Worth The Effort (The Worth Series Book 4: A Copper Country Romance) (5 page)

He could see her shoulders tense.
Come on
.
Let us know you thought of it, too.

D
eni kept her mouth shut.

She wasn’t sure if the reason was her fog-like attitude of the last couple of months, or the large man standing directly behind her.

“So? What about methane?
Would
that be viable?” Sawyer Beck said from behind her.

Was he looking at her laptop or just coming up with the same thoughts she had? She didn’t dare turn around to see—he’d already caught her staring at him.

He was
definitely
not the small, bearded, Rumplestiltskin-like man she’d pictured as the hermit all these years.

Far from it. This guy had a total lumberjack vibe about him. Although he wasn’t wearing flannel and Sorel boots, it kind of looked like maybe he’d changed out of them just in time for the meeting.

He wore a blue chambray work shirt and khakis, and though they fit his long, lanky body well, Deni thought he’d look more at home in jeans and…well…flannel.

His hair was dark brown, and he wore it a little long, but not hermit long. Just a little long for office life.

But then, he didn’t do office life.

God, the idea of being a hermit appealed to her. To just lie in bed, warm covers wrapped around her—

Crap. She hadn’t been listening, and they were discussing whether methane turned into energy would work for this project.
 

It wouldn’t. Too costly for such a low-revenue-generating project, but she’d let them come to that conclusion.

It was an interesting venture, but it wasn’t her thing. She took on the restoration projects. There were usually plenty of them in the historic area, but not so much lately with the economy tanking.

“Well, yes, it wouldn’t be worth it for such a small-potatoes business,” Beck was saying now. “But I don’t think we should dismiss it out of hand. Something to think about, anyway.”
 

He was behind her, but his rugged face was still in her mind. She’d guess his eyes were brown. His cheekbones were male-model quality, but there was nothing pretty about him. He had more of a haunted look.

But then, why bother being a hermit if you’re not haunted?

“Okay. Good. That gives us a start. Sawyer is having dinner with Petey tonight, and he’ll get some of the specifics,” Andy said, pulling Deni back from her Sawyer Beck appreciation tour.

But, oh, there was much to appreciate.

He was older—probably forty. And he was technically her boss. And there was that hermit thing, which had to mean he had major issues.

Suddenly, the weight hit Deni. Sometimes it was constant, like a lead blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

Sometimes, like now, it snuck up on her. She’d be having a normal day, with normal, everyday thoughts—like how smoking hot the hermit was—when the weight of it all would just swarm around her, causing her brain to shift focus and shatter in a million directions at once.

“Mac and Charlie,” Andy continued as Deni tried to swim out of the fog and concentrate on what he was saying. “Clear your schedules for the next couple of days. Once Sawyer gets the actual property information from Petey tonight, we’ll want the two of you up on Quincy Hill surveying.”

“Wear your long johns,” someone said. There was some teasing and talk of how cold it would be on the hill. People were gathering their things, and Deni started to reach for her laptop.

“One last thing,” Beck said. He’d moved from behind her back to the opposite side of the table—next to Andy, who had returned from the board. “Andy’s right. This could be the start of other projects with these investors, so we’ll want to make sure we get this one. The only way we’ll do that is by working together.” He looked at Andy for a second, but Deni couldn’t make out the look Sawyer was giving him. Neither could Andy apparently, as he only gave back a questioning look and a shrug of his shoulders.

Sawyer looked down at the table, then kind of braced himself and looked up. Directly at her.

“You,” he said to her.

“Me?” she said, pointing to herself.

“Yes. I want you there tonight. Meet me at the Commodore at six.” He turned his back on her—on all of them—and left the room.

Everyone turned to stare at her, looks of confusion on their faces.

Which matched her own.

Chapter Four

Depression opens the door to beauty of some kind.

