Flipped! (Spinning Hills Romance 1) (9 page)

He lifted a shoulder. “None taken.”

Ruby patted his hand and continued, “Do you think children born to a man like that will learn love from him? Don’t you think the painful pattern can be passed on until others break the pattern? Sergio cursed his family and they need to break the pattern. The pattern is the curse, so curses do exist.”

“Well”—Rosa lifted one shoulder—“I do agree they need to break a pattern.” She tossed Dan a pointed look.

“And I guess it’ll just have to be you. It’s in the cards,” Sherry ribbed him.

“Don’t look at me.” He grinned. “I sure as hell don’t want to break the curse if it’s what’s keeping me single.”

Ruby began shuffling her cards, a small smile on her lips. “We’ll see . . .”

T
rick-or-treating in Spinning Hills always ended at Star Springs Park. Parents would spread their kids’ haul out on picnic tables to check them, and kids would trade the candy they didn’t want.

Holly, Ella, Ruby, Leo, Emily, and their little girl, Gracie, were sifting through candy when Johnny walked up to them, dressed as one of the Wright brothers. “Hey, Sleeping Beauty and . . . a pirate.” He rubbed Ella and Gracie’s heads.

“I’m a pirate
captain
and Ella’s
Rapunzel
.” Gracie looked at him as if he were clueless.

“Those were my next two choices. I promise.”

“Orville Wright?” Holly smiled, taking in the mustache, hat, and old-fashioned suit. “How very original.” The Wright brothers were Dayton’s engineering rock stars, and every year at least half a dozen people dressed up as one of them.

Johnny ignored her and eyed the candy. “May I join you?”

“You always seem to join us at the same time, every single year,” Emily observed.

“So he can take the candy we don’t want.” Ella giggled.

“You guys are on to me, huh?” Johnny straddled the bench.

“You’re not that complicated,” Ruby said to him. “And we saw you pocketing Jake’s discards.”

Ella and Gracie took the candy they wanted to trade and ran off to another table.

“Trust me, I’m complicated enough. Or at least my life is.” Johnny twisted his face into a pitiful look that nobody bought.

“Poor baby. Are you having girl trouble again?” Emily asked.

Johnny chuckled. “Okay, so maybe I’m not that complicated.”

“I thought you had turned over a new leaf,” Leo teased.

“I have. Some girls don’t believe me, though. And I’ll never make any headway with the right girl and her family if I can’t get rid of the wrong ones.” He popped a few candy corns into his mouth, chewed, and turned to Ruby. “Do you have any desserts that tell a girl to stop stalking a guy?”

“I’m thinking sending a girl any dessert sends the wrong message,” Ruby answered. “Have you tried just talking to her?”

Johnny looked up, as serious as Holly had ever seen him. “I have, but she thinks I’m teasing her.”

“It’s that grin of yours and the look in your eye,” Emily said to him. “It sends the wrong message.”

“Well, I can’t change my face.” Johnny picked up a couple of jawbreakers the girls weren’t allowed to eat and popped one into his mouth before turning to look at Holly. “Maybe you could whip up some stalker-repellant scent for me.”

“Your body does that naturally when you play touch football with the guys,” Holly joked.

Johnny hooked an arm around her neck and stuck her head into his armpit. “Gross!” Holly laughed. When he let her go, she turned her head away as if she couldn’t stand his stench and caught sight of Mrs. Amador, Heather, Sam, and Jake at another picnic table. Heather waved and Holly waved back. Mrs. Amador looked over at them, pursed her lips, and looked away.

Holly pretended she hadn’t seen, but it made her feel low. There was nothing going on between her and Johnny and there never would be, but the fact that both their mother and Dan didn’t think she was good enough for him stung. It made her unconsciously scroll through the bad decisions she’d made.

The moment she caught herself doing it, she pulled back her shoulders and counted off all the successes she’d achieved.

It worked. There was a lot she was proud of.

She turned and spoke in a low voice, so only Johnny could hear, “I’ve been meaning to tell you . . . Dan stopped by yesterday.”

