Risky Business (5 page)

Both her siblings lived highly scheduled lives, with work during the week and their kids' sports and church on the weekend, so bumping up the moving day was out of the question. She'd just have to suck it up with the sparse decor and amenities until then. Hopefully, Shawna, the receptionist, kept coffee and a coffeemaker in the kitchen, because Allison's was packed in the storage pod, which she was only now realizing was a terrible oversight.

She had no idea what the odds were that she could get the fire damage repaired before her older siblings brought their judgy opinions with them to take stock of her life choice, but she was glad for these few quiet minutes with Katie until she had to go downstairs and figure out how to get a recommendation for a trustworthy general contractor. She pretty much figured Theo wouldn't lift a finger to help her find someone. He'd probably try to use this as a lesson to show her how in-over-her-head she was with the company. Jerk.

The bedroom boasted three ancient vertical sliding windows that took up most of the wall space on the south side of the room and created a sweeping view of the canal, which was exasperating. If she took this room as her own, she'd have to wake up every morning looking at water. She hadn't put that all together last night while setting up Katie's portable crib in here, but dawn was nothing if not a shedder of light.

Allison carried with her the secret suspicion that the world's water had decided, when she was a kid, that it didn't like her. As a school bully might. For no good reason, it didn't like her and so it was going to push her around and dump on her and make her miserable just because it could, because it was bigger and stronger than she.

She understood, logically, that this was a ridiculous way to feel. Besides not believing in magic, she was also smart enough not to believe that water was sentient. Of course it wasn't. Except that then why did she keep nearly drowning? Why was it that every major change in her life happened while she was drenched? Every single one. It rained during her high school graduation ceremony, and on her wedding day, during their outdoor ceremony, when no rain was expected. It rained on her during Katie's birth, and the day her divorce became final, she came out of her lawyer's office to discover that a bus had hit a fire hydrant next to her car. Her car had been completely flooded.

And last night . . . well, she should have expected a near drowning to mark the milestone of this massive life change.

When her furniture arrived next Saturday, she'd have Grant and Janie help her set up her bed in the other, smaller, bathroom-free room. The one with the view of the parking lot. At least this room, for all its faults, gloriously displayed the sunrise, which shone in showy pinks and oranges this morning, streaking over the treetops on the far side of the canal. If she angled her gaze right, she couldn't even see the water.

She relaxed into the view and snuggled Katie closer, feeling drowsy and hopeful all over again—right up until Theo appeared, climbing the stairs to the roof deck of his houseboat, a mug in his hands, looking downright serene, thus confirming the scowl he'd sported the night before wasn't permanently etched onto his features, but had been brought out exclusively for her. He didn't sit on the deck, but leaned against the rail, facing the water.

Why hadn't she been intimidated by him last night? They'd been alone together, in the dark, with him incensed, shouting and gesturing wildly, snarling God-knows-what at her in French. Threatening to devour her. Why hadn't she been afraid of him, at least a little in the back of her mind, like any sane woman should have been in that situation? It didn't make sense, except that she must have known, on some level, that he wouldn't hurt the person whose life he'd risked his own to save.

That had to be it. On paper, he was scary and intimidating, but the only thing about him that intimidated her was her inappropriate physical attraction to him. To shake off a vision of him stripping down to his boxers, she forced her thoughts back around to how utterly obnoxious he was.

Her gaze slipped from the sunrise to Theo's ass. How could it not? As much as the sunrise, it was a fine part of the scenery. A thousand times more pleasing than the canal water. Maybe this would be her thing—secretly drinking her fill of his finery every morning while she fed Katie and he took his morning coffee. It wasn't a bad way to start the day, if only a smidge stalkerish. Maybe the daily dose of objectification would help her ignore her attraction to him the rest of the day. Goodness knows she needed to be on her A game around him.

He was wearing the same clothes as he had a few hours earlier when he stood in the kitchen, which tugged at her curiosity.

