That Night with You (38 page)

“
Uh huh,” the older man
said with a slight nod of his head. “So Hayden told me.”

“
I’ll get better, Mr.
Pellerin. I’m just…a little distracted these days.”

“
Seems to me you’ve been
distracted for quite a while now, Madison.” He examined her through
the lenses of his thick glasses. “You’re not the same young lady I
knew before you went to work for Parr and Associates. You’ve
changed.”

“
I grew up, Mr.
Pellerin.”

“
No, that’s not it.” He
stood back from her desk, shaking his head. “Since you’ve come back
to work for me, you’ve been withdrawn, sullen, and, I dare say,
almost teary-eyed.” He waited for her reaction, but she kept her
eyes glued to the linoleum floor. “Is there anything you would like
to talk about, Madison?”

Her gut twisted into a dozen small
knots at the idea of sharing her personal troubles with her boss.
It was bad enough she spent her days wandering around in a virtual
fog, and her nights longing for Hayden, but to disclose her
relationship with Hayden Parr to her current employer would have
surely been the death knell for her job.

“
I think I’m just adjusting
to living alone. I miss my roommate. It’s been kind of lonely
without her around,” she offered to the older gentleman, hoping it
sounded reassuring.

“
Perhaps a new assignment
might help snap you out of your doldrums.” He motioned to the
computer screen. “A different type of challenge might spark your
creative juices. What I have is out of the ordinary for my firm,
but I think right up your alley.” He paused and grinned at her. “I
was contacted by a client about building a home. He has recently
acquired a nice lot of land and wants to build something that will
blend in with the woods covering his lot.” Curtis Pellerin arched
an eyebrow at her. “Interested?”

A ripple of enthusiasm tempted her
belly. “Yes, absolutely, but I don’t have a lot of experience with
house construction, Mr. Pellerin. Even less than I have with strip
malls.”

He removed a slip of paper from his
brown suit jacket pocket. “Not to worry, the client understands and
is still willing to take you on.” After he handed her the paper, he
checked the stainless Rolex on his right wrist. “You have exactly
thirty minutes to meet him at this address.”

Madison’s jaw slackened. “What? You
want me to meet the client today? I haven’t seen the lot, let
alone—”

Mr. Pellerin waved a gnarled hand at
her. “Madison, just go. The rest will work itself out, trust
me.”

***

Exactly thirty minutes later, Madison
eased her blue Rogue in front of a spacious wooded lot with thick
oaks, a few crape myrtle trees, and trails that cut through the
high grass and light brush. While gazing at the familiar terrain,
she spied the black Land Rover on the opposite side of the street.
As she stared at the car, the driver’s side door opened and Hayden
stepped out.

It had been over a month since she had
seen him. He was wearing a form-fitting dark brown suit that
accentuated his toned body, and Madison felt that old flurry of
tingles she got whenever he was near come roaring back to
life.

“
What is this, Hayden?” she
demanded, climbing from her car. “Did you put Mr. Pellerin up to
this?”

He raised his hands, assuaging her
anger. “Before you fly off the handle, let me explain.” He motioned
to the property. “After the Martins refused to sell, I bought this
lot from them. I figured I could build my new place here, and I
need an architect to come up with a design that blends the house
with the property. Kind of like the design you came up, but with
some changes.”

“
What about your house? I
thought you didn’t—”

“
I’ve settled things with
Ellen. I decided I needed a fresh start. Some place new. Some place
special.”

Madison folded her arms, trying as
hard as hell not to grin. “So, it’s all over with your
ex?”

“
Yes, it is. After you
left, I realized that I needed to get on with my life.”

“
I’m glad for you,” she
gazed into the lot, “but why am I here?”

He moved closer to her. “Because you
drew a house once for this property; a house I fell in love with. I
would very much like to hire you as my architect to help me design
the home of my dreams. You’re the best I know at making dreams into
reality, Madison.”

“
The best at daydreaming,
you mean.” She waved off his attempt at flattery. “You don’t need
me. You have an office full of architects who can build your dream
home.”

“
But none of them are you,”
he purred in his deliciously deep voice.

Her resolve wavered, and she shifted
uncomfortably on her feet. “Nothing has changed, Hayden. You still
want to control me, but I can’t be that way with you
anymore.”

“
I know. I guess I never
acknowledged the confident woman you’ve become until you left me. I
realized then I’d been wrong to keep you hidden away from the
world. I still saw you as that innocent girl I’d met in the bar,
and I thought I was protecting you, but I was really protecting
me.” He diverted his attention to the property. “I told you once
that there was a woman who changed me, changed everything I wanted
in my life. The woman who made me want more than emotionless
arrangements.” He sighed, lowering his gaze to the street. “That
woman was you. You wanted to know why I picked you up in that bar,
and the real reason is from the moment I saw you sitting on that
bar stool, I was in awe of you. You were wearing a little blue
dress with white flowers and looking so terrified that I….” He
shook his head and returned his eyes to her. “I could never admit
that to anyone before because I thought there was something wrong
with me for feeling that way about a total stranger. The next
morning, when you were gone, I knew I had to find you; and when I
couldn’t, I married the next woman that came along. But when I did
find you again, I was desperate to make sure you never left me. So
desperate that I got scared.”

The shock of his confession caused the
walls around her heart to give way, and all the feelings she
thought she had successfully put behind her came crashing back.
“Why are you telling me this now?”

Hayden came right up to her, his eyes
pleading with her. “Because I want another chance with you,
Madison. A chance to make up for all of my shortcomings. If I
promise to change, can you promise to give me that
chance?”

