Teasing You, page 7
He was fairly certain his jaw was on the floor and his eyes were bugging out. “Excuse me?”
Ashlynn crossed her arms and nodded. “Yeah, I think you should go. Thanks for the pizza and…” She walked over to the door and opened it. “I guess I’ll see you around.”
It wasn’t like he wanted to argue with her, but he wasn’t going to be dismissed either. “Talk to me, Ashlynn. What did I do wrong, huh? We were having a really nice time and…”
“And I think one of us misread the situation and I would really be more comfortable if you left. Please.”
It was the slight tremble in her voice that told him not to push. He had a feeling that whatever was going on in her head didn’t fully have to do with him, and really, he had a feeling he was wasting his time with her. He had apologized for his past behavior and he could have some peace now with that, but if every interaction was going to turn into some sort of awkward battle of wills that left him feeling thoroughly confused, then he knew when to throw in the towel.
With a soft sigh, he said, “Okay. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. For…” At this point, he had no idea what specifically, but figured he needed to say it. “For everything. Thanks for having dinner with me and I guess I’ll see you around.”
She was staring at her feet, but he saw a slight nod and when he walked past her to go out the door, he had to fight the urge to do or say something—anything. But she lifted her head and her expression was the saddest thing he’d ever seen and for some reason, he’d put that look there.
“Good night, Ash.”
“Night.”
As much as it pained him, he left. If she wanted to pursue anything with him moving forward, the ball was in her court.
Right now, he had far too many things on his plate to try to figure out what was going on in her head.
Chapter Five
She was going to strangle him.
It was one thing to be noisy when you were moving furniture. But that was four days ago, and the noise coming from Reid’s apartment was borderline ridiculous!
“What the hell is he doing up there?” she hissed at the sound of another loud thump. She’d lived in this apartment for three years and never heard so much noise from her upstairs neighbor.
Never!
She’d gone up there twice already this week to let him know just how noisy he was being, and both times he apologized and promised to keep it down. He’d been polite and completely respectful and considering the way she essentially threw him out of her apartment on Sunday night, she almost felt guilty about how nice he was being.
Until he would start banging around again.
Like he was right now.
“Ugh…why?” she shouted, and was fairly positive he could hear her, but it didn’t change anything. Glaring at her door, she considered going up there again, but that literally opened another can of worms for her.
She wanted to kiss him again.
Like…rake her hands into his hair and drag him down to the floor and kiss him until they were both breathless and sweaty and tearing at each other’s clothes.
Another groan. “What is wrong with me?”
Lately, the list had been endless. Everything in her world was upside down and it was making her crazy.
They still hadn’t heard back on the business loan, working at the coffee shop was almost mind-numbing to her, and on top of that, her relationship with her mother was still on shaky ground thanks to the revelation that she had an affair while married to Ashlynn’s father and was the reason he took off on his family. All these years she’d been angry at her father for leaving when it was really her mother’s fault.
“I should really be in therapy right now…”
And if she had insurance, she would be. But for now, her siblings were all trying to work things out together, and while it helped, there were aspects of it she knew she had to work out on her own.
Namely, that she felt that no one genuinely wanted her enough to stay with her. For most of her life, she pushed people away so that she could control when they left and she’d never be blindsided again. So far it had worked for her, but lately she was starting to see that it was a destructive pattern.
Plus, it was getting old.
She was lonely and really wished someone would prove her wrong and want to stay no matter how bratty she was or how badly she behaved.
Which brought her back to Reid and their dinner on Sunday night. She’d pushed and he left, no questions asked.
Well…almost no questions.
Still, she’d seen him a few times and he didn’t seem the least bit bothered by the fact that she had pushed him away after one of the greatest kisses of her life.
He was hot, a great kisser, and a fireman. For crying out loud, he was everything most women wanted—herself included—and she ruined it.
Again.
“I’m getting tired of my own company,” she mumbled right before the sound of some kind of power tool started up. “Oh, come on! Really?”
That was it. She was tired of not having any peace in her own damn home. The last time she went up to his apartment, everything was unpacked. There was no reason for all this noise! If it didn’t end soon, she was going to report him to the landlord and ask that they throw him out because she couldn’t live like this. Ashlynn knew she was always respectful of her neighbors, and she hated it when it wasn’t reciprocated.
Storming out of her apartment, she stomped up the stairs. “Damn disrespectful, that’s what it is. How hard is it to just not make so much noise?” Stopping at his door, she pounded her fist against it to be heard over all the racket he was making.
Then she had to knock again.
And ring the bell.
By the time Reid opened the door, she was spitting nails. “You are a crappy reciprocator, you know that?” she yelled.
The look he gave her was full of confusion.
“What can you possibly be doing up here? Are you taking clogging lessons?”
“Clogging? What…?”
