Back to Luke (14 page)

“No, I can’t.” She slid her arm around his waist. “I’ll have to settle for you.”

He chuckled. “Well, hell, I don’t think I’ve ever been compared to a mutt before.”

“Yeah, but you’re such a cute one.”

They’d almost reached his car when Luke handed her the keys. “Go ahead and get in, turn on the air. I gotta hit the Porta Potti back there.”

“Hurry, though, we don’t want to lose too much of the day.”

“We won’t.”

He took longer than he’d planned, but they made it to the cove by six for their picnic, and it was fun. After the emotional connection they’d made Thursday night,
there was an ease, a comfort, between them that had deepened and become more significant.

“What are you thinking?” she asked, from across the bow.

“How great this weekend is going.”

“I know.” She sipped the wine he’d bought.

He checked his watch, then gave her a cocky grin and nodded to the cabin. “Wanna go down below with me, darlin’?”

“Why Mr. Corelli,” she said, batting her eyelashes, “are you suggesting something salacious out here on the water?”

He wiggled his eyebrows “Yep.”

She stood abruptly. “Fine by me.”

They had some damned hot sex before they headed back. He was at the wheel, whistling, when from behind him, Jayne asked, “Why do you keep doing that?”

“Doing what?”

“Checking the time.”

“Am I?”

“You have been for the last hour.”

“I, um, don’t want to get caught in the dark on the lake.”

They arrived at the shore before the sun went down. Luke docked the boat and, once they were inside the cottage, he said casually, “Why don’t you shower first?”

She slid her arms around his waist, smelling of fresh air and sunshine. “Why don’t we shower together?”

“Not tonight. I want to catch the news on TV.”

Again, she looked skeptical. “Are you sure nothing’s going on?”

“Not a thing,” he lied.

Luke heard the bathroom door close upstairs just as
there was a soft knock at the front of the cottage.
Perfect timing,
he thought as he headed to the foyer.

J
AYNE SLIPPED
into a white tank top and blue pajama bottoms and, towel drying her hair, wondered what had gotten into Luke tonight. He wasn’t in a bad mood, but he’d been acting strangely for the past hour. She’d forgotten there were so many facets to him and wondered happily how long it would take her to discover all of them.

Smiling at the thought, she descended the stairs into the living room. All the windows were open, letting in a warm breeze off the lake. Luke was in a far corner. He’d showered, too, probably in the tiny stall off the kitchen. His hair was still wet, he wore cargo shorts and a T-shirt, and he was slouched in a chair, grinning.

“All right,” she said. “What’s going on?”

He pointed to something. On a small table against one wall were a bottle of champagne and glasses. And from below came tiny yips. Dear Lord, there was a dog crate there.

“Oh, Luke, oh, dear, what did you do?”

“Go see.”

Rushing across the room, she dropped to the floor and unlatched the crate. Out hurtled the puppy in the straw hat from the market. “Hattie, hello, baby.” She cradled the tiny animal to her chest. The puppy had soft as velvet hair, fragile little bones and big somber eyes.

Hattie licked Jayne’s face, making her giggle. For a few precious seconds, Jayne took pleasure in the puppy’s antics then, still on her knees, looked up at Luke. “I can’t keep her, Luke, you know that. I couldn’t impose a dog on Eleanor, and even after I leave Riverdale, my life isn’t set up for a pet.”

He looked startled, then he frowned.

“What?”

“I hate to hear you say things about going back to your old life.” He scowled. “You said you wouldn’t run again.”

“I won’t, but neither of us knows how our relationship will turn out.”

“I don’t want you to even
consider
leaving Riverdale.”

“Luke, I—”

“Move in with me, Jayne.”

Jayne almost dropped the puppy.
“What?”

Rising, he came toward her and poured the champagne. He drew her up, took the dog, placed the puppy in the crate again, then handed Jayne a glass. “Live with me, sweetheart. Let’s give what we have together a real shot.”

It only took Jayne a moment to decide, “Yes!”

L
UKE WAS
on top of the world as he and Jayne drove up to the Harmony Housing Tuesday morning. They’d stayed at the lake last night, where they’d cemented what he’d hoped was an unbreakable bond, and slept together with the comfort of that knowledge wrapped around them like a blanket. She’d moved into his house this morning, which was why they were late getting to the site—it was already ten o’clock. And since Jayne was no longer determined to keep their relationship a secret, he kissed her soundly before she slid out of the car.

She said only, “Bad boy,” and took off toward the volunteers.

The site was unusually quiet, Luke noticed as he
fished his hard hat, work gloves and tool belt from the truck bed. When he circled to the front, a man approached him—Mark Johnson, the electrical inspector for the units.

