Sweeping The Bride Away

She blinked as the French fry disappeared. Darn her. She’d been staring at his lips! “Oh. Right. It’s all Lillian’s fault.”

“Lillian?” His dark-brown eyebrow shot up and Cassidy again noticed his eyes. Those bedroom blues had turned boardroom. He was actually interested in what she was saying. Danger signals went off in her head. Whoa, she thought. Time to stop drinking beer.

She reached for the plastic dish holding the remaining peanuts. She should at least eat something. “Lillian’s my mother-in-law. Well, she’s not my mother-in-law. Not yet. Not ever if I could help it. She means well, but…”

Cassidy shuddered. Immediately forgetting her resolve, she took another sip of her third beer. She tried to gather her thoughts and retrench. Had she just criticized Lillian aloud? “She kept talking and the more she talked, the more he wrote.”

The inspector certainly hadn’t been impressed that Lillian had been the wife of Senator Ed Morris of Texas, or that she lived next door, or that she could get him fired. He’d just kept writing, turning the paper over, filling the back, and then beginning a new sheet.

Even worse, Lillian had remained calm about the whole thing.

“You’ll just need to build a new house,” Lillian had said. “I’ll talk to Ed and Dan about it tonight. If you contracted for one now it might be ready when you come home from your honeymoon. A month in Alaska, doesn’t that sound wonderful? June is the perfect month to see Alaska. It’ll be Ed’s and my gift to you both.”

At that moment Cassidy was glad she’d never taken advantage of Texas’s concealed carry law.

“Sounds pretty bad,” the man next to her sympathized as she finished the story.

“It is,” Cassidy said. He finished his sandwich, and her mouth went dry. What had gotten into her? She’d just told him everything. She never did that. She never drank beer, either, or held conversations with strange but attractive guys in a bar. She blinked. He was gorgeous, enough to be a calendar pinup. She shoved another handful of peanuts into her mouth. Sober. She needed to be sober.

“Look,” he began, “I know some handymen who can help you out. I can call them and…”

“Oh no,” Cassidy managed through the mouthful of peanuts. She shook her head firmly and cut him off. Do not accept favors from strangers in bars. Especially good-looking men like him that would break your heart. Rule number thirteen or something like that in the Single Woman’s Guide to…something or other. “No. No.” She couldn’t believe she sounded so nervous. “Thanks for offering, but I’ll take care of it.”

Somehow she would, although frankly, she had no idea how. Maybe one just looked up handymen under the letter H in the yellow pages.

“Here.” Cassidy almost jumped out of her skin as he handed her a small card. Why was he making her so nervous? Even she could see that it was only a business card. People handed her business cards all the time.

“Uh,” she stammered, suddenly feeling the urgent need to flee and get out from his magnetic proximity. It was either that or kiss him. Where had that thought come from? She would never drink beer again. Ever.

“Take my card,” he said. Then he reached forward and uncurled her fingers. Never had a man violated her personal space like this.

But the rage at his invasion of her space didn’t come. Instead Cassidy felt heat flow through her. Underneath his touch all rational thought evaporated as he closed her fingers around the card. “Call me if you need me.”

Oh, I do, she thought, heat rising into her face. At least the words hadn’t been voiced.

Wait! What was she doing? What was she thinking? Dan. Think of Dan. That’s right. Think of nice, safe Dan who never made her quiver like this. The thought evaporated as Sara walked in the door. Relief filled Cassidy. Finally.

“Look, there’s my friend.” Cassidy jerked her hand away from his, her fingers instantly missing the heat of touching his. She shoved his card in her purse and edged her way off the bar stool. “Thanks for the drink. Enjoy your dinner.” Grabbing her beer, she tottered over to meet Sara.

With a mixture of relief and frustration Blade watched her walk away. Relief filled him because she had been one of those women and he’d actually found himself enjoying the conversation with her. Frustration filled him for just about the exact same reason. She was one of those women, and he’d been enjoying the conversation with her. Would he never learn?

Dee came over and stood for a second as they both watched the two women take a seat at a back booth.

“How was the food?” Dee asked.

“Fine,” Blade replied.

Dee’s expression, as she looked down her nose at him, said it all. “Just fine?”

“You know it was great, like always.” He shoved the empty basket toward her, his concentration still on the woman he’d just been sitting next to.

