He nodded. The employee at his feet tapped the space where Grace had placed a foot and looked at him. When he didn’t move, she gently tugged on one of his legs until he had a foot perched like Grace. She drizzled some kind of cream on his toes, grabbed a pair of nail clippers, and went to work.
“Dameon,” Grace said his name, pulling his attention back to her.
“Yes. The house with the grandma couch. I thought it would be more convenient than me driving back and forth to the city or staying at the hotel. I already own the place, might as well make use of it. I’ll set up the back bedrooms as offices, use the den as workspace.”
“So you plan on sleeping there?”
“Yeah.” What was the woman doing now? It looked like she was clipping skin away from his toenails, but he didn’t feel a thing. He pointed down and asked, “Is that normal?”
“Yes,” Grace said. “What brought that on?”
“I thought if maybe I experienced the area for more than an hour at a time, I might better grasp what’s going to work.” All of which was true, but not the main reason he had a small crew of workers at the house that morning to clear out the left-behind bed and odds and ends throughout the place.
“That’s going above and beyond, don’t you think?” Grace asked.
He stopped looking at his feet and directed his attention to her. “Maybe. I need this job to go smoothly, Grace. Not going to sugarcoat it. If there was a place I could meet all the essential players that I’m going to be dealing with over the next year to make this project happen, I’d jump on it.”
“You sound nervous.”
He decided it wouldn’t hurt to give her a few facts. “I’m responsible for a lot of employees. My main investor pulled out. And while my company has the funds to do this, it would be a huge weight off my shoulders if I could network with some of the players.”
“You mean schmooze.”
“Yeah,” he said with an unapologetic nod.
“Is that what you’re doing with me?”
He lost his smile. “No.” There were a lot of things he wanted to do with her, but schmoozing wasn’t on the list.
“So you’re sitting in here getting a pedicure, not schmoozing?”
The chair started pounding his back. “I’m here doing this because you won’t say yes to dinner.”
Grace rolled her eyes.
Nell laughed but didn’t comment while she worked on Grace’s feet.
“C’mon, Grace . . . you’re my only friend in town. You must know someplace this circle of people spend time.” The employee moved on to his other foot after all but pushing the first one back in the water.
“There’s a holiday event this Friday,” she told him.
He tried not to smile and give away his excitement. “Oh? Who’s going to be there?”
“You never know who will show up. With free food and alcohol, a lot of the people you’re going to deal with will be there.”
“How do I get an invitation?” he asked.
“It’s not that formal, but I can put your name down. Different investors have been known to come. The who’s who of the community will be there.”
His foot was plopped back in the water, the other one was lifted out. Next thing he knew, the woman was scraping it with some kind of sanding block. Each pass made him jump.
Grace started to giggle.
“It tickles,” he told her while trying to stay still through the torture. “What are you doing, anyway?” he asked the woman at his feet.
“Scraping dead skin.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. Worse, he didn’t like the feeling of that. He turned his attention back to Grace. “So, you’ll pass on the time and place of this event?” he asked for confirmation.
“I’m happy to.” Grace leaned back and closed her eyes as the woman at her feet poured lotion on her leg and started to rub.
“Are you going to be—”
Her palm in the air stopped him midsentence. “No talking during the best part.”
Much as he wanted to keep going, he found his leg oiled up and hands running up and down his calf.
The best part didn’t last nearly as long as he’d have liked.
“Yes, I’m going. It’s the only office party we have, even if it’s a free-for-all event.”
“Is it formal?”
“You mean black tie?”
He nodded.
“We’re not that kind of city.”
Nell started applying a bright red polish on Grace’s toes. For one brief,