“Hey, Mark,” Luke said cheerfully. “I forgot you were coming today.”

“Yeah, I was here at seven.” He held up a set of blueprints. “We got a problem, Luke.”

“With what?”

“The wiring in the house. Take a look.” Mark spread the plans on the truck’s hood. “See these sections I marked off?”

“Uh-huh.”

“The wiring’s the wrong gauge in them.”

“The wrong gauge?”

“Yeah. You used fourteen instead of twelve like in the rest of the house.” For some reason, in wiring designation, the higher the number, the lesser the quality of the gauge. “What’s more, there’s no ten gauge in the laundry room.”

“That’s impossible.” Wet spaces needed better grade wiring with thicker cables.

“I can see from the prints that these were the areas in the house where changes were made from the original blueprints.”

Luke thought a minute. “Yeah, we had another architect consult on this. She wanted layouts changed and found a way to put in a laundry room and do some other things at minimum cost.”

“Well, the changes were cheaper in part because of the thinner wiring.”

“Wiring doesn’t cost that much…” He trailed off when the facts gelled.

“I see you understand. Multiply the savings by the twenty-five houses you’re ordering for and better wiring adds up. Plus, the price of copper’s skyrocketed since Hurricane Katrina, so there’s added savings.”

“It’s still not a ton of money.”

“It would be thousands. Maybe she thought that was significant savings.”

“Jayne doesn’t have anything to do with costs for the project. Jess Harper takes care of all that.”

“Then maybe she just made a mistake.”

A mistake? Luke thought. Jayne made
another
mistake?

J
AYNE LOOKED UP
when Ed Ranaletti came into the house. Its frame was finished, the plumbing and electricity were in and they were planning to install the insulation today. Then the drywall would go up. But for some reason, the crews hadn’t started yet this morning. Instead, when she’d arrived, she’d found a group of them waiting inside the structure.

Ed stood in front of the assembled workers, paid as well as volunteer, and announced, “We aren’t gonna be doing the insulation today.”

“Why?” Jayne asked.

“Don’t know.” He tipped back his hard hat. “Luke called a halt just before he and Jess took off in Jess’s Jeep.”

“Luke left the site?” Jayne wondered where he and Jess would have gone so suddenly, and why Luke wouldn’t have spoken to her first. She was still feeling the warm, dreamy effects of this morning…

He’d carried her bags inside his house and set them down in the foyer, then turned her to face him. “I want you to consider this your home, now. Our home. We both feel the same about buildings, structures, and this one is yours, too.” He’d reached over to the table by the door. “Here’s a key.”

“Oh, Luke.” She’d thrown her arms around him, pushing aside those small, nagging concerns that this was all happening too fast.

A very male chuckle. “Happy?”

“Very much.” Then she’d kissed him. They’d barely made it to the bedroom.

As he made love to her—in
their
bed, he’d called it—he whispered, “I’m falling in love with you, Jayne.”

He hadn’t stopped touching her until they parted at the site.

Wondering where he was now, she hoped nothing was wrong.

“What are we going to do today?” one of the other volunteers asked.

Before Jayne heard the answer, her phone rang. Maybe it was Luke. She fished the thing out of her pocket and clicked on. “Jayne Logan.”

“Jayne, this is Carrie.” Her firm’s assistant.

For a moment Jayne’s whole other life came crashing back—Logan Architects in California, the mistake she’d made with the Coulter Gallery, her career possibly ruined. She was shocked to discover she’d been so caught up with Luke in the past few days that she’d nearly forgotten about her professional circumstances. Her staff had returned to work this week and she hadn’t even called the office.

Carrie said, “I have some bad news.”

Jayne began to shiver, despite the heat of the day. Telling Carrie to wait until she could speak privately, Jayne walked out of the house and around to the side. “What is it?”

“Two more of the 2011 projects have been canceled. I contacted the other clients we’ve got on board before
I called you, and they were evasive. They said they’d wait for the final decision by the architectural board, but they didn’t sound enthusiastic about using us.”

So, her career was over? Just like that? Jayne was stunned.

But again, she thought of Luke—his comforting words, his assurances that she’d get through whatever happened. And he’d be there with her every step of the way.

Okay, then, she could handle this.

“Jayne, what should we do here?” her assistant asked. “I’m not sure why you haven’t come back to L.A.”

The two other architects had a few loose ends to tie up, but they’d been waiting for the preliminary drawings she was supposed to have done and instructions from Jayne on the contracts Logan Architects still held.

She dropped down on a stack of plywood, and its familiar scent comforted her. She remembered how she’d always loved the smell of newly cut wood on one of her sites, and her throat clogged. Would she lose all that?

“Jayne, are you there?”

“Yes.” She had to take care of business. “Set up a conference call for later this afternoon with John, Marissa, Tom, you and me.” She glanced at her watch, then at the house. No work to do today, really. “Call me when you have a time everyone’s available, and we’ll discuss this.”

Forcing herself to stay calm, Jayne clicked off and stared at the trees at the back of the lot. If her career was over, what would happen to the people who depended on her? She needed to talk this through with Luke. He’d help her decide on immediate action. So she punched in his cell phone number. She’d feel better if she could even hear his voice.

When he didn’t answer, she was puzzled. That puzzlement became tinged with panic when she realized how much she was depending on him right now. How she’d promised herself she’d never depend on a man like she had relied on Ben.

But damn it, she was done thinking that way. Luke wasn’t Ben, and this wasn’t the time for second thoughts. She could trust Luke, she knew she could. And the rest of her life would work out.

J
ESS AND
L
UKE SAT
across from each other in the Family Diner with the Harmony Housing plans spread before them. The scent of strong coffee permeated the room. Luke usually liked the way it smelled, but the mug at his elbow turned his stomach.

“I can’t believe it,” Jess said. “How could she make this kind of mistake? It’s a no-brainer.”

“Which is why I’m not sure she did.”

Luke sounded more confident than he was.
Someone
had made the mistake, all right. But it didn’t have to be Jayne. Maybe it was Cal. When he found himself wishing his brother-in-law, a member of his own family, was the guilty one, Luke was ashamed of himself. But God, it couldn’t be Jayne. The consequences were untenable.

“What other explanation is there?”

“Maybe Cal knows something.”

Luke’s phone buzzed. He hoped it was his brother-in-law. Luke had called him earlier, but he hadn’t answered. Both Cal and Mick were missing from work this morning. Neither had phoned in.

He checked his caller ID. “It’s Jayne.”

“What are you going to say to her?”

“I don’t know. I’m not picking up right now.”

When the phone stopped buzzing, he looked up from it. He knew his own expression was grim. “She’ll be despondent if she’s made another mistake, Jess. I’m not sure either one of us can help her with that. Her professional confidence is already at an all-time low.”

Jess shook his head. “Maybe we could keep this from her.”

“How?”

“Make up a story. Don’t tell her about the problem and fix it when she’s not there.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Hell, I don’t know.”

Luke glanced away from Jess and scanned the diner. The lunch crowd hadn’t come in yet, so there were few people here. Thinking about Jess’s suggestion, Luke idly noted a man on the other side of the divider, and another one seat over. He stared blindly at the backs of their heads. “No. I’m not going to lie to her.”

“It was a bad idea anyway.”

“Damn it. Things were going so well between us.”

“That doesn’t have to change.”

“Our relationship is precarious, Jess. She’s still skittish about trusting me. Seeing Scarborough didn’t help.”

“I can’t believe he offered her a job.”

“He wants
her
back.”

“Yeah, that was pretty clear.”

Jess’s easy acknowledgment made Luke’s fist curl around his mug. “Over my dead body.”

“Easy, boy. We’ll figure this out.”

Just then, Luke’s phone buzzed again. He grabbed it, checked the caller and clicked on. “Hey, Cal, where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you.”

“I’m sick.” His voice was hoarse.

“Sorry to hear that. Why didn’t you phone in?”

“I overslept. I was just about to call when I got your message.”

Luke rolled his eyes at Jess and mouthed,
Sick.
Then into the phone, he said, “Cal, we’ve got a problem with the wiring. I need to talk to you about it.”

A very long pause.

“Cal?”

“I been throwing up. And got diarrhea. I can’t leave the house.”

“All right, then, listen carefully.” Luke had wanted to do this in person, but the phone conversation would have to suffice. “Do you remember when you met with Jayne on the wiring for the altered plans?”

“Just a minute…I gotta go.”

Luke waited. “Cal’s really sick,” he said to Jess. “And heading to the bathroom, as we speak.”

It was an interminable length of time before Cal came back to the phone. “Sorry. You wanna know about the house wiring?”

“Yes, on the altered plans for the changes Jayne suggested.”

“Ms. Hotshot Architect made the decisions on that. I just followed her instructions.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” Luke heard the sound of a cigarette being lit. Cal couldn’t be that sick. “Why?”

“The inspector came today and said the wiring’s the wrong gauge in the changes.”

“Hell. I told her she was going too high on the wiring. She wouldn’t listen. Got all offended that I’d question her expertise. She’s a bitch to work with, Luke. I don’t like her any more than you do.”

Cal hadn’t been at Sunday dinner with his wife when Luke brought Jayne to meet his family, but surely Corky would have told Cal that Jayne and Luke were together. Luke didn’t want to get into any of that now, though.

