Fine. She could play along for a little while.
Sunlight nearly blinded her, and she fished around in her bag for her sunglasses, slipping them on over her face. Blinking, she tried to orient as fast as she could so she didn’t get knocked for another loop.
“What do you see?” he asked her and nodded at the dilapidated row of mostly abandoned buildings across from Serenity’s hotel. That side included Ruby’s diner down at the end and Lennie’s antique shop two storefronts closer. Everything else had long fallen out of use.
“A bunch of stuff in the way of my shopping center,” she said blithely.
“Yes. That’s it exactly. You’re having a hard time getting out from under option A. Imagine for a second that I’m the mayor of this town.” He laughed at the exasperation that she let show on her face. “Don’t be like that. Listen. I’m the mayor. I have h
ired the best urban planner in Texas to help me get this town in shape. I want to preserve this history, the buildings. Embrace the quirks of the residents. How would you advise me?”
She was the best urban planner in this scenario? Something inside her lurched at the phrase and then greedily latched onto it, holding it close and examining it from all angles as if this little bit of gold might vanish before her eyes.
Even Damian didn’t say things like that to her. She was a means to an end, which she’d known from the beginning of their partnership. When he’d approached her about coming on board with his resort plans, he’d only done so because he remembered she was from this area. That had been the deal. She had to earn her way into the project by greasing the wheels with the residents, which had failed miserably.
Caleb wasn’t asking her to earn anything. He was just painting more word pictures. For some reason that appealed to her enormously after the election loss and having her bones rattled by the new mayor’s mouth.
As requested, she tested out his thought process, not fully committing to it but letting the idea unfold in her head, generating a new landscape with lines and colors that she easily superimposed over the existing one.
“I see a wide sidewalk on both sides, edged by long wooden flowerpots. Streetlights with wide bases that have plenty of room for artistic graffiti. New façades, some with stonework, some with reclaimed barn wood washed white. Cantilevered signposts with hanging wooden signs, hand-lettered. New doors with wrought iron hardware. Parking in a lot behind Ruby’s and a cut through created by reducing the size of the building between Lennie’s and the one next to it. We can easily concrete over the two cut sides and offer the space as a communal mural.”
When she opened her eyes, Caleb was standing there with his arms crossed, watching her with a smile she couldn’t interpret. “You’re hired.”
She scowled. “Hired to do what? Create more fantasies for your crazy talk?”
“Trust me, I can create fantasies all on my own,” he murmured, and his gaze never left her face, but that didn’t stop the hot, hard flush that traveled all the way down her body as she internalized his suggestive comment. “What I need is that kind of vision. It’s so sharp and clear. I only had a nebulous idea that we could do some refurbishment, but you’re a true artist. I mean, I figured you had to have some color in you since you’re a native Springian, but that far surpassed my expectations.”
“Springian?” she repeated, mostly to cover the pleased little hum that had started up in her throat.
A true artist. What did that even mean? That he thought she had talent? Whatever he meant, it didn’t seem to matter to her heart, which was in the process of squishing around in her chest over what was clearly a compliment in Caleb Hardy’s world.
He shrugged. “We need catchy marketing. I like it.”
She liked it too. She liked everything he was saying, but how was she supposed to admit that? None of this was part of the grand plan. The town was supposed to be leveled, and in its place, she’d build a pretty shopping center that would have her signature all over it.
And then she never had to think about how she wasn’t really a Springian, not the way he meant it.
That was the biggest wet blanket on his grandiose experiment. She wasn’t really welcome here. The town had given her that message loud and clear when they voted for an outsider to be their mayor over a local. Local-ish. She’d moved away and then stormed back into town, peddling a bricks-and-mortar makeover that the folks had handily rejected.
She was having a hard time not taking it as a rejection of her. Since the shopping center wasn’t happening, her next trick was to leave. Again. She could take a hint.
“Whatever ‘color’ you think you see in me is the product of education,” she told him flatly. “Nothing more. I’ve taken design theory classes and studied hundreds of towns.”
“Which is why I’m offering you a job,” he said, and she didn’t even have to question his sincerity—it was all over his expression. “I need a professional, not a quirky artist dreamer type. We’ll let them have their day when we open up the mural to the public and contract out the hand-lettered signs. Until then, it’s purely business, and I can’t have anything less than a control freak with amazing organizational skills and the soul of a dictator in charge of this project.”
A grin tugged at her mouth before she could stop it. How did he do that? No one had ever been able to charm her in the midst of infuriating her. It was sorcery, plain and simple. “Flattery will get you everywhere.”
“I’m counting on it. Say yes. Forget about working with Scott and work with me instead. Only I won’t ever agree to be your fake fiancé, so take that under advisement.”
The ever-present heavy awareness dialed up about ten notches as he communicated exactly how real their association would be without saying a word.
She swallowed, which did nothing to cool her heated throat. “Noted.”
Exactly as she’d suspected. Caleb Hardy didn’t do fake. He was one hundred percent authentic and did nothing by halves. If she agreed to this, she’d be all in, in more ways than one. She’d have to come clean to everyone about the lie she’d perpetuated about her engagement to Damian.
And she’d have to work with Caleb. A lot. Day in and day out.
“What exactly are you proposing?” she asked with a narrowed gaze. “I’m not going to sleep with you just because we’re working together.”