Finding Forever

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Naomi made sure she got to the triplex early. She wanted to look at the building a bit before Brandon arrived. If this property had been on the market when she’d been looking, she wasn’t sure she would have made an offer. It was a great deal, she didn’t doubt that, but it was going to take a lot of work, and she’d wanted to dip her toes in a bit more before plunging into the deep end.

And she had. Working with Brandon on her building had been fun. Though, she had to admit, not challenging. When Shelly had asked her to consider this project, she’d been nervous about taking it on. Intimidated. In Los Angeles, her uncle had handled the rehab on the buildings she’d bought. And none of them had needed major work. Of course, she could have bought a fixer-upper, but she hadn’t wanted to deal with that while working her regular job and learning the ins and outs of real estate.

Now she was thinking she should have done one before leaving, and made it a master class of studying how her uncle and his crew worked. She could do this, though. She absolutely could.

Getting out of her SUV, she grabbed her iPad and leaned against the door, studying the building. From the front, it looked like a modest one-story house. From the side, it was clear that it stretched back, three complete units, each with two bedrooms and one bathroom.

It was a brick building, with a darker brick pattern on the lower third and lighter bricks on the rest, but with the darker bricks as accents for the window trim. It was…dated. The yard was a disaster of untrimmed trees, overgrown bushes and patchy grass. She’d already helped Shelly decide on a landscaping crew to clean it up and maintain it for the future, but that wouldn’t happen until the end.

For now, the building was empty of tenants and she was ready to get started.

On that thought, a heavy-duty pickup truck rolled in behind her. However, it was not Brandon’s truck. And it was not Brandon who stepped out and moved to join her.

Like Brandon, this guy was white, about five foot nine, she judged as he got closer, so a little bit shorter than her contractor. His hair was a little longer than hers, which just brushed the tops of her shoulders when dry. And, strangely enough, his light brown curls were maybe even a little curlier. She didn’t see that on a guy with long hair, especially a white guy, every day.

He held out a hand. His truck had a business sign, claiming to be Grays Peak Construction. She went ahead and accepted his handshake.

“Hi, Jason Mills. Brandon’s brother.” His face was a bit pinched, like he was in pain.

“Hi.” She bit her tongue to keep from saying something snarky, because she was so getting a bad feeling about this.

He forced a smile and seemed to be waiting for her to do the same, but she kept her expression impassive.

His smile dropped and he scratched at his scruffy chin for a second. “Right. So, Brandon had to leave town for three weeks, but he called me in to cover. I’m also a contractor, so it won’t be a problem.”

She bit back several responses that sprang to her lips. “I have a contract. With Brandon. He needs to fulfill that contract.”

“I understand. But he’s not in the state. So you can either wait for him, or we can get started. He has the crew and materials ready, so there’s no delay, except for him. I know most of his crew.” He turned to the house and gestured. “This will be a great project, you can really turn it into an excellent building. We’ll get you started off and Brandon will be back in three weeks.”

Her blood started to boil, but she pushed her anger back. “That’s not okay.”

He sighed. “I get you’re mad. I would be too. Heck, I am. Let me show you my portfolio of jobs and recommendations. We’ll go through the house, make our notes, but I won’t start anything until you have a chance to make some calls.”

His words weren’t awful, but his tone was that of a man trying to keep his patience. His patience. With her. When it was abundantly clear she was the one being screwed over here.

She picked up her phone and called Brandon. And got voicemail. She left a terse message and then sent a text.

NW: Call me now please

Jason had moved to his truck and come back with a folder that he handed to her. She kind of wanted to reject it on principle, but she managed to resist.

She felt sick at the idea of having to call Shelly and tell her that their contractor—the one that Naomi had recommended—had done a runner. She also wasn’t excited by the idea of trying to find another contractor who could start immediately. Any contractor who was available on no notice was probably not one she wanted to hire.

She opened the folder and started flipping through. The work did look good and she recognized some of the vendor names that were listed.

Her phone buzzed with a text notification, not a phone call. Lips pursed, she looked at it.

BM: Jace’s got you covered, I promise! He’s been at it longer than I have, you’re in excellent hands

NW: Where are you??

BM: Portland. Sorry, I won’t be back for about three weeks. Totally unexpected, but YOU’RE IN GOOD HANDS

NW: I am NOT happy

BM: Trust me on this

NW: I did. And here I am

Jason was standing back, hands stuffed into his back pockets, watching the house rather than her as she switched between stabbing at the phone screen and flipping pages in his portfolio.

Forcing in a deep breath, she closed up the portfolio and handed it to him. She scrolled through her phone and picked a vendor she’d liked and who’d been around a long time. She called and let out her breath when he actually answered.

Walking a ways down the sidewalk, she asked him about Jason Mills. Her rising panic started to ebb when she was assured that he was a great contractor and, actually, better than his brother.

“They both have the skills,” she was assured. “But Jason’s more organized and responsible.”

“Now you tell me,” she muttered after giving her thanks and hanging up.

She turned back to the man who was now leaning against her SUV. He’d lowered sunglasses over his eyes, as the sun had popped out from behind a cloud while she was on the phone.

Jason tried to look patient, he really did. The woman in front of him had every right to be annoyed. Well, pissed. There was no question about that. But he was pissed, too. He’d been called in to fix the situation and instead of getting on with it, she was staring at him like she could read his mind.

He hoped she couldn’t read his mind, because while a great deal of it was focused on how pissed off he was at his younger brother, there was a not-so-insignificant portion that had become dedicated to looking at her.

She was very pretty. Hell, probably beautiful when she wasn’t so irritated, giving her face a slightly brittle look. Her skin was golden brown, matched perfectly with the dark honey of her eyes. She looked like a model, tall and thin, her clothes seeming like they were tailored to fit. Her irritation only slightly overshadowing her strong confidence.

