Flirting with Disaster (19 page)

He nodded.

“Give it to me,” she ordered.

“Now, Nadine,” he protested.

“Do you want to fix this or not?”

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket with unmistakable reluctance. “I'm not sure—”

“Well, I am.” She faced him down, hands on hips. “You either make those calls or get off this site.”

His lips twitched. “Damn, woman, nobody scares you, do they?”

“Certainly not you,” she replied. “Do the right thing, George, then come see me when you've taken care of this.”

She went back to Amanda.

“Well?” Amanda asked.

“I think he's calling off his dogs,” Nadine told her. “At least he is if he knows what's good for him.”

“Are you sure you can trust anything he says?” Amanda asked, regarding her curiously.

“Actually I am. I think I understand what he set out to do, even if he did go about it all wrong.”

“Meaning?”

Nadine considered telling her that George had been trying to stop the construction so Amanda would be forced to reconcile with Big Max. But she didn't think that would be much consolation to Amanda. “Never mind,” she said, then brightened when she spotted George coming their way. “Everything taken care of?” she called out.

“Would I risk coming over here if it wasn't?” he said, his mouth twisted wryly.

“Then you're ready to help us out?” Nadine asked.

George shifted his gaze to Amanda. “Would that be okay with you?”

Amanda regarded him warily. “Can you promise me you're not here spying for my father or trying to stir up any more trouble?”

George flinched at the direct question. For a minute he looked as though he was going to turn around and leave in a huff, but he finally swallowed hard. “I'm here to eat humble pie, if you must know. Someone showed me recently that it's not as distasteful as I'd once thought.”

Caleb materialized just then and stood resolutely beside Amanda, his gaze forbidding. George faced him.

“Seems I owe you an apology, too,” he told Caleb. “You've been doing what you knew was right all along, and I admire the courage you showed in standing up to me. I've spoken to your boss. I don't think there will be any more problems.”

Caleb didn't look entirely convinced. “That's quite a mouthful, George. What changed your mind?”

“Nadine made me look at things in a different light.”

Caleb looked at Nadine with surprise. “Then we owe you our thanks.”

“I didn't do that much,” Nadine demurred, uncomfortable being the focus of so much admiration for simply speaking her mind. For once it seemed to have done some good, instead of making matters worse.

“Of course you did,” George said. “Getting a message through this thick skull of mine isn't easy, as I'm sure Caleb here would be happy to tell you.”

“True enough,” Caleb said, his expression finally relaxing into a grin.

“Then you don't object to my helping out?” George persisted.

“I don't,” Caleb said, then turned to Amanda. “What about you?”

She studied George for a full minute before finally nodding. “We'll be glad to have you.”

To Nadine's surprise, George seemed genuinely relieved. She realized then that it had taken a lot for him to openly admit to a mistake and risk rejection.

“Just tell me what to do, then,” he said. “I've got some experience with building things, so put me wherever I'll be most useful.”

Nadine tucked her hand through his elbow. “That'll be up to Josh. I'll go with you to find him.”

As soon as they were out of Amanda and Caleb's hearing, she gave his arm a squeeze. “That wasn't so difficult, was it?”

“You have no idea,” he muttered.

She laughed. “Not used to asking for forgiveness, huh? Trust me, it gets easier over time.”

He gazed down at her, his expression curious. “How would you know a thing like that?”

“I've had to ask for my son's forgiveness more times than I care to remember.”

He studied her intently. “Something tells me there's a story there.”

“More than one, if you must know, but they'll have to wait. My break's almost over.”

George looked surprised. “Your son runs a tight ship, then, even though he's relying on volunteers?”

“Josh is a hard worker. He only has the volunteers here on the weekends, so he likes to make sure we're not wasting precious time. He's determined that Amanda and the kids will get to celebrate Thanksgiving in their new home.” Just then she spotted Josh up on the roof, explaining to a couple of newcomers how to lay the remaining shingles. Given his precarious balance, she was not about to call his attention to George's arrival. He might nosedive off the other side.

Just as she was about to offer to get George something cold to drink while they waited to speak to Josh, she felt an urgent tug on her hand. She looked down and saw Susie's sweet little face.

