Lucky Baby by Taryn Quinn

Seventeen

Ruby never tookthe easy route.

Formulating our game plan and starting to execute it was what we did for the next month. More than one delay hampered our progress, but she was determined to get things moving for Cohen and her family’s arrival. She was running me ragged, but I knew this was important to her.

By day, we were both working our asses off. She’d nixed the idea of a budget, and I realized just how freaking rich the love of my life was. I knew her reputation was impressive in the car business, but she was literally a genius.

The ideas she came up with for the space bent my brain. But they also excited me into changing things up. We’d nixed the idea of a bar around the post in the center of the room. Instead, we decided to use it as a table by the pool table for drinks.

But not only that, she’d designed a control center that would be built into that post. I could run electricity through there and wrap it with her fancy hub. In her business, there were a lot more modifications available than to the average homeowner. Her extra upgrades would take it all to the next level.

As eager as I was to make serious progress on the project, she wanted everything to go at the speed of light. And remodels just weren’t fast-paced in this era of lumber shortages and staffing issues, no matter how much money you tossed around.

Something she was going to learn the hard way.

I threw my phone onto the makeshift table I’d made out of leftover plywood. The blueprints and notebooks I used to keep notes and receipts together were scattered. I’d been on the phone all damn day, trying to find another crew to do the roof repairs.

“Everything okay, chief?”

I turned to Joe. He was one of the four guys Gideon had lended me for the job. He was in his late thirties, as lanky and strong as an ox. He’d become my right-hand man when it came to working long hours.

“Just got a call that the roof repair is being delayed again. Fucking weather.”

Joe pulled off his ball cap to bend the brim, his typical thinking pose. “Did you try Davey over in Syracuse?”

“Yep. I tried every contact Gideon had too. Oh, and the flooring has been backordered.”

Joe winced. “The cork floor you convinced her to get?”

I raked my fingers through my hair, dragging out my hair tie out in the process. “Yeah. One in the same.”

He whistled and settled the hat back on his head. “Not sure those kisses you distract her with are going to work this time.”

Butch trotted in with her battered avocado squeaker toy in her mouth. She wagged her tail and stared up at me until I picked her up. I set her on my shoulder where she happily curled up against my neck, her beloved toy tucked under her chest. I didn’t mind. Her warmth chilled me out a little.

“Don’t say that out loud, for fuck’s sake. She’s already going to skin me alive.”

We weren’t exactly secretive about the fact that our relationship was a bit more than foreman and client. But Ruby didn’t really like everyone knowing our business.

And I was okay with making sure I kept my hands to myself until after work hours. Most of the time. Now and then, I couldn’t help myself, especially when she got frustrated with timelines.

Ruby didn’t know the meaning of nine-to-five. We spent most evenings working on the barn after she’d already worked a full day.

Most nights, I spent in her bed. Sometimes after a tumble, sometimes we just passed the hell out. We were both pulling twelve-hour days. Butch and I had pretty much moved in, at least for the duration of the job.

I was tempted to buy a king-sized bed for her damn bedroom. My freaking feet hung over the edge. But in the end, it didn’t matter, since I woke with my Amazon curled around me most mornings.

She kept telling me she liked her space while sleeping, but she always found her way on top of me in the night. I hoped it was because she wanted to be close to me, not that her bed hadn’t been made for someone who was six-foot-four.

Oh, and a cat and a dog. Couldn’t forget them.

Joe let out a long exhale. “Well, we finished the reclaimed wood treatment on the feature wall. It’ll be ready for the shelving units, surround sound, and electronics by the end of the week.”

“How’s the upstairs looking?”

“We had to redo the second bedroom because it got wet.” Joe pointed at the ragged hole in the roof. “Want me to send Frankie up to tarp it?”

I sighed. “Yeah. Tell him to weatherproof it as much as possible.” I picked up my phone again. Now I had to find an alternative for the floor and hope it wouldn’t take more than two weeks to come in. This delay meant I couldn’t bring the furniture in either.

Fuck me.

“I’m going in the house to make some calls.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Text me if something else goes wrong.”

I lifted Butch off my shoulder and tucked her into the inside pocket of my jacket. Being this close to the water in November made for cold working conditions, even for me.

After gathering my stuff, I headed for her house. My phone buzzed with an incoming text from Ruby and one waiting from Dahlia, the decorator. I couldn’t take any more bad news today so I skipped the designer’s text in favor of my girl’s.

“Shit,” I muttered and quickened my step. She was already on her way home for the day. I’d wanted to have some answers before she showed up.

Quickly, I texted her back to bring food, hoping that would give me a bit of a buffer. I opened the front door then juggled Butch out of my pocket, and she scrambled into the living room with her toy in her mouth. Probably to terrorize Ruby’s cat.