“Pretty thing,” Dee observed, following his gaze. She could take those liberties. Blade had hired her four years ago when he’d bought the place from the elderly man who owned it. Greg had wanted to retire, and Blade, flush with money, had seen the need to own something that wasn’t just concrete and steel.

“So did you get her phone number?”

“Please, Dee. I don’t even know her name.”

Dee dropped the basket on a tray beneath the bar. “You sure looked like you were getting friendly with her.”

Blade gave a short, bitter laugh. “Please,” he said, denying the attraction he’d felt, that he still felt. “She’s not my type. Heck, she doesn’t even belong here. Can you see her in the back room shooting pool?”

Dee cocked her head and watched as the other waitress, Lisa, took the women’s order. “Maybe not,” Dee replied. “But looks can be deceiving.”

He turned back around so he couldn’t see the women, especially her, anymore. “I’ve never discovered that to be true,” Blade protested, already knowing that whoever she was, she’d gotten under his skin.

At that lie, Dee simply shook her head and walked away.

“SO WHO’S THE GUY?”

Cassidy’s fork hovered over her strip steak. “You mean Dan?”

“No, not him.” Sara said. She pushed a dark hair off of her face. “The guy at the bar who keeps staring at you every few minutes. You were sitting by him when I arrived.”

“I don’t know him,” Cassidy said, spearing her cut piece of meat with such a force that Sara leaned back.

“Well for not knowing him, he sure got under your skin.”

“He did not,” Cassidy said with a vigorous shake of her head. “He’s just a guy sitting at the bar, that’s all. If you’d been on time, I wouldn’t have even been talking to him. You weren’t even your usual fashionably late self.”

“No, but my extremely late self got you next to him,” Sara said. She let her gaze rove over him, and Cassidy found herself bristling. “Man, he’s hot. I’d do him.”

“Sara!”

“What?” Sara looked taken back, as if surprised at the force of Cassidy’s reaction.

“You’re married.”

“Only until the divorce paperwork’s final,” Sara said. “Believe me, I’m allowed to look.”

Cassidy knew that. Never had she been so rattled. It had to be the beer. She stared at the empty bottle in front of her. She’d stopped at three, thank goodness.

Sara turned slightly so she’d have a better view. Cassidy watched as Sara put the end of her pinkie finger in between her teeth and gazed over toward the guy again. “I mean, he’s hot. And you know what they say, that you can tell a guy’s size by the distance between his thumb and pinkie. From the look of his hands…”

“Sara!” Cassidy put her fork down.

Sara’s brow furrowed. “Come on, Cass. Lighten up. You were never this prudish in college.”

“I wasn’t engaged then,” Cassidy said.

“Yeah, well you shouldn’t be engaged now, either.”

“Sara!” Cassidy realized she’d shouted that last one at her former roommate.

“Sorry, Cass. You know me. I call them the way I see them. All your friends are married, and now you’re settling down just because it’s the right thing to do. Believe me, I settled, and look what happened. He cheated on me right from the start.”

“I am not settling,” Cassidy protested. “I love Dan.”

“Dan is dull,” Sara said. “He’s like dishwater. You need it, but you don’t want to keep it.”

“I love Dan.”

“Yeah, as a brother,” Sara said. “I think that you’ve waited so long for Mr. Right you’re settling for Mr. Wrong. Come on, you can’t tell me that you don’t think that guy over there is to die for.”

Cassidy couldn’t get her lips to voice the lie. Instead she found another argument tack. “Yeah, but look where passion got me last time. Jeff the jerk.”

Sara nodded, but didn’t concede. “I’d forgotten about good old J.J. No offense but he was a loser.”

“Yeah, but passionate. He swept me off my feet and burned me bad.”

“True.” Sara thought for a second. “But we all go through the bad ones to find the good ones. Consider J.J. a learning experience.”

Cassidy shook her head. “I don’t have time for more learning experiences. I want children and a family. I’m twenty-eight. Dan is perfect.”

He was. She jutted her chin forward stubbornly.

Sara simply shook her head. “I hope for your sake you’re right.”

“I am,” Cassidy said. As long as I don’t run into that guy again.

She’d throw his business card away as soon as she got home.

