Investment in Love (Contemporary Romance) (5 page)

Calvin stood just inside the door to the community center and blinked in the dim light, letting his eyes adjust from the blazing orange sunset outside. There were indeed streamers as he had guessed, and a punchbowl that looked to be filled with weak punch, and unfortunately whiny sounding country music was playing. Surprisingly, though, he didn’t find it as distasteful as he’d suspected he would. There was something charming about the friendly geniality exuded by the townspeople scattered around the hall.

He let his gaze sweep the room, telling himself that he was looking for single women. There were a few who looked like they might be possible prospects, but for some reason, he kept looking. He was just trying to see all the options, he thought. He definitely didn’t care if Ellie Parker was there—although it would be convenient to talk to her about the renovation.

“Excuse me,” said an older woman’s voice to his left. “So I hear you’re renovating Loretta Meyer’s old place?”

He glanced over at the speaker, a gray-haired woman who was followed by someone vaguely familiar looking.

“Uh, yes, I am,” he said politely.

“Kathy here told me you were,” she said, face sharp with keen interest.

Oh.
Now he remembered the other woman. She was the gossipy one who owned Treasures ‘n’ Things. As he smiled politely at her, he was alarmed to see four or five other women drifting towards them from the dessert table.

The first speaker cleared her throat, catching his attention again before he could look closely at the pretty girl in the back of the group.

“You must be one of Maude Meyer’s grandkids then?”

He nodded, still distracted by the head of expertly curled golden brown hair, but he couldn’t quite see the girl’s face behind a piled-up hairdo.

“You letting our Miss Ellie help you out with that renovation? She went off to college to specialize in just that,” someone else said proudly.

“Well, I’m not sure—” interjected a sweetly familiar voice.

The group of busybodies parted to reveal a gorgeous woman. After a moment of staring, Calvin realized he was looking at Ellie Parker.

“Uh—” she cut off mid-sentence, blushing prettily. “What I meant to say was that I think we still need to discuss the specifics.” Her wide pretty eyes narrowed into a glare at him, as she clearly remembered his earlier offense at the café.

“Yes!” said Calvin, a shade overenthusiastically. He dove forward and grabbed Ellie’s arm, glad for any excuse to escape the town gossips.

The room buzzed around them, and Ellie could feel far too many curious eyes. “Sure,” she said, putting on a professional tone. “Let’s duck outside so we can hear one another.”
And get away from all the busybodies
, she added internally.

Ellie led the way out a side door, feeling a combination of remaining irritation and a girlish nervousness. Outside it was the beautiful deep navy of late twilight, and the first stars were sparkling in the sky. Ellie took a deep breath of the clean, fresh air and turned to face the man who followed. The breeze was chilly against her bare arms, and she had to resist the urge to wrap her arms around her midriff. Instead, she stayed cold and upright, wanting to look independent and strong.

***

Calvin followed Ellie outside, half-stunned the whole time by how absurdly pretty she was. When she had been in jeans, a tee, and no makeup, the brunette had already been eye-catching, but now… Now it was hard to remember why he’d decided against making her a candidate for his inheritance marriage.

But when she turned around and eyed him coldly, he remembered why after all.
But still,
his mind said, making half-hearted excuses,
you weren’t exactly nice to her.
Calvin brushed the thought away. The girl deserved an apology, and he was going to give her one, but his marriage was going to be a month- or week-long sham. He needed someone simple and easily persuaded, not a beautiful but suspicious interior designer.

“Well?” Ellie said, eyebrows knitting. With a start, he realized he had just been standing there staring down at her in the dim light.

God, judging by the way she had glared at him and tugged up her dress, she probably thought he’d been looking at her cleavage.
While admittedly that view was nice, he’d actually been captivated by her beautiful face and the way the sunlight fell across her cheekbones.

A flush ran up his face at the thought, and he was glad of the dim lighting. Calvin cleared his throat. “Sorry,” he said vaguely. “Um, I wanted to apologize to you for earlier.”

Ellie waited. She clearly wasn’t going to make this easy for him. He continued, “Clearly, what I said was out of hand. Honestly, my mouth just got ahead of my brain. I don’t think you’re stupid because you’re from a small town or anything like that. Honest.”

The woman relaxed slightly, letting her stiff shoulders loosen and looking more friendly. “I suppose I owe you an apology too,” she said. “I don’t think what you said was fair, but… I shouldn’t have gone off on you like that.”

Calvin nodded in relief. “Thank you, Ms. Parker—”

“Ellie, please,” she interjected with a slight smile.

He smiled back, absurdly pleased by this request. “Thank you, Ellie. What I was going to say was that I would really, really appreciate your input on the house renovation. I hope you’re willing to let me hire you still.”

The slim girl stood up straighter. “Oh, sure,” she said in a different tone. “I’d be a fool to turn down a customer, even if you were, well…”

“Kind of an ass?” he interjected wryly.

