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“Plumbing, too. Have to redo everything. Shit hole.” Henry’s plumbing estimation.
“Pipe dream, boss.” Leah clapped him on the shoulder, but he barely felt it.
Yeah, pipe dream, but he could see it. He could see it fully restored and absolutely perfect. With Grace and Kyle—his business partner and now also his sister’s boyfriend—moving out of the main house once their house was finished being built back in their hometown of Carvelle, Jacob was thinking about selling that first project. Without people sharing the same roof, the big house on the bluff was too much for him. MC had a strong enough reputation he didn’t need the grand showpiece as an office anymore, and he really didn’t want to think about living in that monster by himself.
This house would be a better size. He could work and live there like he did at the main house. It could still be a bit of a showcase of what he could do. Right in the heart of town. And if he bought it, it wouldn’t be demolished and turned into a strip mall.
“Jacob.”
“Hmm?”
“It’s a money pit.”
Jacob spared Leah a glance. “My favorite kind.”
She shook her head. “One of these days it’s going to blow up in your face. You can’t keep taking risks like this.”
“What’s life without a little risk?” Jacob turned his attention back to the house. Especially when the risk was this perfect. “I’ll put a lowball offer in. See what happens.”
“What about the Perkins house?”
“I can do both.”
Leah shook her head again. She did that a lot when he got on one of his extracurricular projects, but she also always pitched in. She’d complain and poke fun until she was blue in the face, but she’d be the first one there with him and the last one to leave. He supposed that was how she’d somehow suckered him and Grace and Kyle into helping her clean up her house before her family’s arrival.
Speaking of that. “You gonna have food tonight?”
Leah slid the hard hat off her head, began tapping it against her thigh. “I’ll order some pizza. Buy some beer and sodas.”
“Dessert?” He grinned over at her when she scowled. She had a big, dirty coat on over her sweatshirt. Her hair was a static mess from the hard hat. Her cheeks were pink from the cold.
Jacob looked back at the house. This sex drought was really, really getting to him.
“I’ll get some snickerdoodles.”
“If it doesn’t contain chocolate, it is not a dessert.”
“I’m not buying a bunch of chocolate and watching you guys scarf it down when I can’t have any. Cruel and unusual.”
“Not our fault you’re allergic to everything.”
“One pan of brownies. Store-bought. And you’re taking all the leftovers home with you.”
Jacob grinned, slung his arm over her shoulders. “You drive a hard bargain. Guess I can live with that while I’m slaving away cleaning your pigsty.”
She wiggled out from under his arm. “Think of it this way. You get a front-row seat to the look on Kyle’s face when he sees how messy I really am.”
Yeah, seeing his anal-retentive partner’s face when he got a load of Leah’s place was going to be fun. “Fair enough.”
“You two gonna blab all afternoon? Freezing my balls off.” Henry marched over to the truck.
Leah rolled her eyes and followed suit. Jacob took a few extra seconds to give the house one last look. It was going to be his, money pit or no money pit.
* * *
“LEAH, MY GOD, how do you live like this?”
Leah had to bite back a smile. She was messy. Definitely. She knew it wasn’t an attractive quality and it embarrassed her...sometimes.
But Kyle’s complete and utter horror was too funny.
“Thanks for coming, guys. Food and drinks are in the kitchen. Grab what you want. I did actually clean that room.”
It had taken all weekend and then another hour this afternoon when she’d gotten home from work, but it was one room down and she was determined to keep it clean until Friday, when her parents and Marc arrived.
“As far as cleaning goes, trash anything you want. Everything with any sentimental value is in my room, which I don’t need help with.” It needed help, no doubt, but she didn’t like the idea of Jacob poking around in there. Not when he was likely to find all sorts of things she didn’t want him seeing. Pill bottles, inhalers, old pictures. No, she didn’t want him, or any of her friends, seeing any of that.
“Leah, this isn’t going to take an evening. This is going to take a decade.”
Leah patted Kyle’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. You’ll survive. I promise. If you start having chest pains or a numb feeling in your arm, you just tell Grace and she’ll rush you to the hospital.”
