Kaleidoscope (Colorado Mountain #6)(13)

“Yeah?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Oh yeah. I’m fixing it up. Of course, I have no clue what I’m doing but I did manage to get broadband out there so I have YouTube and I work in a lumberyard… by the way, Dad bought the local lumberyard and I’m running it for him. Which proves what he always said. I could run a ship with a manual just as long as I can convince the men to go about their duties and that I know what I’m doing when I don’t.”

She grinned and the dimple came out. Deck was dealing with how much he liked that dimple when she went on.

“But, anyway, they also tend to know how to plumb stuff and fix stuff and other stuff so I pick their brains if I can’t learn on the Internet. It’s awesome. I’m having so much fun doing it. I can’t wait until it’s done. Which, if the current workload and schedule continue, should be sometime in the next decade and a half.”

She shot back in her seat and her eyes lit even more.

“You have to come up and see it,” she invited.

“I will, babe,” he told her. “Soon,” he promised, though she wouldn’t know just how soon that would be—in other words, that night.

“We’ll set it up,” she said, going for another stick.

He let her eat it and take another sip of beer before he went for it.

“Emme, that guy, McFarland, what’s up with him?”

She tipped her head to the side. “What’s up with him?”

“Where’d you meet him? How long you been seein’ him?”

“He works at the lumberyard so I met him three years ago. But we’ve only been seeing each other for about four months.”

That coincided with the reports.

“Why do you wanna know?” she asked.

He studied her before he asked back, “Straight up?”

He watched her face grow wary even though she answered, “Yeah.”

“Don’t got a good feelin’ about that guy.”

“Why?” she queried, her voice lower, softer but her eyes never leaving him.

He couldn’t tell her why.

All he could say was, “Got a feelin’ in my gut, Emme, I always follow it. He doesn’t give me good vibes. Four months, you must be into him. I’m sorry, babe. But I gotta tell it like it is.”

“We aren’t serious,” she shared.

At least there was that, and Deck didn’t allow himself to process how much relief he felt about it, and not just because of the investigation.

“You exclusive?” he asked.

“Well,” her eyes slid away, not embarrassed, evasive. She looked back to him. “He is. I’m unsure. Though, that said, that doesn’t mean he isn’t the only one. He is. It’s just that I’m not sure I want to make that official.”

And there was that. She was loyal but she was unsure.

More relief.

“Promise me, keep thinkin’ on him ’til you come up with the right answer.”

After that, she held his gaze and again did it direct and steady. “Okay, Jacob. I’ll keep thinking on him.”

He hated doing it, and she found out he was working this, she’d be pissed he did it but he had to do it. For her and for the job.

“Is there a reason you wanna share why you’re unsure?” he asked.

Her eyes again lit with activity. She was thinking on this.

Then she stated, “No. I… well,” she grinned, “I think it’s my gut too.”

Dead end with that, McFarland was giving her bad vibes but nothing to pinpoint. But at least, when they brought McFarland and his crew down, she hadn’t shared anything with him not knowing why he was asking and he hadn’t pressed her to do it.

Better, she was sensing the red flags and didn’t like them.

“Always listen to your gut, Emme,” he advised.

“Right, Jacob,” she said, still grinning.

“No joke. Can’t say this guy is bad news, not for sure. But can say, I don’t like him with my girl. He’s yours. I been in his presence not five minutes. You gotta make your choice and I hope, tonight, us findin’ out we’re near, this won’t end.”

He gestured between them and saw her eyes warm, her face get soft, the dimple come out even just through a grin so he knew, thank f**k, this wouldn’t end.

He kept talking.

“So you like the guy, your gut gets sure, he’ll never know I didn’t like him for you. That’s your choice. Just sayin’, careful.”

“I’m always careful, honey,” she told him, and what was done to her at the age it was done, she would be. Maybe too much.

He just hoped she stayed that way.

For at least another week.

“Good,” he murmured.

She dipped her head to the plate between them. “You gonna eat the last stick?”

“All yours,” he told her and she went for it.

When she was done chewing, swallowing and sipping more beer, he again went for it.

Leaning into his arms on the table, he grinned and demanded, “Now, Emmanuelle, tell me about this house you are no doubt totally f**kin’ up seein’ as you have no clue what you’re doin’.”

Her entire face lit with her low chuckle, she leaned toward him into her arms and she complied.