it’s in the back.” The words were hardly out of her mouth when she saw Cody start to walk to the back room. The man was just taking over, she thought. She liked him, liked his company, but that couldn’t be allowed to happen.
“Where are you going?” she wanted to know.
“To get your ladder and hang that sign up for you,” Cody threw over his shoulder as he disappeared into the back room.
She didn’t want him to feel obligated to do anything except give her a little input on what he thought of certain things. That was their deal.
Hurrying after Cody, Catherine stopped short of the back room doorway because he was already coming out. He had the ladder mounted like a giant shield over one muscular shoulder while he carried a hammer he’d spotted and pressed into service in the other.
Pivoting a hundred and eighty degrees on her heel, Catherine followed him back through the showroom. Was he just displaying his machismo? Or was he feeling obligated for some reason?
“You don’t have to do this,” she protested with feeling as she continued to follow him.
He paused fleetingly to give her a quick, appraising look. Catherine could have sworn she felt a flash of heat pass through her.
That had to stop, she silently upbraided herself. She had no time to react to Cody in those terms. She had a business to launch.
“Yeah, I do,” he answered with finality. “I’m better at hanging up a sign than I am at setting broken bones.”
She was right behind him, step for step. “Contrary to what you might think, I’m not some helpless woman who’s all thumbs,” she informed him. “And I’m not a klutz. I’ve got great balance and I’m very handy.”
“Good for you,” he fired back. “Where I come from, men don’t stand around watching women do this kind of work,” he told her with feeling. He was thinking specifically of Caroline’s husband. Rory Connors would have liked nothing better than to never have to move another muscle in his body for as long as he lived if he didn’t want to.
That no-good SOB had his baby sister doing all the heavy work—and she wasn’t up to half of it. He was certain that was why Caroline had lost the baby she was carrying before it had even gotten through its first trimester. He recalled with anger that his brother-in-law had expressed no remorse over the loss that had all but completely devastated Caroline.
On the contrary, Connors had actually been relieved, saying that there was no room for “brats” in his life right now.
Or ever, Cody suspected. The man was far too egotistical and self-centered to share Caroline with even a baby.
Cody slowly became aware that Catherine was laughing. When he looked at her quizzically, waiting for an explanation, the woman was quick to let him in on the joke.
“Um, this might not have occurred to you but you and I come from the exact same place,” she pointed out.
He frowned as he steadied the ladder, picked up the sign and then began to climb up. She was right. “Yeah, well, then you should know that I wasn’t about to have you climbing up to the top, tottering on the ladder while you tried to hang this sign up. I was quick enough to catch you last time. I might not be this time.”
“I wasn’t going to try to hang it up,” she corrected with just a slight edge to her voice. She liked him and she knew he meant well, but she didn’t like being thought of as inept. “I was going to hang it up. There’s not exactly a need for an engineering degree when it comes to hanging up a sign,” Catherine pointed out. “And I figure I’ve filled my quota of falling off ladders. That was my first time and my only time,” she emphasized.
Cody looked down at her in silence for a long moment. For a brief second, she thought that he was just going to let go of the sign, climb down off the ladder and walk away.
But then, uttering an unintelligible noise—at least she couldn’t make any sense of it—Cody turned his attention to what had brought him up here in the first place. With an amazingly accurate eye, he hung the sign exactly in the middle, directly over the doorway. He did it without bothering to measure first, without resorting to any sort of gauges and without asking her for any visual guidance from her vantage point.
The man had a fantastic eye, she thought. It was obvious that he was a natural. One of those incredibly gifted souls who could build an entire building using a bent spoon, a wad of chewing gum and a set of popsicle sticks. He was creative without even knowing that he was. She was more convinced than ever that she had chosen the right man as her inspiration. He obviously came with fringe benefits—and muscles, she noted.
Her stomach seemed to tighten of its own accord.
Catherine stepped back, admiring the sign. “That’s absolutely perfect,” she pronounced as he came back down the ladder.
He didn’t bother looking up at his handiwork. Instead, he merely said, “I know.”
That sort of statement reeked of conceit, and yet, she realized, the man wasn’t conceited, nor did he actually sound that way. Instead, what he sounded was self-assured. He was a man who knew his limitations—if he actually possessed any—and he was obviously fairly comfortable in his own skin.
That, she knew, wasn’t often the case. Most people were usually hounded by insecurities, whether large or small.
“Must be nice,” Catherine couldn’t help commenting to him.
Again Cody raised a quizzical eyebrow as he looked at her, waiting for some sort of explanation or further elaboration.
“What is?” he finally asked when she didn’t elaborate further.
Her eyes met his. She consciously banked down the shiver that rose within her. “Being so confident.”
“Not a matter of confidence,” Cody told her. “Just a matter of knowing what I can and can’t do.”
She thought that was one and the same, but it was obviously different to him.
Be that as it may, she had no intention of getting into a discussion with Cody over this. She didn’t want this cowboy—who really did come across like the genuine article to her—to think she was trying to challenge him or trip him up. He seemed just perfect the way he was and she was fairly certain it would help business along for her if she could tap into this man’s likes and preferences. There had to be a lot more like him around here, right? And she wanted her merchandise to appeal to people with his sensibilities and preferences.
Cody took the ladder and returned it to the back room, pausing next to her just for a moment to ask, “Got anything else you need hung up?”
Catherine smiled as she shook her head. “Not at the moment,” she replied.
In response, he nodded his head and continued on his way. He replaced the ladder where he had found it, along with the hammer.
“I would, however, like to get your input on a few things,” she said, raising her voice so that it followed him into the back room.
He didn’t answer until he came out again. “Well, I’m here, might as well use me. Ask away,”