IMAGE CONSULTANTS were not supposed to have hangovers. In fact, no one was supposed to have a hangover after only three longneck bottles of beer, then dinner and then another two hours of conversation with only water to drink before either she or Sara had done any driving home. Even that guy had left long before she had.

Cassidy rolled over and shielded her eyes from the bright sunlight pouring in her bedroom windows. Lillian’s mantra suddenly filled her mind. “Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Make the best of it.”

With that annoying thought, Cassidy sat up straight in bed. Today already sucked, and if today was a crystal ball of the future then she wanted no part of it. She blinked and glanced at the alarm clock—7:00 a.m. Great. Her alarm wasn’t scheduled to go off for at least another fifteen minutes.

Figured. She hadn’t even slept in.

Cassidy flopped back on the pillows and covered her eyes with her arm. Not that she could go back to sleep, anyway. The only concession was that she’d slept soundly, with no dreams of said men to haunt her.

Begrudgingly she rolled out of bed, hit the shower and within forty minutes had seated herself at the breakfast table with the yellow pages.

As she munched a grape-jelly-covered bagel, she frowned. By the time she’d finished the last of the bagel, she was sure lines ridged her brow, as well, creating a look her mother had always chided would give her premature wrinkles.

The yellow pages listed hundreds of contractors, and Cassidy had no clue whatsoever who to call.

Three hours later, after dialing for over an hour, she faced failure.

“Your problems are too small,” one contractor had said. “We don’t handle residential,” another’s haughty secretary had replied. “We can’t put you on the schedule for at least three weeks,” most had told her.

She was already at the Hs. She rose and faced her nightmare. Two steps took her to the stainless steel trash compactor. She’d run it last night when she’d gotten home.

Grimacing, she opened it up. Gingerly she picked through the remnants, finally finding the tiny cardstock paper she was looking for.

Glad the sauce had been white not red, she brushed off a leftover fettuccini noodle and read the words embossed.

J & B Construction. Blade Frederick, President.

Rather a fancy title to disguise what was probably a sole-proprietorship. She shivered as her gaze swept over the card again. His name was Blade.

She’d briefly heard it once or twice at the bar, but it hadn’t really registered. It did now, and his name fit. Sara’s prophetic words came rushing back, and Cassidy dropped the card back into the trash compactor.

She couldn’t call him.

She stared at the card, lying faceup on the congealing fettuccine Alfredo. She had to call him. She had no choice. Besides, he said he would recommend a handyman, not do the work himself.

Inaction paralyzed her, and finally anger overtook her. She was being silly. Last night had just been too much beer and too much of feeling sorry for herself because of her home situation.

She grabbed the card back out of the compactor and kicked the stainless steel door closed.

She’d simply make it clear to…Blade that she needed his help and that she wasn’t interested in any of his other services.

Besides, over the phone she wouldn’t be tempted to look at his hands and wonder if…

She brushed that distracting thought aside as she swore never to drink beer again. I can do this, Cassidy whispered the pep talk to herself as she reached for the phone. She dialed the number for J & B Construction. Besides, it’ll be fine, she told herself. After yesterday I deserve a break.

Chapter Two

Blade needed a break, and not an endless coffee break like his secretary still seemed to be on. Bidding on—and winning—the job to build the state’s newest revenue office should have been a piece of cake. But it wasn’t turning out that way, and Jake was annoyed.

Blade hated it when Jake, his best friend and business partner, was annoyed. It always spelled trouble.

“We’re up against D. W. Braun, and it’s down to just us two,” Jake said.

Blade sat forward, letting the back of his leather chair thump him gently in the back. He knew there was more. “What do they have on our bid?”

“I’m not sure.” His partner, and technically the company co-president, paced the room anxiously. “I’ve heard on the street that D.W.’s put money into some political campaigns.”

“Figures.” Blade gritted his teeth. “So much for the lowest bidder.”

“Come on, Blade, we know it’s rarely the lowest bidder. It’s the bidder with the longest tentacles who can justify all the expenses and pad the congressmen’s pockets. That’s why public projects always run over budget.”

“Not with our company.”

“Of course not.” Jake knew Blade was as honest and ethical as they came, and their company had a reputation for the same. “But we’ve only been bidding on public projects for the past two years. We’re new in this arena. We usually do private, like the renovation of the old Caferelli warehouse into an upscale hotel and lofts.”