~ James Hillman

S
awyer took a swig from his beer bottle and looked at his watch. Five minutes to six. No sign of her yet, but it was still technically early. He’d gotten here a half-hour ago, wanting to make sure he got a table in the room that looked out onto the lake. The other room was fine, too, but it was mostly populated with large, circular booths. He wanted to be able to look across a table at Pete Ryan as they talked, and he didn’t want Deni sandwiched between them. Besides, he wasn’t even sure Ryan could fit behind one of those booths. Sawyer hadn’t seen him in years, but the kid had been big in high school, and when Sawyer watched Red Wings games, Petey was one of the biggest players on the ice.

Just as he was about to bring the beer bottle back to his mouth, Deni walked in the room, looking around. She spotted him just as he gave a half-wave, and she walked across the restaurant, weaving around the tables.

She was still wearing her outfit from earlier, had probably come straight from the office. Sawyer had left shortly after his decree. But not before Andy told him it wasn’t a good idea. That Deni Casparich was their restoration expert. That something like this would be better handled by Randy if Sawyer wanted back-up.

But Sawyer didn’t want back-up. He wanted to hear Deni Casparich speak. He wanted to confirm whether her eyes were brown with gold flecks. And he wanted—desperately—to know if her toenails were also painted bright pink.

“Petey Ryan loves women. It wouldn’t hurt to have her at the table,” he’d said to Andy. Then he’d gotten the hell out of the office.

He’d run some errands around town, stuff he put off until he came to Houghton. Then he brought Lucy to his brother’s house to stay while he was at dinner. He could have left the dog at the office, but he’d wanted to check up on his youngest brother.

He hadn’t been home, but Sawyer had let himself in with his key and settled Lucy, hoping his brother would be home when he picked his dog up later.

“Hey,” he said to Deni as she got to the table. He stood up and helped her with her coat, draping it on top of his own on one of the two empty chairs at the table.

“Hi,” she said as she sat down next to him. Smart girl, she knew he’d want to be across from Ryan.

“Um…I’m not really sure why you asked me to join you…but…” She didn’t finish her thought, just looked at him.

No, he wouldn’t let her off with just that. “But what?”

She blinked her eyes at him. Yep. Brown. And yep, a flash of something in them. Of course, that could just be the exasperation she was trying to hide.

“But…” She looked down at her hands, running her finger along the pink nails of her other hand, as if she was surprised they were there. Then she clasped her hands together and looked straight at him. “But I guess I’m glad you did. This is good for me. It’s not often I get to sit in with a client at this stage. I’m hoping I learn a lot.”

“Prospective client,” Sawyer clarified, and she nodded. “And if I remember Pete Ryan very well, you might learn a whole lot. Just exactly how many curse words do you currently have in your vocabulary?”

A tiny bark of laughter erupted out of her.

There were certain sounds Sawyer did not miss living the life he did. Crowds. Cars. Machines.

But the sound of her laughter—short, unexpected, and just a little husky—that was a sound Sawyer knew he’d miss if he were to hear it on a regular basis.

But he wouldn’t.

He’d nail this down with Ryan. Maybe have to come back for a meeting or two, but basically hand it over to Andy to handle and head back up to the Harbor.

“You know,” she said, “it was very disappointing to learn you weren’t really the Brockway Mountain Hermit.”

“Really? You’re familiar with that legend?”

“Oh, yes. It’s one of my favorites.”

“I guess I had it in my head you weren’t from around here. I vaguely remember seeing new-hire information from Andy, and I thought we hadn’t hired any locals since Mac.”

“I’m not. I’m from Farmington Hills.”

“And you know the hermit legend?”

“Yes, I—” She was about to say more, but was eclipsed by the shadow of Petey Ryan.

“Hey, Sawyer Beck! How the hell are ya?”

Sawyer rose and shook the large man’s hand. Sawyer was almost as tall as Ryan, but the NHL player was broader by about a foot.

“It’s been a while, Pete. I’ve been good, how about you?” He was about to sit when he realized the tiny woman standing next to Ryan was actually with him. And it was someone Sawyer knew.

