Page 28 of I Choose You (Wilder #2)

Reid

“Hi, Andrew.” I heard Claire’s peppy voice answer the call for the millionth time today.

Each time, she answered in the same bright tone, as if his constant interruptions were no bother at all.

He was her boss, I got it, but that didn’t stop it from grating on my nerves.

She had put the call on speakerphone, and I could hear every word from where I was in the next room.

“How are we doing with the timeline?” he started, no hello, no greeting.

“Everything is on track…”

“We can’t experience any delays on this, Claire.”

“I completely understand…”

“Good. Because if you can’t get this job finished on time, there won’t be a next one. Do you understand?”

“Of course.”

“Good. Now, I need you to do some more research on the Richmond House that Derrick’s working on. Is that going to be an issue?”

“No, not at all. I’ll take care of it. When do you need it by? ”

“Now. Today.”

“Today, right…”

“So, is there a problem?”

“No, there’s no problem. I’ll get it…”

“End of day. Derrick can’t get started without it.”

“Absolutely. You’ll have it in your inbox… hello?”

“Everything alright?” I asked, peeking my head into Claire’s office.

After I dropped her off on Christmas Eve, I didn’t see her again for a full week.

She opted to skip Christmas dinner with my family.

I knew it was because of me. I felt like such an ass, kissing her the way I did under the mistletoe.

We’d texted a couple of times, wishing each other Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, but otherwise, we each kept to our own space.

I fucking hated it. It wasn’t until we were back to work after the New Year that I could breathe again.

“Yeah,” she said. For a quick moment, the sunshine mask that she wore like armor dropped, the strain of the additional workload getting to her. “Andrew just asked me to help him and Derrick out on another project they have. Just some preliminary research to get an idea on characteristics needed.”

“Haven’t you been working on that idiot’s project all week already?

You were going to work on the stair designs today, weren’t you?

” She already had her hands full with this project.

We were trending on schedule, but just barely.

If we didn’t get everything ordered and purchased now, we wouldn’t get the supplies in time to stay on track.

And apparently, that was a big deal to him.

It was important to me too, but I didn’t hold anyone’s job on the line because of it. The fucker.

“Don’t worry. I’ll get it done.” She smiled, pretending like it was fine. If she thought she was fooling me, she was wrong. She didn’t need to put on some fake-as-shit smile for me though. She didn’t need to pretend for anyone’s sake.

“Hey, boss,” Shawn called from the third-floor mezzanine.

“What’s up?”

“There’s a soft spot up here that I don’t like. I think we might need to remove and replace. Can you come check it out?”

Fuck. My shoulders tensed. I rolled my head side to side in an effort to get my muscles to relax. Another small setback.

I left Claire to get some work done and made my way to where Shawn was. He was right. The floor was soft in one section. We hadn’t installed the new floors up here yet, so the removal of the old subfloor and plywood would be easy enough. It just took time.

I pulled Richie from his workstation, where he and Dale had been working on restoring the original interior doors.

“Hey, can you and Shawn take my truck to the hardware store to pick up material to replace a section of the flooring upstairs? Figure an eight-by-eight area, full replacement.”

“You got it,” he said, taking my offered company credit card and going to collect Shawn.

“How’s things going in here?” I asked Dale.

Dale’s deep sigh didn’t leave me feeling warm and fuzzy.

“Mostly pretty good. But there is some damage—looks like from animals—that’s going to be hard to repair.

“Show me.”

Dale pointed out various spots on a few different doors that had either rotted due to water damage or been eaten away at by animals.

“Okay. Let’s make patching them the priority.

If we can’t get them looking perfect, then I’ll need time to source new doors, and finding ones that match these is going to be a bitch. ”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ll just finish sanding the one I’m working on, then I’ll switch gears.”

“Thanks, man.”

I told myself that I wasn’t going to look into Claire’s office as I passed it this time.

My gaze darted to her automatically. Fuck.

I needed to get her out of my head. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her…

in those fucking knee-high boots. That short dress almost showing me everything.

I’d gotten off to that image of her more times than I could count.

Almost as often as the fantasy I had of her dropping that towel she had wrapped around her in her parents’ guest room.

I knew Monroe gave her his number. Had she called him?

