Page 24 of Nailing Studs
In the morning, I baked cinnamon coffee cake bars. I set coffee to brew and whipped up some heavy cream with a sprinkling of sugar to dollop over the cake bars. After that, I grew restless. First I sat in the sun room. Then I sat on the tea parlor floor, making a mental note to check out used furniture stores in town. Half the house was furnished and the other half Tabitha must have gotten rid of some of the older pieces. At least she’d left the beds. Beds that could easily be filled by two big men and, well…and me. If that’s what they ended up offering me, that is. And if I ended up having the nerve to accept.
I grinned at my own naughty thoughts.
Yeah, I sure couldn’t concentrate. Like, at all.
After a nice long shower and putting away some of my clothes, I finally heard the truck outside. My heart in my throat, I ran downstairs to greet them. But my nerves got the best of me, and I paused behind the door, took a deep breath, and waited for them to knock.
Maybe today they would look different. Maybe today, I’d realize they weren’t as hot as I remembered. Maybe today they wouldn’t exude kindness and sexiness and trustworthiness and—
A knock sounded on the door and I jumped about a mile. I put a hand on my chest and tried counting to ten, working hard to get my emotions under control.
“We know you’re there, Kayla,” Taylor’s deep voice sounded, followed by his throaty chuckle. “Open up.”
Smoothing down my hair, I opened the door and tried not to smile too big. Nope, nothing had changed. They were still Heaven in construction boots.
I’d not only won a house, even if temporarily, but the hot guy lottery, too.
Again, even if only temporarily.
“Sorry we’re late,” Taylor added. “We stopped to help a teenage kid fill up her tank. She’d run out of gas and had to get to work.”
Sexiness and kindness and trustworthiness… Thank you, Aunt Tabitha.
I seemed to be saying and thinking that a lot lately.
“Hey, guys,” I said breathlessly. “Come on in.”
“We could smell cinnamon-y deliciousness as soon as we got out of the truck. What did you bake this time?” Dominic asked, closing the door while Taylor reached out to flip my ponytail.
“You’ll see,” I said. “Hopefully, you’ll love it.”
They both looked at each other. “Oh, we know we’ll love it,” Taylor said.
In the kitchen, I took two coffee cake bars and set them on plates. I watched them sink their teeth into the bars.
“Wow.”
“Damn, this is good.”
They mumbled and scarfed down their bars, then nodded and exchanged looks of approval before reaching for another.
“I take it you like the cinnamon coffee bars?” I asked wryly.
“We like everything about you, Kayla,” Taylor said. “I’m pretty sure Dom made that clear last night?”
Oh, hell, here we go. This was the part I’d been waiting for. “He…um…certainly did, yes. I mean, you must like me A LOT to offer to renovate the house knowing I don’t have the money to pay you.”
Taylor grinned. “It’s that we like you a whole lot, yes, but it really is a good business move for us, too. The thing is, we want to make sure you know they’re two separate things. Our interest in helping you with the house, and our interest in you personally. If you decide to pass on our help with the house but still want to see us socially, that’s okay. If you decide you only want our help with the house, that’s okay, too.”
I bit my lip, looking between the two of them. “And if I decide I want both?”
Dom stepped up to me and took my hands in his. “Then best of both worlds,” he said quietly.
“Definitely,” Taylor said.
I nodded. “Okay, let’s talk about the house stuff first then. Just to make sure we’re all on the same page.”
The three of us went over everything that Dom and I had talked about at the diner yesterday. When Taylor and Dom looked at me expectantly, their eyes filled with hope, I sighed. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to say no.”