Love Shack (Tiny Houses, Big Hearts) (14 page)

“What happens when the tiny house village Felicity wants you to work on pans out? Will you bring your teams over here?”

Tom smiled. “Working tiny is very different from working on full size structures. Most of the men who can get the job done well in a big area aren’t able to work the same way in a small space.” He laughed. “Most of the craftsmen who I work with are sticklers for building codes. And let’s just say the tiny housers aren’t exactly rule followers most of the time.”

“I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch. We’re not breaking laws. At least not any that are all that important. Building codes are made for safety of the general public. In building tiny houses, we are building towards a very specific person. The house I’d design for you wouldn’t have the same structure size as one I designed for someone else. And that’s why this is exciting. We are fitting a house to a person to use every single inch of space. It functions perfectly, and more efficiently than any other type of home. You can’t say that about the sprawling mansions everyone seems to want these days.”

Tom packed up his tools after another walk around the steps. Brandon was sad to see him go.

“And another thing. I’m sure you’ve seen folks work their tails off to try and pay for a home that they can’t afford.”

Yet another fact Brandon couldn’t deny. Higher loans to lower incomes didn’t happen as much anymore after the housing market collapse, but he did still see it on occasion.

“Homes like this, people can’t fit all that debt inside. There’s a beauty to that.” Tom slapped Brandon on the shoulder. “And there’s beauty to the hard work I’ll get to do after this month. If you ever come back and visit, let me know. I’ll buy you a round or two. Thanks to all this publicity, I get to do something I’ve wanted to do forever. I’ll have my hands in every inch of the first few houses at least. I’ll get to put my stamp on it all. Yeah. If you ever come back and visit us crazy tiny housers, I’ll have a cold one for ya.”

Tom waved as he packed up in his truck and left.

If he ever came to visit.

That was something to think about. The first couple days in this house, Brandon could think of nothing else other than being able to stand upright in his bedroom. Last night, Felicity rolled over in her sleep mumbling some more of that nonsense she seemed to do when she dreamt. But the words her subconscious made up were light and happy, and when her arm went across his chest last night, he hadn’t moved it like he had the night before.

Brandon had let her ramblings comfort him and relax him, and he had slept better than he had in years. Everything seemed to fade in the background against her jabbering. She was his very own white noise machine.

Brandon dropped the last rolled up flap and secured it to the metal post. It was still drizzling, but the wind had died down, and they weren’t supposed to get any more significant storm activity until next week. He was glad Tom was willing to wait on the polyurethane for another day. Just like the builder, Brandon wanted his hands on every step of…well, of the steps.

He thought about asking to take the stairs to Tom’s shop tonight, but they both agreed to just stretch the project until the next day, hoping the sun tomorrow would burn off the extra humidity in the air. Tom didn’t have any jobs, so they planned on checking things out around two. After the interview.

Brandon wasn’t sure what his boss needed to prep him on, but as he smelled Felicity’s cooking through the open kitchen window, he was grateful he’d have a full stomach and a great night’s sleep before he found out.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Waking up from a dream about visiting a carnival with free cotton candy and endless games was not that unusual for Felicity. She loved when she could afford to drop by the carnivals. She was an all-star at the milk bottle game, and absolutely adored giving the biggest stuffed animal she could win to a little kid.

This time, in her dream, she had company. Brandon was with her. He held her hand, and he was the one that gave her the prize. She always woke up from these dreams with a smile. This was the first time she woke up with her dream man by her side.

Or under her arm, more accurately. Cringing at how far across her roommate she found herself draped, she tried to slowly remove her limbs from his torso. Lifting her head, she made sure his face was still lax and asleep. Their alarms hadn’t gone off yet. So she probably still had enough time to save them both the embarrassment.

Her brain was already buzzing about what she was going to get dropped on her today. Debbie was the only one she’d have to contend with, but her ace in the hole absolutely refused to give her the benefit of hearing the questions ahead of time. Debbie said it was Felicity’s “real” reactions that made the interviews such riveting television.

Felicity didn’t like the gleam in Debbie’s eye when she’d said that. Felicity knew she was in for some mental gymnastics if her reporter found something out about her past.

But that was all hours away. Right now, she had to finish her slow maneuver to get her body off the very tempting one next to hers. Her arm was easy. She just lifted up and over and had a bit of space as she eased her body backwards to give a lever to remove her leg. The problem was Brandon’s hand was on her thigh. High up on her thigh. His palm was warm, and she could feel the heat of his skin through her thin pants.

When she tried to move her leg downward, the whole weight of his arm was there holding her back. She’d either have to lift his hand, or slide upward. Since she needed her hands to hold her angle, she tried moving higher on his body. Up his thighs she wiggled, and his hand started slipping off. She could do this.

Under just his forearm now, she started to slide her leg out. All the concentration on a slow and gentle move, it took her a minute to realize, she was right over a male hot zone. Brandon’s eyes snapped open, and his hand clamped back down on her leg again.

He was just as groggy as she was, and they both stared at her leg trembling over his rock, hard…

Brandon flipped her leg up in the air. Normally this would have just knocked her onto her back, but with both hands under her raised torso, the momentum sent her rolling right off the bed. Her legs slammed into the wall, and her head hit the corner of the storage box next to her.

Brandon jumped up to help, and like every morning, whacked his head on the ceiling.

After a few choice curse words, he managed, “Are you okay?”

“Other than being royally embarrassed, I’m fine.”

“Why are you embarrassed?”