“Are you positive Jayne insisted on the higher gauge wiring for the changed parts?”

“Yeah. She said it would save thousands of dollars. I think she wanted credit for saving the team money.”

As Luke had told the inspector, that didn’t make sense. There weren’t any problems with their budget.

“Cal, why didn’t you come to me with this? Particularly about not using ten gauge in the laundry room.”

“The laundry room?”

“Yeah. We’ve got fourteen gauge in there, too.”

“I didn’t know about that.”

“The cables are all different colors. You’d have to know.”

“Oh, that’s right. Zeke Huff wired that area. He didn’t tell me anything was wrong, though.”

Something didn’t fit, but Luke couldn’t put his finger on it.

“What’s going on?” Cal asked hesitantly.

“I don’t know yet. I’ll be in touch.”

When Luke disconnected, Jess was shaking his head. By the time Luke finished telling him everything, his friend was scowling. For a moment, only the low murmur of the waitresses and the door opening and closing filled the space between them.

Then Luke said, “I can’t believe it.” He racked his brain for some plausible explanation, or even a clue. “Did we save thousands on the wiring?”

“No paperwork came through. It’s probably too soon to get the bill. I do think Johnson was right about that.
If these changes were made, we could save money, especially when the price of copper’s gone up.”

“Jayne wouldn’t concern herself with that. She must have been wrong, is all.” Luke swallowed hard. He kept coming back to the same thing. “Jess, why is she making all these mistakes suddenly in her career? Even with simple things like laundry room wiring.”

“You son of a bitch.”

Startled, Luke looked up into the enraged face of Mick O’Malley. “Mick? What are you doing here?”

“I was sitting over there.” A bit drunk from the look and smell of him, which was probably why he wasn’t avoiding his bosses. “I heard you blaming Jayne for some problem at the site. You’re a bastard, Corelli. You don’t have a loyal bone in your body.”

“Now wait just a second.”

Mick swore again and walked away.

Rattled, Luke sat back and closed his eyes. “Just what I need.”

“Forget about him. We have to come up with a plan for talking to Jayne.”

Luke drew in a heavy breath. “We’ll present the problem to her, give her Cal’s story, and let her tell us hers.”

“I don’t see what else we can do.”

“Just hope there’s a logical explanation for what she did.” Luke took out his phone. “Meanwhile, I have to make some calls to redo the wiring.”

“Ripping out the used cables and rewiring the areas will cost a bundle.”

“I’ll pay for it.”

“Luke…”

“No, Jess, I will, but that’s not important now. Taking care of Jayne is.”

It was a testament to Jess’s concern that he didn’t argue, as he always did, about Luke using his own money on the site.

J
AYNE WAS SITTING
behind the desk in the trailer, wondering why Luke hadn’t called her back, when the door opened. She smiled over at the entrance, but it wasn’t Luke who stood there. It was Mick O’Malley.

“Hi, Mick. I thought you were off today.”

“I am.” He looked terrible—unshaven, his clothes wrinkled enough to have slept in.

“I came over to talk to you. I heard something you need to know about.”

“Shoot. Things are pretty much suspended on the insulation. Nobody knows why.”

Crossing the room, Mick stood before the desk. He looked even worse up close. “I do.”

“Yeah?”

“The wiring in the new sections is the wrong gauge.”

“The wrong gauge?”

“Yep, higher than the original specs called for.”

She shook her head. “That’s impossible. Cal Sorvino and I worked on the rewiring together. Luke asked me to consult. I know everything was up to code.”

His face sad, Mick dropped down into a chair in front of her. “Jayne, Luke and Jess were meeting downtown at a diner just now to discuss the problem. They got Cal Sorvino on the phone and I overheard them. Cal says it’s your fault, that you recommended a higher gauge, and they believed him.”

“You must be mistaken. Luke wouldn’t believe something like that—at least, not without talking to me first.”

“I’m sorry. I swear to God I heard him ask Jess why you were making all these mistakes.”

All these mistakes?
Had she screwed up again?

Mick added, “Corelli can’t be trusted, Jayne.”

Jayne just stared at Mick, her mind blank, her body frozen. For a minute, she felt nothing. Then fear started to seep in.

Like a robot, she listened to Mick offer more details. She responded. He left. All the while, the ghost of inadequacy immobilized her.

But when he was gone, she came out of her daze and, in her mind, went over the meetings she’d had with Cal on the changes she’d recommended. Rising, she crossed to the file cabinets and withdrew the office set of plans and the new orders, sat back down at the desk and examined the revised sections of the blueprints. And there it was. Gauge fourteen for everything. Even the laundry room.