Plain Jayne (24 page)

His phone buzzed in his pocket, cutting off the rest of what Jayne was sure would be the same mini-lecture she’d heard a hundred times. Taking advantage of the pause, she lifted the box in a halfhearted salute and headed toward her car.

“See you later.”

“Thanks for the pizza.” He turned back but his voice carried back to Jayne as he answered his call. “Hey, sweetheart. How was your day?”

*  *  *

“Your lady friend seems nice.” Delmar waited until Nick had the board held tight in place against the studs, then drove in the first few screws.

“My
lady friend
?” Nick shifted his hold farther down the board to give Delmar room. “You mean Lisa?”

“I mean Jayne. Can’t very well call her your girlfriend, so what am I supposed to call
her? Your roommate?”

They finished hanging that board and carried over the bottom one. Nick slid it into place, then tucked the lifter underneath and pressed his foot down on the lever until the board was tight against the first one.

“She’s just a friend.”

“Mm-hmm.” Delmar fastened his end, then moved around Nick to get to the other side. “Never seen you kiss any other friends.”

“I didn’t k—” Nick stopped, sighed. “Her head, for God’s sake. It’s not like I stuck my tongue down her throat.”

“No, you didn’t.” Delmar never looked at him, just kept working. “But no guy goes from being a miserable son of a bitch all day to suddenly grinning like you did unless—”

“What?” Nick hoped he sounded more convincing than he thought. “I was hungry, she brought food. It made me happy. Seemed to perk you up a little, too, there buddy.”

Delmar set the screw gun down and poured some coffee into the lid of his thermos.

“Okay,” he said, clearly not believing a word Nick said. “But rumor has it you’re buying her flowers and—”

“One time!” Nick barked. “One time I gave her flowers. Is that a crime?”

“Nope, and you know I don’t go making your life any of my business. Just want you to be careful is all.”

Nick took a second to reign in his irritation. Why was he getting so pissed off, anyway?

“There’s nothing to be careful about,” he finally said. “We’re just friends.”

“Does she know that? Does Lisa?”

Nick froze, his coffee cup half way to his mouth, and stared back at Delmar. “Are you shittin’ me right now?”

“Hey, I’m just asking.” Delmar lifted his hands, palms out. “You are living together, after all.”

“We have separate rooms.”

“You’re having Todd and Kyle fix up her store.”

“She’s paying for it.” When Delmar cocked a brow at him, Nick sighed in resignation and set his coffee aside. “Okay, she’s paying for some of it.”

He measured the next wall, then marked the length on a piece of gypsum board. Delmar
held it up while he set his T square and ran his knife down the mark. He snapped the end piece off and set it aside so they could hang the cut piece.

“She’s a fine-lookin’ woman,” Delmar said, reaching for the screw gun. “And I’d bet there’s a whole bunch of fellas who’d give their right nut for a chance to get close to her.”

“Your point?”

“It’d be a hell of a lot easier if a guy didn’t have to trip over you to get to her.”

“Jeezus, Delmar—I’m the one who set her up on a date, remember?”

Delmar stared at him with such a look of disbelief, Nick stepped back. “You set her up with
Martin
.”

“I didn’t know he was gay!” Nick yelled. “What am I supposed to do—ask everyone I meet what side of the plate they swing from?”

Delmar’s look held. “Come on, man. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure this out.”

“Figure what out?” Whatever Delmar thought he knew, he was wrong. And the fact Nick couldn’t bring himself to look him in the eye anymore meant nothing.

“Really?” Delmar blew out an annoyed breath. “Okay, how about you set her up with Martin
because
he’s gay and you knew nothing would happen between them?”

“Jeezus.” Nick dropped his end of the board, where it crashed to the floor and bashed up the whole corner. He didn’t care. All he cared about was getting away from Delmar before he did something he’d regret. He slammed the toe of his boot into the tub of screws, sending them sailing across the room in a hundred different directions, then stomped down the stairs to the front door.

“Where’re you going?” Delmar called after him.

“Lunch,” he yelled back.

“It’s not even ten o’clock!”