“Alison? Hi. I…” Sawyer stumbled on his words, shocked to see Alison Jukuri standing with Ryan.

“I know. We’ve just gone public recently, and everyone’s shocked we’re together. They can’t believe she’d ever go out with me.”

“Petey,” said tiny Alison Jukuri, elbowing Petey in the gut. “Hi, Sawyer. Petey said we were meeting someone from your firm for dinner, I just didn’t realize it would be you. I wasn’t aware you—”

“I made it a point to come down for this,” Sawyer said. “Local hero and all that,” he said as he took his and Deni’s coats from the chair he thought would remain empty and put them on the wide window ledge behind him.

“Fuck off, Sawyer,” Petey said as he and Alison got settled. “Hi, Petey Ryan.”
 

“Denise Casparich,” Sawyer heard her say as he situated the two more coats Petey handed him. He turned around to see Petey shake her hand and then point to Alison. “Alison Jukuri.”

A moment passed, and Alison stuck out her hand toward Deni. He watched as Deni hesitated, then took Alison’s hand and shook it. As she leaned back in the chair she said, “Actually, Alison and I know each other. She’s my therapist.”

Sawyer sat back down, looking from Deni to Alison and back.

Well, shit.

Chapter Five

A scientist discovers that which exists. An engineer creates that which never was.

~ Theodore von Karman

W
ell, nuts.
 

She looked at Sawyer for his reaction. Would he be repelled? Laugh? Mentally check off her working on any large project due to emotional instability?

He looked back and forth between Alison and her and then quietly said, “I’m sorry if this puts either of you in an awkward position.”

“Well, I don’t feel awkward about that, but Petey didn’t fully explain that this was a business meeting, so I’m happy to excuse myself,” Alison said, starting to rise from her seat.

Petey clamped a huge hand around her tiny wrist and held her hand to the table. “It’s not a
strictly
business meeting. Sawyer and I were just going to chew the shit about this thing over some beers and pizza.” They shared a look that Deni couldn’t decipher, and then he let go of Alison’s hand. “But if you want to bail, I’ll have Sawyer drop me off at The Ridges when we’re done, and I’ll meet you at your folks’ place.”

Alison gave a short nod and Deni realized she was leaving to get Deni out of a possibly uncomfortable position.

“This isn’t strictly business, Alison,” Deni said. “It really is a meet-and-greet and broad discussion, so please stick around.”

Alison studied her for a moment, then nodded and sat back down. “Good, ’cause I’ve been thinking about Tostada pizza all day since Petey texted me.”

The waitress came, and they all ordered beers—except Deni, who stuck with water.

“Not a drinker?” Sawyer asked her.
 

“Not on a Wednesday, no,” she answered.

“Well, we’ll have to come back on a Friday,” Petey said as he studied the menu, oblivious to the other three looking at each other and knowing there was no way there would be a repeat of this dinner, on a Friday or any other day.

When Deni had started seeing Alison the previous October, Alison told her that she left it up to all her clients as to how they wanted to deal with the possibility of seeing each other in public.

“It’s a small town. Sooner or later, you see everyone somewhere. I’ll leave it up to you as to how you’d like that to play out. If you want to pretend you don’t know me, that’s fine. If you’d like to speak, but act like we know each other from something other than therapy, that’s okay, too. I don’t think there’s any reason to be ashamed that you’re in therapy, but I do realize it’s a private matter, and I’ll just follow your lead,” Alison had said at the time.

Funny that it took several months before they’d run into each other. Or maybe not so funny when you figured that Deni had started going home right after work at about that time.

She and Charlie had usually gone out for beers on Friday after work. And she’d been hiking on the weekends with her friend Claire that she’d met at the gym. But she’d started taking rain checks on those activities around October, and Claire had stopped calling. Even Charlie didn’t bug her anymore to go out for a cold one.