“I was practically on top of you.” She moaned as she untangled her limbs.

“You’ve done that every night we’ve slept here. I just didn’t move you last night.” He rubbed his head. The one on top of his shoulders. And ducked down enough to hurry out of the bedroom. “I’ll start the coffee.”

Felicity scrambled to catch up.

“Wait, I know I accidentally rolled toward you that first day…”

Brandon really had been paying attention to the coffee making part of their day. He had the Chemex down and water boiling before she even stubbed her toe on the chair they’d left out last night.

“Felicity, you’ve done that every night. I usually roll you off and go back to sleep. I just didn’t last night.”

She hobbled toward him. Not too close, because neither had brushed their teeth yet, and no one wanted to get that close and personal with the dragon breath of another person, no matter how impressive they felt against your thigh.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“There’s no point in you being embarrassed.”

“Why didn’t you move me
last
night?”

He cleared his throat. “I must have been tired from working with Tom.”

“You drank beer and played with sand paper.”

“I just forgot to move you. And you were talking about cotton candy in your sleep, and it was adorable…”

“I don’t talk in my sleep. I just mumble.” She hoped.

“Normally, yes, but last night I got real words.” He put a filter and some grounds in the Chemex, before leaning in toward her. “And one of the words was my name. Dreaming about me, were you?”

Felicity stopped bouncing on her foot with all the nonstubbed toes and just stared at him. “No.”

“Yup. I’m your dream man. So I just have to keep my ears open, and maybe you’ll tell your dream man all your secrets.”

“That’s not funny.”

He poured the water over the grounds and set her timer to steep. “I’ve got to find some humor in it. Come on. Don’t be embarrassed. You’re not the one who had the massive erection, remember?”

She couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Brandon, bless him, was still trying to keep things light. Unfortunately, every word he spoke sounded sexy as hell, and all Felicity could think of was running her hands through his hair to smooth down that one stray tuft that was floating just over his eyebrow.

Realizing she was staring, Felicity turned and started grabbing some clothes out of her closet. “I’m going to go take a shower.” A cold one.

“Do you mind if I go first? I have to meet my boss at nine, and I’d like to get there early.”

She turned to him with a bra looped around her elbow, and the rest of her clothes in her grasp. “I thought the interviews weren’t until noon. Did I have the wrong time?”

He poked his finger at the grounds and spun them around inside the hot water. That was obviously his cup.

“No. The interviews are at noon. My boss wanted to prep me. Apparently, I’m not being eye-catching enough on camera for his taste.”

“I don’t even see how that’s possible,” Felicity mumbled as she shut the closet door.

When she turned back toward the kitchen, he was only inches away.

“You’re going to give me an even bigger ego than I already have, Miss Newhouse.”

She would have had a pithy comeback about how big egos didn’t fit in tiny houses, but all she could think of was what else he had that was plenty
big
. Her mouth open and closed twice before she managed to squeak awkwardly and clear her throat.

“If you want a shower first, just let me know when you’re done.” Felicity went back up to her bedroom and plopped down throwing her comforter over her body.

She laid there for a few seconds until she heard the bathroom door open and shut.

“Great work, Felicity. You’re not being at all drool-faced over the banker with the babetastic body. Sure, let’s talk about his big ego, and everything else about him that’s big. No wonder the fucker is cocky. Every man packing what he is would be cocky. He’s the epitome of why they came up with the term in the first place. It does no one any good to be distracted by a delicious-feeling penis.”

A throat cleared.

There had to be a hole opening below her to swallow her into the depths of the ground. She was talking about the man’s dick, so of course he didn’t go into the shower like he said he was going to.

Felicity slowly lowered the blanket to just below her eyes. There was no reason to show off the undoubtedly perfect shade of red she was rocking on her cheeks.

“Babetastic?”

Felicity pulled the covers back over her head. Yup. This was it. She was officially dying of embarrassment. She wasn’t sure what the medical code was for death by big mouth, but she was pretty sure her cheeks were going to combust.

“I thought you were getting in the shower.”

“Obviously, I’m not.” He sat on the bed and tugged at her cover.

Felicity tried to keep the covers over her face, but with a quick yank from her roomie, she didn’t have a thing left to hide behind. She tapped her fingers on the bed before folding her arms, then laying them at her sides again.

“Like you don’t know you’re attractive,” she finally said. “My subconscious is obviously infatuated with you, but we are living together for three more weeks, and I really don’t think…even if I wanted to, and I don’t…” She sat up and scooted as far back on the bed as the wall would let her. “I just think we should forget this happened, and I’ll sleep in the living room from now on.”

She was waiting for him to agree with her, or argue with her, or do anything, but he just stared. With his eyes taking in way too much. Him looking at her was doing funny things to her body. The longer he looked, the more restless she felt. The lapse in words gave her time to remember exactly how she woke up this morning, and the warmth spread out from the center of her chest at how good he’d felt to snuggle on.

“Are you going to take your shower now? Because if not, I’m getting in.”

“You’re really uncomfortable with the fact that you’re attracted to me, aren’t you?”

Of all the gall.

He scooted closer. Felicity flattened her back to the wall.

“Would it help if I told you I was attracted to you as well?”

The warmth in her chest dropped down her torso and started smoldering at the apex of her thighs.

“Is that why you didn’t move me last night?” she asked.

He moved closer, and Felicity’s brain forgot to remind her who he was, and that this was a bad idea. Her pussy took over the thinking, and reminded her how long it had been since a sexy man had offered to pet her.