“Ha-ha.” But he smiled, which was becoming more and more normal. Man, that was nice. Leah liked seeing Grace and Kyle together. The easy way they balanced each other out, made each other happy.
Anytime she thought of that and felt a little bit jealous, she immediately blocked the feeling out. She refused to be jealous of anyone anymore. That was part of what had caused her so many problems after her surgery.
Jealous everyone else got to do what they wanted, whenever they wanted. She’d been less and less inclined to take care of the second chance someone else’s life had given her.
Jeez. What was wrong with her, thinking about that right now?
She handed out paper plates and let everyone grab what they wanted. Her cheese-free pizza was a sad commentary on the state of her life, but what could she do? The body she was born with was a mess of allergies and malfunctioning parts.
For the next four hours she, Jacob, Grace and Kyle worked through the scattered piles of debris. Organizing, putting things away, sweeping, mopping and dusting.
Damn, what would she do without these people?
After emptying the vacuum canister for at least the fifth time, Leah stood in the kitchen and took a deep breath. Her lungs were a little tight from the dust and exertion, so she slipped away to her bedroom for a sneak hit on her inhaler. She needed to grab a mask, too, but when she stepped back out, she heard a noise down the hallway.
It sounded like it came from the worst room in the house. The room she wasn’t going to bother cleaning because she hadn’t even begun renovations on it. She was going to block it off. There was no way she’d get it viewable by next week.
Mask forgotten, she walked to the open doorway. When she looked in, expecting and dreading to find evidence of mice, she found Jacob instead. He was standing in the middle of the room, little work notebook in hand, jotting notes.
It wasn’t fair he could look so damn good in jeans and a flannel shirt and a beard. Minus the beard, it was what she was wearing, and she knew very well she didn’t look like someone anyone wanted to jump.
Ugh. Why did she have to want to jump him? Since that thought was so frustrating, she put extra accusation into her voice. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Making a list.” He didn’t even glance at her. Instead, he kept writing in his little notebook just like he did at work.
She took a step inside. “A list of what?”
“Things that need to be done before your parents come stay with you.”
“What?”
He finally looked up, tucked the pen behind his ear. Why the hell was that sexy? Oh, right, because she was dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.
“Look, if I’m your boyfriend and I’m a contractor, they’d expect these things to be taken care of.”
Defensiveness settled through her and she crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s a work in progress.”
“You’ve lived here five years. How long have we been together?”
She didn’t understand how he could be so casual about it. But it was Jacob. Jacob was casual about everything.
Except his work. MC was the one place his laser focus and intense dedication went. Well, that and his family.
“Leah? Hello? You want this lie to fly you’re going to have to think about these things. Details and—”
“I know. I know. They think we’ve been dating a year,” she muttered, kicking at the warped floorboard.
He let out a low whistle. “Damn. You ever been in a real relationship for a whole year?”
“No.” She didn’t need to ask him if he had. She knew the answer to that since she paid way too close attention to his dating life. Jacob could barely manage a six-week relationship.
Though it might have something to do with the way he went about dating. Like a mission. A to-do list to get to his wanted destination. Family.
Which was none of her business. Fake relationship or no. Especially since “family” wasn’t something she’d ever be able to offer anyone.
“You know, if we’ve been dating a year they’re going to expect us to actually, oh, I don’t know, touch each other. Possibly even sleep together.”
Her face burned. So embarrassing. “I don’t think my devoutly Catholic mother is going to be concerning herself with our sex life.”
He walked toward her, tucking the notebook in his front pocket. “‘Our sex life.’ Weirder words I’m not sure have ever been spoken.”
“No shit.” Leah tucked her hands into her armpits, hugging herself close. They were alone and this was weird with a capital W.
“So, you know, speaking of our sex life, how do you see that going?”
He was joking and grinning, but the proximity meant she was having a hard time getting that through to her brain. Actually, not so much her brain as her sorely neglected libido.
Leah took a breath and summoned all the unaffectedness she could muster. “Why are guys so gross?”
“After cleaning up your house, you do not get to talk to me about gross.”
Fair enough. “You’re not doing anything to this room, Jacob. I’m blocking it off. We’ve been too busy building MC to work on my place. Got it?”
