Made For Us (7 page)

His mom’s favorite flower.

His eyes moved up to meet Zoe’s furious gaze.
Crap
, now she probably thought he was just some pervert staring at her breasts, but right now it was that damn daisy that had him transfixed. Forcing himself to look away, he murmured an apology and fled the room.

“Well, that was odd,” Zoe grumbled and turned to finish painting the wall. It was a good thing he had the sense to leave the room because she’d felt like taking the paint pole and smacking Aidan on the side of the head. He had the nerve to lecture
her
efforts to stay on top of
his
stupid schedule, and then instead of listening to her, he was standing there staring at her breasts the entire time!
Jerk
.

Suddenly energized with indignation, Zoe didn’t take long to get the room finished. Afterward, she carefully took the paint tray and walked outside with a sense of accomplishment.

“I’ve got that, Miss Zoe,” the paint foreman said as he jogged over to her from the adjacent lot.

“Thanks, Charlie.”

He took the tray from her and yelled for one of his crew to come over and get it cleaned up. “I just saw the room and I have to tell you, I’m impressed. I’ve been doing this a long time, and red is not an easy color to work with.”

She blushed at his praise. “Like I told you yesterday, I enjoy painting. And while I think it looks pretty good right now, the truth will be known tomorrow when it’s dry and Mr. Shaughnessy comes and inspects it.” She couldn’t help but make a face as she said it and smiled when Charlie laughed. “Every person here could say that it looks great, but until Mr. Shaughnessy says it passes inspection, it’s anyone’s guess.”

“Ain’t that the truth. This is the first job we’re doing for him, but the interview process I went through with him told me he’s a pretty high-maintenance guy.”

“That’s the understatement of the year.” They shared a laugh and Zoe found that she felt comfortable with Charlie. He was no more than a couple of years older than her, certainly no older than Aidan.

“So you’ve worked for him before?” Charlie asked.

Zoe shook her head. “I only took over on Monday because another decorator at the firm messed up.”

“Damn. So they took her off the job and put you on it?”

She shook her head again. “She was fired over it.”

He cursed under his breath and then immediately apologized for being crude. “That seems pretty harsh.”

“I’m sort of walking on eggshells too. I don’t want to mess anything up.”

“That’s why you wanted to take on that room yourself?” he asked and Zoe nodded. “I can’t say that I blame you. My guys are good, but most of them don’t have a lot of experience, which is why we do a lot of spraying. That’s fairly easy. Doing brushing and rolling takes a lot more skill and patience.”

“I find it therapeutic,” she said with a chuckle and Charlie joined her.

“I’m sorry, are we all on a coffee break?” Aidan asked, walking up to them.

Zoe wanted to roll her eyes. After his bizarre behavior earlier, she had thought maybe he wouldn’t come back again today. And even if he did come back, she’d hoped he’d leave her to her work in peace. No such luck. Charlie started to apologize, but Zoe stepped in to save him.

“I just finished painting and was bringing my supplies out to get cleaned up. Charlie’s guys are taking care of that for me. He was just complimenting my work.”

Aidan eyed the man with a hint of anger. Was he going to ask her out for drinks or something after work too?
How
can
any
man
resist
Zoe
, Aidan thought,
all
charming
and
sweet, and in those snug jeans and tight tank top…

He had to get a grip. He was making himself crazy. Aidan turned back to Zoe. “The room’s complete?”

She nodded. “I’ll tackle the trim tomorrow if it needs it. I was just going back in to pick up drop cloths and get the ladder out of there. I don’t want anyone else to go in there and risk bumping into the wall or anything.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Aidan said and turned toward the house.

Zoe gave Charlie a nervous parting smile and chased after Aidan. “I just said that I didn’t want anyone else in there, didn’t I?”

“It’s my damn house and I don’t see why I can’t go in there.”

