Cold Hearted Bachelor

Fourteen

Vaughn

* * *

I press the last piece of transparent shellac to the living room window, making certain everything is set before I remove my hand. I did a quick fix of her window before we left her place last night, but now I want to get this fixed for Paisley.

I don’t like this one bit.

I don’t like the fact someone vandalized her house. When I arrived here today, I half-expected the place to be burnt to the ground. I was happy when it was still standing in one piece.

I glance at my watch, wondering how long her meeting will last before she gets out here. I stare out the window, hoping to catch her car pulling up the drive.

No such luck.

I really don’t like the idea of Paisley not being by my side. I know I sound like some macho-gung-ho-alpha-asshole, but I’m not. Not really. I just care about her, and furthermore care about her safety.

My phone rings, and I grab it before I can even check the caller ID. “Hello,” I say, half-expecting it to be Paisley.

“Dude, more bad news,” Spencer’s voice booms in my ear. His voice is ominous, making a lump form in the bottom of my stomach.

Did something happen to Paisley?

“What?” Does he know about Paisley’s house? Does he know about us?

“The Jorgenson project just fell through.”

“Wait.” Am I hearing this right? “That deal was done ages ago. We’ve got a contract. He can’t just up and decide not to follow through.”

Spencer huffs into the phone, clearly as frustrated as I feel. “I guess his lawyers found some loophole that lets him out early. I have our team of lawyers looking into it.”

“Did they give a reason?”

Spencer doesn’t speak right away, like he’s trying to decide if he should tell me or not as my heart beats through my ears. “Well, they just said they don’t like the way we conduct our business.”

I laugh, because he can not be serious. “You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”

“Afraid not. What are the chances?”

I’m no longer feeling like this is all a coincidence. The pit churning in my stomach grows, and the sudden need to punch something surfaces. I take a few deep, calming breaths and the nervousness subsides a bit.

“Yeah,” I scrub a palm down my face, “something’s not right.”

“I have Manny checking on a few of our other upcoming projects, making sure everything is all ready to go so we don’t lose any others.”

“Do you need me to come by the office?”

“Nah, we’re good. I still don’t understand what they meant about the way we conduct our business.”

“Yeah, we’ve been spot on. No code violations. I have no idea what they’re talking about either.”

“I have a few people trying to figure out what exactly happened.” Spencer lets out a deep breath. “If we lose any more accounts this won’t be good for us. We’ll need to keep this from hitting the papers, so none of our other projects hear about this.”

“Yeah, should we call Jeanne?” She’s a PR rep we’ve used in the past for a similar situation when we didn’t want bad press on our company. Well, it wasn’t really similar at all. A disgruntled employee threatening to make waves. It was an easy solution, but losing a few major accounts within a few days of each other is way bigger.

There’s definitely something going on here.

“I’ll call Jeanne to get her on top of this. Hey, how’s Paisley’s place?”

I glance at the window I just fixed, knowing full well I don’t want to tell him about the vandalism to add to his already full plate. “It’s coming together.”

“That’s good to hear. Ok, let me call Jeanne. I’ll talk to you later.”

After I hang up with Spencer, Paisley’s car appears down the driveway, and I breathe a sigh of relief she’s ok.

I step onto the front porch, letting the news of Spencer simmer for a while. I don’t know what it is about Paisley but the minute I see her getting out of her car, all my recent troubles fade away.

“Hey,” she says with a smile brighter than the sun. “The officer called.”

“What did he say?”

She shrugs, disappointment etched all over her beautiful face. “No real leads.”

Fuck. Of course they don’t have any leads. Most home robberies are never solved. I don’t know why I thought this would be any different.

I move away from the door so she can step inside. I take her purse from her, and lay it on the kitchen counter. “I got the window fixed.”

She stares at the window, a big smile on her face. “You’re amazing.”

I let her compliment puff out my chest a bit. And a warmth spreads through me. I want to wrap my arms around her, but I stop myself, so we can get some work done.

“Ready to get busy?” I ask her once we’re inside.