Working Man. Melanie Schuster

be me. Be right back,” he added as he got up and dusted his pants off before heading for the truck.

      Dakota looked at the flowers and despite her miserable day, she smiled. They were beautiful: black-eyed Susans, purple freesias and some other blooms that were shades of pink that looked lovely with the bright yellow and purple petals. She turned to the window and waved them at her naughty cat. “Ha! I got flowers and you got nothing. Serves you right, little wench.”

      She watched Nick retrieve something from his truck and was amazed that she hadn’t noticed how handsome he was. Tall, with creamy skin and a body she knew was hard and muscular from their brief encounter the day before, he was a real treat for the eye, especially now that he wasn’t wearing that cap and those sunglasses. All that curly hair and those green eyes, super bone structure and those perfect white teeth…if she were in the market for a man, she would have been knocked off her feet for sure. And the way he’d slipped in the information that the young beauty was his niece was real cute, but it wasn’t going to get him any points. The way she was feeling towards the male of the species right now just made him an interesting specimen, nothing more. She had no more interest in him than she would in a statue. Although, when he started walking towards her again she had to admit that he reminded her of a Thomas Blackshear statue come to life—perfect features, rich coloring, undeniable sex appeal and total masculinity. She had to suppress a trembling sensation as she watched him walk. He was just a little bit bowlegged and it was incredibly sexy. Damn him anyway, she thought. Damn all men. They’re all critters.

      Nick had returned with a tool belt and a smile. Dakota was trying to look evil, but she was too taken with the sight of his long legs in his neatly pressed jeans and his broad chest covered with a nicely fitting blue T-shirt. Besides, she was curious. “So what are the tools for?”

      “I’m going to get your door open and then we’re going to have a little talk with your cat. It’s not safe for her to be locking you out. Chicago is a big city and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you,” he said with a sexy twinkle in his eye.

      She could feel her eyes widen at his flirtatious words, but she disciplined her face to stay neutral. Ignoring his flirting, Dakota turned so she could watch him work, sniffing the fresh scent of her bouquet as he took a few small tools out of the belt and went to work. He fiddled around with a small pick, and, in minutes, the door popped open.

      “That lock is worthless,” he told her. “You’re going to want to replace it as soon as possible.” He opened the door and held his hand out to help her up. She took the hand he extended to her and tried to get up gracefully, but it wasn’t really possible. She suddenly remembered that she was not looking her best, in a pair of gray sweats that were so old they were legitimate antiques and a tattered sweatshirt that had once belonged to her father. Well, there was nothing she could do about it now. She gathered what was left of her dignity and invited him in.

      As they crossed the threshold, Cha-Cha leaped from her post in the window and made a dive at Nick’s feet. Dakota clicked her tongue in mock disgust. “See how you are? You lock me out looking like a bag lady and then you try to put the moves on the man who rescued me. You’re a real piece of work, aren’t you?”

      Cha-Cha ignored her and concentrated on Nick, wrapping herself around his ankles and purring loudly. “You’ll have to excuse her,” Dakota told him. “She loves men, especially good-looking ones. She likes the sound of their voices or their smell or the feel of their hands or something.” As the cat sniffed Nick’s feet, she began to purr loudly until Nick bent down and picked her up, something that surprised Dakota. She hadn’t pegged him as a cat lover. He let Cha-Cha twine around his upper arms and nestle in his neck while she emitted a low rumbling noise interspersed with little squeaks of joy. Dakota rolled her eyes at the spectacle and looked around for something to put her flowers in.

      She excused herself and went into the kitchen, only to have Nick follow her with his new girlfriend draped over his shoulder. “Thanks for the flowers,” she said as she looked around for a vase of some kind. There was nothing to be found but a bottle that had once contained mineral water. Nick surprised her again by taking the bottle from her hand and using his pocket knife to trim off the narrow top of the bottle, leaving an unorthodox but effective vase. She took it from him and looked at it. “Thanks again. That was a good idea,” she said with a smile. She turned the water on to fill the impromptu container and jumped when a loud rattling sound came out of the tap, followed by a bang and a gush of nasty-looking brown water. “Well, that’s just the cherry on the cake of my day. What else can go wrong with the Amityville horror?”

      “You need to have your pipes bled. Whoever put them in should have done that before you moved in,” Nick said.

      “If I ever meet him, I’ll be sure to mention that, right before I blow a hole in his butt,” she retorted. Cha-Cha appeared to have changed camps because she looked at Dakota with disinterest before giving Nick’s ear a contented little lick.

      “You never met your contractor? How did that happen?”

      “It’s a long, stupid and pathetic story and I’m sure you don’t have time to listen to it,” she muttered as she looked again at the drywall, the crummy workmanship on the counters and the cheap cabinet fronts. Something occurred to her and she turned her eyes to Nick’s. “By the way, what are you doing here anyway? You didn’t just run by to pick my lock, so I’m guessing you have another reason for being here.”

      “Yeah, I do. Or I did. Let me take a look around here for a minute and then we’ll talk.”

      Before Dakota could say another word, he left the kitchen with Cha-Cha clinging to his shoulder. In a few minutes he had toured the whole place, stopping in her bedroom and shaking his head. There was her unmade air mattress, a small lamp, a clock radio and her suitcase, opened to reveal some very pretty and colorful underwear. He stopped walking, causing Dakota, who was right on his heels, to bump into his back. “You spent the night here? You slept on the floor of this place all by yourself?”

      The incredulity in his voice grated on Dakota’s already frayed nerves. “Yes, I spent the night here. What was I supposed to do, sleep in the car? The movers are on their way here with all my worldly goods and the driver doesn’t seem to be answering his cell phone. I have to be here when they arrive,” she said, brushing her fantastic hair out of her eyes.

      “No, what you had to do is to find someplace to store your stuff until this place gets fixed,” Nick contradicted her. “It’ll be at least three weeks before this place is ready for you to move into, maybe a month. If your furniture is in here it’ll just make it that much harder to get the place done right,” he told her as he absentmindedly scratched Cha-Cha’s ears. She was practically singing with delight at his touch and it was really annoying Dakota for some reason. She abruptly plucked the cat off her perch and put her on the floor.

      “Look, Rick,” she began.

      “Nick,” he corrected her. “My full name is Nicholas DeVaughan Hunter, but everyone calls me Nick.”

      “Okay, Nick.” Normally she would have been embarrassed about forgetting someone’s name, but it didn’t bother her this time. She was too busy reacting to his take-charge tone of voice. The last thing she wanted or needed was to be bossed around by a stranger. “It’s obvious this dump needs something. I’m thinking about a gallon of kerosene and a few matches, but that’s not really the answer, tempting as it sounds. The point is, I start a new job on Monday, I don’t know a soul in Chicago except my new employer and I have no idea where I’m going to find a reliable contractor to fix this place. I have no idea where the crook who did this to me is and trust me, I’m not going to rest until I find him.”

      “So what’s your point? You need a place to put your stuff until this place is ready, you need a place to stay, and you need the best man in the business to get the job done,” Nick told her.

      “I think we’ve already established that,” Dakota said dryly. “You wouldn’t happen to know where I can get any of these things, would you?”

      “Of course, darlin’. There’s one man for the job