“Are you even listening to yourself?” she snapped and was surprised when Aidan stopped in his tracks and turned to look at her. “You put me on this job and I have done everything that you asked. No, wait. I’ve done
more
than what you’ve asked, and I don’t appreciate you undermining me and ignoring my requests.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Aidan silently counted to ten. Zoe waited. He knew she was right. If it were anyone else, he wouldn’t be cleaning up their mess, but it bothered him to think of Zoe doing this kind of manual labor all by herself. It wasn’t his fault his parents had raised him to be old-fashioned. In his mind, there were still traditional roles for men and women.

“I’ll make you a deal,” he finally said.

She eyed him warily. “I’m listening.”

“I’ll let you finish cleaning up in there today, if—”

“You’ll
let
me do my job? Oh, the joy,” she interrupted.

“
If
you promise that you aren’t going to do anymore painting.”

She crossed her arms and stood there defiantly.
If
he
didn’t think I could paint a room without killing myself on the ladder, why did he hire me?
Zoe thought. It was on the tip of her tongue to argue about it, but Aidan had already ticked her off enough for one day. “Fine,” she finally said. “No more painting.” Besides, she’d already finished what she wanted to do herself anyway.

“That includes the trim. If it needs to be touched up, Charlie’s crew can handle it. Or, if you’d prefer, I’ll ask Charlie to do it personally. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Aidan visibly relaxed. “Thank you.”

“I haven’t had a chance to look at the rest of the house, but it looks like they’re getting ready to call it a day too,” Zoe said. “Maybe you should check on them, and you and I can go over my room tomorrow. Okay?”

Nodding, Aidan quickly walked away.

Zoe had to wonder at his odd behavior today. And yesterday. And the day before. What made Aidan Shaughnessy tick? She
thought
she’d gotten a good glimpse of the man while they were at dinner the other night, but standing there now, watching him walk away, she realized that she had merely scratched the surface.

* * *

For the next two weeks, Aidan and Zoe managed to steer clear of one another. A truce of sorts had been formed when Zoe had met with Aidan the following day, and he had sincerely complimented her paint job. The trim did not need to be retouched, which was a relief for both of them, and when Zoe took out her file to show Aidan some of her planned accessory purchases, he didn’t argue.

After that meeting though, if Zoe did happen to see Aidan, it was from a distance. He was busy elsewhere now that construction on the rest of the houses in the community had started. That was fine with Zoe.

On some level, it still bothered her that she had been so wrong about him. For a brief moment she had been hopeful…but she supposed that everyone had been right after all. Aidan Shaughnessy was a difficult man, and there wasn’t anything she could do to change him. It wasn’t her job.

By the end of that second week though, she felt really good about everything she had accomplished. She assumed that Aidan was pleased—or at least found it acceptable—because he hadn’t made any comments or placed any calls to Martha to complain. She considered that a victory.

Looking forward to the weekend, Zoe drove away from the site a little later than she had planned that evening and went in search of the Italian restaurant where Aidan had taken her. She had decided against it the previous Friday on principle, but her need for pizza was just too great.

The thought of sitting out on her deck and enjoying her dinner made her smile. Zoe did have to thank Aidan for one thing: his insistence that she not work with any other clients while she was working for him meant she was actually able to go home at night and relax. She walked on the beach every night and had finally begun to feel a peace in her life that she hadn’t felt in a while.

Not since she’d lost her mother to breast cancer.

Sometimes, on her nightly walks, she would talk to her mother. It didn’t matter if other people were around because it made her feel better to talk to the woman who had raised her alone and left her far too soon, six months ago. Zoe didn’t like to talk about it with anyone; even Martha and her coworkers were unaware of the real reason Zoe had chosen to move across the country. It was private.

Her mother had never seen the ocean—it was an unfulfilled dream of hers. In her entire life, she had never left Arizona. It hadn’t been a conscious decision; life had just worked out that way. But on the wall in her mother’s bedroom had been a beautiful painting of a beach at sunset. Toward the end of her mother’s illness, they had lain in bed together and looked at it, her mother talking about how much she had wished she could have seen such a beautiful view in person. Maybe that was why Zoe was so obsessed with it. So on her walks, she would tell her mother about how soft the sand felt or what the ocean breeze smelled like. It made her feel better, almost as if they were experiencing this new life together.

