Page 24 of Perfect Guy

“Oh…okay. How was the rest of your day?”

”Is this your way of asking about my situation?” I tease.

Madelyn giggles. “No. Goodness, stop thinking about sex.”

“Okay, okay. It was good. I had to go to dinner at the diner, thanks to you.”

“Hey, you’re the one with the dirty imagination,” she playfully accuses.

“Can’t help it.” I lie in bed, putting the phone on speaker and folding an arm under my head.

“It was a quick visual. I couldn’t stop it before it entered my head. Don’t worry. I won’t bring it up again.”

“Too late, now it’s all I’m going to think about when I see that emoji. You ruined it for me, made it dirty. I loved rolling my eyes at people.”

Chuckling, I change the direction of the conversation before my dick hardens again.

“How was your day? What did you think about seeing the progress on the house?”

“It was cool. I’ve never seen the process in this way. I can’t wait until there’s more of a structure to truly visualize the house.” Her voice fills with excitement.

I’m glad I recommended her for the job. Madelyn deserves it. I didn’t think I’d be in this predicament when I did, but I’m not complaining about it.

“It’ll be soon enough. We’ve got a tight deadline, so everyone is working hard.” After our other architect said she couldn’t fulfill this job and the homeowners didn’t have their own architect—mostly because we guaranteed ours—it set us back a bit on scheduling.

It was the company’s responsibility to offer everything, and my boss was not happy. Madelyn saved us from losing the job and risking being bad-mouthed.

“I can’t wait,” she repeats. “I can’t thank you enough, Canaan. I didn’t think I’d find a job like this around here.”

“You can thank me with dinner.” I use it as my opening to ask her out.

Silence meets me, and I check to make sure the call didn’t disconnect. “Hello?”

“I’m actually exhausted. I should go, sorry.” Her voice is deflated.

“Mads…”

She’s gone before I can finish saying anything else. I stare at the phone in confusion, wondering where I went wrong. We both seemed to be on the same page earlier. She was flirting right back.

Setting my phone on the nightstand, I shut off the lights and lie in bed, questioning and replaying the entire conversation.

I intend to find out what upset Madelyn last night. We were having a great conversation, and then she closed up on me. Unfortunately, I have a small window to talk to her after work since I’m at the firehouse tomorrow for twenty-four hours. No late night for me.

I get to work and listen to Oscar give us our morning meeting before we’re all separating to do our duties. My mind’s distracted with thoughts about Madelyn, and I try to shake myself out of that mood before I screw up at work. The last thing I need is to make a bad cut on one of the wood beams and get my ass reamed.

Or worse yet, slice a finger on the saw. I need all ten to do both of my jobs correctly. I focus back on my task. I drill one of the horizontal supports that will go in this section onto the frame lying on the floor that we’ll later lift and attach once the foundation is set.

Standing, I swipe my gloved hands together and look at how it’s coming together. Voices hit my back, and I turn to see who’s walking over. My eyes land on Madelyn and Oscar. I’m surprised to see her here again today. I didn’t expect her to return until early next week, considering there’s not much more to see from one day to the next, and it’s Friday.

Madelyn barely glances my way before turning her attention back to Oscar. Between the unsteady beats of drills, hammers, and saws, I can’t really hear them. I have a job to do anyway, not eavesdrop on a conversation that doesn’t involve me.

They walk past me, and Madelyn doesn’t even smile. Whatever the fuck happened last night is still bothering her. Across from me, I see Oscar pointing up. They’re standing near the edge of the frame, halfway inside and out.

Shrugging it off, I finish what I have to do. I catch Madelyn looking at us in awe, witnessing pieces of what will make up the frame coming together. It’s fascinating, so I understand her reaction.

As much as I enjoy this kind of work, my real passion lies in the craftwork and carpentry of creating actual furniture. In order to get to that, I need to complete this.

I lose track of Madelyn until our break when I see her with Oscar. He rounds us up for a minute to explain what’s going on.

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