“I want this project,” Blade said. “We have the best design and the best company for the job. I want to see us diversify from just office buildings and 200,000-square-foot retail developments.”

“Exactly,” Jake agreed with a short nod. “We want to diversify. To do that we’ve got to get out there on the social scene. Make some political contacts. Show them we’re serious about running with the big boys.”

“That’s your job.” Blade took a mechanical pencil and tapped it, top down, on the mahogany desk. “I may own a half dozen custom suits, but I don’t wear them unless I have to. You win jobs—I work the field and make sure we come in under budget and on time.”

“Yeah, but we want to continue to grow, don’t we?”

“Grow?” Blade snorted his disbelief. “We’re the fastest growing commercial contractor in the nation. We did two billion in revenue last year.”

“Exactly. Two million less than the year before.” Jake sounded as if two million was the end of the world. “Come on, Blade. I want this company to be one of the top in the country, and so do you. Right now we’re number ten in Houston and thirty-third in the nation.”

“And we’re not satisfied with that?” Blade asked. Their growth had been so phenomenal they’d passed companies in business for generations, not a mere eighteen years.

“Of course we’re not satisfied,” Jake replied. “We made a goal when we graduated high school that we’d never settle. Remember?”

The ringing of Blade’s desk phone interrupted the conversation. He frowned. He’d left orders not to be disturbed. Obviously the temp at the front reception desk had screwed up again. Already this morning she’d disconnected three important calls.

Blade checked his tone. No use scaring the temp. He could replace her tomorrow. Better yet, he’d have his secretary do it. “Hello?”

“Hello,” the female voice on the phone said slowly. Blade stopped tapping the pencil. Not the temp, and not one of his former girlfriends. He would have recognized one of their voices. Still, the voice sounded oddly familiar.

“I’ve gotten lost in the phone system twice now. I want to speak with Blade Frederick about fixing some code violations.”

Great. The temp had screwed up. J & B did not do code violation repairs.

“Lady, we’re—” Blade began, but she cut him off before he could finish.

“Please,” she said, her voice a breathy rush. “I need Blade Frederick. He said he could help me and I’ve tried everyone else. I have four pages of predications. You should have seen the guy. He just kept writing. If it weren’t for Lillian I never would have been in this fix.”

On the other end of the phone Cassidy bit her tongue. Had she just said that, again?

In his office Blade waved off Jake’s curious look and silent whisper of “Who is it?”

It was the girl from last night, and no, Blade himself couldn’t believe it. She’d called. Last night he’d left the bar long before she had, and he’d spent a sleepless night dreaming of her. He hadn’t woken up in a hot sweat like that since he’d been a randy teenager.

And she’d called. Unbelievable. He’d certainly lost that bet with himself.

He steadied his tone before speaking. No use giving away too much yet. “You do know we’re a commercial contractor.”

Sitting in her home office, Cassidy had no idea what that meant. “No,” she said. “Look, I need to talk to Blade. I need him.”

Blade shifted. That was not an image he needed at 11:00 a.m. Didn’t she know what a seductive voice she had? He should tell her she had him. “You’ve got him.”

“Oh.” Cassidy never felt so out of her element.

“Look, I’m a little busy right now, but how about you fax the list to me and I’ll take a look at them?”

Cassidy shifted the cordless phone to her other ear. So much for worrying about him hitting on her. Far from it.

“All right,” she replied, her ego just a bit dented that she’d worried for nothing. She fingered the list that sat on her desk. “What’s your fax number?”

Blade gave it to her. “I’ll send it right over,” Cassidy said. “I can’t thank you enough. My neighbor Lillian, I told you about her, she kept telling the inspector she was a senator’s wife. The more she talked, the more he wrote.”

He’d heard all that before. “Fax it over and give me a number where I can reach you.”

“Okay,” Cassidy replied. “Oh. By the way, I’m Cassidy.”

“Great, Cassidy,” Blade said, deliberately keeping his tone professional. “Send it over and I’ll get back to you.”

“Uh, thanks.”

“No problem.” Blade set down the phone before she had a chance to say anything else. He chuckled.

“What is it?” Jake asked.