“Hey there, cutie. What's up?” Nadine asked.

Susie cast a fearful look at George, then whispered, “It's Larry. He's climbing up the ladder so he can see what Josh is doing.”

“Oh, Lord,” Nadine said. “Show me where, sweetie.”

George immediately caught her sense of panic. “Who's Larry?” he asked in a calm, level tone.

“One of Amanda's boys. He's only eight. He has no business going up on that roof. We have to hurry.”

Without giving it another thought, George scooped Susie into his arms. “Where is he?” he asked her gently.

“Around the other side,” she said, clinging to his neck. Tears were spilling down her cheeks. “Jimmy told him not to go, but Larry wouldn't listen.”

“It's okay, sweet pea,” Nadine reassured her. “We'll have him down in no time.”

But when they turned the corner, they saw that Larry was already on the roof, trying to crawl up to the peak. Jimmy was on the bottom rung of the ladder, clearly intent on going after him. George shoved Susie into Nadine's arms and plucked Jimmy from the ladder.

“You stay right here, young man,” he said in a commanding voice. Jimmy was too startled to argue. He stood silently beside Nadine. After a minute he tucked his hand into hers.

“What if he falls?” he asked in a quavering voice.

“George won't let him fall,” Nadine said with conviction. “And Josh is up there, too.”

“I told him not to go,” Jimmy whispered. “Then he got to the top and told me I was a sissy if I didn't come, too.”

“It's not being a sissy to stay off a roof,” Nadine said, her gaze locked on George as he reached the top of the ladder and scrambled after Larry. “It's being smart.”

Before George could reach him, Larry's feet slid out from under him and he began to slide down the roof just to the left of where George was. Nadine watched with her heart in her throat as George gingerly shifted position and grabbed the boy before he reached the edge and fell.

Holding Larry securely, George made his way back to the ladder and brought the boy down. By then a crowd had assembled on the ground and someone had alerted Amanda. She and Caleb rushed up just as the two of them reached the ground.

“Larry O'Leary, are you out of your mind?” she demanded, before hauling him into her arms, tears streaming down her face. She turned to George at last. “I will never be able to thank you enough for saving him.”

George hunkered down beside them and put a hand on Larry's back. “You know what you did was very foolish, young man.”

Larry nodded, apparently impressed by George's size and his somber tone.

“Next time you decide you want to go scampering around on a roof, you make sure there's someone with you who knows what they're doing, okay?” George said.

“There won't be a next time,” Amanda said direly.

George grinned at that. “Yes, there will. When a boy's as intrepid as this one, there will always be a next time. You just have to minimize the risks.”

“If that's true, then God help me,” Amanda said.

“He will,” Caleb assured her.

George couldn't seem to tear his gaze away from Larry. When he finally looked directly at Amanda, he said, “You know, your boy is the spitting image of his granddaddy at this age, don't you?”

“I know,” she whispered, her voice thick. “I have a few old pictures I took with me when I left home.”

“He'd be proud of him,” George told her.

Amanda sighed. “I wish that were true.”

Josh came around the side of the house just then, and someone filled him in on what had happened. He walked over to Nadine and pulled her aside.

“They okay?” he asked, his face pale.

“They seem to be.” Nadine assured him. “You don't need to worry. The whole thing's over now. They're safe, thanks to George.”

He nodded toward George. “What's he doing here, anyway?”

“He came to work. We were on our way to ask you to give him an assignment, when this little crisis came up.”

“You think he's serious about wanting to help? He was up to his neck causing trouble not an hour or two ago.”

Nadine nodded slowly. “If I had any doubts about it when he first showed up, I don't anymore. Look at him. You'd think Larry was
his
grandchild, not his best friend's. Big Max will hear about this, I'm sure. Maybe George will be the one who brings that family back together.”

Josh looked skeptical. “There's that blind optimism of yours again.”

“Josh, honey, when you stop being optimistic about people and about life, you might as well go off and live in a cave.” She gave him a knowing look. “Which is pretty much what you've done, isn't it?”

