Deconstructing Lila (Entangled Select) (12 page)

“Hello, Carrie, I’m Lila Gentry.” She extended her hand for the customary shake and was surprised at the woman’s firm grip.

“Lila, it’s so wonderful to meet you. I’m Carrie Goodwin. My father used to own this store.”

“Oh, my. We’ve probably met then. I can’t tell you how much time I used to spend in here as a kid.”

Carrie smiled and at last, Lila saw the family resemble to Mr. Goodwin.

“I remember you,” Carrie beamed. “You and Rose Garner used to come in together.”

Lila nodded and looked around the first floor. “What can you tell me about this place? Did your father make a lot of changes to the structure? Do you have any old photos, or any old documentation?”

Carrie’s hair swung back as she took in the damage to the tin ceiling. “Dad didn’t do a lot. He made some changes to the ground floor here, but kept the big fixtures as you can see.” She pointed to the original staircase and the bar. “The second floor is unchanged. He just used it for storage. From what he told me, the building sat empty for a number of years around the turn of the century. Dad bought it from the bank in the twenties and we’ve owned it ever since. Until now.”

Lila thought about the second floor. Miss Pru’s rooms. Unchanged. She couldn’t wait to get up there and have a look.

“Do you know anything about a woman named Prudence MacIntosh who once owned the building? It would have been before the turn of the century. Someone sent me her diary and I’m trying to find out more about her.”

Carrie’s light brown eyes narrowed in thought. “Nope. Don’t know anything about that. Dad did say, though, that the guys Howard hired to start salvaging the place found some stuff. Don’t know what it was. You might ask Howard. He would know.”

The mayor was the dead last person Lila wanted to question about Miss Pru.

“Now that I think about it, Dad said there was a photo album once of this place. Back when it was a boardinghouse. The album was part of the city’s museum collection, but nobody knows what happened to it. It disappeared some years back.”

Lila’s heart sank. There might have been pictures of Pru in the album. “What a disappointment. Who runs that museum?”

“It’s funded by the city, of course, but Janie Armstrong is the head of the board.”

J
ake stepped to the side, over a pile of rusty ceiling tins, making room for Lila next to him and Carrie. He watched her with what he prayed was a look of detachment and disinterest. But he boiled inside, full of base emotion.

How he made it here today, to stand next to her, smelling the clean fragrance of her shiny hair, was a testament to willpower. After the disaster of the other afternoon, he hoped she might decide to give up her ideas of restoring the building and return to Dallas.

But no, here she was. Standing strong and smiling, like the other day never happened. Her courage and spunk warmed his insides.

He could not, under any circumstances, fall in love with his wife. Again.

“Jake, Carrie says there is wonderful old plaster behind the paneling. Can we remove it and see?”

Lila was talking to him. He knew because he watched her cherry-red lips move and all he could think about were those same lips parted in passion and screaming his name in climax.

Like she did when they were first wed. Like she did two days ago.

Jesus.

Clearing his throat, he met her eyes. They were heartbreakingly beautiful, wide and innocent. He could lose himself easily in those ocean-blue depths and sail forever, ignoring reality. Living through the fantasy.

She smiled at him, waiting.

Waiting for what?

“Jake, are you okay?”

A question. Lila asked him something about the paneling.

“You want to take the paneling down?”

Both women looked at him cautiously as he repeated the question, like they were dealing with a mental patient.

Get with the here and now, Jake. The here and now.

He crossed to the north-facing wall, letting them follow behind so he could get himself together. Lila had him turned upside down and it damn near felt like she’d banged his head on the concrete.

He had to maintain focus.

Knocking on the wall with a curled index finger, he listened. “We can peel the paneling off, but you never know what you’ll find underneath. The brick could be crumbling and in bad shape, opening a new set of problems. There could be water damage, structural settlements, and other nightmares waiting behind here.”

Lila’s smile faded with each word.

The more he talked about the walls, the more he felt he talked about their relationship. “Sometimes, it’s better to leave what’s underneath, buried. You never know what problems you’ll find. It might not be worth the hassle.”

“Is that your professional opinion?”

She had heard the meaning behind his words, all right. And she was mad. Her hands came up to rest on her hips and she stood with her legs spread, her tiny white sneakers planted firmly on the dirty hardwood floor.

Carrie made some well-timed excuse about checking her mailbox at the post office and hightailed it out of their path.

“Lila, in this business, if the risk is bigger than the payoff, you’ve got to reconsider. You’ve got to be careful—”

She waved a hand, cutting him off. “I hear you. But I don’t care how much it costs. I want to see what’s under there. If it’s in bad shape, we’ll fix it. If it needs to be rebuilt, we’ll do that, too.”

She fought like a pit bull. When she got something in her head, she wouldn’t let it go.

When it came to them, how could he keep telling her no?

Lesson Number Twelve —

Silent words conveyed with the eyes are as powerful as those spoken.

Chapter Fourteen

L
ila examined the staircase, wondering if it would hold their weight. “I want to see the upstairs,” she told Jake, who stood on the other side of the ground floor, feigning interest in some old wiring.

