Her Irresistible Troublemaker (A Town Named Eden Book 3) (3 page)

“Of all the vacant blocks of land around why did you have to pick this one?”

He drew in a breath and pushed it out slowly, the way she usually did when she tried to call for calm.

“If I’d had the benefit of hindsight, rest assured I would’ve found some place else—”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She watched him unroll another piece of paper and press it against the next windowpane, his fingers moving with easy dexterity.

“It means that if I’d known how much trouble you were going to be, I would have sold the land for a profit and spared myself a month’s worth of headaches.”

And then she would not have met him. Her exchanges with Jack Riley came close to being the longest interaction she’d had with another living, breathing, human being—a man—in over twelve months. Lexie knew that had to have come from her inner Lulu. She interacted with men every day, albeit from a distance.

“Restless sleeper?” he asked.

She threw him a puzzled look. In answer to it, he looked over his shoulder at her rumpled bed.

“I had a huffing and puffing with frustration type of night,” she admitted giving him a pointed look. In truth, she hadn’t stopped thinking about him all night. Not even in her sleep. She’d had no idea what to make of him.

Devil or saint?

The night before, she’d only switched off the light after he’d suggested it, while any other guy might have continued enjoying the view. Then again, he could have told her straight away she needn’t worry about someone breaking in because he was the one in the building. But he hadn’t.

“You might try drinking chamomile tea before bed. I hear it’s very good for frustrated sleepers.” He picked up the roll of paper and strode into the sitting room to start covering the windows there. “Is this a one bedroom apartment?”

“Yes.”

“Interesting. Hold this end.”

“What’s interesting?”

He shrugged. “It’s easy to identify gay men, but with women—”

“Whoa. What are you suggesting?”

“Last night you mentioned Lulu, and you just said this is a one bedroom apartment, and so I thought… Never mind.”

* * *

Jack tried to pick up the pace and finish covering her windows, but for the life of him, he couldn’t move any faster. She smelled good and she looked attractive, in a mussed, just out of bed, sexy as hell sort of way.

“Well, I’m not,” she said, sounding and looking annoyed.

Her eyebrows puckered and her lips firmed, not that it made any difference as they still looked plump and inviting.

“You’re not what?”

“Whatever you’re suggesting.” She crossed her arms and lifted her chin.

“My mistake. You mentioned her last night and now you said this is a one bedroom apartment…”

“Lulu is... Lulu’s a friend and she... She sleeps on the couch.” She nudged her head toward a two-seater couch only big enough to accommodate a pint-sized Lulu.

“Okay.”

She uncrossed her arms, and then crossed them again. “I have a hot date tonight. With a man. Actually, we both do.”

His gut clenched. Definitely a sign he needed to get out and fast. “In that case, I’ll reinforce the tape. Heat tends to loosen it and we wouldn’t want the paper coming down while you’re in… the throes of passion.” 

“The throes of passion? Who talks like that?”

Someone used to employing euphemisms around his younger sisters. “Okay. All done. Take care and enjoy yourself tonight.” He turned and focused on putting one foot in front of the other without tripping.

“Wait.”

“Can’t stop now, Lexie. I’m already behind schedule.” Besides, if he lingered for another second he’d end up embarrassing himself.

Chapter Three

“Finished in record time. One sizzling hot adventure for Lulu McGee all wrapped up.” Lexie put the call on speaker so she could tidy up her desk while she talked—all part of the grand plan to keep herself as busy as a bee, leaving no room for wayward thoughts to crawl into her headspace.

“I can’t believe you spent the day working. It’s Saturday. You should be out and about.”

“Ava, I’m trying to impress you with my professionalism. But I did other stuff too.” After a month away visiting her parents, she’d needed to restock her fridge, mostly to justify the space it took up in her small galley kitchen. She’d also tried to do something about her cringe worthy view, at least what remained of it now that the windows had been covered.

“I bought a goldfish. It’s black with purple fins.” And she was already thinking of getting another one. She’d even toyed with the idea of getting a fish tank to run along the length of her window, but her budget...

Ugh!

She wished she could cross that one word off her vocabulary. While the comic strip kept the wolves howling from a safe distance, she wouldn’t mind being able to splurge more often on impulse, feel-good items.

Her lack of funds had to be addressed before it became a real issue. Time to hit that drawing board again and come up with another game plan. And she’d have to be creative because after a year of working from home, she didn’t relish the idea of another office job and maybe, another Jamie-like boss in her life. She leaned forward and gazed at her goldfish. “His name’s Melville.”

“Next you’ll be telling me you’ve acquired a dozen cats and don’t see anything wrong with spending the day wearing your tatty old bathrobe.”

“Are you trying to exert peer group pressure?” Lexie tugged at her seen-better-days bathrobe.