Johnny looked at her, his expression serious. “Why?”

“To make things right.”

“Did he?”

“We came to an agreement, so you can let him off the hook. But please don’t do anything like that again. I don’t need you to fight my battles for me. You’re a good friend, but you had to know I’d absolutely hate to come between you and your brother. The whole thing made me uncomfortable.”

Johnny looked down at the table and thought for a moment. “Honestly, I did it for him as much as I thought I was doing it for you. But you’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t think it through.”

“And that’s why I love you. You’re a good guy, Johnny. The best.”

He laughed. “It’s too bad we’re not into each other. We’d make a great couple.”

 

Dan was beat. He walked to his car and tried to shake off the dust and grime before getting in. “Hey, bro,” a familiar voice called.

He looked up to see Johnny, Holly, and Ella walking along the sidewalk. Ella was dressed up as some sort of princess, Johnny was dressed as Orville Wright, and Holly was dressed like a gypsy. She had a red bandanna and a white pirate shirt, and it accentuated her milky skin, dark hair, and intense eyes. Their gazes locked and she lifted her chin.

It hit him that he couldn’t blame his brother if he
was
infatuated with her. There was a heart-stopping quality to her . . . when she wasn’t foaming at the mouth.

Johnny was watching them, so Dan smiled. “Hey, princess,” he said to Ella. “Queen Matilda.” He bowed to Holly, calling her by Miami Valley’s famed gypsy queen.

“What are you supposed to be?” Ella frowned at him.

He looked at his dirty plaid shirt and raggedy jeans. “A tired construction worker.”

Ella shrugged and skipped off to her backyard.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you.” Johnny pointed to Dan’s new Honda Accord. “Real men drive pickups. There was even a survey about it a few weeks ago. Women rated sedans as the least sexiest car.”

So he and Johnny were good again. Holly had kept up her side of the bargain. Dan lifted one shoulder. “And all the insecure men ran out and bought pickups. Real men know they can pull off any car.”

Johnny laughed. “I’ll see you at home in a bit.”

“And I’ll see you tomorrow at seven.” Holly smiled, a little too sweetly.

As if he could forget. He was already dreading it.

“Another binder.” Dan pinched the bridge of his nose.

“This one will blow you away.” Holly looked around for a place to place the binder, and Dan led her to a worktable he’d set up in what used to be the sixth bedroom. “You knocked the wall down!” she exclaimed. Her heart clenched. The house was beginning to take shape.

“Anyone with any sense would have done the same.”

“You’re admitting I have sense then?” She looked at him. His shirt was open, revealing . . . solidness. And a few of those dark hairs. What was it with her and hairy chests? If she really had any sense, she’d find them disgusting, like most women. He showed her how much sense he thought she had by holding his thumb and pointer finger so close together, there was barely any space between the two. She ignored him and looked away. “Before you get to peek at the binder, you have to give me the tour.”

As if he wanted a peek at her binder . . .

The two projects he’d been working on most were the master bedroom and the family room. Since they were standing in the new family room and she could see he’d torn down a wall and was either patching the others up or taking old drywall down, he took her to the master suite. He’d gutted the old bathroom and removed its walls along with the wall separating the master from the fifth bedroom.

Holly looked around, nodding as if she approved, her dimpled smile bright. Dan couldn’t help but feel a little pleased someone liked what he was doing. Even if it was her.

Although he also had to admit she was a sight for sore eyes. The fit of her jeans kept drawing his eye and her black, V-neck sweater brought out her striking features.

Stepping around the debris, she glanced into the old bathroom and closet, and then the old fifth bedroom. “Where are the trim and moldings? I know you took them down, but I haven’t seen them.”

“I’m having them sanded and painted white again.”

“Oh. Have they started?”

“They start tomorrow.”

“Because I think you should consider a light mahogany stain. I know white trim is all the rage now, but I think a stain would suit it better. In the evening, sunlight bathes the house and gives it all a warm glow. It’s soothing and peaceful. You’ll see.”

