Dynamiting Daddy's Dream House Read online

  "Who is it?" He turned away from the door as he asked, letting the walls of the room distort his voice and make it more difficult to shoot through the door.

  Jill hurried into the closet. She pulled on the white, terry-cloth robe, then looked around for some weapon she could use to help Troy. A wooden coat hanger looked like the best of an inadequate lot. She grasped one and stepped out ready to do battle if she needed to.

  Troy flung the door open and yanked a short pudgy man into the room. "Stand perfectly still."

  "You've got it, man. You don't got no call to go pointing that knife at me."

  "I'll make that determination." Troy flicked his glance at Jill then back to the stranger. "Look in on Annie and make sure she's all right."

  "Okay." Moving silently, the coat hanger dangling embarrassingly from her hand, she opened the door to Annie's room and peered in at that precious small person. "She's all right."

  "Good." He spun the man around, pushing him against the wall. "Press your hands as high as you can reach."

  "Yes sir."

  Troy patted down their visitor. "What's this?" He pulled an envelope from the man's breast pocket.

  "You've been served."

  Chapter 9

  Troy dropped the man like a spent cartridge and stared at the paper in his hand. "What is this about?"

  The man shrugged. "Hey, I get paid to deliver summons, not to offer legal advice."

  Jill looked awful cute dressed in a short bathrobe and carrying a wooden coat hanger like a samurai with a sword. Cute but determined. Before she could do anything to get them all thrown in jail Troy interposed himself.

  "Perhaps you'd better go," he suggested to the man.

  "Yeah. I can see I came at an inconvenient time." The man's oily face oozed with faked sympathy.

  Troy shut the door firmly behind the departing process server then turned back to Jill. "Now where were we?"

  "Aren't you even going to read that thing?" Jill stabbed at the summons with her makeshift sword.

  "Hmm. That doesn't sound too sexy to me." He gave her a nasty grin. "Still, if it would do things for you, I'll give it a go."

  Jill looked like she could chew nails. "Somehow I'm not in the mood right this second. I want to know what's going on."

  Troy cursed his slowness. Jill probably thought this had something to do with his former house. For all he knew it did. He just didn't think he could be that lucky.

  "That makes one of us." He reached into a drawer and pulled out a T-shirt. He needed something to distract him from Jill's nearness and her effect on him.

  Jill looked suddenly self-conscious. That terry bathrobe made the most of her curves. Troy feasted his eyes, knowing the moment was lost and she'd be putting her clothes back on at the first opportunity. Damn.

  "Well, read it," she insisted.

  He opened the envelope and scanned it. It figured that the Sebhras had learned about Annie's little run. "Liz's parents didn't waste much time. They're suing for custody."

  "That's ridiculous. You're a great parent."

  He shook his head. "I'm still at the bottom of the learning curve."

  "No parent is perfect," Jill insisted. "Besides, you love Annie more than anyone possibly could. That has to count for something."

  Troy gave a humorless laugh. "That's the hell of it. When I came back to the states, I thought I was just doing my duty. And believe me, I've always been real good at doing my duty. I never thought I would actually love the kid. Lord knows she can be a brat."

  "What are you going to do?"

  Troy shrugged. "I don't . . ." he let his voice trail off. He'd thought of this before but hadn't wanted to rush into anything. The summons had taken the time element out of his control. He'd spent enough time planning strategy to know that if you don't have time on your side, you need surprise. "I know. You had a good idea a week or so ago. How about we get married."

  The blood drained from Jill's face as if she'd been stuck with a bayonet. "I'm sorry. What did you say?" She almost gasped to get the words out.

  "I'm not going to pretend to be the world's greatest parent. All those books I've been reading haven't helped me half as much as you have. And obviously, when you get right down to it, you're not the world's greatest demolition expert."

  Jill's face showed that comment hadn't exactly endeared him to her. Oops.