Ellie laughed wholeheartedly. Calvin was charmed by her full-bodied laugh, so far from the fake, girlish giggle he often got out of women. “Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” she said, still chuckling. “But honestly I’d be honored to help. I’ve always thought the house was beautiful and love the chance to work on it.”

They stood there in silence for a moment, but he thought the silence seemed far more companionable than before. He was just searching for a polite way to continue the conversation when Ellie straightened up and spoke again.

“Listen,” she said, “I’m probably prying, but can I ask you a question?”

“Sure,” he said.

“Why are you here?” she asked, clearly curious. “No offense, but the community dance didn’t seem like your kind of thing when you asked me about the singles scene.”

“Well,” said Calvin, but he didn’t continue the sentence. He was torn between lying straight up and telling her that he was just there to apologize to her, or saying something closer to the truth. There was something about the way her brown eyes gleamed up darkly at him that appealed to his sense of integrity.

Suddenly, it occurred to him that he could use someone on his team, so to speak. He spoke carefully, giving her a very nuanced version of the truth. “My great-aunt’s dying wish was that I give the women from Carterville a chance. She wanted me to go back to my family’s roots. So…” He shifted uncomfortably. “I just wanted to at least consider her wishes and meet the residents of the town.”

The last lie sat uneasily on his tongue, but he couldn’t tell her the whole truth.

She looked unconvinced for a minute, but softened. “Huh,” was all she answered. “Wouldn’t have guessed that one.”

Before he could say anything else, the door at his back swung open, spilling light and music out onto the parking lot.

“Ellie?” called Ann loudly.

“Uh, right here,” said Ellie wryly.

“Oh, I hope I’m not interrupting,” said the redhead.

“No, not at all,” said Calvin in unison with Ellie’s “Of course not.”

Somehow he felt that their protests made them seem guilty, but Ann didn’t say anything except, “Can I borrow Ellie then?”

Calvin nodded before realizing they hadn’t arranged anything about the renovation. “Ellie,” he said quickly as they passed back inside, “just come by the house tomorrow morning and we can work on the renovation plan.”

She nodded and then disappeared through the crowd with Ann. Calvin just stood there at the door for a while, biting at the inside of his cheek and wondering if he’d revealed too much.

The next morning found Calvin boxing more things up and anxiously awaiting Ellie’s arrival. They hadn’t set a definite time, so he knew she could show up at any minute. Furthermore, he was in the library sorting books, and he was afraid he wouldn’t hear a knock at the door when she did get there.

Even though he was working on the house, his mind wasn’t on the renovations. Instead, he was puzzling over Ellie’s reaction last night when he had explained about trying to date women from Carterville. The interior designer was sharp, and she had seemed surprised at his motive. He wondered if she was suspicious. If she found out what his real goal was, he could lose the entire inheritance—and on top of that, he needed Ellie’s help to meet women. Last night at the dance he hadn’t done more than introduce himself to a few people. It had been hard to focus on being charming when a pack of curious old gossips was following him around all night.

There had been one girl that he’d danced with, blonde, pretty enough except for crooked teeth, but he couldn’t remember her name.
Ellie will know.
Suddenly, he was glad that he’d told her a version of the truth. It was going to be useful to have an “inside guy” helping him meet the women of the town.

When he jogged down to the front of the house, peering out the window for the third time, he could see a plume of dust from down the road. It drifted over the bushes, covering them in a soft brown layer.
Finally
, he thought.

By the time Ellie had pulled up and parked her small green SUV, Calvin was standing at the door waiting. She got out and he said, “Thanks for coming out.” Inwardly, he winced at how formal his tone sounded—he didn’t need her thinking he was any more pompous than she had already accused him of being.

“Sure thing,” said the brunette. He noticed that she was wearing gray cargo pants and an olive green tee. It would have looked sloppy on most people, but somehow Ellie made it look effortlessly fashionable. As he looked on, she reached into her car and pulled out a leather handyman’s belt, complete with level and tape measure, which she secured around her narrow waist.

“Coffee?” he asked, leading the way inside. “I brewed extra, so there’s plenty.”

“Maybe later,” she said. “I think I’ll just try to get right to work.”

“Of course,” he said, nodding. “Um, where did you want to start? I was working in the library…”

Ellie shrugged with a polite smile, coming to stand next to him. “I’m going to do it room by room, so I guess we could start wherever works for you.”

Calvin nodded, but he was still confused. “What exactly are you going to be doing? I’m not really clear on the process.”

***

Neither was Ellie, but she didn’t want to point that out to her biggest client. Still, there was no reason that renovating a larger house would be any different than working on a kitchen and living room.

“Well,” she answered, “basically we go over the room piece by piece. So here”—she gestured around the kitchen—“the first question would be: do you still want this to be the kitchen? Assuming you said yes, I’d go around and discuss each thing with you: Do you like such-and-such appliance, since the linoleum needs replaced, what do you want instead, that kind of thing. Then we’d talk about color and style and from there I could bring you some specific options for the renovation.”