“Maybe,” he said, surprising her with the admission.

“It's no way to live,” she scolded him.

“I think I'm beginning to get that,” he said, looking around until his gaze finally settled on Maggie. His lips curved slightly.

Nadine suspected if she commented on his reaction, he'd swear up and down she'd misread him. Better to let him make the rest of this journey on his own.

But it sure was going to be fun to watch.

J
osh had just showered and changed for his date with Maggie when someone tapped on the door of his hotel room. He opened it to find Susie, Larry and Jimmy staring up at him, which meant Amanda couldn't be far away. He found that more worrisome than the unexpected appearance of the kids. If she figured out where he was going tonight, she'd be gloating from now till doomsday. He'd never hear the end of it.

“What are you guys doing here?” Josh asked, hunkering down to put himself on eye level with them. “And where's your mom?”

“She's next door with Nadine and I came to 'pologize,” Larry said.

Josh didn't think the boy looked very contrite. “Oh?”

“Climbing onto the roof was a dumb thing to do,” Larry recited just as he'd most likely been coached to say.

“Yes, it was,” Josh agreed. “I think maybe we should talk about the consequences of that.”

For the first time Larry looked scared, probably more so than he had when he'd been scampering around on that roof and lost his footing.

“Consequences?” he said to Josh, his eyes wide. “You mean like getting punished?”

“That's exactly what I mean,” Josh confirmed, determined to be stern enough to make his point even though a part of him admired the kid's daring nature. “What do you think would be an appropriate punishment to make sure you never do anything like that again?”

Larry lifted his chin defiantly. “Mr. Winslow said I probably will do it again 'cause I'm…I can't remember the word.”

“Intrepid,” Jimmy piped up. “I don't know what it means, though.” He looked at Josh. “Is it a good thing? Mr. Winslow made it sound like it was.”

Josh fought a grin. “It's sort of like bravery and it can be a very good thing, but not when it puts you in unnecessary danger.” He paused solemnly to let that sink in, then added, “So, here's what I think. Next week, when your mom comes to help out at the site, I think you need to stay home and think about why being on that roof was a really, really bad idea.”

“Me and Susie, too?” Jimmy asked.

Josh shook his head. “Just Larry.”

Larry looked crestfallen. “But coming there is the best thing we get to do all week. And don't the rules say we gotta come?”

“I'm in charge of enforcing the rules. Just this once, I think this is more important,” Josh told him. “And I'm hoping that since it is the best thing you get to do, you'll think twice next time before risking the chance to be there.”

“But who'd stay with me?” Larry asked. “I can't stay by myself.”

“Your mom and I will figure that out.”

Larry's chin wobbled and tears filled his eyes. “Are you mad at me?”

Emotionally, Josh was usually out of his depth with these three, but he instinctively pulled the boy into his arms and gave him a hug. “Not mad, but you did scare an awful lot of people, Larry, me included. Worst of all, you scared your mom.”

Amanda and Nadine exited the room next door in time to hear his last remark.

“You most certainly did,” Amanda confirmed.

Nadine gave Josh a wry look. “And exactly how many times did I have to send somebody up onto a roof or into a tree to retrieve you when you were Larry's age?”

Josh frowned. Her sudden trip down memory lane was not helping. “Beside the point.”

“Just a reminder not to be too hard on the boy,” she scolded lightly.

“As I recall, you walloped my backside, so I think staying away from the site for one week is reasonable,” Josh said, satisfied when he saw Larry's eyes widen at the punishment Josh had endured for a similar infraction. “Just enough to get the message across.” He turned to Amanda. “We'll figure out the babysitting thing later.”

She nodded. “I think that's definitely a fair punishment, don't you, Larry?”

Larry hung his head. “I guess,” he said, scuffing the toe of his sneaker on the sidewalk. “How come it's not enough that I 'pologized?”

“Because Josh and I want to make very sure you remember this incident and don't repeat it,” Amanda told him, then turned her attention back to Josh. “You look all scrubbed and gussied up just to go get burgers,” she observed with amusement dancing in her eyes.