“Are you part of that Lord of the Dance thing?” she asked angrily.
“Lord of the…”
“I mean…the stomping, the thumping, the power tools…for the love of it, when are you going to be done and just start living here rather than rudely ruining everyone’s peace and quiet?”
Without a word, Reid took a step back and motioned for her to come in. It was on the tip of her tongue to refuse, but her curiosity got the better of her.
The floor plan was identical, but when she stepped into the living room, she froze. “What the…?”
“I started this project and really thought it would be done a lot faster, so I apologize. Unfortunately, I couldn’t only do half the wall in shiplap.” He stepped up beside her. “I’ve only got a few more rows to go and then I have to install the mount for the TV and the shelves that I bought, so…”
“So what you’re saying is this…this noise…is going to continue for…”
“I’d like to say it will be done tonight, but I’m guessing it will probably be tomorrow night.” He paused and studied the wall. “Definitely tomorrow night.”
Hanging her head, Ashlynn fought the urge to cry. The only way she was going to survive this was to go and stay at Chloe’s—which is what she resigned herself to.
“Okay, then,” she said tightly. “Thanks for the update.”
He hadn’t said anything to stop her or to try to drag out their interaction, he’d simply closed the door behind her.
Going down to her apartment, she told herself it wasn’t a big deal. Once inside, she packed an overnight bag and texted Chloe that she needed to crash there for a couple of nights.
Naturally it wasn’t an issue, but when she came home on that third night and was getting ready to make dinner, there it was.
The noise.
Thump, thump, thump…followed by the sound of another power tool.
“Son of a bitch!” she shouted, and this time, she was going to make sure that he understood that enough was enough. Hell, she’d call the landlord right in front of him if that’s what it took!
In what was becoming a very familiar pattern, she stomped up the stairs and banged on his door. Only this time, he opened it right away. “Hey, Ashlynn. Come on in.”
She wanted to be a little taken aback by how he knew it was going to be her, but she supposed considering how many times she’d done this, it wasn’t really a surprise.
“You said this was all going to be done,” she reminded him as she walked into his apartment. “I stayed with Chloe for two nights just to give you an extra night, and you’re still…” She paused when she noticed the table was set for two. There was soft music playing, candles lit all around the room, and something smelled delicious.
Oh, crap…
She’d interrupted a date.
“Okay, umm…it looks like you’re busy and clearly done with whatever it was you were doing, so…”
“Would you like a glass of wine?” he asked smoothly as he poured a glass and held it out to her.
She looked around as if waiting for someone to come out and tell her she needed to leave. “Um…I didn’t mean to interrupt…you’re obviously expecting someone.”
He nodded, but still held out the glass to her. “I was, and you’re here.”
“Wait…” Ashlynn glanced around again. The shiplap wall was done. There were shelves installed along with a big screen TV. There were no tools out, so… “I don’t understand.”
“Take this,” he urged softly, placing the glass in her hand, and then pouring one for himself. “You know how you can hear everything I do up here?”
She nodded.
“Well, funny story, I can hear you cursing and yelling at me,” he explained with a grin. “I finished everything yesterday like I said I would. And I thought tonight I would make it up to you by making you dinner. I hope you like Italian.” Then he paused. “I already know you like pizza, but I made penne alla vodka.” Another pause. “Does that sound like something you’d eat?”
Another nod.
Gently, he led her over to the table and pulled out a chair for her. “Wait here while I go make up our plates. I’ll be right back.”
Watching him walk away, Ashlynn realized she couldn’t have uttered a word if she wanted to. She expected to come up here and argue with him, not sit down to a romantic dinner. And seriously, this all looked very romantic.
Reid was back two minutes later and put their plates down before taking a seat. “So? How do you think the wall turned out?”
Glancing over at it again before looking at him, she said, “It looks great—like it was professionally done.”
“I really am sorry it took so long, but home improvement shows lead you to believe that everything can be done quickly. And believe me, lesson learned. Maybe a professional carpenter can get it done, but the average guy isn’t nearly as capable.” He sprinkled some grated parmesan cheese on his pasta before passing the bowl to her. “You should taste it first, but I always seem to add cheese, no matter what.”
With a small laugh, she accepted the bowl. “Same.”
They ate their first few bites in companionable silence before Ashlynn had to say something.
“Why did you do this?”
“The wall? Because it was boring in here.”
Rolling her eyes, she huffed with annoyance. “Not the wall. This. The dinner. How did you know…?”
“Like I said, I felt bad about making so much noise and I knew if I called you or knocked on your door and invited you to dinner, you’d tell me no. I figured this way, I’d kind of lure you up here so you could yell at me, and then I’d woo you with my fantastic cooking skills.”
She laughed. “I’m sorry, did you just say woo me?”