He made a considering sound in his throat and then left the room. Damn it, she hated when he did that. The no-answer thing meant he was going to do something stupid.
Well, it couldn’t be any stupider than her asking him to be her fake boyfriend.
* * *
JACOB KNEW HE should leave with everyone else, talk to Leah about this situation somewhere...safe. But there really was no time like the present.
He plopped himself onto her newly-cleaned-up couch. “So, we ever going to talk details about this whole fake-relationship thing?”
Her whole body visibly stiffened, and then she rolled her shoulders. “Yeah. Sure. I just...”
“You remember this being your idea? You begged me to agree to it.”
Some of her tension morphed into irritation, which was exactly what he’d been going for. “I did not beg.”
“Pretty sure the word please was used.”
“Begging and being polite are two different things. Can we talk about this some other time? When I’m not exhausted and covered in dirt.”
She did look tired. Pale, and there was a weird rasp to her voice. He noticed she got that whenever she’d been working particularly hard.
But he also knew if he left, she’d keep working. There was no quit in Leah. “You know me. I like a plan. Blueprint. Details. Fill me in.”
“Right. Right.” She pulled the cuffs of her shirt down, then pushed them back up to her elbows. And then repeated the process two more times.
He wasn’t used to nervous, unsure Leah. It was fascinating. Something he wanted to poke at. “Where was our first date?”
She glowered at him. “What?”
“How did I ask you out? What do you love about me?” He grinned, knowing it would irritate and fluster her more.
“What does that matter?”
“You don’t think your mom might be curious as to how we started dating? What you see in me, besides my good looks, that is.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it and rubbed a hand to her chest.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Look, my family won’t care about that, and if they do I’ll make something up.”
“You’ve obviously never pulled off an elaborate hoax before. Or seen a romantic comedy.” She made a face and didn’t stop rubbing her chest. “Leah, what is up with you?”
“Nothing,” she snapped. “Can’t you just go away? We can talk about this some other time.”
“No time like the present.” He certainly wasn’t going to leave when it looked as though something was wrong with her. Maybe she was coming down with a cold. He was about to offer to run and get her some soup or something when she abruptly turned away.
“Give me a second.” She disappeared down the hallway, so pale and strange-sounding he couldn’t fight the impulse to follow where she went.
The door to her room was cracked open and he looked in as she took a deep breath with an inhaler to her mouth. He’d seen her use it once or twice, but had never given it much thought.
He nudged the door open wider. “You okay?”
“Does privacy mean nothing to you?” She took a deep breath, then another puff of the inhaler, all the while glowering at him.
But she was so damn pale and he’d never seen her so shaky. So, instead of backing off like she obviously wanted him to do, he plopped on the bed next to her. “So, the answer to my question would be no.”
“I’m fine.” She inched away from him. “Please, don’t push.” Then she coughed, and it came out all wheezy and awful-sounding. He thumped her back and took her hand, about five seconds from calling an ambulance.
She gulped air and he rubbed her back. Obviously something was really wrong if she wasn’t pushing him away. “I’m going to call 9-1-1.”
She grabbed his arm before he could stand up. “No way in hell.” With her free hand she took another puff of the inhaler. “Don’t you dare move.”
“Hey, look at me because you’re starting to freak me out.”
She looked him square in the eye, those pretty green-blue eyes fierce and determined. “I’m fine,” she said firmly, but she was trembling. “It’s asthma, Jacob. Had it all my life.”
“I’m getting you some water.” She released his arm and he hurried out to the kitchen and returned with a glass of water. She was still pale, but her breathing had eased.
“Do not look at me like that.” She snatched the glass of water out of his hand, and when he sat next to her again, she inched away.
But she drank the water and slowly stopped looking so gray. She wasn’t trembling anymore and her breathing seemed easier. “Don’t look at you like what?”
“Like I’m dying. I’m not. Go home. Please.”
She was squeezing the glass so tight it was a wonder it didn’t break, but there was no way he was going home. He covered her hand with his, but before he could say something, she gave him that direct look again.
