Dylan's Redemption (29 page)

“You’ll have to beat me on this roof. Then, maybe,
maybe
I’ll let you buy me dinner.”

“If I beat you, you’re going to dinner. Then, I might get my hands on that delectable body of yours.”

She lost a little of her smile. The thought of making love to him again held a lot of appeal. She’d thought about it and him night after night. Always at the back of her mind was the result of their last time together and how badly it turned out in the end. She wanted him, dreamed of him, and was afraid of him all at the same time.

“You’ll have to win first to get me to do anything.”

“I love a challenge.” He gave her a cocky grin and slid the gloves on his hands while she got things ready. To make the job go faster, she called down to one of her men to send up two pneumatic nail guns. Then, to his embarrassment, she insisted on tying a rope around him. He had to admit, it felt good to have her worry about his safety. On the other hand, his ego took a hit.

He stood and moved to his starting position, his boots sliding on the roofing paper, throwing him off balance before he caught himself. She had a point.

Word spread like wildfire through the construction site: Jessie had taken on the sheriff. She was leading him, but only because he was slowed by not having all the tools he needed to open the packaging for the roofing shingles. Nail guns went off like automatic weapons, and he kept his head down and his pace steady. He worked his ass off trying to get the job done. At one point, Brian joined him on the roof to help him get things set up. Dylan caught up to Jessie; only then did she pick up the pace. At some point, Greg arrived and helped him too. The guys down below started placing bets, and Dylan wanted to laugh. The odds were still against him, even though he had Brian and Greg helping.

Greg laughed, loud and robust, as Dylan busted his ass trying to keep up. “I never imagined you two would be competing against each other like this. You know you aren’t going to win this. She’s been doing this a long time and could probably build a house in her sleep.”

“Does she ever sleep?” Dylan asked, sweat trickling down his spine.

“I don’t think so,” Brian said. “Some mornings I show up here early and she’s already working and looks like she’s been here for hours. It’s scary and intimidating all at the same time. She’s some kind of witch when it comes to construction.”

“Are you ladies going to sit over there gabbing at each other, or are you going to get to work?” Jessie snapped at them and finished another row.

Dylan breathed heavily, sweat glistening on his forehead, running down his neck. Greg and Brian both looked disgruntled at Jessie’s jibe and called down for two more nail guns and started hauling ass on the roof. Even Jessie couldn’t keep up with all three of them working against her.

“That’s cheating!” she yelled from her side of the roof.

“You never said I had to do the job alone, only that you could finish before me.”

“Do you really think I’m going to go out to dinner with a man who cheats?”

“I think I’m going to finish this roof before you, and you’ll have no choice because I’ll have won.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Life’s not fair. I thought you’d learned that by now.”

“Don’t I know it. Even the sheriff can’t be trusted.”

“You can trust that I love you, honey, and one way or another I’ll make you believe in that and me. Even if it takes the three of us beating you at this stupid contest.”

“You’re the one who bet me you could do the job faster. The fact that I, a woman, can beat you must be a real ego buster.”

Dylan laughed. It
was
a real ego buster, but he’d get his date, and in the end that’s all that mattered. Greg and Brian busted their asses trying to get ahead of her, and after about half an hour they overtook her. After two hours, the roof finished, he turned to her side and smiled as she sat on the roof drinking a bottle of water one of the men had thrown up to her. She still had about four rows left to do on her side. The men below were exchanging cash between them and cussing about cheating and women who thought they could do everything themselves. Jessie hadn’t asked for anyone to help her. It wasn’t her style, and his accepting Brian and Greg’s help wasn’t Dylan’s, but he had fun watching her try to beat them.

He sat beside Jessie and smiled at her, bumping his shoulder against hers. She didn’t look happy. “Oh, come on. Admit it, we had fun.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded, the truth eating at her. “You had fun. Just like old times. You and Brian fooling around and working together again. It always made things easier when the two of you had each other to throw insults back and forth and mess around. The job always went faster for you two. You even managed to get Greg on your side this time.”