  Troy pressed on before Jill could cut him off. "A big part of their case is that a single father with no fixed address and no visible means of support can hardly be a positive influence on a child. A married man who runs a construction business and has a beautiful wife to take the stand and explain what a perfect mom she wants to be would definitely change everything. We'd send the Sebhras packing."

  Jill's frozen stare proved he hadn't completely gotten through to her. "Troy--"

  "I'll buy you a diamond ring, something nice," he interrupted. He was pleading and he knew it. Well, if he had to, he'd grovel. He'd do anything to keep Annie. The kid had grown on him despite everything she could do. Jill had grown on him too. How could making all of this work out be a bad idea?

  ***

  Jill swallowed hard, trying to get the huge lump out of her throat. For only the second time since she'd met him, Troy seemed to have lost control.

  He'd offered her everything she'd thought she wanted, but then he'd demanded everything she lived for in return. How many times, over the past week, had she fantasized about spending a life with Troy and with Annie? Tonight she'd gotten closer to making love than she ever had before and it had been exciting and wonderful. But Troy's promise came with a poisoned core--the core that had destroyed her father. Perhaps her dad's partner had offered him his heart's desire as well.

  "Say yes," Troy breathed. He stepped toward her, closing the physical distance between them.

  Jill pushed a hand into Troy's rock-hard chest. Physically she had no hope of stopping Troy if he really wanted to take her. She would run out of will power the moment he kissed her. Still, she couldn't think with him touching her, kissing her, caressing her to the peaks of excitement she'd so recently left.

  "I can't." Her words came out in a disgraceful squeak, but she managed to force them out. "I can't give up everything I've lived for."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "I told you what happened to my father."

  "What's that got to do with anything?" He sounded almost angry.

  "What's it got to do?" Jill echoed in disbelief. "I can't believe you asked me that question." She punched his stomach blindly shutting her eyes in anger and frustration.

  He caught her fist before she could pull it back. His hand moved so quickly that she knew he had purposely let her blow get through. Of course, her punch had probably hurt her hand more than it had hurt Troy's stomach. "I'm not trying to steal your company. When we're married, we'll own things together."

  She backed away. "That's what I mean. You marry me and get the company for nothing!"

  "Hey, I'm talking about a real marriage here, and a real family."

  Like that made everything all right? At least when he tried to steal her business, he came right out and offered a fair exchange. A more than fair exchange, if she were totally honest. His body and his family for her pathetic, money-losing, going-out-of-business-because-of-its-incompetent-owner company.

  What woman with any sense would turn him down?

  Except, when it came to her business, Jill knew she didn't have a lick of sense. She had the emotion that had driven her to create the business in the first place and stay with it even when reason had said to give it up. If she married Troy and sacrificed this dream, could she truly offer him her whole heart? She didn't think so.

  She wrenched her arm away from his grip. "Maybe you'd better go."

  Troy gave her a puzzled stare. "Ah, you're in my place."

  "Oh." What was she thinking? "Then I'll go."

  He interposed his massive chest between Jill and the door. "I'll admit this probabl
y seems sudden to you. Trust me, it isn't. I've given it a lot of thought. We could make things work."

  Tears half blinded her but Jill tried to push her way through Troy. "You mean you could make things work, don't you?"

  "I'm trying to think of what is right for both of us. Let's face it, after the dynamite accident, your business needs help. The kind of help I can give it. Obviously I need help with Annie. The kind of help you can give. From what I've seen, you love her. And Annie loves you.

  "Most obvious of all, I can hardly keep my hands off of you. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you haven't really been complaining about our kisses. Twenty minutes ago we were ready to jump into bed together." He gave her a steady stare. "Jumping into bed together still sounds like a great idea to me."

  He hadn't said anything about love between the two of them. Then again, why should he? Troy loved Annie. His love for his daughter was the driving force behind everything he did--including proposing marriage.