Yeah, not much about Leah’s kick-ass, tomboy, tough-girl self was pretty, but those eyes were.
“I am okay. I promise. I’ll admit I made a mistake tonight, and you know I don’t admit mistakes easily. I pushed myself too hard, but it was just a...blip. I’ll get a good night’s sleep, and I won’t go mucking around in dust without a mask again.”
She was right—admitting mistakes wasn’t in her M.O. So it was hard to doubt the rest. Besides, Leah knew her body better than he did. Way better than he did. So he should back off like she asked.
She pointedly looked down, presumably because his hands were covering hers. On her bed. Yeah, okay, things had gotten a little weird.
“I’ll get out of your hair.” He stood, shoved his hands in his pockets. “If you’re sure you’re okay?”
“I swear to God you ask me that again I’ll kill you and show you just how okay I am.”
She wasn’t a hugger, but despite the insult, he had the urge to do just that before he left. She looked so...weak, the opposite of the Leah he routinely saw.
Instead, he kept his hands in his pockets and managed a smile. “See you tomorrow.” Leaving seemed so damn wrong, but she wanted him to. She wanted him to and him staying was only going to aggravate her, so he should definitely go.
“Yup.” She nodded toward the door.
He took a few steps toward the door, then sighed. “You call if you need anything.”
“It’s asthma, not paralysis.”
“Asthma isn’t exactly a cold.”
She swore under her breath. “Don’t do this, okay? Do not start treating me like I’ll break. I can’t take it. I cannot take it.”
He wondered at the fury in her voice. He was just trying to be nice. Leave it to Leah to be pissy about it. “Fine. Pardon me for caring.”
She just kept staring at her floor, so he rolled his eyes and finished the walk out. He made sure to lock the door behind him, hoped she remembered to flip the dead bolt. He’d text a reminder to her, except knowing Leah, she’d leave it unlocked just to piss him off.
Jacob climbed into his truck, then sat in the driver’s seat, shivering in the below-freezing temperatures. He jammed his key into the ignition and then laughed when the engine wouldn’t turn over.
Yeah, that seemed about right.
CHAPTER THREE
WHEN A KNOCK sounded on her door, Leah wanted to punch something. Scratch that. Someone. Lungs aching, head pounding, she trudged to the door ready to give Jacob a piece of her mind.
She didn’t have the energy for this. She was too busy beating herself up for being careless and letting Jacob catch her in her carelessness. He was such a worrier, and she hated the thought of him worrying over her.
She’d been through the smothering thing. She didn’t handle it well. Or at all. The last thing she needed was to screw up her life all over again because the people around her wouldn’t let her breathe, make her own decisions, be in charge.
MC, her friends, everything about the person she was now was what she wanted. Desperately. She was happy, for the first time in too long to remember. Life was good, and she was steps away from getting her family back.
If Jacob ruined that by hovering, by maneuvering, by being everything she couldn’t stand, it would end it all.
Jesus, could she get any more overdramatic? She’d handled a hell of a lot worse than an overworried friend/boss. She wasn’t going to let him be the end of anything. No way. Which meant she had to put on the tough-girl shell and prove once and for all there was nothing to worry over.
The tough-girl shell was a little exhausting after a long day of hard work and setbacks. On a deep breath, Leah wrenched open the door and fixed Jacob with her most furious glare. “Go. Away.”
“Truck won’t start.” His shoulders were hunched, the collar of his coat almost reaching his ears. Cold air whipped in through the open door. “Going to make me freeze?”
“No,” Leah mumbled. She moved out of the way so Jacob could step inside.
“I’ll call a tow truck, have Kyle come pick me up. Just need some warmth for a bit.” His voice was gruff, his posture stiff. Jacob was angry and, well, that didn’t happen very often.
Crap.
“I can take a look.”
“Don’t bother.”
Yeah, double crap. “Just let me—”
“Don’t worry about it.” He was typing something into his phone, expressly not moving any farther into her house or taking off his coat. His ears and nose were bright red.
“You want something hot to drink?”
He glanced up from his phone. “Now you’re offering me hot drinks? Because about fifteen minutes ago you were all but kicking me out.”
