Fantasy for Hire

Jordan lifted an eyebrow. “Usually that’s a good thing.”

Austin pushed his half-eaten bowl of cereal aside. “She’s determined to the point of seeing nothing beyond her promotion.”

“Can’t begrudge a person for wanting to be successful.”

Austin didn’t miss the bitter note to his brother’s voice that had nothing to do with Teddy.

“I don’t begrudge Teddy for wanting that promotion, but what about being successful and making time for a relationship?”

Jordan picked up his glass of orange juice. “Depends on the person’s priorities.”

Austin snorted. Teddy had made it patently clear where her priorities lay—in the hands of Sharper Image. “I guess I went with her to this party expecting something…different. Like maybe another date, where we could get to know one another without that ridiculous charade between us.” Shaking his head, he scrubbed a hand over the light stubble covering his jaw. “Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt that way about a woman.”

Jordan chuckled, the sound entirely too gleeful. “She certainly has you tied up in knots.”

Austin scowled, but knew he’d be a hypocrite if he denied what was so obviously the truth. Teddy did have a hold on him, one he couldn’t shake. She made him think about things he’d decided were beyond his reach until his landscaping business was financially stable. She made him think about what it would be like to come home to her smiles in the evening and her soft, feminine scent filling this old Victorian house. And then there was the luxury of making love to her every night, and waking up beside her for the next fifty years.

Commitment. Security. And the comfort of having a family. After years of playing the field, the notion appealed to him. More and more with each passing year.

Folding his hands over his bare belly, Austin leaned back in his chair, rocking on the solid hind legs. “Jordan, you ever think about settling down?”

Stacking his fork and knife on his plate, Jordan shrugged noncommittally. “I thought I was close once, but it didn’t work out, which is just as well because look at where I am now. If I had a family to support, I never would have been able to quit and walk out on those dishonest bastards.”

Austin nodded in understanding.

“Now, I’m an unemployed architect, living with my bachelor brother, and I have no idea what the future holds.”

“You could always take over Fantasy for

Hire,” Austin offered with a devilish grin.

Jordan visibly shuddered. “I’m nobody’s fantasy, and I prefer to conduct business with my clothes on, thank you very much.”

“You don’t give yourself near enough credit. I’m sure there are women out there who fantasize about straitlaced architects.” Austin ignored the dirty look Jordan cast his way. “I’d sell you the business real cheap.”

“What, you thinking of giving up being the object of every woman’s fantasy?” Humor threaded through Jordan’s voice.

“I’ve been considering selling the business for a while now,” Austin admitted. “Not only is Fantasy for Hire becoming too much for me to handle along with all the business coming in for McBride Landscaping, I’m tired of all the pretense.”

“Feeling a little taken advantage of, hmm?”

He hadn’t, not until he’d met Teddy. For this particular reason, he’d always been careful to draw the line between his job as a fantasy for hire and the customer he performed for, but that’s where he’d failed with Teddy Spencer. He’d brazenly stepped over that line because of an intense, mind-boggling attraction, and he’d gotten burned for his efforts.

Teddy would rather cling to the fantasy than grasp the reality of what was between them.

“I want a normal life,” Austin said, hearing the frustration in his own voice. “And when I meet a woman, I want to be sure that she’s interested in me because of who I am, and not what particular fantasy of hers I might fulfill.”

Jordan stood and carried his dishes to the sink, rinsing them. “Sounds like you’ve got some decisions to make.”

“Yeah.” He’d already come to the conclusion to put Fantasy for Hire on the market, and after the holidays he’d see if he could find an interested buyer for the business. Then, he’d see what he could do about finding a woman who wanted the real Austin McBride.

The cell phone in Teddy’s lap buzzed, and she tossed aside the woman’s magazine she’d been thumbing through and clicked the connect button before the sound completed its cycle.

“Hello?” she answered.

“You are a very bad girl, Teddy Spencer.”

Teddy immediately recognized her sister-in-law’s low, throaty voice. Relief mingled with the awful anxiety that had been her constant companion all day long, easing the knot in her chest by a few degrees. Normally, Sundays were her day to relax and catch up on personal errands and chores. Today, she’d been too intent on talking to Susan to move more than an arm’s stretch away from her phone. She hadn’t even taken a shower yet because she’d feared missing the call. The only thing she’d allowed for her vigil was a quick change into leggings and an oversize sweatshirt, a scrubbed face, brushed teeth and a ponytail.