The Renegade (The Moorehouse Legacy #3)(42)

“Are you sure about that?” she said tightly.

He frowned and then heard his own words. I don’t regret last night.

Oh, yeah, that was exactly what a woman wanted to hear from a man she’d been with.

He went to the bed and lowered himself to his knees on the floor beside her. He opened his mouth. Words failed him, which was not a surprise. The ones he really wanted to say he needed to keep to himself.

Cassandra held the blankets to her chest as she sat up and swung her feet off the bed. “I should go.”

“Wait…” He reached out and touched her face with both hands. “Oh…beautiful woman.”

He pressed himself between her legs, sweeping his fingers through her hair.

“Just once more,” he said, kissing her neck. He searched his mind, begging it to come up with the right way to speak to her. He’d been rat awful about so many things and not just this morning. “I…want to make love with you. Just one more time. Before you go.”

He pressed his lips to her collarbone. Her shoulder.

“Will you let me?” he whispered as he moved his head back and forth, his lips brushing over her skin.

She said nothing. But she let the blankets drop from her body.





Chapter Thirteen




Days later Cassandra stood in the White Caps kitchen and stared at the clipboard she was holding. What was she…Right, she was making a note about the main drainage line.

Except, as her pen hit the page, her mind came up with a big fat zero.

What was…?

Ted cleared his throat.

“Um, boss? You were saying?” When she looked at him blankly, he murmured, “About the upstairs hallway?”

“Oh, yes. Sorry. It would be great if you guys could lay down the plywood in preparation for the flooring installation.”

The man’s gaze shifted over her shoulder and widened. She turned around.

Spike was coming through the kitchen doorway, and immediately she searched for Alex behind him.

The plastic flap just settled back into place, however.

It had been three days since she’d left the shop in the early morning, three days since she’d last seen Alex. He hadn’t gone to any of the other parties at Joy and Gray’s over the weekend, not the festivities on Saturday night or the brunch on Sunday.

She knew he was avoiding her.

He had said only one night. Evidently, he’d meant it.

As Spike came up to her, she returned his hip check and forced herself to smile. “Hey, there, big guy.”

He grinned. “You gonna show me around your playground?”

“Sure. Ted, are we finished?”

Ted was too busy staring at Spike’s pierced ears and hair and tattoos to answer.

Spike looked back at the man. Then brought his hands up quick and made star bursts out of them. “Boo!”

Ted actually did a jump and shuffle before backing to the door. “Um…I’ll see you tomorrow, boss.”

Cass waited until the plastic flap fell into place. “Did you have to do that?”

“Come on, the guy needed the exercise.”

She rolled her eyes. “Not really.”

As they walked through the house, she pointed out all the progress.

When they were upstairs, she paused in one of the bathrooms. “Plumber starts tomorrow. Electrician, too.”

“You’re doing great work.”

“It’s all of us. I’ve got a good crew.”

“Yeah, even though they scare easy.”

The two of them returned to the kitchen and she packed up her things, putting her cell phone and her clipboard in her knapsack along with the sandwich she should have eaten for lunch.

“So, Cass, I’ve got a favor to ask.”

“Name it.”

He held the plastic sheet back so she could step through it. Outside, the cold was sharp enough to filet her parka.

Boy, the Adirondacks did frigid well. The place was one giant icebox this time of year.

“I was wondering if you’d take Alex into town tonight. I’ve got something I need to take care of so I can’t do the chauffeuring thing.”

She hesitated. “Does he know that you’re asking me this?”

“Oh, sure. Absolutely.”

“Where’s he going?”

“Here and there. He’s ready now.” Spike went over to the Honda. “Thanks, Cass.”

As the man tore out of the driveway, she looked to the shop.

There was no reason to be immature about this, she told herself. They’d been together a couple of times. That was it. Sure, their history was complicated, but if he could be cool about what had happened, so could she.

She walked up the snow-covered lawn and knocked on the door.

Alex called out, “Come in! I’m almost good to go.”

See, his voice was casual. Calm. He was fine. She was fine.

They were both fine.

Cass walked in. Alex was at the desk, his big body curled over a set of sailboat plans. Pencil shavings and eraser debris covered the blue paper he was working on.

“Hey, man, you eat yet?” Alex said without looking up. “We can suck back a plate or two at the Silver Diner when we’re through. Maybe rack some balls at Greene’s. What do you say?”