Zoe pulled into the pizzeria parking lot and marveled at the crowd. There was a line out the door; there was probably a long wait for a table. But then she noticed a side entrance marked “Takeout Orders.” Zoe grumbled to herself for not thinking ahead, but it wasn’t like she had someone to rush home to.

Joining the crowd inside the designated area, Zoe waited her turn to get to the counter and was surprised to be greeted again by Tammy, her waitress from the night she had come here with Aidan.

Tammy recognized her immediately and greeted her with a smile. “Hey, Zoe! How are you?”

“Fine, Tammy, thanks. And you?”

“Oh, you know, living the dream.” She winked at Zoe and got out her pad. “Are you here to pick up Aidan’s order, or getting something for yourself?”

Aidan’s order? Awkward…

“Um…something for myself,” Zoe said. Placing her order for a small pizza with everything on it, she paid and thanked Tammy before taking a seat to wait for her dinner. Wracking her brain, she tried to remember if Aidan had still been on-site when she’d left. She couldn’t be sure. She hoped at least she’d be gone before he arrived.

“Hey, Aidan!” a man behind the counter said as Aidan walked in the door. “We’re running behind tonight. Give me about ten minutes, okay?”

Zoe did her best to hide behind the crowd and not look his way. If she got up now, he’d totally see her. But she could hear him talking with some of the other patrons, and with any luck, by the time her order was ready, she’d be able to grab her food and escape unnoticed. Taking out her cell phone, she started a game of solitaire to keep her eyes from wandering around the room. Someone sat down beside her and every girly part of her body went on high alert.

“Hey, Zoe,” Aidan said softly.

She took a minute to compose herself and moved a couple of virtual cards before looking up, careful to keep her expression neutral. “Aidan.”

It was the most they had spoken to each other all week.

“How are you doing?” he asked. Zoe knew he was just trying to make conversation, perhaps trying to smooth over some of the awkwardness, but she wasn’t interested. He was the one who’d created the tension and the awkwardness between them in the first place, so let him deal with it.

Tammy called her name for her order, and she jumped out of her seat as if it were on fire. Without acknowledging Aidan, she walked up to the counter and thanked Tammy as she grabbed her box and walked out. It almost seemed too easy. Too…simple.

“Zoe!”

So
close
. Stubbornness was something she’d been born with, so she continued to walk to her car and proceeded to unlock the door and put the pizza on the passenger seat. But then Aidan called out to her again before she could get in the car. There was nothing she had to say to him and she was off the clock, so she simply stood next to her car and waited.

“Are you all right?” he asked when he stopped in front of her.

Zoe shrugged. “Of course. Why?”

Aidan stuck his hands in his pockets and suddenly regretted following her out. It was obvious she didn’t want to talk to him, and that was the way he thought he wanted it, but seeing her sitting there in the restaurant had reminded him of their first night together. Well, not
together
together. Hell, this was why he hadn’t wanted to be around her for two weeks. She just made him feel so completely disarmed. But that first night, they had both been so happy, carefree.

Zoe didn’t look happy and carefree right now. She looked guarded.

And pissed.

At him.

Clearing his throat, he shifted his weight and scrambled for something to say. “The house is looking good. I like the pieces you chose for the home office space.”

While she might have taken a moment to bask in the glow of his compliment, Zoe reminded herself of their positions—employer and employee.

“Thank you. If you’ll excuse me, my dinner is getting cold.” Turning toward her car, she was surprised when Aidan’s hand gently wrapped around her upper arm and spun her around. Her eyes blazed with fury. “Take your hands off me please.” Her words had the desired effect, and he not only released her but he also took a step back.

“Look,” he began cautiously, “I just wanted to say…I’m sorry.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I was a complete ass last week after we had dinner. I didn’t know what to expect the next morning, and I really did have a good time with you and…” He threw up his hands and gave a helpless shrug. “I’d never done anything like that before.”

“Had dinner with another person?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow.