“AND SHE DOES this thing with her tongue” was not what Piper Dalton expected to hear when she walked out of Windsor Hall to join her construction crew. Piper and her father had owned Dalton Contracting for several years. She was used to hearing guys talk about all sorts of things, and she didn’t think it was much different from the way women talked. She found three of the guys standing around a table where the plans for the old farmhouse they were renovating were spread out. Piper glanced at her project manager, Kase Force, a large man with granitelike features and an ever-present baseball cap, and lifted her brows. Kase and the two men he was with, Mike Renway and Darren Wilcox, had worked for Piper for the last few years. They were trusted and valued employees.
“Don’t look at me, boss,” Kase said, holding his hands up.
Darren, a baby-faced blond who looked closer to eighteen than twenty-five, said, “Mike was just trying to convince me not to get married in August.”
Mike shrugged, flashing a cocky grin.
The guys knew Piper didn’t have a problem with them shooting the shit as long as the work got done. But she did have a problem with three-times-divorced and far-too-cynical Mike trying to convince a man who was madly in love with his fiancée to think twice about tying the knot. Mike was in his midforties and didn’t have a faithful bone in his body, but at work he was as dependable and hardworking as the rest of Piper’s crew. She might be the boss, but it wasn’t her place to judge her employees’ personal lives.
“Is that so?” Piper crossed her arms, meeting Mike’s steady gaze and cocky grin. She might be only a size two, but there wasn’t a man on earth she wouldn’t stand up to. “So, this thing she does with her tongue—does she do it to all the guys she blows, or just you?”
Kase and Darren chuckled.
Mike’s brows knitted. “Um . . .”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Piper said. “How about you let Darren be happy? I don’t think he’s the kind of guy who’s into sloppy seconds . . . or thirds.”
“Aw, come on, Piper,” Mike said. “I don’t see you running to the altar.”
“Can you imagine Piper trading in her jeans and work boots for an apron and heels?” Kase shook his head. “You’re too cool for that, boss.”
“Thank you,” Piper said.
“And too tough,” Darren added. “You’ve got bigger balls than most of the guys I know. I mean, my girl is always hanging on my every word and giving me foot rubs. I just can’t see you doing those things.”
“Rubbing your feet? Really?” That kind of grossed Piper out.
“Not to mention you’re about as unfiltered as a muddy creek, which is awesome, but some guys are too insecure for truths.” Mike patted her on the back and said, “If you were ten years older, I’d beg you to marry me. You’re everything I want in a woman. You’re smokin’ hot, you won’t give me shit for swearing, you’ve got a good brain and a kick-ass job, and you don’t mind having beer and wings at Dutch’s for dinner.”
Piper laughed right along with them. She had dinner at Dutch’s Pub most days of the week, oftentimes with a few of her crew. She loved her job, and she didn’t like watching her language. But she’d witnessed each of her four siblings falling in love, and it had definitely opened her eyes to what she was missing. She hoped one day to find a man who would love her the way her siblings were loved, but she wasn’t looking to get married, nor holding her breath for that man to suddenly appear. She knew she wasn’t most men’s long-term cup of tea.
“So, what do you say, Piper?” Mike waggled his thick blond brows. “Want to hook up with an older man who knows all the tricks?”
Piper’s phone rang, and DEBRA DUTCH appeared on her screen. “Saved by the bell.” She walked away to answer the call. Debra’s family owned Dutch’s Pub, which was run by one of Debra’s sons—Piper’s close friend Harley.
“Hi, Deb. Is Delaney okay?”
Delaney was Harley’s older sister, and a single mother to two wonderful girls. She had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer and had undergone a double mastectomy two weeks ago. Debra was taking care of her while she recovered. Delaney’s diagnosis had rocked her family and friends to their core. Luckily, the cancer hadn’t