  Even if Troy did love Jill, though, it couldn't matter. She'd have to turn him down even so. Maybe, she concluded, it was just as well those words hadn't crossed his lips. "You're right, Troy. I haven't complained about our kisses and I'm not going to. Instead, I'm going to remember them for a long time. The operative word here is remember, not feel. Now let me go."

  "You don't have to do this, Jill," Troy pleaded. "I'd understand if you said it was all too sudden. My lawyers can drag out the Sebhra case for a while so we have time to think about it. Don't throw out all we have going for us."

  "Can't you see? This isn't about Annie. This is about who I am and what I do with my life. I can't give up my business." She felt her voice rising despite her intention of keeping control.

  "Oh, hell. We'll incorporate it, then. You can still be owner and just pay me to manage it. Would that make you feel better?"

  Troy's words were an uncanny echo of her father's description of how he had lost his business. Jill let the tears trickle down her cheeks. "I asked you to get out of my way."

  "Yes you did." Troy opened the door and held it open for Jill.

  "Don't walk me out. I'll be all right."

  "Jill, where are you going?" Annie peeked out of her room rubbing sleep from her eyes. She turned her wrath on her father. "Did you make Jill cry?"

  "I made myself cry," Jill assured the little girl she had come to love. "When you're a grownup, you'll understand how that can happen."

  "I don't want to understand. I want you to stay. Troy, make her stay."

  "I can't, pumpkin." Troy sounded as if he carried the weight of the earth on his back. "I just can't."

  Jill turned and ran down the hall, skipping the elevator to take the stairs. If she stayed for one minute longer, she knew she'd make the biggest mistake she'd ever made in her life.

  ***

  "I've got the contract. I just need you to accept it. I'll pay you a ten percent commission." Jill wiped sweat from her forehead and pressed the phone even harder into her ear so she could hear the contractor on the other end. Things were not going well.

  "I don't know. Somehow, taking money for nothing doesn't seem right to me." His words said no, but his tone said make me a better offer.

  Jill was near the end of her rope. Troy had been right. Blowing up his house had botched her business something fierce. She'd had to find subcontractors--good ones with good insurance--to accept her jobs in name only so she could continue all of the projects she'd worked in the week since she'd walked out of Troy's life. Now she was having trouble bringing in enough business to pay her employees and leave anything left over to pay her trailer hitch fee. Good thing Troy had filled her cupboards that day he and Annie had gone shopping. She hadn't been able to afford groceries since.

  Jill looked around the tiny storage shed she'd turned into an office. She would lose even this if she couldn't get some business soon.

  "I can't go higher than twelve percent," she conceded.

  "Sounds like you're in a heap of trouble, Jill." She'd gone to high school with Charlie. He'd been a defensive tackle on the football team and everyone had claimed he played too often without a helmet.

  "My luck is about to change. You just might get to share some of the wealth if you play your cards right."

  A brief pause at the other end of the phone line. "Tell you what. Why don't you go out with me and we can talk about it?"

  "Out--like two professionals talking about a job?"

  "I was thinking, more like a guy about to get lucky."

  She slammed down the receiver. Some days you can't even give away money.

  "Jill, we're about done here." Renaldo peeked in the door to her shed and gave her a smile in a doomed attempt to cheer her up. "Quitting time?"

  She buried her head in her hands. "All right, Renaldo. See you Monday."

  "Well." He hesitated. "I sort of took a job with Charlie."

  "You what?" This couldn't be happening to her.

  "I thought things were getting better when Troy was here. Since he quit though, you haven't been getting the jobs. I need the work and Charlie can give it to me."

  "Troy didn't quit, I fired him."

  Renaldo looked puzzled. "He knew what he was doing. You shouldn't have fired him."

  "Are you saying I don't know my business?" She heard her voice crack but couldn't stop. "I've been in construction since I was seven years old."

  "Troy has a way with the men."

  He has a way with women too, Jill barely restrained herself from saying the words out loud. "I guess I'll see you around, Renaldo," she finally forced herself to say.

