California is expensive. And a girlfriend? Sarah is going to be so disappointed.”
Vince wasn’t working on an oil rig, hadn’t been for over a year since it’d exploded.
He wasn’t retiring Dad’s truck. Other than the faulty headlight wiring, it ran like a champ.
He wasn’t dating Harley, not since she’d broken up with him.
And he had no idea if he was going to go to his brother’s wedding.
* * *
HARLEY O’HANNIGAN FINISHED wiping the grout from the shower tile in the master bathroom and sat back to admire her effort.
Carrera marble countertops. Chrome fixtures. White and black glass accents. It was luxury at its finest, not to mention it was bigger than the bedroom she’d had growing up and reminded her of the condo she used to rent in a high-rise downtown. That was six months and another lifetime ago.
“Harley!” The male voice, deep and angry, reverberated off the walls in the empty house and shook Harley’s stomach.
She moved into the master bedroom. Most of the construction crew had left for the day, except for Vince, who was sanding the deck outside the bedroom’s French doors. She wished he’d left, too.
There’s a mistake I won’t repeat.
“Harley!” Dan’s voice was as hard as his footsteps on the wood floor. “I know you’re here.”
“I’m in the back.”
And then so was her former boss, standing in the bedroom doorway.
On first glance, Dan looked like any other young, hipster architect, the kind of man her brother would roll his eyes at—close-cropped blond hair, neatly trimmed goatee, pink cotton, button-down and tight, white cigarette pants. He looked like the worst damage he could do was post a bad review online. But take a second look and you’d register cold gray eyes, an openmouthed sneer, and fingers flexing into fists. You’d recognize a desperate snake ready to strike.
Fear stuck in Harley’s throat. Why hadn’t she seen Dan’s reptilian side when he’d hired her, a fledgling architect, a year ago? Suddenly she was glad Vince was still around.
“Your design can’t be done,” Dan said in an ominous voice that conjured images of cop dramas and crimes about to be committed. “You knew this would happen.”
“Yes,” she choked out, hating that she sounded scared. “And so did you. I told you not to do it.” Not to steal her unfinished sketch. Not to present it to high-profile clients. Not to promise it could be built.
He’d stolen more than her architectural plans. He’d stolen her joy in the work and her confidence in her abilities.
Dan’s brows dropped to the locked-and-loaded position. “The structural engineers are demanding to see the plans from you. I put them off another two weeks, but that’s it.”
“Give the money back, Dan.” He’d won an international design award with her conceptual drawings of a playhouse with balconies that seemed to float in the sky. And then the city of Houston had agreed to pay Dan millions to build it.
“Give it back?” He choked on the words and then seemed angered to have done so. His face reddened. “I spent the advance on things like salaries and tuition reimbursement.” For her.
“And on cars and a new house.” An over-the-top place some other architect had designed. Dan had little talent of his own. He was drunk on new business and higher fees.
As usual, her arguments fell on deaf ears. Dan made a guttural hiss.
The fear in Harley’s throat plummeted to her legs, weakening them. He’d never confronted her alone in an isolated place before. Every instinct she had urged her to run, to get out of the house and away from Dan.
Before Harley had a chance to move, Dan did. He closed the distance between them and shoved her, hard.
As she fell, Harley’s vision tunneled until all she saw were angry eyes.
She couldn’t catch her breath. She was from a good home, a stable family. People in her world didn’t get in physical fights.
Her legs gave out and she felt cold from her head to her toes.
She became aware of a scuffling noise. Someone might have shouted. Someone who sounded vaguely like Dan.
“Harley?” Definitely not Dan’s voice.
She was incredibly thankful for whoever Not-Dan was.
Warm hands engulfed hers, not the slightest bit vengeful.
“Harley?” A gentle voice, one she should be able to identify if her head didn’t feel like someone had stuffed it with thick insulation. “You’re safe. He’s gone.”
She opened her eyes on a shuddering breath. A familiar face greeted her.
Vince. They both worked for Jerry, remodeling houses.
Vince. Friendly black eyes, a sturdy nose and black hair. That black hair. It had required a second glance when they’d first met. He had fantastic hair. The kind of hair Disney gave its princes.
Her heart was racing for the exit and her hands had started to tremble in his.
Vince’s hands, not Dan’s.
Vince. He drove an old truck, not a new Ferrari. He’d offered her carrots once when he’d heard she’d forgotten her lunch on a remote job site. He’d bought her a drink after work one day, which had led to him buying her dinner—more than once—and then the infamous weekend away where he’d learned she’d quit being an architect. Not that he’d understood Harley and her inability to pick herself up after one undisclosed setback. He may have been seven years older than her, but that didn’t mean he could be judgmental about her career choices.
Note to self... I’m not safe with Vince, either.
“Hey.” Vince gave her hands a gentle squeeze. “Are you with me?”
With him? She would’ve followed him anywhere a few weeks ago, before the let-me-tell-you-what-to-do-with-your-life debacle.
Something crashed outside.
Vince muttered what might have been an oath or a psalm. She couldn’t hear over the pounding of her heart.
He moved to sit next to Harley, tucking her beneath his arm, next to his bulky tool belt. “Breathe in. Breathe out.”
Sounded easy enough, but that heart of hers was hammering against her lungs, making her pant. Vince holding her wasn’t helping her recovery.
Not that she moved away from him. Not one inch.
“Like this.” Vince took Harley’s hand and placed her palm on his sturdy chest.
She could feel his heart beat nearly as fast as hers, but she could also feel him fill his lungs with air.
“Breathe in. Breathe out.” Vince was big and warm and calm, and completely different than Dan. He’d never be a slave to fashion. He’d never take credit for someone else’s work. He’d never put his hands on a woman with intent to do damage.
In a distant part of her brain, somewhere where things weren’t pounding, Harley’s mother recited one of her Southern lectures. Life is hard, baby girl. You need to find yourself a big, strong man to lean on when times get tough.
Finding big, strong men was something of a specialty of Harley’s. It was finding the ones she could lean on forever that eluded her.
“That’s it,” Vince reassured her.
Vince was strong, too. He looked like he could play tight end for the Houston Texans. He smelled of fresh-cut wood and hard work. And he sounded the way Disney princes should—reliable, honorable, understanding.
Two out of three...