“Well, Katie, do you think he slept in those clothes? Maybe he didn't sleep at all. I don't feel like I slept at all. Do you?”

Katie's eyes fluttered closed. Allison touched her little button nose and smiled down at her. She loved being a mom, like she always knew she would. This was nowhere near how she expected her lifelong dream of motherhood to be, but her baby was healthy and happy, and Allison had a few years to figure out how to break it to her that her father was a convicted criminal.

Darkness crept up inside of her at the thought of Lowell and how utterly he'd wrecked her life, so she smiled even more brightly at Katie, adding some cooing sounds, until Katie's eyes cracked open again and she smiled back at Allison so broadly that she released the bottle. She nuzzled Katie's face, mugging for her and kissing her while Katie banged on her head, excited and happy. “You're such a good girl. We'll get through this together, won't we?”

Katie babbled in baby gibberish and tried to stuff Allison's hand in her mouth. Not a minute later, a knock sounded downstairs. A glance outside told her Theo was no longer on the roof deck. She was surprised he was knocking, to be honest. Last night he'd been more of the barge-right-in type.

She set Katie in her crib, much to her protest, pulled on an old sweatshirt, gathered up Katie again, and hurried downstairs as the knock sounded once more, louder this time and accompanied by more than one male voice.

A crowd of men stood on the other side of the glass door. She opened it, recognizing one of them as the man from last night whom she'd handed Katie off to before Theo pushed her into the canal. Brandon, if memory served.

“Are we too early?” It was a man in his fifties or early sixties, with a nice tan, salt-and-pepper hair, and a fit, strapping body that looked very military-esque.

“Early for what?” she asked.

“We're here to repair the fire damage.”

Interesting. Brandon or Theo must have taken it upon himself to hire a contractor. She bristled at the idea that Theo had done so without consulting her, as a power play. Whatever brought this crew to her door, she needed a lot more information before she let them work on her business, but she wasn't prepared to leave a group of willing workers standing out in the cold.

She opened the door wide and moved out of their path. “Come on in.”

They filed in, their focus on the fireplace and surrounding walls and floor. She followed their gaze. In the light of day, the damage didn't look as bad, though the brick and walls were streaked with black, as was a semi-circle on the ceiling above it. The floors were damp and coated in white ash and charred clumps of wood that were displaced from the fireplace, probably while the volunteers were hosing it down, reminding her that things could be so much worse if help hadn't arrived so quickly. The thought tightened her chest.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice. Who do I have to thank for calling you in today?”

Rather than answer, the men began an immediate assessment of the damage, talking quietly among themselves, dismissing Allison completely. They were all handsome and strapping, which Allison considered a perfectly legitimate reason to hire them, even if they were presently ignoring her—as though Theo had instructed them to. Other than the older gentleman, none of them had bothered with even a pretense of politeness, and none of them had looked her in the eye yet.

Thanks for nothing, Theo.

She rocked on her heels, weighing her options, then gathered her courage and snagged the attention of the older man, offering him her hand to shake. “I'm Allison.”

“Duke Connor.” He gave her hand the briefest up and down, then started to turn away from her. She tugged his hand, refusing to relinquish it until he looked her way again.

“And their names?”

Rubbing the back of his neck, he paused as though debating whether he should divulge such sensitive information to the enemy.

“That's Brandon, right?” she said.

Hearing his name, he glanced in her direction, his shoulders stiff, his expression guarded. Women probably fell all over him. He was classically handsome—too handsome for Allison's taste, not that she was necessarily turned off by men with flawless complexions and movie star good looks, but yeah, she didn't get that kind of guy or what made him tick.

She gave Brandon a wave, then made Katie's hand wave. “You took care of Katie when my coat was on fire. Thank you.”

She didn't think it was her imagination that his shoulders relaxed a shade as he straightened up and met her gaze. “It was no trouble. I'm glad you weren't hurt.”

