Coldhearted Boss(33)

His brows crinkle in confusion. I half expect him to reply with a stoned, Aw, c’mon man, we were just havin’ some fun. Instead, he hops to it and walk-runs right out the door, leaving Taylor to fend for herself. Nice guy.

She keeps her back to me and continues to pull clothes out of the dryer.

“Why was he in here?”

“You’ll have to ask him,” she replies with a cold, even tone.

“I’m asking you.”

She shrugs. “It was his lunch break. He saw me through the window and came in to say hi.”

“Friend of yours?”

The edge of her mouth tips up in a private smirk. “You could say that.”

I don’t like the jealousy creeping through me like an invasive vine.

“How many guys on this crew are ‘friends’ of yours?”

My meaning is clear, and finally, I’ve got her full attention. Her eyes cut to me and there’s so much resentment and fury there, I know she’s right on the cusp of losing her temper. Her cheeks are flooded with color. Her lips are parted. I can feel her anger. She takes a step toward me, about to say something, but then she reaches for my laundry, which is stacked neatly on the dryer, and with one clean sweep, tosses it all onto the floor.

“Your laundry is done.”

Then she does an about-face and marches right out the door.

So you could say things are mellowing out nicely between us.

I know this is mostly my fault. I know I’m behaving like an ass. I know it and yet here I am, unable to help myself. To say she gets under my skin is an understatement. It’s as if every bad character trait I possess—jealousy, anger, cruelty—is controlled by one button, and she’s not only found that button, she’s pressing down on it with her full weight and then some.





She doesn’t come back by the trailer the rest of the afternoon, and I’m grateful for the reprieve. That’s what I tell myself. I throw myself back into work and then around 4 PM, Hudson comes to get me so we can walk the site and check on progress. The stable has been completely demolished and the debris has been hauled to the dumpster. He needs me to check on the few trees that might need to be cleared before we can level the ground.

As I walk out of the trailer, I spot Taylor moving toward the construction site with a water bottle in hand. She looks determined to get somewhere fast, and I watch as she finds Robert and hands him the bottle. He nods in thanks and they start talking. I can’t hear them from where I am, but he’s pointing his hand out as if explaining something to her. They’re still together after we walk the site. Now, they’re hunched over the plans.

“What’re they doing?” I ask Hudson, nodding over to Robert and Taylor.

“Uh…shouldn’t you know? She’s your assistant.”

The glare I aim his way withers half the forest.

“I mean,” he amends quickly, changing his tone, “let me check on that right away.”

Ten minutes later, he walks into the trailer and shrugs. “Apparently she was curious about how the site runs. Now, she’s headed to clean your cabin.”

“She is?”

He narrows his eyes. “Should I tell her you want to see her?”

“No.”

Absolutely not. The laundry was enough for one day.





Chapter 14





Taylor





Well, okay, tossing laundry onto the floor was admittedly not my proudest moment. I’d rank it right after…oh, stealing Ethan’s wallet, I suppose. So, he’s had the privilege of seeing me not only at my worst, but also at my second worst. I keep coaching myself to stay calm, to put up an impenetrable force field where he’s concerned and just let everything he says go in one ear and out the other. Unfortunately, when push comes to shove, that’s easier said than done.

He deserved that little outburst. He’d be eating crow if he knew what I was up to all morning. I wasn’t just twiddling my thumbs and flirting with his crew. First of all, I spent a solid hour trying to get that ancient washing machine up and running. I even had Jeremy take a quick look at it, but it was no use. The thing was toast. Even if it wasn’t, we didn’t have the necessary parts to fix it. I ended up having to hand-wash every piece of Ethan’s clothing by hand in the sink, which shouldn’t have taken too long, but there was mud caked on his jeans and some of his workout clothes were extra dirty. I didn’t want to leave a single speck behind. No way was I going to give him ammunition against me. After I was done washing everything, I threw the stuff in the dryer, which thankfully still worked, but not well enough. It took twice as long to dry the clothes as it should have and by the time I started to fold, it was lunchtime, which was when Max came strolling by.

For the record, I didn’t invite him in. He invited himself.

He had a few minutes left of his lunch break and wanted to say hi. Apparently, he finds my company enjoyable, unlike some people. In fact, Max likes me, maybe even a little more than he should. I was spot-on in my earlier assessment that Max would want to revisit our relationship if I gave him the green light. In fact, he steered the conversation toward that topic almost immediately.

“Why didn’t you and I work out?” he asked, leaning one hip against the washing machine, watching me fold Ethan’s clothes.