it literally. Amy thought Kasey was in her mid-twenties, because that’s what Kasey had led everyone to believe.
“Thanks,” she said. “I will.” She took the bottle from Gretchen, then walked back into the office and tossed her jacket over her chair.
She didn’t even glance toward the window as she left the office, afraid seeing Sam there looking so yummy would weaken her nerve. The women in the office called after her with words of encouragement, while Jerry and Ed carried on some more about female chauvinists. Those taunts didn’t bother Kasey. She’d spent enough time observing her big brother to know that women had a long way to go before they caught up with the guys in that department.
What bothered her was fear, plain and simple. In theory, she was perfectly willing to do her share of ogling and assertive date-making. But to begin with Sam…that was more of a challenge than she could have envisioned in her wildest dreams.
If she could carry this off, though, without his ever knowing that she was the scrawny little pest he’d dunked in the pool all those years ago, that would be amazing. Making Sam drool would be more than a feather in her Bad Girl’s cap. Snagging the attention of a guy like Sam would be on the order of a damned plume.
2
ALTHOUGH SAM REQUIRED his workers to wear earplugs when they used the saw, he hated the damn things, so he fudged and left them out whenever he could get away with it. Fifteen feet in the air he could get away with it. That was probably the only reason he heard Carlos yelling at him over the loud buzz.
Turning off the switch with his thumb, he glanced down at his assistant. “What?”
“The lady wants to know if you’d like a bottle of water.” Carlos gestured to his left.
Sam pulled off his safety goggles and let them dangle around his neck as he peered through the branches. He almost dropped his saw. It was her, the woman with the red Miata.
Her blond hair gleamed in the morning sun. Not only that, she’d ditched the white jacket. That move was understandable in the heat, but the resulting view of twin beauties outlined by stretch lace had Sam grabbing for a tree limb to steady himself.
She lifted her beautiful face toward him, squinting in the sunlight. “Nice job!”
“Thanks!” Talk about nice. He was staring down at the most wonderful view of nice he’d seen in a long time.
“I thought you could use some water!” She held up a plastic bottle.
He could use a whole lot more than water. A cold shower would be good, and not because he was sweating, either. His strong attraction to her was a little embarrassing, to be honest. By his age he was supposed to be over this sort of reaction to a pretty girl. He’d seen plenty of pretty girls, even plenty of naked pretty girls. Yet he was mesmerized by this particular woman.
Maybe he’d developed heat stroke. He forced himself to engage in normal conversation instead of the caveman-speak that occurred to him. “Sure,” he said. “I’d love some water.” Now wasn’t the time to let her know he had several bottles of the stuff in a large cooler in his truck.
“I’ll toss it up,” she said.
“No, I’ll come down.” The way she’d messed with his concentration, he didn’t trust his hand-eye coordination right now. Nothing would be worse than missing the bottle she threw up to him.
Correction. Worse would be missing the bottle and falling out of the tree at the same time. Besides risking serious injury to his body, he could destroy his pride forever, not to mention his chances of dating this woman.
He left the saw propped in the tree. Then he took off the goggles and hung them on a branch before grabbing his shirt and pulling it on over his head. At last he started the climb down.
He’d never descended from a tree in front of an audience before, and self-consciousness made him clumsy. His foot slipped and he nearly fell. Grabbing a limb with both hands, he dangled for a humiliating second or two before finally relocating a supporting branch with one foot.
He could imagine Carlos and Murphy snickering behind their hands during this stellar performance. They both knew he had plenty of water in the truck. They knew because he always brought enough for all of them. Dehydration was a real danger working outside in Arizona.
But he was willing to look foolish in front of the guys and accept the bottled water from a woman he desperately wanted to meet. He would have liked to meet her when he was a little less fragrant, but he’d stand down-wind of her and hope for the best.
No sense missing a golden opportunity because he was sweaty. If all went as he hoped with this woman, they might end up sweaty together, eventually. Yes, he was getting ahead of himself, but this connection had fate written all over it.
He dropped to the ground and headed toward her, ignoring his two employees. If either of them took this moment to go to his truck and pull a bottle of water out of the ice chest, they’d be on fertilizer duty for the rest of the summer.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt your work.” Her voice had a silky quality to it.
He liked silky. Silky usually meant a woman had a sensuous nature. “That’s okay. I needed to take a break, anyway.”
“I’ll bet. You look hot.”
So do you, sweet thing. Her eyes were a startling shade of blue, possibly helped along by tinted contacts. He liked the blue, although he wondered what color her eyes were, really. “But it’s a dry heat.”
“Yeah, right.” She laughed and held out the dripping bottle. “Here. This should help.”
“You’re a lifesaver.” He took the bottle, his hand brushing hers. He figured that was the idea. She’d obviously brought the water so they could have an interchange. As a way to meet a guy, it was clever.
“That’s me,” she said. “Kasey Lifesaver.”
“Kasey?” He unscrewed the top of the bottle. “Is that all one word or initials?”
“One word. K-a-s-e-y. Kasey.”
“Nice to meet you Ms. Kasey Lifesaver. I’m Sam Grateful.” He took a long drink of the water, gulping down half the bottle. Although he really was thirsty, the drinking moment gave him time to think. He’d ask her to dinner. Yeah, that was a good idea. Dinner. What about tonight? Did he have anything going?
Damn it, he did. The Tin Tarantulas had a gig in a little club downtown, and he’d promised to be there. He didn’t think taking a woman to hear his brother’s very loud rock band was right for a first date. So he’d ask for tomorrow night, although he hated to wait that long.
He took one last swallow, lowered the bottle and smiled at her. “Thanks. That was great.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Listen, in exchange for the water, how about if I—”
“So how come you climb around in the tree? Wouldn’t it be safer to use one of those cherry-picker things?”
Obviously he hadn’t impressed her with his coordination. “You