“Sorry, I drew the short straw and be warned, this is only the beginning. There’s an intervention in the making.”

They had three friends in common so Lexie knew which ones she should avoid for a while. “Okay, I’m not a total loser. I met a guy at a bookstore.” Their eyes had met. They’d smiled. He’d made a comment about the book she’d been perusing. A coffee and a chat later, they’d gone their separate ways and instead of feeling despondent, Lexie had felt relief and nothing else. No light spring in her step, would she ever see him again feeling.

“I think my goldfish scared him away. He said something about owning pets requiring too much commitment.” Lexie looked down at the drawing she’d been doodling and frowned. She’d sketched Lulu McGee in a black cocktail dress with a guy who looked annoyingly familiar.

“What a jerk.” Ava sighed. “But that shouldn’t stop you from going out tonight.”

Lexie shook her head. She wanted to spend the evening at home and enjoy her own space. The month she’d spent in Eden diverting attention from herself and evading hard to answer questions had left her drained and in need of recharging.

Could she get away with fibbing again? She’d pulled it off earlier that morning when she’d told Jack Riley she had a hot date lined up for the night. Not surprisingly, his reaction had been to hotfoot it out of her apartment.

“I couldn’t give it away even if I tried.” Lexie sprung upright. Where had that come from? And… “Did I say that out loud?”

“You sure did, and you sounded pathetic, but at least it shows you’re back on track. Be honest, you want to move on.”

“You got that from a simple slip of the tongue?”

“A Freudian slip. And let me remind you that a year ago you’d sworn off men.”

With good reason. Her lips parted but no words came out. Not even a squeak.

“I know you trusted Jamie and he nearly killed you, taking you on a wild ride in his new convertible and neglecting to mention he’d been partying and mixing drugs and booze—”

“Thanks for the reminder.”

“I just want you to know I’m not being unsympathetic. What he did to you was criminal, but it’s been a year…”

“It’s all behind me, Ava. As ironic as it might sound, I have a lot to be grateful for. If not for the accident, I’d still be with Jamie.” He’d been fun to be with and an easy going boss but the accident had opened her eyes. Deciding to cut all ties with him had been a no-brainer, especially as he’d made no effort to alter his lifestyle and do something about the drug addiction she’d only then become aware of.

She’d spent close to a month in hospital, and while the broken bones had mended, and the scars had eventually faded, her mind had kicked in, erecting a layer of wariness, something she’d discovered after six month’s worth of therapy.

If it happened once, it could happen again.

Lexie cringed and dismissed the self-defeating thought. Take one day at a time, she reminded herself. “And… most importantly, I’m looking at the sparkly bright side of life. If not for the accident, I would never have created Lulu McGee.”

“Yes, yes, but you need to get out there again.”

“Finding someone is so low on my list of priorities, besides, I don’t want to hurry—”

Ava started humming the Beatles Can’t Hurry Love tune.

“Are you being sarcastic?”

“How about Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”

“Yes, I get the message.”

“I’m not suggesting you go out there and hunt down Mr Right straightaway. Sift through. You never know what you might find.”

Lexie tipped her keyboard upside down and shook off a mixture of crumbs and what looked like traces of chocolate. “I met Jack Riley today,” she blurted out. “He’s full of self-righteousness. You know how men stand with their feet apart and take up twice as much space as they need to? Well, even without that trait, he swallows up a room. And to top it all off, he didn’t give me the time of day. He also thinks Lulu McGee’s my girlfriend and I hate him.” She drew in a deep breath and heard Ava do the same.

“He doesn’t know Lulu’s a comic strip character?”

Okay, she’d sort of fibbed about that, by omission, at least. Lexie raked her fingers through her hair. What the hell had come over her? She didn’t have anything to prove to anyone. “That’s all beside the point. He thinks he can ride roughshod over me and have everything his way just because he’s a big hotshot developer.” She peered between the gaps of paper at the building opposite. With her windows blocked, she hadn’t caught sight of him all day, but she could see lights on in the place.

“He doesn’t know Lulu’s a comic strip character?” Ava asked again.

“For heaven’s sake. You know what I’m like when I’m put on the spot. All chatter and nonsense. Well, it just sort of came out and snowballed.”

“Lying is like starting off on the wrong foot,” Ava reasoned. “You need to fix it before it gets out of hand.”

“He wants nothing to do with me.” And she didn’t blame him. The way she’d been fixating about her lost view...

Of course, it made sense to her. She did a minimum of eight hours work every day with nothing but a few phone calls to break up the tedium of working alone. Looking out her window at the sky, or if she leaned out far enough, at the river across the road, had always been a treat.

She tapped on her mouse and opened the email Jack had sent her, and then clicked on the attachment. His face filled the computer screen. Lexie sat back and took in the smiling eyes and the slight curve of his lips.