She wanted to go up there and find Miss Pru’s room. Maybe simply standing in the same place Pru had lived would enable her to soak up some of Pru’s grit and gumption. Some of her wisdom when it came to men.

Because Lila needed help.

Although she had no idea which, if any, had been her great-great-grandmother’s room. She imagined if she walked around, measured the vibe of the place, she might intuitively make a guess. Get a sense of the history that had occurred in the building.

She hoped she might get a sense of the love once residing in the place. Love between Pru and Luke Pierce.

She’d found a long entry in Pru’s journal about the two lovers that brought tears to her eyes.

Luke Pierce has invited me to work for him out on his ranch. Permanently. As in, move in and be his live-in girl.

I do not understand it. He is rich. Lordy, the man has money. His house is a palace, at least what I would imagine as a palace. And he has servants and hired hands running all over the place doing whatever he asks.

Everyone smiles and seems happy there. No starving serving girls or cowed washwomen. People come and go freely, speaking to Luke as though he is a friend.

He seems to care for his employees, too. But he lives in that house all by himself. No wife, no children.

I am not sure what to make of it, but the look in his eyes when I woke up beside him this morning sent me scrambling for my clothes.

“What are you doing?” he asked from the bed. He was naked and rumpled in the sheets. The picture squeezed my heart. But I am easy. A pushover. A prostitute with a tender heart. Hard to believe there is even such a thing. I do not recommend it in my girls. They will not last long in this line of work with fragile emotions.

The right people know how to work me over, and Luke was no exception this morning.

I did not stop to answer his question as I thought it was rather obvious.

The giant brass bed groaned under his weight as he shifted into a sitting position, the sheets falling down around his barrel waist. “Didn’t we have a good time last night, Prudence? Why are you in such a hurry to leave?”

If I listened closely, I could hear the hurt in his voice. But I was not falling for it. I could not afford to get attached to this man. “Sure, we had a good time. And we can again whenever you want to visit me in town.”

I had to keep the situation firmly in my control.

I managed to dress quickly, forgoing the stockings as I stuffed them into my purse. I wanted, needed, to get out of there before I committed to something the man would only later regret. And when he regretted it, I would then, too.

He came up behind me as I bent to slide closed the hooks on my boots. “Prudence. Stay. I’m asking—”

“No, Luke. You do not know what you are asking.” Standing straight, I faced him. That was my first mistake.

Sweet Mary, the man was beautiful in the morning sunshine. Naked as the day he burst through his mother’s womb, with all that wonderful hair framing his handsome face. I was lost.

I could read everything he was feeling in his eyes He was like a child in that respect, emotions exposed for those willing to look.

Drowning in his mesmerizing whiskey eyes, I felt drunk, off-balance, and I would have fallen back if Luke had not reached out and grabbed my shoulder.

I knew from the moment he walked into the Two Nellies that I was in trouble. And last night had confirmed it.

I could not look away from his gaze.

“Didn’t you like what happened between us in my bed?”

I had to be strong and end this before I started believing it could work. He did not know what he was asking. For a prostitute, the madam of a whorehouse, to be his live-in lover?

No. I could not bear it. Not for the both of us.

“Luke, honey.” I cupped his cheek in my hand, relishing the tickle of his mustache along my palm. “You do not need me living here. You need a companion. A wife.”

“I’ve had that already.”

His statement caught me off guard. He must have read the surprise in my eyes.

“She died five years ago.”

I knew he had made his money out West from the railroad, but I never knew until now he had been married.

Moisture built up behind my lids, but I refused to shed tears. My heart was already breaking with the knowledge that I could not fix things for this kind bear of a man. I could not make things right.

Not the way he wanted. There was no fairy-tale life for cattle barons and prostitutes.

“I am sorry for your loss. Truly I am. But what you are asking is not reasonable.”

He grabbed me by the shoulders, crushing me to his chest. For a moment I was frightened, but when I felt he meant no further harm, I relaxed.

Surely he saw the sense in my argument.

“Do you take rooms at the Nellies?”

“What?” I pulled back, looking into his eyes. They were determined and almost detached from the tension in the room. He was figuring, working out the problem.

He could not buy me on something this important.

“Where do you live? Take customers?”

Where do I take men when they want more than a drink? “I run the upstairs rooms at Nellies. I have the large room facing the street.”

He released me so quickly I had to catch myself on the bedside table.

“You can visit me there, Luke. Anytime.” I needed to ease the tension and make an exit before I fell apart.

Unfortunately, I did not realize it was already too late.

J
ake breathed deeply, inhaling the common smells of wood dust, plaster, and hot metal. Natural, relaxing odors. Normally. With Lila here, though, his muscles didn’t have an opportunity to unclench and relax.

No, she had invaded his sanctuary.
The job site.
The one place he experienced some degree of peace.

“What are you thinking? That journal came from here?” he said, following her gaze to the second floor.

