lost yesterday had been a square building, ten stories high. It would be pretty much the same kind of work he’d been doing on for the past several years. It was a job, paid the bills, but it hadn’t really excited him.
Renovating something like this? Two hundred houses? And all of them needed to be different. Yeah, he could really get into something like this. He reached out and opened the pantry door off the main kitchen area, then jumped back, wrapping an arm around Daisy to make sure she wasn’t hurt as the whole door crashed to the dusty floor.
“Sorry,” he muttered, but he wasn’t really sorry. Slowly, his fingers uncurled and he released her, moving away so that he could get back on track.
He thought frantically, listing out all of the issues that would need to be fixed, glancing down at the beautiful woman with the gorgeous smile and mind-blowing curves. He was thinking about her soft figure pressed perfectly against his own. With a grunt, he moved away. Far away. The opposite-side-of-the-room-away. And still, that wasn’t far enough to stop his mind from replaying how good it felt when his hand curved around her tiny waist.
Focus on the job! “What exactly do you want this place to look like when it is all finished?”
The slender beauty’s smile widened and he almost groaned out loud. She really needed to stop doing that if they were going to work together. Maybe he’d make that a part of his contract. No smiles. No grins. And definitely no giggles. Oh – and no jeans. That woman’s butt was amazing! Firm and round, filling out those jeans better than any woman’s he’d ever seen! Unfortunately, that wasn’t even her best feature!
He glanced at her ring finger, just to make sure. Empty, he thought. Not that it mattered. He wasn’t into women that looked like Barbies. He liked his women a bit more down to earth. More real.
So why the hell was his body reacting to the scent of her strawberry shampoo?
“Here’s my plan for this house,” she turned, pulling out a rolled up sheet of paper from a leather bag he hadn’t noticed before.
As she leaned over, spreading it out over the dusty kitchen island, he had trouble focusing on the details because the scent of her shampoo was even stronger this close up. And she smelled incredibly good…all over. He tried to concentrate on what she was explaining, but her finger was pointing towards something on the paper and all he could think about now was what it would be like to be touched by those soft, pretty hands. Her nails were smooth and the bubblegum pink manicure wasn’t chipped in any way. Rocco could easily picture those pink nails sliding down his chest. Or…other places.
“So, what do you think?” she asked eagerly, turning to look up at him. The gesture caused his eyes to focus on her lips. Her full lips. With pink, strawberry flavored lip gloss. This close up, he realized that she had freckles. Very slight freckles. And she didn’t wear a lot of makeup. In fact, her eye lashes were the same color as her hair. He hadn’t noticed that before because those chocolate eyes just…overwhelmed the rest of her face. But this close…yeah, he noticed. He noticed everything.
Pulling back quickly, he paced around the house. “I’ll look at the plans later and let you know if there are any issues with implementing them.”
He had his back to her as he stared up at the light fixture in the ceiling. An outdated light fixture with cracked plastic and missing light bulbs. It had been ugly thirty years ago and looked even worse now. But staring up at the ceiling helped him get his head back in the game.
“So…?”
“So what?” he asked, walking to the sliding glass door that allowed a small bit of dusty light to filter into the dark room. Unfortunately, opening the glass door also allowed him to see the massive clumps of weeds and trash that littered what used to be an enclosed yard but was now just a…forest of weeds and trash.
“So…will you take the job?” she asked, and named a salary that whipped his head around.
“Why so much?” he asked, thinking that there had to be something illegal about the job if she was offering that amount of money.
Her slender shoulders shrugged and his eyes were drawn to the delicate curve of her jawline. She was so dainty! The delicate bone structure combined with the steel-toed boots…that was hot!
“Because you’ll be the construction manager. You’ll be in charge of whatever crew you hire.”
His eyes narrowed. “That still doesn’t justify that kind of salary.”
She shrugged and crossed her arms under her breasts, bringing his eyes down to her breasts that were…perfect! They weren’t overly large, but not small either. Just right, he thought and his mouth drooled a bit thinking about pulling back the material of her thick, cotton top to find out what she looked like underneath.
“It’s not a high salary if you consider the scale of the project. Your skills as a manager will be a perfect match for this job. Besides, this isn’t just a casual project. We have a schedule and a budget. There’s a lot of pressure on both of us to renovate these houses on time. You also get a bonus if you deliver under budget, but you can’t scrimp on the materials,” she added and his wariness increased yet again, especially with the look that hit her eyes. Something wasn’t right, he thought.
