Her Dirty Builders (Men at Work #10) - Mika Lane Page 0,15

after the conversation we just had,” he said, pulling out a notebook.

Alden shrugged. “Great. All the more for me.”

Our gazes snapped in his direction.

“What?” he said, holding up his hands and shrugging. “She’s freaking gorgeous. And if she thinks Case is a dick, so much the better for me.”

“I thought you were off dating since Rosie’s mom took off,” Case said.

Alden shrugged playfully. “I might be. And I might not be. But hey, I’m not selfish. I can share.”

11

TY

“Esme. Good to see you again.”

I’ll be damned. I already knew this woman. Sort of.

She stopped making coffee long enough to put a hand on her hip and returned my shake. “Nice to meet you, Ty. You do look familiar.”

Her smile was dazzling. A little crooked and perfect at the same time.

“You work at that newspaper, right? The one in the old elevator building?” I asked.

“City Scene? Yes,” she said, still trying to place me.

I knew it. “I was recently doing some work there restoring the original beams.”

Her eyes opened wide as she remembered—or at least pretended to. “Right. Yes. You did an awesome job. I love that building and all its industrial chic.”

She laughed, and I found it hard to look away. Case might have had it out with her, but she was lovely. I could listen to her laugh all day.

I’d noticed her right off the bat at the paper during my job there a month earlier. I was usually pretty heads-down when doing my thing, especially in a place of business, not wanting to be disruptive. But with this one, well, I couldn’t help but notice her joking and laughing with her coworkers. She was like a ray of light.

And it didn’t hurt that she was fucking beautiful. Long, thick hair and flawless skin. Funky dresses that looked like they’d come from a vintage shop.

So different from the kind of women I usually met, or who my parents tried to introduce me to.

“And here comes Case,” she teased as he joined us in the kitchen. “I think this guy here would prefer I leave the home renovations to him. Can’t say I really blame him.”

Case raised his eyebrows at her, grinning devilishly. He was no dummy, and he knew when he was being goaded. But I also knew he could give as well as he could get.

“Well, Esme, if you hadn’t made such a mess, I wouldn’t have had to spend half the day cleaning it up. So I’d say stick to your newspaper work, and we’ll stick to building.”

“If you’d just let me know the whole wall didn’t need to come down,” she said in retort, “I wouldn’t have wasted my time helping—”

“Helping? That’s what you call that disaster? Helping?”

I stepped between them and raised my hands like I was breaking up a kids’ fight. “All right, everybody. Let’s take it down a notch.”

Esme was trying not to laugh. Fuck, she was cute.

“So, Miss Homeowner, why don’t you show me around the house?” I asked.

“Okay, right this way, Mister Woodworker.”

I followed, and damn if my eyes weren’t burning into her luscious backside as she climbed the stairs to the second floor.

“There are four bedrooms up here, all pretty small. You know back when they built houses like this, they chopped everything up into small rooms. If I had unlimited funds,” she paused long enough to laugh and roll her eyes, “I’d love to combine a couple of the rooms into one master bedroom and add a bath or something.”

I dug how she saw the possibilities. It was just too bad this was a quick turn-around project where we were doing mostly cosmetic stuff. But the next owners could be ambitious if they wanted to.

“And here is my room,” she said, leading me into a surprisingly nice set up considering the condition of the rest of the house. “My dad came over and did a couple things so the room was livable.”

She had a girly cast-iron bed with a thick, white comforter and like most women, a shit-ton of throw pillows. Her dresser was covered in an assortment of framed photographs and scented candles, and there was an empty wine glass on her nightstand. It was all pretty routine until I wandered over to her bookcase and saw a big old vibrator on top of a bunch of paperbacks.

I quickly turned back to her, pretending like I hadn’t seen anything.

“Hey, look at this little jewelry box,” I said, directing her attention to the other side of the room. I