  "Yeah. Hey, no hard feelings. Want to go bowling tonight?"

  Two date offers in one day. That had to be a record for her. Except she had no interest in anything more than a professional relationship with either Charlie or Renaldo. Her brief, unconsummated relationship with Troy had spoiled her to any other man.

  All the sudden, she heard Troy's voice. "Ready to go?"

  Was she hallucinating? But no, there was no mistake. Her imagination wasn't that good. Had he come here looking for her? She glanced around her makeshift office in the vain hope that it would transform itself into something organized and, well, affluent looking.

  "Troy?"

  He stuck his head inside her office. "Oh, hi, Jill. I didn't know you were still here." He turned the considerable force of his attention to Renaldo. "Cherry can only watch Annie for a couple of hours so let's get started with this game. You'd better not be some sort of ringer."

  Cherry? What sort of a name was that? The mental picture of Troy hurrying home to some buxom babe jumped into her mind despite her best efforts to shove it way down. "How are you doing, Troy?" she asked.

  "Better than you, it looks like." Troy's brow furrowed for a fraction of a second, the lines vanishing before Jill could fully believe they were there.

  "What is that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

  Troy shook his head. Both of them knew exactly what he had meant. Her business was going down the tubes. It looked like Troy had been right all along.

  It didn't matter. Jill wouldn't give up her company. She knew she had the talent to make her construction business successful.

  "Just that I wish you'd let me help you."

  "Help yourself is more like it." She sighed. "I've got a couple hours more work here before I can go home. You two boys go out, have a good time, and don't worry about me."

  Troy stared at her, uncertainty creasing his forehead. "Have you been getting enough sleep?"

  So now she looked like something the cat drug in. "I said I'm fine."

  "Yes, ma'am." He bowed slightly and closed the door behind himself.

  Jill put her head between her hands and let herself luxuriate in a couple of heart-felt sobs. It wasn't fair. A woman should be able to have the man she loves without having to give up all of her other dreams.

  ***

  "So what's the deal with you and Jill?" Renaldo's fists made tight knots.
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  "No deal. She thought I was trying to take over her business."

  "And were you?"

  Troy waited for his bowling ball and, when it returned, hefted it. He stared down the lane trying to calculate the slight deviations in trajectory the wood's grain and warp created. Finally he stepped forward and rolled another strike.

  "Damn, you're a good bowler." A cute redhead in a top that barely held her formidable assets in check leaned over the ball return. "Want to play partners?"

  He looked at her, then shook his head. "Private game."

  "I don't mind, man." Renaldo had been eyeing the girls for a couple of minutes.

  Troy shook his head. "Let's finish this game and then you can partner up with whomever you want."

  "You know you didn't answer my question." Renaldo stepped up and rolled a gutter ball. "Damn, look what you made me do."

  A nervous titter of laughter from the next lane gave Troy a better idea exactly who had flustered Renaldo. "Sorry."

  He waited while Renaldo managed an eight, then bowled his last frame.

  Had he been trying to take over Jill's business? He'd just assumed he was doing the right thing for Jill, for Annie, and for himself. He'd enjoyed the construction work, and taking responsibility for a ready-made business was easier than building one from scratch.

  Had he simply looked for the easy way out? An old soldier like Troy should know better than to take the easy path. That's where the traps were.

  An ugly split leaving the two side pins wobbling but still standing was the result of his loss of concentration.

  "Tough break," the redhead observed. One of the buttons on her sweater had miraculously come undone and she threatened to spill out. "Betcha anything you can't make that." The emphasis she put on the word anything made it sound like an overt invitation.

  Troy didn't have anything to prove and he certainly didn't want whatever this woman had to offer. Still, he was too much of a soldier to waste a shot. He computed the angles and let fly.

  "Nobody should be that good," Renaldo groaned as he scored the spare.

  "You win," the redhead breathed. "Are you that good at everything?"

  He ignored her and sat down to change his shoes.