“Carrie said salvagers found some stuff and turned it over to Howard. If the book was found in here, I doubt seriously he’s the one who sent it.” Lila chewed her bottom lip, puzzled over the mystery. “With all the business of actually buying the building and then getting you on board, I haven’t figured out who sent me the journal.”

“Well, you can bet it wasn’t Janie, either.” Jake chuckled. “Threasa’s the best of the bunch, but I don’t know if she could take time away from her ranch to get caught up in this drama.”

Lila’s eyes went wide. “Threasa Thompson? That guy at the IGA, Randy, suggested I talk to her. Said she owned Luke Pierce’s former ranch outside of town.”

“She does. But I honestly don’t think she’s your mystery person. What would she have to gain by sending you Miss Pru’s journal?”

“Luke and Prudence were lovers. I think they eventually married, although I don’t have any proof yet.”

He hated to burst her bubble. “I don’t know anything about a Pierce. The Thompsons have owned that place for a while, back before the stock market crash of twenty-nine. That’s how a lot of it got sold off. They needed the money to survive.”

She shook her head, not willing to concede. “I don’t know. But that’s the second time her name has come up in connection with Miss Pru. I think I should go pay her a visit.”

Jake grunted. She never did like being told what she could or could not do. The trait had served her well, judging by the accolades from the Dallas business community.

“You have to understand where Howard is coming from. As the county seat of a county that doesn’t have a whole lot of industry, he has to do what he can to boost the perceived character. Old whorehouses within throwing distance of the First Baptist Church don’t go a long way to that end.”

Her eyes narrowed at his weak defense of Armstrong. “Character? He’d be better off trying to encourage businesses to open and offer incentives for tourism. And an ‘old whorehouse,’ as you say, would intrigue a lot of history buffs.”

In the harsh glare of the portable lighting positioned around the ground floor, Jake noticed for the first time how tired Lila looked. It pissed him off that she’d endured nothing but obstacles since she came home. It pissed him off more that he’d helped to put those dark smudges under her eyes.

“You sure you want to do this?”

She threw him a look that sent her ponytail to bouncing. “What, go upstairs?”

She knew perfectly well what he meant.

This time though, it wasn’t personal. It wasn’t about him pushing her away. He truly worried if she was up for the challenge. More like beating her head against a limestone wall where Armstrong was concerned.

She pivoted to face him. The majority of the lights were behind her now, creating a halo around her head. “You don’t think I can do this?”

He started to protest, but she cut him off.

“You don’t think I know what I’m getting myself into?” Her cheeks went pink, a sure sign he was in for a dressing down. He deserved it.

“I’m getting tired of defending my decisions to you. Perhaps it
is
a mistake for us to work together.”

No lecture. Just resignation.

Had he pushed her too far? “Are you okay?” he asked, ready to backtrack if she needed him.

She met his gaze briefly and then looked away. “Not that you’ll believe me, but I’m fine.” The message couldn’t be clearer. She didn’t want to talk about the sex they’d had the other day, although, Christ, he deserved to be bullwhipped for that.

Was he so green he couldn’t keep it in his pants? Apparently around her, yes. And she didn’t complain. That’s how bad she wanted them to be together.

He felt sick.

Lila wanted to do this project, so he’d do it. Straight up. Time for him to get off her case and give her what she said she wanted. Professionalism and a good job.

“Here’s the way it lines up, although you probably don’t need me to tell you.” She knew the drill as well as he did. “We’ll get the safety issues on the ground floor addressed first: wiring, foundation, any asbestos remediation. Then get some men working on the exterior, examining the brick and mortar, see what needs to be repaired or replaced. Windows may be difficult, not much to salvage there. We can go with new or hire someone to craft replicas of the old weighted pulley ones.”

She nodded as he paused after each point, her normally expressive face closed and blank.

“What about the roof? I don’t want any more damage to the second story.”

“Casler’s crew will check it out. We need to determine how many layers of materials are up there, and how many need to come off.”

He glanced at his watch. “If we have time today, I’ll send him up there.”

“I’d like to know if the roofline of the building next door has encroached and altered my roof at all.”

The pharmacy immediately next door had built a crazy, heavily slanted A-frame roof swallowing two of the older structures below. It butted against Lila’s roof and looked not just stupid, but detrimental to the integrity of the older structures.

“We’ll take a look.”

With the agenda out of the way, he should check the stability of the stairs like she asked, but she had the strangest look on her face.

“What’s up?” he asked finally.

“I’m wondering if you’re worried about your screening.”

And just like that, the bottom fell out of his day. She turned the tables on him and he didn’t even see it coming.

“Nope.”

“I’m the one who’s had all the therapy, and believe me when I tell you I’m pretty good at detecting denial.”

“We are not having this discussion,” he ground out, trying like hell not to clench his teeth.

“Why? Because it makes you vulnerable? Well, guess what, Jake, everyone is vulnerable. You’re nothing special.”

“I’ll let you know what Casler finds out about the roof.”

And then he walked away. It was that, or grab her and shake some sense into her head. But that always ended with his head being the one rattled.