Nick slammed his truck into gear and pealed down the road, going nowhere. His first impulse was to drive straight to Jayne’s store, but wouldn’t that prove everything Delmar had just said?

He scrubbed his hands over his face and growled. What the hell was wrong with him? He didn’t get pissed at Delmar, it just didn’t happen—until today. And why? Was it because Delmar was wrong, or was it because he came a little too close to the truth?

Nick pulled into his driveway and shut the truck off. He sat there for a long time, his
hands folded over the top of the steering wheel and his forehead resting on his hands. He and Jayne were friends, that was it.

Was he happy she was back in his life? Yes. Did he think she was smart? No question. Funny? Nick smiled at nothing. Definitely. Was she a good-lookin’ woman? No, she was freakin’ hot. And was there a guy out there who could make her happy? Sure.

But did he want that guy to be anyone besides himself?

“Shit!” He sat up straight and slammed his hands against the steering wheel. Why couldn’t he just say yes to that question, too? It didn’t mean anything; it was just having her back, having her in the house and spending so much time with her. Once things settled down he’d have a proper answer to that question.

After a long while, he cursed again, fired up the truck, and headed to see the one person who was always nice to him.

“Nick.” Lisa greeted him with a soft smile and a warm kiss. “Come on in. Can I get you something to drink?”

“Sure.” It wasn’t often he needed a drink, but now was definitely one of those times. It wasn’t until she set the glass of lemonade, complete with lemon wedge, on the counter in front of him that he remembered it wasn’t even noon.

“You don’t usually come by this time of day.” She wrapped one arm around his waist and pressed her free hand against his chest. “Is everything okay?”

“Just needed to see a friendly face.” Her place was so quiet; no TV blaring from another room, no music, no nothing.

“What happened?” Her eyes, the color of spring moss, stared up at him with genuine concern, sending a giant wave of guilt crashing through him.

They were good together, they didn’t fight, and God knows she couldn’t be sweeter if she tried. He might not be ass-over-earlobes in love with her, but they were happy, and everyone deserved to be happy.

Especially Jayne.

And if Nick was getting in the way of that, then something had to change.

“Nick?”

“It’s nothing.” He pressed a kiss against her forehead, and tried with all his might to keep her face at the front of his mind. “What are you up to?”

They moved into her office area where she showed him three corkboards and explained in detail what was going on with each. The first was covered in everything wedding: pictures of flowers, gowns, and cakes, pieces of different colored fabric (none of which Nick liked) and business cards for photographers and caterers. The Harvek-Robinson wedding this weekend would be simple, but tasteful.

The next board was similarly set out, but instead of wedding stuff, it laid out timetables for speakers, sponsor information, meal breaks, and hotel accommodations for a hundred pharmaceutical reps.

By the time she got to the third board, which laid out every hour of their trip to Montreal, Nick had forgotten what the first board was for.

“We’re all set.” Her smile, soft and slow, sent a whole new wave of guilt chasing after the first one. “It’s going to be amazing. Old Montreal, the Underground City, Notre-Dame Basilica.”

“Yeah,” he nodded absently. “Sounds great.”

Great?
It didn’t sound great. In fact, he’d give his left kidney to get out of it. He’d scraped by with a C– in French, had no interest in sightseeing, and as for the cathedral … Father O’Keefe would laugh his ass off if he knew Nick was voluntarily going inside a church.

But Nick owed Lisa this trip. She put up with a lot, especially with him spending so much time with Jayne the last few weeks, so if it meant he had to spend a week in Montreal nodding and saying
oui
over and over again, then that’s what he’d do. It might be just what he needed to appreciate what an amazing woman Lisa was.

“You’ve been working so hard,” she said quietly. “It’ll be good for you to get away.”

Nick had no idea what he mumbled in response to that; he barely recalled getting in his truck and leaving. He did, however, remember the state he left Delmar in when he stormed out like a spoiled six-year-old, so he couldn’t very well go back empty-handed.

Delmar looked up as Nick walked in and immediately reached inside the doughnut box for an apple fritter.

“Next time, how about
not
kicking over the only tub of screws we have?”