He braced himself as she reached past him into the open window and pulled away with pack of gummy worms. She slipped a couple into her mouth and chewed. She didn’t offer him any. He waited.

“Okay. Let’s look at the house.”

The complete lack of gratitude was annoying as hell, but he was already determined to do the job, so he stuffed it down and straightened from the vehicle.

They started with the exterior notes, then moved inside. Thankfully, there were no tenants to deal with, because there was a lot of work to be done. It was a great building, but it had been left untouched for far too long. He tried to focus on the excitement of that, but he couldn’t manage it when every single suggestion he made was met with questions.

Naomi Washington had a lot of questions. Which should be fine. He liked questions. He liked clients who asked questions. He just couldn’t get past the idea that this was a job interview, which to be fair, it was. From her perspective. But he was taking the job to rescue his brother, not because he wanted to.

Although, back to the building in question, it would be a good project. He could see the potential and, more importantly, so could she. When his brother had said she was managing the job for the building owner, he’d been highly skeptical. But she had a lot of notes and pictures to show what she wanted, and questions about the best ways to make it all happen. And when he explained his reasonings, she nodded and made more notes. He tried to keep the irritation out of his voice but the still-pinched look on her face suggested he wasn’t succeeding.

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as they returned to the front yard. Maybe it would work out. Maybe he wouldn’t have to kill Brandon. Three weeks of long days wasn’t terrible, right? And, hey, he was in luck! No girlfriend to nag him about working late every night. Yay.

As they stood on the front lawn, a sleek Acura pulled up. Naomi turned from it and looked at Jason.

“I’m not happy about this. I appreciate your time, though. I’ll let you know by tomorrow morning.” She shook her head, her mouth in a tight line, but held her hand out to him.

He pressed his own lips together. “Fine. Do that.”

Acura Guy had made his way to the party. His hair was slicked back, his trousers perfectly creased and he sported cuff links. Jason hated him immediately.

“There she is!” he said, ignoring Jason and holding a hand out to Naomi.

“Louis, it’s nice to meet you.” She gave the dude a small smile and took his hand, though she seemed startled when he pulled her in for a hug.

Good to know she wasn’t just prickly with him, then.

“Okay,” Naomi said. “I found a restaurant a couple of blocks down that I thought it would be nice to try. We can walk. It has mostly Cuban food. Does that work for you?”

Jason didn’t think it really worked for Louis at all, but he claimed otherwise.

Naomi turned to him. “I’ll let you know as soon as we’ve made a decision.”

He just nodded and watched as the couple strolled towards one of his favorite restaurants. It made him feel better to suppose that the guy was in debt up to his eyeballs and the fancy look was just a facade.

Getting into the cab of his truck, he pulled out his phone. He handled a couple of quick issues and added an item to his to-do list. There were also two messages from his mother wanting him to confirm that he was going to handle this project for his brother. They all babied the little asshole too much, he was coming to realize. Of course he was going to fix this. It hadn’t even occurred to him not to. But he could do without his mom’s pushing.

Sighing, he flicked past that to his brother’s message.

BM: don’t f**k this up with Naomi!

He nearly cracked his phone, he squeezed it so tight. And he had to remind himself that it was his phone, his expense, and if he were to throw it out into the street, he would be the only person to suffer.

He typed. Then erased. Then typed. Then erased. Finally, in an act of supreme will, he erased one last time and put the phone into the holster on his belt. Now he was hungry. And he had a taste for the ropa vieja they served at the Cuban place down the street. He got out of the truck. Parking at the restaurant wasn’t great, so he might as well do as Naomi had done and walk.

As he turned the corner on the first block, he saw Louis about a dozen yards away, jaywalking across the street towards him. An old Toyota had to slow down and nearly stop for the guy, but he hardly seemed to notice.

“You know that woman?” he asked as he neared Jason.

“Met her this morning.”

“Rude b***h,” Louis informed him as he kept walking past.

Since he’d taken an immediate—and possibly unfair—dislike to the guy, he wanted to consider him a loser. But how had she managed to piss him off that badly in three blocks? Impressive.

He made it to the little restaurant and saw her as soon as he went inside. She was seated at a small table in the nearly full restaurant, along the left-side wall. He looked around. There was a four-top available in the middle, and a two-top on the right wall, nearly in front of the bathroom door. And one more table for two, right in front of hers.

Without giving it too much thought, he took the seat facing her. She didn’t notice, as her nose was buried in the menu. She had her tablet on the table in front of her, as well as her phone and the paper pad she’d used to jot down notes while they were walking through the house.

A waitress arrived at her table with a glass of water and Naomi lowered her menu. He saw the first genuine smile from her and swallowed hard. Yep, he’d been correct. She was beautiful.

She spoke to the waitress for several minutes before the other woman walked off, laughing at whatever had been said. Naomi was still smiling as she faced forward again—and caught him watching.

The frown was immediate.

His answering smirk was also immediate.

“Lose your date?” he asked, quietly enough that she could hear, but not so loud anyone else looked over.

She raised her middle finger at him, and he couldn’t help it. He laughed. Feeling better than he had all day, he opened the menu in case there’d been any changes since the last time he’d been there.

He placed his order and dared to get on his phone. He felt like he could resist sending nasty texts with food on the horizon. When his lunch arrived, he looked up and found Naomi watching him. She’d chosen the pulpeta, a Cuban meatloaf that was delicious. She had good taste, anyway.

He sighed. He needed to not be an asshole. None of this was her fault, any more than it was his. He forked up a bite of his chicken and raised it to her in a toasting gesture. She huffed and looked back down at her iPad.

Okay then.