Blade leaned back in his swivel chair and linked his hands behind his head. “I met this woman in the bar last night. Pretty thing, one of those rich women who live around the medical center and Rice University. The building inspector hit her up for four pages of violations.”

Jake gave a low whistle. “And she called you?”

Blade stretched and shook his head before he sat forward. “Well, I gave her my card.”

Jake looked impressed. “You dog. I didn’t think you still had it in you. You’ve been out of the scene awhile.”

“Yeah, well, I told her I’d find her a handyman. I really didn’t think she’d call.”

“She probably figured out how much you’re worth.”

“That’s the funny part. She has no clue. She wants me to find someone to fix her home predications. She thinks I’m some redneck, not a CEO.”

“But you didn’t correct her. You told her to fax you.” Suddenly Jake laughed as Blade grinned. “You’re a devil, Blade. Just wanted to know if you still had it, huh?”

“Yeah, well,” Blade changed that subject, “besides it really isn’t her fault. I kind of feel sorry for her. Her fiancé’s mother kept telling the city inspector she was married to a senator or something. So don’t get your hopes up. I’ll help her find a contractor, but that’s all.”

Jake’s ears perked up, and he ignored the last part of Blade’s explanation. “Senator? Did you say senator?”

Fire alarms pealed in Blade’s head. “Don’t look at me like that. We’ve been friends for too long. You should be warning me off. She’s set to be married.”

“That’s irrelevant. I like married women. They don’t want to settle down, just play. Which senator?”

Blade had long ago given up on Jake and his morals of an alley cat. “I don’t know. All I remember is that his wife’s name is Lillian.”

Jake’s jaw dropped and he stared at Blade. “Lillian Morris?”

Blade arched an eyebrow. “You know her?”

“Everyone knows Lillian whether they want to or not. She’s a firebrand who gets her way because she’ll just run you over if you don’t move.”

Blade shrugged. “Whatever. She didn’t make much of an impression on the building inspector.”

Jake blinked in surprise. “That’s because he hasn’t learned better. I bet he’ll never make that mistake again.”

“Anyway, I’ll look at the predications, and I’ll call her and find someone to fix them for her. I offered to do it last night in the bar. My mother raised me to be a gentleman.”

“Yeah, when she was home. Anyway, while you’re being so ignoble, why don’t you just hit the lady up for an invitation to meet the infamous Lillian. Senator Morris has a lot of pull in this town. We could use the connection.”

That didn’t sound good. “How about you meet the famous Lillian?”

Jake’s smile turned wicked. “Maybe I will. You described the girl on the phone as a pretty thing, but I know you. She’s hot, isn’t she?”

Blade shifted. Sure he’d describe Cassidy as hot, but that sounded so cheap. She was beautiful, an image of perfection, just as he’d thought last night.

Jake’s gray eyes gleamed at Blade’s silence. “I think I want to meet her. After all, it is my job to make contacts.”

The idea of Jake, whom he liked a lot but wouldn’t set up with his sister even if he had one, didn’t sit well at all. No, the idea of Jake meeting the lady from the night before, Cassidy, didn’t sit well at all.

“I’ll do it,” Blade said simply, his decision instantaneous. “I’ll get you a meeting with Senator Morris, and you take it from there.” There, that solution sounded just fine.

Sending Jake after Cassidy was like sending Christians to the lions.

Jake grinned. “Blade, my man, we are now on our way into Houston old money society, and I have just the plan to get us there.”

Blade frowned. Jake’s ideas involving women and Blade often backfired. “Yeah, well let’s hope it doesn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth.”

“Money never leaves a bad taste, Blade,” Jake chided. “It’s time you learned that. Yep, high time you learned that, especially when the babe is hot. Now you listen to me, and I’ll tell you what we are going to do.”

CASSIDY COULDN’T BELIEVE her luck. A man named Jake from J & B Construction had called and told her that his company would do her work. Even better, he’d told her that J & B was licensed by the city and oversaw a crew that would do the job.

She pushed a loose strand of blond hair back off of her face. Jake had told her someone would come over at four-thirty. She’d be his last appointment of the day.

The doorbell rang, and she threw it open.

“I saw your car and since I knew you were home, I came over to discuss the flowers.”

“Lillian!” Cassidy managed to step out of the way before Lillian barged right in. “I’m meeting with the contractor.”