Calvin nodded again, his blue eyes unreadable. “Sounds simple enough,” he said. “Guess we might as well start in the library then.”

He led the way up the stairs with Ellie close behind him. He was so quiet that she found herself chattering to fill the silence. “So you and your great-aunt, were you close?”

The man in front of her laughed wryly. “We met once.”

“Oh.” She wanted to ask why he’d been left the house, but that seemed impolite.

“I suppose you’re wondering why she left me her house if we didn’t know one another,” said Calvin. She blinked at his insight and murmured in agreement. “Well, so am I,” he responded.

“What are your intentions here?” she asked curiously.

“What do you mean?” Calvin spun to face her at the top of the stairs, looking oddly taken aback.

“With the house? Like do you want to set it up as a family home, vacation home, bachelor pad, or were you thinking one specific fashion design, anything like that?”

“Oh.” Bizarrely, he looked relieved. “Whatever would resell best.” All business again, Calvin led the way briskly down the hallway toward a door on the right.

Ellie blinked. “You’re selling?”

Calvin was immediately backpedaling. “Oh, um, not necessarily. It kind of depends on how I’m feeling about the area, and work stuff… I just want it ready to sell if worst comes to worst. I’m not that picky about the design of the place.”

Well, he seemed oddly defensive to her, but it was none of her business.

“So, uh, how does this work exactly?” Calvin asked, shoving his hands into his pockets.

She smiled politely at him. “Well, the first thing I need to check is what needs replacing and how big the space is. Then we can talk about what you want to do with it.”

He nodded. “Okay. If that’s the case, I’m going to keep working in here, as long as I’m not in the way.”

Ellie just nodded again, not knowing what to say. She was more comfortable working than making small talk.

As she circled around the room, testing fabric strength, feeling wood for rot, and taking measurements, Ellie glanced at him every once in a while, but stayed quiet. She had a tendency to chatter at people when nervous, and she didn’t want to irritate him by talking too much. But then she finally reached the set of shelves he knelt in front of, and maybe it was the charming way he reached up and ruffled his hair, or maybe it was just boredom with her routine task,
but she couldn’t keep herself from making conversation.

“What are you up to in here?”

He turned his head up to look at her, blue eyes as arresting as ever. Ellie smiled nervously down at him. He had a pink crystal flower in his hands, and when he moved it cast a small rainbow on his arm below his cuffed sleeves.

“The woman at the thrift shop—um, Kathy? Something like that—said she’d come by and buy anything she was interested in. So I figured I’d get it all ready to go for her.”

“Hmm.” Ellie looked at the flower in his hands again. “Anything good?”

Calvin shrugged, his broad shoulders wrinkling the cloth of his shirt momentarily. “Well, not in my estimation, but I’m not huge on decorative junk.”

“Noted,” she said cheerfully. “Some of that stuff does look pretty nice though, doesn’t it?”

“If you like pink and sparkly, I suppose,” Calvin said wryly. “But yes, mysteriously, Great-Aunt Loretta seems to have been quite well off.”

“Mysteriously?”

“Sure,” responded Calvin, moving on to the next item. “Didn’t you ever wonder how an old, single, reclusive woman had such a big house?”

Well, the question had occurred to her, but Ellie had always assumed there was a simple explanation—inheritance, lucrative career early in life, something like that. She said so to the New Yorker.

He shrugged. “That’s the weird thing, though. Even my family doesn’t seem to know where the money came from. We never knew about a job, and there couldn’t have been an inheritance. My great-grandparents were a poor mining family.” With the last words, he shoved a strong hand through his curly hair again, momentarily distracting her.

“Ooh,” said Ellie. “I love a good mystery. Maybe we could investigate it together.” She smiled cheerfully at Calvin and his wayward curls, but something in her words had made his face tighten and he didn’t respond.

An awkward silence fell, so Ellie stepped past Calvin and continued with her measurements. For a long moment, the only sound in the room was the clinking of knick-knacks and the metallic sound of her extending the tape measure.

“How would you feel about letting me buy you lunch?” asked Calvin suddenly, walking up beside her.

Ellie blinked. Her first reaction was to say yes, standing there close enough to smell the warm scent of his cologne and see the stubble on his jawline. But then she remembered just how badly things had gone before. She had to keep this entirely professional.

“I don’t know how professional it would be to let you finance my lunches,” she said, trying to laugh it off casually.

 “Well, we could keep it totally separate from the work we’re doing,” he said. “It’s just that I haven’t had time to make any friends, but I’d really love if someone could show me around Carterville so I can start getting to know the town and the people. And I’d like to make up for the last lunch.”

She softened at his explanation. It was nice to see him taking an interest in local culture, instead of dismissing their town as rustic and boring. And Ellie truly did love this little town—as soon as he mentioned wanting to get to know it, she immediately thought of five or six places he
had
to see.

“Well… Maybe if I paid for my own food?”