With a sigh, he crossed his arms over his chest, trying to figure out the whole scoop. “What’s going on, Daisy? This doesn’t feel right.”
The woman laughed and he once again thought about adding that into his contract because the sound caused a bolt of lust to hit him hard.
“There’s nothing illegitimate about this job offer. It’s going to be high stress and you’ll need to be creative. The foundation that is renovating these houses is demanding and wants two of them finished in two months. So yeah, the salary is high, but so are the expectations.”
He nodded thoughtfully, mulling through his options. “There’s nothing illegal about it?”
She laughed again, shaking her head. “Nothing even remotely illegal. But I can introduce you to the lawyer for the foundation if that would ease your mind?”
Rocco considered that. He knew that there were many lawyers that did illegal things, but just talking with the guy might answer a few of his questions.
Nodding, he scratched his jaw, thinking again that he really needed to shave. Her delicate skin would be hurt if he…
Shaking his head to keep his mind from going in that direction, he let out a huff of air. “Yeah. Set that up and…”
Immediately, she bent over again and his mind stopped functioning. When she stood up, she was holding a cell phone, but it still took him several long moments to get his thoughts moving again because his mind was focused on her bending over, on him behind her and….
By the time he got his mind back under control, she was doing that laughing thing again, talking with some guy named Jason.
“Okay, we’ll be there soon. Thanks Jason,” she ended the call. “Ready?”
He stared at her for a long moment, trying to figure out what was going on. “Ready for what?” he finally asked.
“Ready to meet the lawyer,” she explained as if that should be obvious. “We can be there in twenty minutes. He is drafting up a contract that outlines your salary and guarantees that nothing illegal is happening here. Just a foundation trying to do some good in the world.”
He nodded, but still wasn’t sure what she was saying because…well, because those full, pink lips were distracting him again. And her strawberry blond hair. Usually, he preferred brunettes. He liked the contrast between their dark hair and pale skin. But Daisy…well, her hair was fascinating.
She did it again! Bending over, his eyes just about bulged out of his head when she bent down lower and her shirt pulled up, revealing a smooth stretch of pale skin along her back. He wasn’t sure how his mouth could water and dry up at the same time, but that tiny peek of skin did it to him.
She stood up, dangling keys in her hand. “Ready?”
Rocco stared at her, still trying to catch up. Keys. Lawyer. Twenty minute drive.
“Right,” he finally answered, pushing away from the wall he’d been leaning on. Okay, where the wall had been holding him up, he corrected, then followed Daisy out of the house. Back in the bright sunshine, he pushed his sunglasses up his nose, startled by the light sparkling off her gorgeous hair.
He really needed to stop noticing these things, he thought. Working with her, she’d be a co-worker, office romances never worked out. Not that he had personal experience with an office romance because…well, because he’d never worked in an office. And the people he worked with on a construction site thus far were one hundred percent male. He knew that women were beginning to work in the construction field, but there had been none on the ones he’d worked.
She stopped beside one of those micro cars and he glared at it. “What the hell is this?” he demanded, stopping several feet away…almost as if he was afraid he might step on it.
“It’s my car. We can walk to just about every place in LowPoint, but Jason lives about twenty minutes away.”
Horrified, he stared at the car. “That isn’t a car,” he insisted.
Daisy looked at her Mini Cooper, then at Rocco’s huge body, enjoying a leisurely perusal of all of him. His shoulders probably wouldn’t even fit into her car. And then her eyes traveled down his long, jean-clad legs and she giggled. “Right. Umm…” she looked around and was just about to call Jason back when he pulled his keys out of his pocket.
“I’ll drive,” he decided and walked over to his truck. In contrast to her Mini Cooper, Rocco’s pickup was enormous! She estimated that it could hold at least five people in the cab but also had a huge area in the back that was literally filled with tools and…stuff. Daisy stared into the back of the truck and just about had a heart attack. His tools were…they were a mess! Okay, so maybe the hand tools were in a big, leather bag. But there were larger items, things she couldn’t put a name to, that were just tossed in haphazardly!