Christ, this was getting ridiculous. Either piss or get off the pot, Wilder. Make a move or don’t, but put a stop to this stupid torture.

“Claire,” I called. My voice was louder than I intended, and Claire jumped at the sound of it.

“Jeez. Did you have to yell?” She laughed, her hand over her heart.

“Sorry.” I stalled. I hadn’t really thought this through. Was I asking her out? Should I just say something casual, like, “Hey, we should grab dinner later,” or make it clear it was a date?

She was looking at me expectantly, and I froze. I hadn’t asked a girl out since I was in high school. I didn’t remember it being this hard, but then again, I didn’t think I’d ever asked Kayleigh out like this anyway. We kind of just ended up together. This was different.

Ringing cut through the silence. Claire glanced at her phone and pouted.

“You can take that,” I told her.

“It’s just my mom. I can call her back. ”

“Take it. I’ll catch up with you later.”

I rounded the corner and had to physically stop myself from ramming my head against the wall.

Where did these nerves suddenly come from?

I didn’t hesitate to grab her face and shove my tongue down her throat a week ago, and now I couldn’t ask her out?

I could hear Claire talking to her mother as I walked away.

Grabbing my phone from my pocket, I shot off a quick text to the ongoing group chat with the guys.

Me: How does someone ask a girl out and not feel like an idiot? Or like a little kid?

Me: Asking for a friend.

Wyatt: laughing face emoji Fuck it if I know. Just show up at her house until you get to the point that you don’t even leave?

Wes: Like a man. Look her in the eyes. Tell her you’re into her and that you want to take her out to dinner. Don’t hesitate. Don’t fidget.

Seb: Claire? Will you be my girlfriend? Pretty please? And let me hold your hand?

Me: Fuck off middle-finger emoji

Luke: Pains me to say, but I’m with Wes. Just be honest. Keep it simple.

Wyatt: Lead in with a question. What are you doing tonight? Can I take you out to dinner?

Luke: If she asks, is this a date? say yes. If she just says ‘oh sure, that sounds great’ take the win.

Seb: And if she says ‘sure, let’s see who else wants to join us…my condolences.

Me: I feel like I’m in high school all over again. This is so dumb.

Wyatt: She likes you, brother. Don’t overthink it.

Me: Alright. Thanks guys. Except to Seb. To Seb I say middle- finger emoji

Seb: laughing face emoji laughing face emoji

I felt the air shift around me, electricity racing up my skin. Claire was standing in the doorway. Her blue eyes swept over me quickly, but not so quick that I missed it. The top of her hair was pulled off her face, but the bottom was left down in messy waves. She was absolutely beautiful.

“Hey, did you need something?” she asked.

It was easy. Just ask her to dinner. We’d already had dinner together. This didn’t need to be a big deal.

“Have dinner with me,” I blurted out. “I mean, if you’re not busy later, you should have dinner with me. If you want. Shit. One second.” I had to close my eyes and take a breath. Get it together, Wilder. “Claire,” I breathed out, meeting her eyes, “would you like to have dinner together tonight?”

Her lips parted in surprise. Seconds felt like minutes as she stood in the doorway.

My throat felt like it was closing as I waited for her to respond.

“Sure,” she said hesitantly. I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding.

Relief flowed through my entire body. “But…” My back stiffened.

Please don’t ask for others to join us. Fucking Seb for getting that thought in my head.

He would never let me live that down. “I’m already cooking a roast for dinner tonight in my slow cooker. Do you mind eating in at my place?”

“That sounds great.” I could feel a stupid grin splitting my face, but I couldn’t help it.

“Okay.” She tried to tuck her hair behind her ear, but she didn’t have any in her face. She seemed nervous, and that made me weirdly happy. If she had played it cool, I wouldn’t know if she knew that this was a date. But she knew. She knew, and she still said yes.

* * *

Snow crunched under my boots as I walked up Claire’s walkway.

We hadn’t gotten much snow; we usually didn’t.

The ocean effect meant that summers were cooler than our inland neighbors, but our winters were milder too.

It had been years since we saw snow that we measured in feet.

Usually, it was one to three inches… which was what we were dealing with now.

I rapped on the front door and waited for Claire to answer. A couple of seconds later, she opened the door and led me inside.