“Actually I have other plans,” he admitted reluctantly. “They don't include burgers.”

“Really? Care to tell us about them?” she inquired, her expression already too damn smug.

“No, I do not.”

Nadine regarded the two of them with interest. “What's going on?”

“Unless I'm mistaken, Josh finally asked Maggie out on a real date and she agreed,” Amanda said, not even trying to hide her personal sense of triumph over a successful matchmaking mission.

Josh grinned. “You only have that half right. I asked. She refused. I told her I'd be there at six, anyway.” He glanced at his watch. “I'd better hit the road. I wouldn't want her to think she won, after all.”

“It's a date, not a competition,” Amanda reminded him.

“Not with Maggie, it isn't,” he said. “See you.”

“In the morning?” Nadine inquired innocently.

“Whenever I get back. Knowing Maggie, it could be thirty minutes from now.”

But he was counting on his powers of persuasion to buy him a little more time than that.

 

“Do you know what that man had the audacity to do?” Maggie demanded indignantly when Dinah called her around five o'clock to see if Maggie was free to have dinner with her and Cord.

“That man? Can I assume we're talking about Josh?” Dinah asked, her voice threaded with amusement.

“Of course we're talking about Josh. Do you know any other man who's half as infuriating as he is?”

“Cord has his moments,” Dinah replied. “They've made life interesting. I highly recommend a man with audacity.”

“You are absolutely no help at all,” Maggie accused in frustration. “Do you want to know what Josh did or not?”

“Please tell me,” Dinah said.

“He asked me on a date,” Maggie began.

“That is
awful,
” Dinah commiserated, obviously choking back a laugh.

Maggie lost patience. “Will you just shut up and let me finish?”

“Yes, ma'am,” Dinah replied dutifully.

“He asked me on a date. Being sensible for once, I said no. He accused me of being a coward. I denied it and then he kissed me in front of God and everyone right there on the construction site,” she said, her voice filled with indignation.

“I'm shocked,” Dinah said, though the opposite was plainly the case. She sounded even more entertained.

“Oh, for pity's sake, I'm not through yet,” Maggie said. “That's not the worst of it. Then he said he was picking me up at six whether I was ready or not. Can you imagine? He actually thinks he can order me around. What's next? Tossing me over his shoulder and hauling me into his cave?”

Dinah chuckled openly. “I have to admire any man who thinks he can pull that off. In fact, I want to be the one who gets to sell tickets when he tries.”

“You really aren't going to be any help at all, are you?” Maggie said in disgust. “I told you this so you could tell me what to do to show him that he is not in charge here.”

“So this is a control issue with you?” Dinah asked. “It has nothing to do with you not really wanting to go out with him?”

“Yes,” Maggie said at once, then backed off. “No. Hell, Dinah, I honestly don't know anymore. It started out as me trying to be smart for once in my life, but then things got a little murky.”

“How does your mother feel about him? They met the other day, right?”

The out-of-the-blue question threw Maggie, even though she suspected exactly where Dinah was headed with it. “What does my mother have to do with anything?” she asked testily.

“Come on, Magnolia, don't play dense. If your mother adored Josh at first glimpse, then you're holding out just to be stubborn. Personally, I think that must be it, because if she expressed even a hint of distaste for Josh, you'd be all over the man.”

“I'm way past choosing men just as a rebellion against my mother,” Maggie claimed defensively, despite the fact that she'd made the very same assessment herself.

“Since when?”

“Remember Warren? He was the turning point.”

“I think Warren was an experiment that didn't pan out,” Dinah said. “I think you dipped your toe into safe, lukewarm waters to see how it felt and concluded that you preferred the excitement of a stormy sea, despite all the risks. I think you should be grateful.”

“To Warren?” Maggie asked incredulously. “Why on earth would I be grateful to him?”

“Because he proved once and for all that you will only be happy with a certain type of man, and his type, sweet as he is, is definitely not it.”

Unfortunately, Maggie couldn't entirely disagree. “Then why haven't I jumped into bed with Josh already? Goodness knows, he fits my old pattern perfectly.”

“Because you see something in him you never saw in any of the others who came before Warren,” Dinah suggested.

