Page 56 of Never Fall Again
“Well, it’s amazing to me how you take a lump of clay and make beautiful pottery with it.”
She looked over her shoulder and smiled, and he could not make himself look away.
Not good. Except she wasn’t looking away either.
Emmett stomped into the trailer. “Ma’am.” He touched his hat. “I’ll be out of here in a second.”
Manners were important, and Cal had no choice but to introduce Emmett, the fiend. “Landry Hutton, please meet Emmett Carver. He’s the manager of the crew on this job. Emmett.” Cal tried to send a mental message to Emmett to behave himself. “This is Landry Hutton, and this firecracker”—he winked at Eliza—“is Lucy.”
“It’s not Lucy!” He and Eliza had played this game before, and she giggled.
“So nice to meet you, Lucy.” Emmett had kids and played along.
“It’s not Lucy, it’s—”
Cal slapped a hand to his forehead. “Em, man. I’m sorry. I get it wrong sometimes. Her name isn’t Lucy. It’s Veronica.”
Eliza smacked her hand on the arm of the chair. “My name is—”
“You know, she doesn’t look like a Veronica,” Emmett said. “She looks more like a—”
“Eliza!” Eliza stood in the chair. “My name is Eliza!” She was laughing so hard, Cal worried she would fall.
“Eliza. Wow. I was way off.” Cal widened his eyes and went for over-the-top confusion and remorse. “Sorry about that.”
Eliza hopped from the chair and ran to him. He scooped her up and tossed her into the air. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re funny, LumLum.”
Landry burst out laughing, and Cal fixed her with a death glare. “Did you put her up to that?”
She gave him the fakest innocent expression he’d ever seen. “As I recall, you’re the one who mentioned it. It’s not my fault she remembered.”
“LumLum.” Emmett laughed so hard he was wheezing. “LumLum.”
Cal glared at Emmett. “Weren’t you leaving?”
“Sadly. I hate to leave. This show is pretty entertaining.” He winked at Eliza. “I owe you one, Miss Eliza.” He nodded toward Landry. “Ma’am.” Then, “LumLum. See you tonight.”
If Cal had anything to throw at Emmett, he would have done it. As it was, he waited until the door closed behind him to set Eliza on the floor, cross his arms, and focus his ire on Landry. Or he tried to. He held his laughter in for all of three seconds before it came out in a disgruntled chuckle. He didn’t want to laugh. The crews would be calling him LumLum now. Emmett would text them before he got to his truck.
But he hadn’t expected it. Not from Landry. Their friendship was still...fragile? No. That implied it could break easily, and he didn’t think that was the case. Nebulous? Maybe. They hadn’t figured out who they were to each other. There was an undercurrent that he tried not to focus on but couldn’t deny. A sense that if their pasts had been different, their futures might have—
No. Not going there. He focused on Eliza. “All right, you little stinker. Let’s go see the fireplace.”
“Yes!” Eliza led the way out of the trailer. It took them almost ten minutes to get to the fireplace because Landry kept stopping to exclaim over something that hadn’t been there last week.
But the moment she saw the fireplace, she froze. “Oh.”
Her eyes filled with tears that she blinked back. “It’s perfect.” Her words were a quiet whisper. “It’s exactly right.” Then she turned to him and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you.”
Cal watched as Landry and Eliza examined every inch of thefireplace. A fireplace he’d spent hours working on this week. A fireplace he thought might be one of the best things he’d ever designed or created.
He tried to focus on what they said and not the way their delight burned through him. He hadn’t expected their response to impact him. And on the heels of that kiss...
He’d put Landry in the close platonic friend/family category with the other important women in his life. His cousin. His sisters-in-law. They were all affectionate. All kissed his cheek regularly. He thought nothing of it.
But he could still feel the softness of her lips. Could still catch the way her unique scent—something floral mixed with the earthiness of clay—intensified as she drew near, then faded as she walked away. He could still hear that soft “thank you” and...
He was in so much trouble.