“
You think hiring me as
your architect will fix everything? It’s not that simple,
Hayden.”

“
No, I’m hiring you because
you know what I want in a home. You know me better than anyone. You
know my tastes, preferences, and desires. There is no one else who
could design this house for me.” He shrugged his wide shoulders.
“As for the rest, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to prove to
you that I’m sincere.”

Her eyes darted about the property as
she tried to make up her mind.

“
Why don’t we discuss this
over dinner?” he softly suggested. “I know the best little pizza
place, not far from here. It’s cozy and quiet, and very good for
long talks.”

“
Are you asking me to
dinner?”

“
No, I’m asking you to
pizza.” He slowly grinned. “Tomorrow night we could go someplace
nice for dinner on an official date. What do you say?”

Her stomach trembled with excited
butterflies. “An official date? I’ll think about it, Mr.
Parr.”

He chuckled and ushered her toward his
car. “Perhaps you should start calling me Harry.”

“
I’ll think about that,
too.”

He opened the passenger side door of
his car. “Does this mean you’re warming up to the idea of being my
architect?”

Stopping at the car door, she sucked
in an apprehensive breath. “If I agree to be your architect, I
think we need to set some ground rules.”

“
Ground rules?” Hayden
knitted his brow. “You’re joking, right?”

“
No, I’m not.” After
Madison had climbed into his car, she gazed back at him. “I’m
looking at this as a new kind of arrangement for us, one that
starts out as friends. The rest…we’ll see.”

He smashed his lips together, looking
like the stubborn man she had come to know. “Not sure if I like the
sound of that.”

She grinned at his displeasure. “A
wise architect once told me that ‘the only part of a building that
matters is its foundation. The rest is just for fun.’ I think we
need to work on our foundation…for now.”

He nodded with understanding, giving
her a hint of a smile. “In that case, I guess it’s a
start.”

“
It’s a very good start,
Harry.” She admired his handsome face. “It’s our new
beginning.”

Epilogue

The long frame of a two-story house
with a stunning view of Turtle Creek sat embedded into the side of
a ridge at the rear of the wooded property. All around the
construction area men were scurrying about wearing hardhats, while
heavy moving equipment transported needed building supplies about
the site. In the air, the essence of freshly cut pine
trees—intermixed with the stench of diesel from the machinery—added
a surreal touch to the organized chaos. As Madison slogged through
the thick muddy ruts in the ground, she spied the jutting rear
porch of the expansive home that looked out toward the creek.
Taking a moment to survey her creation, she felt a surge of
satisfaction. For the first time in her career, she was watching
her design come to life, and in that instant she realized that it
didn’t matter if it was a thirty-story skyscraper or a single
family home, the effect would have been the same. Size didn’t
matter, the achievement did.

“
Madison,” a velvety voice
called from the rear of the home.

When she careened her head around, she
saw him. Standing by a work table set up near the rear porch, he
had removed his suit jacket and rolled up his white shirt sleeves.
Madison sighed, surprised that he still had the ability to take her
breath away. Trudging through the muddy terrain, she nodded at
Hayden.

“
Hey, baby.” Hayden wrapped
his arm about her waist and pulled her close. “We’ve got to go over
the interior color scheme sometime today. My decorator needs to
know what we want.”

Placing her leather purse on the
worktable, she coyly smiled. “It’s your house, Harry. You don’t
need me to help you decorate it.”

His eyes came together in a vain
attempt at a scowl. “I disagree. I already told you numerous times
that your opinion is invaluable to me.”

Madison felt that kick of reservation
floating around in her gut. “We talked about this. I know we’ve
been spending a lot of time together with dinners and meetings
about the house, but my feelings haven’t changed.”

“
I’ll wear you down yet. By
the time I move into this place, I expect you to feel quite
differently about us.”

“
I’m better as your
architect, rather than your girlfriend.”

“
My mother would disagree
with you. She keeps asking when I’m bringing my ‘girlfriend’ to
dinner again. She likes you.”

Madison smiled, tucking a strand of
brown hair behind her ear. “I don’t think you should be bringing me
to your parents’ house for dinner anymore. I only agreed to it that
one time last month because you practically forced me into it. If
we do it again, it will give them the wrong impression about
us.”

“
Wrong impression? You’re
killing me, Madison.” He tossed something on the table. “You’d
better take a look at that.”

Atop the copies of the house plans was
a small, square white box. There was no wrapping or bow, just the
plain box.

“
What’s this?”

“
My back-up plan, in case
you continue pushing me away. I have been apologizing profusely for
four months now, and decided this is what I needed to do to allay
your fears about me.”

“
What back-up
plan?”

He pointed to the box. “Open
it.”

Carefully removing the top of the box,
Madison noticed something gold shining back at her. On further
inspection, she discovered the gold object was a key chain with a
circular gold disc attached to it. Fingering the key chain, she
lifted it from the box.

“
It’s a key
chain.”

“
It’s an invitation,” he
told her, inching closer. “I figured I could get the electronic
lock combination carved into it once we move in.”

“
We?” She gripped the key
chain in her hand. “Hayden, I agreed to be your architect on the
condition that we would not—”

“
Turn it over,” he
interjected, pointing to the key chain. “I think you’ll find what
you’re looking for on the other side.”

Flipping over the round disc, she
spied an engraving.

I love you,
Madison.

Madison was at a loss for words. This
was not what she had expected.

He motioned to the key chain. “I
thought putting the words on something permanent would show you how
I really feel.”