She squished over the ash, debris, and water and offered him her hand to shake. “I didn't get the chance to thank you properly.”

He surprised her by accepting the gesture, perusing her body as he gave her hand a firm shake. Not that she was anything to look at this early in the morning, clad in sweats and holding a baby who'd probably burped up formula on her shoulder, but maybe he'd mistaken her comment about thanking him properly for an invitation.

“That's Liam McAllister and Will Corgan,” Brandon added, pointing to the men nearest the fireplace.

The one he'd pointed out as Liam had dark blond hair buzzed short in a military cut and a tool belt strapped to his trim waist. He didn't acknowledge the introduction, but continued pulling off the baseboards nearest the fireplace using the back of a hammer.

Will was the tallest and brawniest man of the group. He had almost black hair and sharp, dark eyes that burned with an edgy energy. It wasn't until he held a three-pronged prosthetic out for her to shake that she noticed he was missing his right hand.

She tried not to act surprised or flinch or let her gaze linger on it a hair too long, not that she gave one whit about it or was weirded out, but it caught her off guard to see something other than what her mind expected. The gesture and the gleam in his eyes, and all the men's obvious loyalty to Theo, made her wonder whether he'd offered her the prosthetic to shake because his disability didn't bother him or because he hoped it would bother her.

If that was the case, then too bad for him. She took hold of two of the three prongs and shook them like a handshake, smiling. “Great to meet you, Will. Were you here last night? I'm sorry if I've forgotten. There was a lot going on.”

He swished his work boot through the ash and water. “This is my handiwork. I sprayed the whole room down, thinking I'd rather deal with water damage than have to rebuild Theo's office.”

As she debated whether to correct him on that last point, Katie grabbed a hold of one of the prongs and pulled it toward her mouth. Allison couldn't decide if she should be mortified or not until she registered the way Will's whole body and expression had frozen, like Katie was a wild animal.

“Sorry,” she muttered, working to free him from Katie's determined grip.

“You're Lowell's wife?” Will said, woodenly, like he was trying to distract himself.

“His ex-wife. Very, very ex-wife. Okay, Katie, that's enough of that.” Katie's fingers finally released. Allison lifted the hem of her sweatshirt and wiped Katie's drool off the metal.

“And this kid is yours with him?” He sounded bemused rather than angry, which she could totally understand. That truth baffled her sometimes, too.

“This is Katie, and, yes, Lowell's her father. Poor thing, right?”

Will huffed good-naturedly. “I don't see how a guy like that could sire something so cute, but whatever. No offense.”

“None taken. I know exactly what you mean.”

Duke walked their way, hands on his hips. “The damage doesn't look too bad. We won't know for sure until we get into the drywall and the floors, but I don't think it's going to run you too much.”

Allison tried not to let how she felt at the mention of money, of another bill she'd have to pay with funds she didn't have, show on her face. She assumed the business's insurance would cover the costs, but she hadn't had a chance to look into it, and a reimbursement check meant nothing if she didn't have the money in the bank to front the cost in the first place. She shoved the dark thoughts aside. “Will you be able to fix the fireplace, too? I love having fires.” She wagged her finger, feeling playful. “No jokes about me setting fires, okay?”

“Yes, ma'am. I'm surprised Theo hasn't. He's a whiz at fixing things. Best mechanical mind I've ever seen.”

“Hey,” Will called with mock offense.

“Did Theo hire you all for this job? He didn't mention it to me last night when we talked.”
More like waged battle
.

“He didn't need to. We always have time to help one of our own.”

She didn't know what “our own” meant, but she didn't see fit to take the focus off her main concern, which was seeking out Theo and making sure Duke and his crew were trustworthy and good at what they did. “As far as the bill goes, I'll need to see an estimate first, if you would, please.”

That earned her a snicker.

“We're friends. Theo is one of us, so we're going to be fair. Materials only, and even then, we're not going to screw you over. I know you don't know me from Adam, but Theo will vouch for us if you have concerns.”