Dan rubbed the back of his neck. “Remember I’m going to flip the house. Most people want the latest trends, even in historical homes.”

“I know, but consider the way the light comes in. Buyers will look at that, too. Let’s go back down and look at my binder.”

Dan took in a deep breath and held it. “Sure,” he said as he let it out.

“You know, I think you might be a misogynist,” Holly spoke in an indifferent, conversational tone as she left the room and headed downstairs. “You act as if listening to a few of my ideas is unbearable.”

“Right. You’re on to me. I think women should only be seen in the kitchen and bedroom, and never be heard,” he joked.

“Too bad you’ll be seeing and hearing me in every room of this house,” Holly answered. Her words hadn’t been meant to conjure up lascivious thoughts, he knew, but that’s exactly what they’d done. Long dark curls against a satin pillowcase, and certain sounds echoing through a room bathed in golden light. Dan swallowed and shook his head.
What the hell?
He looked over to see Holly watching him, arms crossed, lips pursed. “You’re a misogynist lecher, that’s what you are.”

“You don’t know what I was thinking,” he accused.

“Oh, I know exactly what you were thinking. It was written all over your face.”

“Well, whatever I was thinking, it had nothing to do with you,” he lied. If there was one thing he was sure of, it was that her words would’ve conjured up images in any man. Still, he was embarrassed to have gotten caught. “Jeez, you guys really do think you can read minds.”

“What do you mean, ‘you guys’?”

“I ran into Ruby and your daughter a while back. Your daughter thought she’d read my mind, too.” He walked over to her and the infamous binder.

“What did she say?”

“I don’t remember exactly,” he lied again.

Holly leaned on the makeshift table, opened her binder, and turned a few pages. “Well, I’m sure she
did
read you. It’s like she has this built-in radar when it comes to people. I don’t have that gift.”

“Gift?” he scoffed before he could stop himself. “You sound like Ruby.”

“You have something against my grandmother now?”

“No. I happen to love your grandmother.”

That earned him a bright smile. He couldn’t look away.

“But you don’t believe in gifts?” she asked.

“I believe in natural inclinations and hard work. A gift implies someone handed something over to you for free.”

“Well, isn’t something you’re born with, free? I agree you have to put in hard work to turn it into anything, but I’d still call it a gift.”

Her theory was cute, but he couldn’t disagree more. “I don’t think I was born with legal expertise.” He looked down at her binder, as if to end the subject.

“Why is it you’re better than most at researching legal cases? Why is it you know exactly where to look for information and precedents? Do you ever wonder how you come up with the right combination of words to bring up the exact search results you need, and how it is you know what facts will sway a judge or a jury? It’s a gift, Dan.”

Dan frowned. How’d she know all that? “Have you been spying on me?” He looked up and tried to look like he was kidding, though he really wasn’t.

“You wish,” she shot back. She began turning the pages in her binder. “You told me what you did the day you came into my shop and I could imagine what it would take to be good at that.”

“What gift do you think you were born with?” he asked, knowing he’d enjoy the answer. She’d called herself a nose, after all.

She glowered. “What I do may seem silly and unimportant to you, but our sense of smell is vital. Every breath you take connects you to the world around you. It’s the strongest way to detect other people and dangers, and to identify the food you need. It’s how we recognize each other in the most primal way, communicating with each other without realizing it, and recalling memories our conscious selves push away. For as long as I can remember, I’ve known what scents and aromas people need to be at peace, and not just that, but colors, tastes, textures, and sounds, too. I’ve been good at putting it all together, and I can imagine you’re good at what you do in the same way. I just decided to focus my energy on scents, and you focused yours on legal issues.”

While she spoke, Dan moved closer to her, and did what he’d wanted to do since that first day. He got a good whiff in, and inhaled a sweet and sensual mix. His reaction to it was definitely primal, he’d give her that. She finished her little speech, and he stepped away. “Got it.” He looked at his watch. “Can we flip through your ideas now?”

Holly blew out a quick, frustrated breath. “Sure. Let’s look at the master bedroom today. I thought a creamy scheme would be best.”