“Such as?”

“Staying power.”

That was the most ridiculous thing Dinah had said yet. “You think Josh has staying power?” Maggie scoffed. “Who are you kidding? The man lives in a motel, probably with his bags packed.”

“Only because that's all he's known. I don't think life with Nadine was all that stable. If someone gave him a reason to stay put, I think he'd settle down in a heartbeat.”

Maggie paused and considered that possibility. “I know you're right about his childhood with Nadine,” she said finally, “but what on earth makes you think he's ready to change his pattern? Look at his job history. He's always on the move.”

“Until Cord hired him and gave him both the work he loved and the respect he deserved,” Dinah reminded her. “He's not walking away from that. I don't think he'd walk away from a woman who gave him love and a sense of security, either. I just think he's afraid to want it too much.”

“And based on my past history, you think I can be that woman?” Maggie asked skeptically. “I bolt at the first sign of commitment.”

“No, you do not,” Dinah contradicted. “You set it up so the man takes off and you can play the injured victim. I don't think Josh will be put off so easily, if you give him half a chance. And I think that's what terrifies you. Just look how he's shaken you up tonight.”

“I am not shaken up. I'm annoyed. Besides, you hardly know the man,” Maggie said, desperate to prove that Dinah's probably sage advice wasn't worth a nickel.

“Neither do you,” Dinah reminded her. “If the attraction's there, and we both know it is, change that, Maggie. Get to know him. Let him into your life. Let him into your heart, not just into your bed.”

Maggie sighed. Dinah knew her better than anyone on earth. Maybe, for once, she should listen to her, instead of dismissing what she had to say because she didn't want to hear it. “Okay, I'll think about it.”

“Well, think fast, because according to my watch, he's due there in fifteen minutes.”

Maggie glanced at her own watch and confirmed the time. “Oh, my God, I've got to go.”

“Call me tomorrow,” Dinah said. She paused, then added slyly, “Or the next day, if tomorrow's inconvenient.”

“I thought you told me to keep him out of my bed.”

“But I know you won't,” Dinah said with conviction. “And what I actually said was to let him into your life and your heart, not
just
into your bed. Bye, sweetie. Have fun tonight.”

Maggie slowly put the portable phone back into its charger and considered Dinah's advice. Her friend was right about her tendency to do most relationships totally backward. At thirty-two, it was probably time to consider changing that pattern.

Then, again, there was the whole upper-hand thing. If Josh arrived tonight and she was dutifully waiting by the door to spend a nice sedate evening having a few drinks with him, just as he expected, he would win. It might be only a tiny victory, but it was unacceptable.

Which meant she had to come up with a fitting twist that would knock the man's socks off. If there was one thing at which she excelled, it was keeping wicked, dangerous men off kilter.

 

Maggie opened her front door wearing two skimpy scraps of silk and lace that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Josh almost swallowed his tongue. He still hadn't recovered from the unexpected sight when she reached out, bunched a fistful of his shirt in her hand and dragged him across the threshold.

Okay, then, they apparently weren't going out for drinks, he concluded as she pretty much plastered herself to him and turned their earlier kiss into child's play by comparison.

He barely had time to glance around the living room, which had the same cozy ambience as Images, before she was shoving aside his shirt and reaching for his belt.

Josh put his hand over hers in an attempt to still her busy fingers. “Um, Maggie, not that I'm complaining, but what's going on here?”

“Isn't it obvious?”

“You're seducing me,” he said, hoping he'd gotten it right and this wasn't some game she intended to halt any second now.

There was laughter in her eyes when she met his gaze. “Very astute. Any objections?”

He scrambled, trying to come up with one that made a lick of sense under the circumstances, but the benefits far outweighed any objection he could think of with her hands all over him.

He grinned at last. “I guess not.”

“Good answer. The bedroom's this way.”

Rather than following, though, he backed her against a wall and pinned her hands over her head. “We don't have to get there in the next five minutes, do we?” he asked, kissing his way along the side of her neck till he reached the spot where her pulse was jumping. He ran his tongue lightly over her burning skin.