“Not time for that part yet.”
Shelby pressed her lips together and dabbed a little harder.
“Ow.”
She just kept working.
I sighed. “So, it all came down and he tackled me. So, I guess he saved me from further damage. Not that you can tell.” I hissed as Shelby spread a large gauze pad over the underside of my forearm.
“You’re lucky you weren’t more hurt.”
“I know. I just wasn’t expecting him to be there. And if you can believe it, the story gets even more crazy.”
“Oh, I can believe it.” TJ propped her chin on her hand. “Go on.”
“Don’t encourage her.” Shelby squirted triple antibacterial ointment on another square of gauze. “Turn.”
I sighed and turned in my seat. My upper arm was more of a scrape, but Shelby was in full on mom mode. She would not be deterred. “After I got six feet whatever of him flying at me, we...”
TJ smirked. “Did you have a moment?”
“No.” I cleared my throat. “Not exactly. He’s a freaking beast.”
“Beasts have their uses.” TJ winked.
I couldn’t remember what that was like. While my last boyfriend had managed to have a few interesting tricks under his belt, I wasn’t exactly shattering the sound barrier with my shouts of pleasure. Not that a girl had to be vocal to enjoy herself, but that kind of girl was not me.
“You try having two-hundred-and-something pounds of guy land on you.”
“Been there. Had a few enjoyable moments. Remember Ray?” TJ gave a gusty sigh. “He may have looked like Idris Elba, but he didn’t have his panache in the end.”
Shelby tossed a wrapper at her. “What did I say about encouraging her?”
“What?” TJ laughed. “Sorry, go on with your story.”
“I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting him to actually try to save me. We haven’t had the best track record so far.” And he’d certainly seemed worried about me for a moment.
At least before he’d gotten off me and left me in the dust. Jackass.
TJ snickered. “Starting off your romance with gouging Little Dick into his truck isn’t going to do it.”
“There’s no romance. I just want his house.”
This time, Shelby’s lips twitched with humor.
“After we screamed at each other for a few more minutes, I convinced him to give me a chance to work up a quote for him.”
“You what?” Shelby dropped the tube of antiseptic.
“I know, I know. But this man is loaded. At least he says he’s loaded. I have to look him up to be sure.”
“Wait—”
I rushed on. “He said money is no object. He just wants to rehab the house. And wants to keep the Gothic architecture.” And he wanted to be included in the remodel, but I didn’t need to lead with that part yet. “And it sounds like he wants to make it even more spectacular. I always pictured stained glass for some of those skinny windows. Imagine?”
“Dahlia…” Shelby sighed.
“Right. Anyway, this is my dream project and my dream house.”
“Okay, back up.” Shelby sat back in her chair. “That is not a house, it’s a mansion. We’d need to coordinate a huge crew to work on a job that big.”
“I know. But it would be a great addition to our portfolio. Especially with so many people buying up houses on the lake and in Crescent Cove. That’s some big money. Not just a little living room remodel. And besides we managed to do Dex’s house and that was a huge undertaking.”
“Yes, but Dex’s place took months to do. Lining up crews as well as ordering all the details for his place is one thing—this is a historical remodel, which will need some expertise we don’t have.”
“But we have the connections. We’ve been building them for years. And those we don’t know, we can research and find through our contacts.”
Shelby opened her mouth.
“One last thing.”
Shelby sighed. “What?”
“He’s Macy Devereaux’s brother.”
TJ gave a long whistle. “Girl. I didn’t even know she had a brother.”
“I know. I’ve known her for years and I didn’t either. But this isn’t some random dude. Between that and this house, this would be so good for our name. Dex started our level up, but this...”
