Page 13 of Heat Stroke

“You’re a mess, Alena. Lord help whomever pisses you off… This is true.” Looking down at my computer, I see all of the work I still have to do today. I wave at her. “Get out of my office. I have work to do.” My finger flicks at the phone. “If he calls back… I’m not available.”

She grins and salutes me. “You bet. Besides, he has to come back in here sometime. When he does, I might just have slippery hands. Hot coffee on his perfect chest would be such anaccident…” She uses her hands to simulate dumping coffee and bats her eyes as she covers her mouth.

I laugh and wave at her to leave. “You’re so bad. Get out. I’m busy.”

She laughs, too and leaves my office.

Shit… I still need to find his number to tell him that I am NOT going out with him.

A ping on my computer alerts me to a new email. It’s one I’ve been waiting on.

Clicking it, I get back to work. No time to waste on Blaze Carrington.

Blaze

I hung upbefore Wren could turn me down about tonight.

I fully expected a phone call on my cell phone where she went off on me, but it never came.

I waited for it all afternoon.

At 4:30PM, I sent my crew home and went back through the work site to check over everything. I’m a stickler for tools being locked back up in the trailer at the end of the day. It deters theft and it helps keep track of everything. If everything is back where it’s supposed to be at the end of the day, there’s no need for a scavenger hunt that wastes work time the next day.

As I make notes about the job and things I see that we need to go back over, I get lost in my own head.

When we decided to come back home and move our construction business here, we gave all of our employees the choice of coming with us or finding them other work. We didn’t want to leave anyone in the lurch. Most of our employees have been with us for the four years since I graduated college and decided to use my architectural engineering degree. Kristoph and I decided that with his hands on experience and my degree, we should start a construction business. It’s been very fruitful.

Surprisingly, a lot of the employees decided to move with us.

Business had been good in Dallas, where we started after college, but I felt the need to come back to my roots. Home is where the heart is and all that.

I brought it up to Kristoph and he confessed he’d been wanting to move back home as well.

Our parents are here and I found myself longing for what I had growing up.

I was able to buy a foreclosure from the bank that was just a few streets over from my parents, an antebellum home that had fallen into deep disrepair. I’ve been working on restoring it to its former glory. I’ve done a good bit of work on her and she’s livable, but she still has a ways to go. She’s going to be quite something when I’m done.

It’s a large house though. Far too big for a bachelor. It’s the kind of house that you raise a family in.

I’m twenty-six and over the single life. It’s time to set down my own roots.

Of course, I’m not just going to propose to the first woman I see… No, it needs to be the right woman.

A woman who stirs me up in every way. I want passion, love, and romance. I want a woman who gives as much as she takes. A partner. Someone that drives me mad with desire, but, who isn’t a pushover and stands up to me… calls me on my shit and tells me when I’m being a dick.

I want someone who makes me better and who I make better.

Laughing out loud, I shake my head… because, I can clearly picture one woman who fits that bill… and, I’m pretty sure that she’snotjust going to come along quietly when I show up at her house in, I glance at my watch, just under two hours.

Oh, Wren…

It has to be you… I don’t understand why… but, it has to be you…

Locking up everything, I head to my truck. Time to get cleaned off and mentally prepare myself for the firecracker I know I’m going to encounter when she opens her door.

Ifshe opens the door…

Chapter Five

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