A mix of guilt and irritation and shame propelled her toward the kitchen. Oh, she hated that even temper of his. Because she never could be angry in the face of his anger. It was so hard to piss off Jacob and she got irritated at the drop of a hat.
Which meant, if Jacob was mad and snotty, she’d stepped over a line and the tough-girl shell wasn’t the answer. Unfortunately, reason and apologizing were the answer. She hated apologizing and, damn it, she hated being wrong enough to have to.
“I don’t have coffee or hot chocolate. Just tea.”
“I’ll survive. Here. Found a tow number.”
“Don’t call a tow truck. Let me look at it first.” When she turned to face Jacob, he was standing in the entry to her kitchen, frowning.
“It’s freezing out there.” He didn’t mention earlier, though God knew that was what this was about. Even pissed, he was worried about her.
For a second, just a sliver of a second, there was some stupid, girlie part of her that thought it was kind of sweet. Until she remembered how fast worrying could snowball to babying, controlling.
“I have a jacket. A hat. Gloves. All these magical things to keep me warm.”
“And just how many brain cells do you think you lost when you practically couldn’t breathe for a few minutes? Not sure I can trust your judgment.”
She gritted her teeth, did everything to keep the snap out of her tone. “I’m fine.”
“Oh, are you? You hadn’t mentioned that eight million times. Just shut up for a few minutes so I can call the tow.”
She grabbed the phone out of his hand as he held it to his ear. “Don’t be stubborn and stupid.”
He snorted. “You oughta talk.”
“I’m...” Oh, God, she hated this part. “Sorry. I’m sorry I was kind of an ass before. I just can’t stand being hovered over.”
His eyebrows lifted. “I was hovering?”
Okay, not really. Not suffocating, anyway. She’d been pretty bad off and he’d been worried. It was just, she couldn’t tell him why that scared her or put her back up. She couldn’t explain it was the thing she most feared.
Because she wouldn’t admit to anyone she feared anything. “I said I’m sorry. What more do you want?”
He rolled his eyes. “Not a damn thing, Leah. Just give me my phone.” He held out his hand and she stared at it.
They came to impasses like this from time to time. Both so certain they were right. Both irritated and defensive. She hated the way it tied her up in knots. She hated feeling guilty and stupid, but most of all she hated the thought of him being angry with her.
Which was so pathetic it was laughable.
“My family thinks you asked me out at New Year’s last year.” It was the only thing that would distract him no matter how much she dreaded discussing it, and it was better than arguing. “Besides that, I haven’t talked much about it. If Mom asks I say we went to a movie or dinner and I change the subject. It’s not like I’ve created some elaborate fantasy. You’re a prop. I don’t enjoy lying to them. It’s just necessary.”
He studied her with an unreadable expression. So rarely did he have a poker face, it made her nervous and uncomfortable. She went back to focusing on making the tea he probably wouldn’t drink. Then she remembered she still had his phone, and she stopped abruptly halfway between him and the stove.
“Why is it necessary to lie?”
The heart that wasn’t hers ached in a place that was. “I told you why. The whole thinking-I-need-a-man thing.”
“Okay, I get why that bugs you, but why lie to them about it? You’re not exactly the pretend-to-be-something-you’re-not type.”
Leah frowned. It was true, but this was different. So much more important. “They’re my family.”
“They should love you for who you are.”
“I owe them too much for that.” Disgusted with herself for saying it, she handed him his phone. “I’m going to go put my coat on, find a flashlight and take a look at your car. Might be able to jury-rig something.”
“Leah—”
She didn’t stick around to find out what he wanted to say. She’d revealed too much already.
* * *
“THERE. START IT.”
Jacob looked down at the engine Leah had been fooling around with. Between the streetlight and her flashlight, he could see well enough. Unfortunately, he knew jack about cars, so seeing it didn’t help the situation. “You really think you fixed it?”
“It’s below freezing. Start the damn car and we’ll find out.”
Since her teeth were chattering and he wasn’t exactly warm and cozy, either, he hurried to the driver’s side and turned the key in the ignition. When the engine started, he stared, a little dumbfounded and possibly a little emasculated. “You did it.”