She stood and glared down at the men. Brian and Greg sat on the back of Brian’s truck drinking water and talking. They looked like the best of friends. It hurt her feelings to see he’d taken sides against her. Greg wanted her to be happy, and he thought that happiness would come from being with Dylan. Still, it would be nice to have someone on her side no matter what the circumstances.

“I’ll get cleaned up and we can go to dinner. I’ll drive my truck, so you won’t have to bring me back here to pick it up.”

She headed for the ladder before Dylan called her back. “It isn’t us against you.”

“Sure looks that way to me. The three of you on one side and me, alone, on the other. You won.”

“Did you really want to win, so you wouldn’t have to go out with me?”

“No. I wanted to show you, at this”—she spread her arms—“I kick ass.”

“I know you do. You don’t have to impress me.”

“No? I’m not exactly the woman of every man’s dreams. I work a dirty job that leaves me looking and smelling like dirt, wood, and sweat. You’re more likely to find me wearing dirty jeans and work boots than a dress and high heels. My hair is usually a mess, and I don’t wear makeup. I cuss like a sailor when I’m pissed, and I can do this job as well as or better than any man on my crew.”

“Where are you going with this?”

“I’m trying to tell you I’m not like the other women you’ve dated or had in your life. I don’t know how to play these games and make you see I’d like to find a way for us to be friends and maybe turn that into something more.”

She threw up her hands in frustration. “For the last two weeks you’ve been doing all these nice things for me, but you stay at arm’s length. Every time I think I can expect you to be there, you aren’t. Today, you show up here and want to take me to dinner, and then you challenge me to beat you, and you go out of your way to win by cheating because it seems really important we have dinner together. I can’t seem to figure out if you want me to be close to you or not. Maybe that’s what you want today, but tomorrow you won’t be there. I’m just not sure what you want or expect from me.”

Her frustration turned into anger at her ineptitude for a simple task like going out on a date and getting to know someone. Completely clueless, she didn’t know how to make him see she wanted them to be close like they were years ago. She just didn’t know how to go about getting back to that point.

“And why haven’t I seen Will? Do you not want him to be around me? Did I do or say something wrong?”

He couldn’t believe he’d finally gotten her to open up and talk about her feelings and they were up on a roof with about twenty guys standing below overhearing everything they said. One thing came through loud and clear: she was out of her element with him. He didn’t like that at all. Instead of making her feel more comfortable having him in her life, he’d done the opposite.

He hated when Claire and Rain were right.

“Jess, I want you to have dinner with me tonight and every night. That’s the truth. I’m not trying to confuse you, or make things difficult. What I thought you needed wasn’t what you wanted.” The blank look on her face prompted him to continue. “I made a mistake. Let me fix it.” He went to where she stood on the roof in front of the ladder and held her shoulders. Her brows were drawn in a deep line, her eyes confused and angry. “Will you please have dinner with me tonight? We need to talk.”

Her face didn’t show she’d changed her mind, but her words gave him hope. She cut him a break and said, “Well, all you had to do was ask.”

He busted up laughing. He took off his Stetson and wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. “Let me get cleaned up and meet you at your place. I’ll bring dinner, and we’ll have a quiet evening. We have a lot to talk about, and I have something I want to ask you.”

“What do you want to ask me?”

“We’ll talk about it over dinner.”

“Okay. Are you bringing Will?”

“Not tonight. We need some time alone.”

“He can come. I don’t mind.”

“I do.” He hurried to go on before she got the wrong idea. “I haven’t been keeping him from you, Jess. The last several times I’ve come to see you, I came straight from work. Will wants to see you again. He asks about you all the time. The other times, well, I was being selfish. I wanted you to myself. Like tonight.”

She grabbed the rope around his waist and untied it. He sucked in a breath when her fingers brushed against his stomach. She let the rope drop, hesitated, then ran her hands up his belly to his chest. She leaned up and kissed him quickly before she turned and fled down the ladder. Her determined stride took her past her crew, their jeers and taunts silenced with one glare before she got into her truck and left without saying anything to Brian or Greg.

Dylan stood rooted to his spot on the roof, staring after her, completely stunned by her show of affection. For the first time, he hadn’t been the one to kiss or touch her first. She’d come to him.