They had a love-hate relationship. Kinda like her mama and I.

I had one ace up my sleeve, but I wasn’t sure it would be enough to combat all of the less than awesome news I had for Ruby.

I dumped my things in her brand new breakfast cove. The table was small enough for when it was just Ruby and—God willing—me in the future and could be modified with inserts for larger gatherings. The bench-style seating along the wall was where I’d hammered out the bulk of the details of this renovation. And it was where I sometimes had dinner with Ruby when I managed to get her to stop working.

At least the design improvements in her house were moving along with less drama. Dahlia McKenna was a wonder. She’d come in with her own crew to paint, decorate, and hash out furniture with Ruby. A full kitchen remodel was in the plans, but we had more important things to worry about first.

For now, Ruby was happy to fix up her space so they could eat dinner as a family, along with making sure her dad had a place to sleep when they arrived for Christmas.

Before I could even get another phone call in, Ruby sailed in with a bag of takeout from a nearby sub shop.

“Why is there still a hole in my barn roof?”

I flattened my palms on the table and took a breath. I was used to her sharp tone in the best of times, let alone now when our stress levels were rising.

Straightening, I turned to face her. “Sit down, Ruby. We need to talk.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned on the kitchen island. “I don’t need to sit. And I don’t need to hear excuses about this freaking remodel. It’s been one thing after another, Lucky.”

“I know it has.” I gritted my teeth together. “This timeline is tight, let alone doing this in late fall in Central New York. Weather is hit or miss.”

“It’s been clear for days.”

“Yeah, now it is.” I moved to the kitchen window and flipped open the curtain. “See that ice and leftover snow out there? It makes roofing a little more dangerous.”

Her face went impassive. “You said you could get it done.”

Frustration rippled across my shoulders. “I know what I said.”

“So, you aren’t a man of your word?”

I stalked over to her. “I’ve been busting my ass for weeks to get this done for you.”

“It’s your job.”

I reeled back and straightened my shoulders. “You’re damn right it’s my job. And as the foreman of this operation, I’m going to tell you that it’s going to take more time than you’d like to get it done right.”

“Then just hire more people.”

“You can’t just throw money at it, Ruby. That’s not how this works.” She opened her mouth and I cut her off. “I need a good roofer to make sure all of that is sound. What I don’t need is to go on fucking Craigslist and hope some crap operation can come and screw it up. We’re waiting the extra week to get it done right. You, of all people, should know how important that is.”

She drilled a finger into my chest. “I appreciate that you want it done right. And you’re correct—but we don’t have time for this. Half of the things in that barn remodel are more intricate than needed. And that’s on you.”

I caught her finger, then flattened her hand on my chest. “It is on me. I want that space to be perfect for your family. I know how important it is to you.”

“I don’t need magazine-ready work, Thor. I need it done.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not going to like my additional bad news.” I stepped back. “The flooring is backordered.”

Her brown eyes went shark flat. “The floor you wanted, when I said laminate would work just fine.”

“Yes. The sustainable cork floor I wanted is backordered. It wasn’t when I made the decision. The supplier is having unforeseen issues.” He’d clearly over-promised, but it was too late to deal with it. “I’m trying to find an alternative, but it’s going to take time.”

“I don’t have time.” She whirled on her heel and headed for the door.

“Goddammit.” If she thought she could run away from me every time we had a problem, she was mistaken.

I followed her out into the sunny day. She went right to the barn. My crew scattered like Malificent herself was coming through. Ruby on a rampage was a sight to behold.

Normally, I would’ve chased her down and cajoled her into accepting my shitty news, but I was out of placating platitudes. It was a setback neither of us could control.

She fisted her hands into her hair.

I came up behind her and set my hands on her shoulders. She shook me away and twirled around, looking at all the half done things. We were working around all the setbacks, trying to get everything done in between.

“I should have known better. This looks like your place. Everything half done like some ADHD child. Just like you.”

“That’s not fair.” I steered her over to the finished wall. “My crew worked on this wall for three straight days.”

“Wasted time. Could have just painted it.”

“Oh, right. Like you’d do that with one of your cars. It’s like painting it flat white. Don’t give me that, Ruby.”

“There’s pallets of furniture just sitting there.”

“Yeah, because it just came in this afternoon.” I urged her up the stairs to the second floor. “You helped me paint last night. This is almost done. The doors are going on tomorrow after we patch up the roof enough to finish up here.”

Three simple rooms were framed out, and the wet sheetrock was sticking out of the bin we used for trash. The new one was up and taped out, but it needed to be primed and painted.

“What happened? We had this done last night.”

I pointed up at the roof. “Leak got worse. Why we need the roofers.”

“I’m going to have to put my family up at a hotel. Maybe I can talk to Sage.”