He’d smiled…

“I need to know exactly what went on between you two,” Ava demanded.

Lexie wanted to deny anything had happened but instead, she delivered a cathartic deluge of stilted bullet points summarizing her encounter with Jack Riley.

“Are you skipping over the juicy bits? You know, the part where you told him to go jump?”

“Brace yourself. I folded. I was putty in his hands. There’s something about him... Ugh!” She thumped her fisted hands on the desk. “Something both infuriating and appealing. I can’t put my finger on it.”

“Is your finger pointing toward attraction?”

No way on this earth could she be—

Okay. Physically, the man was the best eye candy she’d come across in a long time. But the rest...

The arrogance.

The assumption that he could have things his way, or no way…

“This dry spell is really doing my head in, but if you hear me complain again, feel free to give me a swift kick. I’m off to work on that new adventure for Lulu.” Work had plucked her out from the post-accident doldrums, so it could bail her out again and help her skate through the rest of the evening.

* * *

Jack would bet anything she’d been naked under her robe.

“You’re not doing yourself any favors,” he muttered. He’d been doing a lot of that during the last ten hours of non-stop work, growling and shoving aside thoughts about Lexie Gardner as he added another coat of paint.

She had a hot date tonight.

With someone new?

Maybe it wouldn’t work out.

“Yeah, that sort of thinking is not really going to help,” he insisted. The sooner he evicted the sewing circle that kept using his head as a regular meeting place, the better, he thought doing a final check of the building to make sure everything had been switched off.

She had a date…

He hadn’t been on a date since he’d come to his senses and realized every woman he met reminded him of Juliette. Same type, same merry-go-round experience. It had been well over a year since he’d ditched his suit and tie and it still amazed him how quickly everything had changed. The mere mention of a switch in careers had sent Juliette running in the opposite direction. To be fair to her, she’d stuck it out for a few months. It should have demolished his ego, but instead, he’d embraced the new perspective the experience had given him. Women had been attracted to the full package deal and without it…

Jack shuffled his way out of that thought and calling it quits for the day, he caved in to the need to eat something.

Instant gratification in a burger, that’s what he wanted. And, after a day spent working alone, he wouldn’t mind rejoining the herd, albeit from the sidelines.

With his thoughts fixed on satisfying his neglected hunger pangs, he made short work of packing up and leaving.

He didn’t go further than the local Monkey Bar Café. Although small, the place seemed to be quite busy, so he had ample time to look at the menu board and decide what he wanted to have. When he placed his order, Jack turned and leaned against the counter.

Maybe he’d been thinking too much about Lexie. At first he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but the longer he looked, the less convincing he needed. Wearing a light pink blouse, a lime green cardigan, Capri pants and ballet slippers, she didn’t look anything like the vixen he’d seen that morning.

She sat at a table by the door, her head lowered, her rich brown hair falling over her face, which was half hidden by a magazine. He was about to turn away when he decided he should say hello. After all, they’d already met. Sort of.

With any luck, his order would be ready before they even had a chance to fall into an awkward silence, or worse, engage in the verbal altercation he’d denied her when he’d hung up on her last night. Then again, she’d had the opportunity to have a go at him that morning, and she hadn’t taken it.

A group of people strode past, for a moment blocking her from view. Jack considered turning around and pretending he hadn’t seen her. But as he debated what to do, his body took over and sent him on a sauntering beeline toward her.

The tension he’d been feeling in his shoulders melted away and every muscle clenching thought that had been knocking around in his head disappeared. This was his chance to clear the air. The idea of her walking around thinking he was a pervert who peered at women through windows didn’t sit well with him. It had been an accident. Besides, he hadn’t really seen that much...

He came to a stop in front of her table and cleared his throat. When she looked up, her eyes widened and she appeared to shrink back into her chair.

“I wanted to apologize for last night—”

She put her hand up to stop him. “No need.”

Jack shifted and looked around. He could nod, leave it at that and move away. She didn’t expect or need an apology. So… Yes, he should go. “That’s very gracious of you.”

She sat up and looked at him, her eyes now crinkling at the edges. “Call it opportunistic. I love the idea of having something to hold over you.”

What? He mulled over her response. He couldn’t tell if she wanted to have the last word or engage him in conversation. “You’ll never let me live it down.”

She took her time looking at him. When she smiled, a dimple appeared on her cheek. “So, the more clothes I wear the more talkative you become. Interesting.”

Okay. Out of all the follow through responses, that would never have occurred to him. “I talked to you this morning.” And she’d been wearing a robe that had barely covered her thighs.

“I don’t remember you saying that much.”

He nodded. “I really needed to get back to work.” Otherwise who knew what he would have done. Taken the road of least resistance, according to his brother.