“You better get a move on, man. She’s got a head start. No telling how long it’ll take you to chase her down,” Greg called up to him.

“I know just where to find her.”

As Dylan’s feet hit the ground, Greg went on. “It looks like the two of you had some kind of breakthrough up there.”

“I made a mistake. She didn’t like having us on one side and her on the other. I forgot the one thing Jessie needs and has never had. Someone on her side.”

“She’s had me,” Greg pointed out.

“And today you were on my side.”

Greg swore as they stood watching Jessie’s truck stop off at the office trailer.

“She thinks I’m playing games with her. I tried to give her some space and still let her know I was here. She’s afraid to get close to me, and she’s more afraid I don’t want to be with her. It’s a complicated mess I’ll sort out tonight. I’m not leaving her alone again until she understands.”

“She’s never dated. She doesn’t understand all the intricacies of attracting a man. You two were friends as children and that grew into love. I can see why she might be confused. You two need to get back that closeness you had when you were friends. She understands that.”

“I’ll fix it tonight.”

Jessie came out of the office and jumped back into her truck.

“Go get her, tiger.” Greg’s encouragement made Dylan laugh.

He didn’t need to be told twice. He had a couple errands to run before he went to Jessie’s house and explained how things were going to be between them. Definitely. Absolutely. No more questions or confusion.

Telling her he loved her and wanted to be with her hadn’t been enough. Tonight, he’d show her how much he loved her. Even if it took all night.

Chapter Thirty-One

J
ESSIE OPENED THE
door and found herself staring at a huge bouquet of flowers with jean-clad legs. The scent of roses and Chinese food teased her sense of smell, and she took the bag of food from the hand she could see.

“I assume you’re behind there, Dylan.”

“It’s me. I brought you flowers.”

“It looks like you brought me the whole garden.” She set the food on the hall table and took the vase of flowers from him. She stuffed her face into the blooms and inhaled deeply. Sheer pleasure shot through her. No one had ever brought her flowers. Dylan did so often over the last weeks and she never grew tired of it. In fact, she appreciated it more and more.

“I’m happy I stopped to get them.”

While her hands were full, he cupped her face and kissed her over the bouquet. Electricity and fire shot through her as his lips touched hers. This kiss was different. Before, his kisses had been more like a “hello, I’m here.” This one said, “I promise there’s more to come.” She wasn’t sure how to respond, but she found herself leaning into him and his kiss and hoping there was more—a lot more.

“Hungry?” He pulled away just enough for her to see the humor in his eyes.

“Huh? What?” Off center, her mind felt drunk on roses and Dylan. He made her brain and body turn to mush.

“Chinese food, honey. Are you hungry?”

“Yeah. Um, yes. Let’s eat.” She stumbled over her words.

Happy to see her out of sorts, Dylan grinned and his eyes sparked with mischief.

She took a good look at him, noting he must have gone home to shower and change. His damp hair gleamed in the fading sunlight. His navy blue sweater molded to his wide shoulders and chest. Faded, well-worn blue jeans hugged his hips and stretched over his powerful thighs. He wore his favorite black cowboy boots.

“Like what you see?” He couldn’t help it. Her casual perusal made his blood run hot. He’d like nothing better than to take her in his arms and make love to her. She needed time to settle into their relationship again. By the end of the night, he intended to show her how much he missed and loved her.

“You changed.”

“I’m still the same Dylan you knew before, but yeah, I went home and got cleaned up.” He pulled a folded paper out of his back pocket. “Will sends his love.” He handed her the paper. Her eyes glassed over at the sight of the pictures Will colored for her. Horses. Lots and lots of horses. One of the pictures showed him, Will, and Jessie together holding hands.

“Thank you.”

He took the flowers from her and headed toward the kitchen. “Don’t thank me. He’s been going on and on about you. I think he’s in love.” He came back to the entryway and grabbed the food. He took it over to the coffee table in front of the fireplace and set it down. He lit the fire already built before going back to the kitchen to get plates and forks. He smiled when he found Jessie in the kitchen putting Will’s picture of them up on the refrigerator.