Sweet Home Colorado (The O'Malley Men) by C.C. Coburn Page B

pigs living inside the town limits. Mrs.
Carmichael kept her former married name because no one could get used to calling
her Mrs. Farquar.”
    Grace shook her head. “I’m still not sure I understand all
that. But I look forward to meeting Louella. I think.” She frowned and Jack
wanted to smooth out the line with his finger.
    “Anyway, I have good news. I’ve found somewhere to stay in
town,” she said. “Speaking of Mrs. Carmichael...I’ve taken the apartment over
her shop. In fact, I’ve moved in already.”
    No wonder he hadn’t heard her car pull up. Grace must have
walked the two blocks to the house.
    “You should’ve called me. I’d have helped you move your
stuff.”
    “Not much to move. I do have a favor to ask, however.”
    “Done,” Jack said without waiting to hear what it was.
    “I’m returning my rental and so I’ll need a ride back from
Silver Springs later today, if that’s convenient for you?”
    “Won’t you want a vehicle to get around?”
    Grace shrugged. “I can walk anywhere I need to go in town.”

Chapter Ten
    Jack finished the day by ordering more lumber.
Designers from two firms that hand-built custom-fit kitchens had come by, and
Marcie Mason and Grace had spent a long time with them. So long that they’d both
missed lunch.
    Jack offered to order some sandwiches to be delivered from
Rusty’s, but Marcie had to go to another meeting soon after the rest of Jack’s
team had departed for the day. That left Jack and Grace sitting on the front
porch, sharing the remains of Jack’s lunch—the one he’d been too busy to eat
himself.
    “I can’t believe the progress that’s been made already,” Grace
remarked, and bit into a ham-and-cheese sandwich.
    “Some weeks you won’t notice any difference. Then you’ll be
nagging me to get a move on.”
    “I do not nag!” Grace protested.
    Jack grinned. He enjoyed getting under Grace’s skin. “Let’s
make a bet. If you haven’t nagged by the time this renovation is finished, I’ll
owe you one hundred dollars. You nag and you have to pay up. Every time you nag.”
    “That’s hardly fair! You’d only have to pay once, while I could
be digging into my purse plenty of times.”
    “I thought you said you didn’t nag.”
    Grace glowered. He had her there, but she was determined to
win. “Deal?”
    “Deal,” he said, and they shook on it.
    As he released her hand, she caught his in both of hers, turned
it over and said as she examined his arm, “Your eczema has really responded to
the cream and your new diet.” Then she rubbed her forefinger over the calluses
on his hand.
    Jack swallowed, half embarrassed, half turned on by her
attention as she continued to rub her fingers over the badge of his profession.
Finally he could take it no longer and cleared his throat.
    Grace snapped out of her trance and released him. “Sorry. I
couldn’t help noticing your calluses.”
    “I work with my hands, Grace. They’re unavoidable.”
    She smiled and it melted his heart. “There’s something
incredibly sexy about a man who works with his hands.” She shrugged. “It’s
masculine, I guess.”
    “And men without calluses aren’t masculine?”
    “My ex had a weekly manicure. I always felt there was something
weirdly effeminate about that.”
    Jack smiled. Grace had been a nail-biter. It was one of the
many things he’d loved about her. The insecurity it spoke of made him feel
protective toward her.
    “Trust me, you’ll want to have short nails when you’re using
power tools or sanding what seems like acres of wood or stripping
wallpaper.”
    “I can hardly wait,” she said drolly.
    “I won’t be around much tomorrow. I’ve got a lot of ordering to
do and I have to check Adam’s site since I want to get the foundations laid this
summer. Two of my guys have moved over to concreting and another to bricklaying.
They’ve got jobs with other contractors in town, so they can all work on Adam’s
house while we work here.