Her fingers itched, her mind already reorganizing everything in that space so that it was organized by size. No! Better yet, by need! Or by power tools? Oh, the possibilities were endless! Maybe if she just…
She refrained, just barely, from taking everything out of his truck so she could reorganize it and slipped into the passenger seat. Organizing stuff was her thing. It soothed her when she was anxious and occupied just enough of her mind when she needed to work something out mentally. But even when she wasn’t upset or worried about issues, she still loved organizing…anything.
The big guy slammed the passenger door as soon as her feet hit the floorboard and Daisy looked around, noticing that the interior of the truck was much more organized. Breathing a sigh of relief, she relaxed against the comfortable seat.
Relaxed until he stepped into the driver’s seat.
Being in the house had been a problem, but sitting here in his giant truck next to his giant body, those long, muscular legs straining against the denim of his jeans, Daisy had a hard time trying to think. He was big and silent and he kept watching her. She’d felt his eyes on her back, on her lips, and just about everywhere else, but she had no idea if he liked what he saw.
He was doing it right now… staring at her, she had no idea what to say.
“I need directions, Daisy,” his deep voice almost startled her.
“Right!” she gasped and shifted on her seat. “Um…head out to Highway 64 and get off on exit twenty.” She looked away, praying that he couldn’t see the way her cheeks turned pink.
Rocco shifted the truck into gear, looked behind him and pulled carefully away from the curb. The ride was a silent one. Daisy wracked her brain trying to come up with something to talk about. But the man was just big and…huge! And silent! Good grief, the man barely spoke! She wasn’t used to that. She liked talking. She liked conversing about anything. Silence made her crazy!
Thankfully, he pulled his huge truck into Jason’s driveway and she was able to jump out. Somehow, just being back out in the clean, fresh air and bright sunshine helped alleviate the stress and tension from the drive. But then she passed by the bed of his truck and all of her nerve endings started to sizzle. There was so much…disorganization! Her fingers itched to fix it.
“Daisy!”
She swung around just as Jason stepped out of his house. Even though he worked hard to help her and her friends with all of their legal issues, he hadn’t moved from the house where she’d initially met him. Jason used to be a high priced, criminal defense lawyer from Washington, D.C. but had moved here to Kentucky to have a bit more work-life balance. He was the man who had helped her, Tony, Ivy, and Marilee when they’d first won the lottery four years ago. Jason was one of the good guys; brilliant, motivated to help make the world a better place and friendly. He was also extremely good looking in a GQ sort of way.
But where Rocco was huge and muscular, Jason was maybe an inch shorter and more lithe, like a runner. Rocco reminded her of a boxer-type, hard all over and with bulging muscles that made his flannel shirt seem almost too tight at times. And he was much more intimidating!
“Hi Jason!” she opened her arms to hug the sweet man. “I see that you’ve kept all of your chickens alive and well. Any wounds from stealing their eggs lately?” she teased. Since the man lived out in the country, his chickens were constantly threatened by foxes and coyotes. Jason wanted to protect his chickens from being eaten by the surrounding wildlife, but he also wanted to allow them to roam free. Daisy loved that about him, his need to protect and nurture. He had a stern, yet caring, air about him that soothed her.
When he pulled back, Daisy could feel the anger hitting her from the big guy behind her. She tried to ignore it, but since she was here to introduce the two men, that wasn’t as easily done.
“Jason, this is Rocco Barnes.” Turning to the big guy, she stepped back, startled by how close he was to her. And how angry he looked at the moment. “Rocco, this is Jason Rayburn, the lawyer for the foundation.”
The men shook hands and offered cordial greetings, but Daisy sensed a hostile undercurrent. One she didn’t understand, but assumed it was a male thing and stepped back.
“Rocco is concerned that the job offer might have some illegal aspects to it.”
Jason’s eyes immediately crinkled at the corners, his shoulders relaxing slightly as he smiled reassuringly. “Illegal,” he echoed, as if testing the word. A soft chuckle and Jason shook his head. “There’s nothing illegal about this,” he assured Rocco. “I’ve been working with Daisy for the past four years, and I can assure you, she’s one of the most ethical people I’ve ever known. She finds the good in people in ways the rest of us mere mortals miss.” He waved invitingly his house. “Let’s go inside and talk.”
Rocco stared at the two of them, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Daisy was looking at the other guy with admiration and an affectionate smile, but there didn’t seem to be any romantic interest between the two. Other than that initial hug, they didn’t touch. In fact, he was getting a friendship vibe, which definitely eased his mind. This Rayburn guy seemed to be about twenty years older than Daisy as well, putting her in the “too young” category for the lawyer. At least in his mind.