I wasn’t touching that one with a ten-foot pole. Sage’s B&B had been full for weeks. Ruby’s family was coming in for Christmas. Not exactly ideal.

“At the very least, we’ll have the room ready for Cohen downstairs. It’s already framed out. We even used the leftover reclaimed wood to make a feature wall in there. Plumbing is finished, and the walk in shower is all tiled. We’re getting there. It’s all set to keep him comfortable.”

“Not fast enough.”

“I’m not a miracle worker, Tish. This kind of job would normally be two to three months minimum. I’m doing the best I can.”

“I’m not trying to be difficult.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Between this and Luna dragging me into the wedding…” She looked ready to scream. “I just can’t.”

“You love Luna.”

“I didn’t have a choice.”

“Sure you did.” I moved to her and took her hand. “You’re just a little overwhelmed.”

She twisted her fingers away and crossed to the pile of furniture all perfectly labeled. “I don’t get overwhelmed.”

“Hate to break it to you, but you’re human. And this has been a lot of changes in a short amount of time. You’re overwhelmed.”

“No, I problem solve.”

I sighed and came up behind her. This time, she leaned back against me. I relaxed as I looped my arms around her middle and tucked my chin on her head. “I had a thought.”

“Oh, great.”

I laughed and turned her around to face me. “The floor is cement, so we can do a treatment on it. Probably better anyway considering foot traffic, sand, and weather. It’s not ideal, but it will cover us.”

She scratched her chin as she thought it over. “Why didn’t you say that before?”

“Before or after you ripped my head off?”

“Sorry. I had to take half a day for the dress fitting. I’ve been pricked a whole lot today.”

“Not the right prick.”

“Believe me, I’m not looking for that one either.” She tried to back out of my hold.

I pulled her in tighter and just wrapped my arms around her. She was stiff as a damn board, but finally, she melted into me.

She laid her cheek against my chest and sighed. “Okay, maybe this doesn’t suck.”

We swayed a bit in the cold barn before I let her go. “How about I show you something good?”

“I told you I wasn’t in the mood for another prick, Thor.”

“So says the woman reaching for me at four in the morning.” I slid my hand down to clasp hers. “C’mon, you’ll like this.”

She laced her fingers with mine. At least we were making a little progress when it came to her dealing with my need to touch her all the time. She only wiggled away when she was feeling extra thorny.

I drew her out of the barn and over to her detached garage. The matte black steel doors were down, but she also had a side door access.

Her usually long stride slowed until I had to practically drag her to the door.

“What’s wrong?”

“You didn’t do anything to my garage, did you?”

I braced my arm across the door. “Why?”

“My garage is exactly how I like it. Exactly.”

My stomach sank. Well, I was too far into it now. I opened the door and accepted my fate. Not much else I could do.

I turned on the light switch and she rushed in.

“What did you do?”

I leaned my shoulder against the doorjamb. Her garage had been cluttered, which was weird since she was so organized in the house. I waited for the creepy music from Sleeping With the Enemy every time I opened her cupboards. All the cans were face out and in alphabetical order.

But in here, she had tables lining every wall with tools. How the hell did she find anything?

“I kept it all in the same order from each table, just put them on a peg board so you could see everything. I replaced the rickety tables with tall, thin ones that you can use to organize all the parts you have everywhere.”

She did her usual twirl. I was convinced that was how she took things into her brain for processing. The problem was, it usually resulted in her blowing a head gasket.

“But that’s not how I like it. I won’t be able to find anything.” She stalked back to me. “Why would you do this?”

“I did it to make your life easier. Because I know you’re an organized freak who likes order. Except here for some reason.”

“I didn’t ask you to touch in here.”

“No. I did it because I care about you. But you wouldn’t know how to say thank you even if someone yanked it out of your tonsils.” My chest heaved and hurt hit lower than the anger. Which pissed me off even more. “You know what? Me and Butch are staying at my place tonight.”

“What?” The squeak in her voice mollified me a little, but I was too mad to shake it off.

I left her in the garage. Butch was running around Joe’s feet as they played keep-away with her beloved avocado.

I gave a sharp whistle and her fluffy white ears perked. She immediately zipped my way with her toy in her mouth, her tail wagging like a feather duster. I scooped her up and set her in the truck. “Looks like it’s just us tonight.”

As the tightness in my chest eased a fraction, I shot a look over my shoulder. Tish was waiting in the doorway of the garage, her arms tightly folded over her breasts.

Stubborn pain in my ass.

When I got into my truck, Butch gazed up at me with adoring eyes. At least one female in my life looked at me as if I was her favorite.

As if I had a purpose besides dispensing orgasms and doing favors for people who didn’t even appreciate them.

And this time, I was the one who took off.