“Look, man.” Nick set the box on the sawhorse and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

But Delmar held up his hands. “Forget it. None of my business anyway. She seems like a nice girl, though. They both do.”

“Yeah.” Nick couldn’t stop the grin that muscled its way to his mouth. “It’s a little complicated.”

“Seems pretty simple to me.” Delmar swallowed the rest of his doughnut and reached for another before grinning back at Nick. “Can we get some work done now?”

“Hey, Boss.” Todd was coming out the door as Nick pulled it open to go in. “We were just on our way to meet you guys for a beer.”

It took a second for Nick to clue in that it was Friday afternoon. “Delmar already went home.”

“We could go to Chalker’s.”

“Sorry,” Nick said, but didn’t really mean it. “I’ve got work to do.”

“Come on. One beer.”

Nick shook his head. “Not tonight. Where’s Jayne?”

Todd stared back at him with blank eyes. “Upstairs.”

“You guys around this weekend if we need you?” He was already heading for the stairs, so he missed exactly what Todd said, but he heard enough to know it had something to do with the leash Jayne had Nick on.

The little shit.

Nick turned on the step to go back, but Jayne’s voice stopped him.

“Hey.” She stood at the top of stairs, smiling down at him. “How’d it go today?”

Screw Todd, Nick had better things to do. He grinned back and continued up, eyeballing the newly laid laminate.

“I haven’t killed anyone yet, so I guess it’s good. How about here? Floor looks good.”

“Isn’t it great?” Dressed in her old sweats, with her hair pulled back through her cap, she seemed to be having a hell of a lot more fun than most people who went through renovations. “Come on, come look.”

Jayne led him from room to room (all four of them) where he
ooh
ed and
aah
ed as expected. The laminate was a good color, not too light, not too dark, and he had to admit he didn’t mind the linoleum she’d picked out for the bathroom, even though he would have gone
with tile.

She pointed to the ceiling in the living room where the dangling light had been removed altogether. The fridge and stove had been pulled out and shoved into the middle of the living room, directly below where the light had been, along with the toilet, bathtub, and sink.

Nick pointed at what appeared to be rolls of duct tape wrapped around the old fridge and stove. “Why?”

“Because,” she frowned. “You hear all those horror stories of kids playing around them and getting trapped inside.”

“When?” he laughed. “When do you hear those stories?”

“I don’t know,” she blushed. “But it happens, so I thought a little duct tape would do the trick.”

“A
little
?” As he dodged her swat, he caught sight of his old Coleman cooler in the corner. “Please tell me there’s food in there.”

“Of course,” she laughed. “Can’t have my laborers fading from lack of carbs, can I?”

“That’s my—” He stopped short of calling her his girl. A couple of days ago, he wouldn’t have thought twice about saying it, but now, thanks to Delmar, he was second-guessing it.

The cooler was full of cold drinks, fruit, and buns stuffed with ham, Swiss cheese, and all kinds of rabbit food. He took a big bite out of one and cracked a beer, then he just sat himself down on the floor and watched Jayne putter around the tiny apartment.

“Did you see the baby today?” she called over her shoulder as she climbed onto the counter. With the cupboards hanging where they were, all he could see were her legs, from ankle to knee, as she walked along the counter top.

“Yeah,” he mumbled over his mouthful. “What are you doing?”

“Cleaning the window.”

He stuffed the garbage in his pocket, then grabbed a second bun. By the time he made it to the kitchen, she’d scooted back around and was straddling the sink, window cleaner in one hand, rag in the other, her toes tapping along to what sounded like an old Journey song.

Nick shook his head at her. “Can I get you a ladder?”

“No, this is better,” she said, stretching to reach the top of the window she’d just resprayed with cleaner. “I’m too far away when I use the ladder.”

Her T-shirt pulled up a little when she stretched, giving Nick a peek at her skin, from her
waist to halfway up her rib cage.

Crap.

“Right.” He turned on his heel and headed straight for the bathroom, even as Jayne continued to talk.

“So how’s the baby?”

“Gets cuter every day.”

“Not that you’re biased or anything. What did you buy her today?”

“Nothing much.” He flipped on the light in the bathroom and studied the bared framework. “Just a stuffed elephant.”