Why his whole body had tensed up when Daisy had been enveloped in the arms of the lawyer guy, he wasn’t really sure. The man was tall, good looking with that silver at his temples, and he seemed serious enough. But now that they weren’t touching and Rocco could really look at the two of them, he acknowledged that there definitely wasn’t interest on either side.
Daisy went inside the house that looked like it was going to fall down at any moment. As soon as Rocco stepped inside, he realized that the exterior was a joke. Inside, the house was warm and comfortable, with a high-end sound system, a huge kitchen, and expensive, if well-worn, furniture. It was comfortable, he decided.
Daisy immediately moved into the kitchen, seeming to feel at home in this guy’s house. That pissed him off too. But she smiled, offering to get coffee for everyone and he felt petty. Obviously, she’d been in this guy’s house often enough to feel comfortable making coffee. Were they ex-lovers? And why did he care? Daisy wasn’t his type, anyway. He’d already established that.
So why were his eyes following her as she made her way through the large, open area and into the kitchen, opening and closing cabinets as she pulled down mugs. And why was he so tense, waiting for her to come back?
“She’s a good woman,” the other guy commented.
Rocco pulled his eyes away from the kitchen where Daisy’s strawberry blond hair was bathed in the glow of the warm, overhead lights. With effort, he inhaled, trying to breathe normally. But it was hard, waiting for her to come back to his side.
“Tell me about this foundation,” he demanded, desperately needing the distraction.
Jason waved him over to the leather sofa and chairs and Rocco sat down opposite the man, bracing his elbows on his knees as he settled.
They discussed the principals of the foundation and the reason for its existence, the houses that had already been renovated and modernized, the way the foundation worked, and the benefits offered. There was health, dental, and vision benefits, none of which he’d ever had before. He’d always needed to get his own health insurance or go without, which hadn’t been a problem in the past, except when he’d injured himself on the job. In most of those cases, the company he’d been working for had covered the cost of his medical care through worker’s compensation, but the possibility of having a job with actual health insurance sounded nice. Really nice!
When Daisy appeared, easily carrying three large mugs of coffee in her hands, he was impressed. She wasn’t just a bit of fluff, he thought.
“Do you take cream or sugar?” she asked, glancing at Rocco. Was that a hint of pink to her cheeks as she handed him the coffee? He liked the fact that he could do that to her. And it didn’t happen when she handed a cup to Jason. And even better, she seemed to move away from the Rayburn guy and closer to him. The gesture was unconscious but indicated that she was part of his team, on his side.
He’d never had anyone on his side. Ever! His father was rarely out of prison long enough to take his side and his mother…well, she was too busy doing…other things to take his side. His mother had definitely spent a good portion of her life in jail, but she’d somehow landed on her feet. He hadn’t seen his parents since he was sixteen years old. He’d grown up tough, more than able to handle anything life threw his way, but having someone on his side, especially someone as sweet and pretty as Daisy would be…nice.
After a half hour of discussion, Rocco glanced down at Daisy who was staring up at him with hope and excitement in her appealing brown eyes. Everything inside of him told him to walk away. Instinctively, he knew that taking this job would change his life. He wasn’t sure if that change would be for the better or worse. But when he opened his mouth to turn it down, the words that came out of his mouth were, “When do I start?”
Daisy literally jumped up with her excitement. Rocco vaguely heard the other man chuckle and assumed the amusement was caused by Daisy’s enthusiasm and not because he’d just lied through his teeth, and Rocco’s shoulders relaxed ever so slightly.
“You won’t regret it!” she exclaimed, no longer jumping up and down, but still bouncing slightly. “And to celebrate, I’ll take you out to lunch!”
Jason laughed. “Tony’s?” he suggested.
Daisy turned to the other man who was collecting empty coffee mugs. “Is there any other place worth eating?” she teased.
“Not really,” Jason agreed. Turning back to Rocco, he said, “I’ll have the office send you an official offer letter.”
“Not necessary,” Rocco snapped, trying to pull his eyes away from Daisy’s breasts which were bouncing enticingly under the material of her shirt. She was cute and hot. How was that possible? Women should be one or the other, not both, damn it!