He nodded. “I did. And admit it, you are thoroughly wooed.” He playfully nudged her with his elbow. “Go ahead. You can say it. You’re not only wooed, but you’re dazzled, right?”
“I’m something alright,” she murmured before taking another bite of her dinner. “But this is seriously good.”
“It’s my grandmother’s recipe and one of my personal favorites.” He picked up his wine. “And I’m glad you like it.”
“I do and…really, you didn’t have to do this. I know I was kind of pissy and…”
“Rightfully so,” he interrupted. “I was being a lousy neighbor and it’s only fair that I make it up to you.”
“So, you’re cooking for everyone in the building this week?” she teased.
That made him laugh. “Nah, none of them complained. A few questioned when I was going to be done, but you were the only one vocal enough to threaten me with bodily harm.”
“Oh.”
“And I picked up some tiramisu for dessert if that helps my cause,” he added. “And if you don’t like that, I also picked up some brownies. Billie mentioned they were your favorite.”
The fork was halfway to her mouth when she paused. “You talked to Billie about this?”
“Well, not about this specifically, just what could I possibly get for dessert that would be a hit. If you hadn’t come up here, I would have just knocked on your door and handed you the box of brownies with an apology.” He took a sip of his wine. “But I’m really glad you came up here.”
Her heart did a tiny little flutter. “Me too.”
The rest of the meal was relatively quiet because Ashlynn had no idea what to say. No one had ever done anything like this for her and she was afraid of doing or saying something to ruin it. Fortunately, Reid took the reins and had no trouble starting up a conversation once they were done eating.
“I got to tour the old ski resort today,” he told her. “The construction crew will be starting on Monday so we walked through the entire site with the general contractor, superintendent, and foremen and discussed everything they were going to need on site for safety purposes and to inspect what was left behind all these years. Most of it wasn’t working or had expired, so we had to come in and replace fire extinguishers and smoke detectors and all that.”
“They aren’t going to just knock it down and start over?”
“Nope. The investors apparently wanted to keep with the original architecture, so a lot of what’s going to happen is replacing what’s rotting or damaged and go from there. Plus, they’ll be adding to the original lodge to allow for more guest rooms and event space.”
“I remember going there as a kid before it closed. Then, in middle school, it became a big thing to sneak up there and see if we could get in.” She laughed at the memory.
He looked completely amused. “And did you?”
Shaking her head, she picked up her wine. “Not even once. I always thought it would be so cool to go into something abandoned like that and just look around. Sometimes I go on websites that are dedicated to that sort of thing and I’m always intrigued by how it sometimes looks like the staff and owners just locked up for the night and never went back. Things aren’t put away; supplies are left out like someone was supposed to come back.”
“One of the first stations I worked with was outside of Richmond and we used an old college for fire training,” he began. “And it was just like what you were saying—there were desks and office supplies and all kinds of things just left there.”
“What happened to the college? Why did it close?”
“The official story was that they lost their funding. It was a private college. But the rumor was that the president was basically embezzling money from student’s families to support his drug habit.” He shrugged. “Either way, we now use the buildings for fire training.”
“And what’s involved in that?”
“It’s not often that we get to train in a building that isn’t on fire. By utilizing abandoned buildings, we can learn and experiment with different techniques while working in a safer and more controlled environment.”
“Plus, there’s no danger because there’s no fire, right?”
He nodded. “Absolutely.”
“So, what kind of stuff do you do?”
“Well, one of the most important things is to master ways of getting into a building. Sometimes a fire is so intense that you can’t just walk in through the front door. So we practice entering the building from the back and the front, and by cutting holes through the roof…just really perfecting our entry techniques that can be implemented in an emergency situation.”
“Wow…so even when there’s not a fire, you’re still working as if there is. That’s impressive.”
“It’s not like we do it all the time, but probably once a month we used to do it. I have no idea if this squad does anything like that, but I’m guessing with all the new businesses coming in that we’ll be doing other kinds of training.”
“You think?” she asked. “Like what?”
“Sort of like what we were doing the day we saw you and Billie over on Ridge. We’ll go in and inspect the buildings and learn from what’s there. Since most of the buildings here in Sweetbriar are older, we’re going to have our hands full with updating everything.”
“Sounds like a challenge to me,” she said before finishing her wine. Glancing at the table, she said, “Let me help you get this cleaned up so we can have dessert.”
They both stood and were standing close.
Very close.
Ashlynn looked up at him and knew what she wanted to do, but thought Reid probably wouldn’t appreciate her taking the initiative again. No doubt he’d think she was going to kiss him and walk away again.
And she silently promised herself to curb her impulsiveness, and if they happened to kiss, to not freak out or do something stupid.
Don’t you dare walk away this time…
Neither of them moved, and finally Reid made the first move, leaning in slightly. “It’s okay, you know,” he whispered.
“What is?”
