Page 8 of I Choose You (Wilder #2)

Reid

“Put everything in the old Children’s Center for now,” I told Shawn as we started unloading the supplies.

We were finally at the stage where I got to start building things.

All of the demo was completed. Broken furniture was removed, floors were ripped out, the basement had been remediated and repaired. Now, we were getting to the good stuff.

Claire walked up to the truck, a tray of coffees in her hands.

She wore a pair of wide-leg jeans with a top that was skintight but somehow still looked classy and not trashy and a tan trench coat open over it.

Her work boots made me smile. She hadn’t worn a single other pair of shoes since that first day; didn’t matter what outfit she wore, it was always paired with those work boots.

Her shoulder-length blonde hair was pulled off her face and clipped back.

Ever since that night a few weeks ago when we got pizza together, it was like something had shifted in me.

Maybe it was seeing her outside of this building or hearing about her shitty ex and even shittier parents, but I didn’t feel as inclined to push her away anymore.

I even found myself kind of… not ha ting her.

“Do you guys need any help hauling things inside? I’ll drop the coffees off in my office and be right back,” she said.

“Nah, we’ve got it covered. Thank you though.”

Just then, Richie and Dale came out of the library from their first trip.

“Ah, coffee! Thank you, beautiful.” Dale was already reaching for his cup with the Flour Power Café logo on it before I cut him off.

Until Claire started bringing coffees in, I hadn’t so much as seen one of those cups in months.

A product of my avoiding the places where I might run into Kayleigh, and as her place of work, Flour Power Café was top of the list.

“That can be your prize after you’ve earned it. We’ve barely gotten started. It’s not break time,” I snapped at him.

I felt everyone’s eyes on me, but I refused to look at anyone.

I wasn’t usually like that with my crew, especially not Dale or Richie.

They’d been at this game a lot longer than I had.

They worked for me, yeah, but they still taught me things all the time.

Shawn, well, he could be a different story sometimes.

“Well, I’ll just put these in my office for whenever you guys are ready for them.”

Claire walked inside, and I started to grab more lumber, loading up my arms with as much as I could carry.

“You good?” Richie asked quietly.

“Yup.” I didn’t elaborate or explain my sudden outburst. I couldn’t even if I wanted to.

After the third or fourth trip, I let everyone off the hook so they could grab their coffee before it got cold.

Claire’s office was toasty warm, her small electric heater cranked up. Music was playing from her computer, a poppy hit song from the ’90s that she was singing along to.

The guys all shuffled into her office together to pick up their specific drink orders that she brought in every morning. She knew that she didn’t need to butter them up, right? They already loved her.

Dale took his coffee, thanked her, and left. But Richie and Shawn both lingered in her office, chatting her up.

I took my coffee from the desk and stood in the doorway, just listening to them make small talk.

“So then, this guy comes up to me, and he’s…” Shawn was mid-sentence in a story when Richie cut him off.

“Alright, well, we’ll get out of your hair, let you get back to work.”

“Claire doesn’t mind us hanging out in here for a bit, do you, Claire?”

“Not at all. It’s nice to break up the day with a little conversation, otherwise I’m in here all alone,” Claire said.

Richie caught my eye and ushered Shawn out the door by the shoulder. “Let’s go.”

“You think that’s a good sign that my presence makes my crew flee?” It was meant to sound like a joke, but it didn’t quite land that way.

Claire glared at me, but it was far too cute to be menacing. “You know, if you weren’t so grumpy in the morning, they would probably want to be in the same room as you. The coffee would have done you good.”

I pulled the wooden chair she kept in her office up to her desk. Her eyes narrowed in confusion as she watched me take a seat. “Did you get the email I sent you?”

“Yeah, the designs for the stained glass. They’re great. I can definitely work with those. ”

“They’re good, but they’re not great. They need to be stunning.”

“I’m glad you said that because I’ve actually been working on them a bit.

” She brushed a piece of hair out of her face that had fallen out of her clip.

Her nervous eyes met mine as she continued.

“I’ve been rendering a new look that marries stained glass and clear leaded glass throughout.

” I shifted my chair closer to hers so that I could look over her shoulder.

“It isn’t done yet. I can email you the draft when it’s complete. ”

“Why don’t you just show me now? We can work on it together for a while. The guys know what needs to be done today. They’ll be fine without me for a minute.”

“You want to work together on it?” Her face lit up. “Okay, let me show you what I’ve been working on.” She tilted the laptop toward me and had to lean in to continue typing. I could smell the fresh orange scent of her shampoo.

She kept the small room so damn hot with that little portable heater. It felt like I was suffocating. I pulled my sweatshirt off and threw it on the floor. Claire’s eyes tracked my movements before she went back to opening the draft designs she had been working on.

“Are you hot? I can shut the heater off.”

“No, if you’re comfortable, then just leave it on.”

“It’s okay. It is a little warm in here.” She turned backward to power off the device, and her chest grazed my arm.

My throat grew thick at the feel of her soft breast against my skin.

I scooted my chair back a bit, took a sip of coffee, and pulled my head out of the gutter where it had quickly traveled to. This was Claire, the annoyingly chipper and entirely unwanted designer who was encroaching on my project. Focus.

Claire’s window designs loaded onto the screen. They were beautiful. She was able to combine the ornate designs with a more modern elegance. I could picture them on the library, the light refracting through them into the interior.

“These are perfect,” I told her honestly.

Her nose scrunched up as she continued to click through the various images, each showcasing the design at different angles.

“Thanks, but you don’t need to lie to me. These are just the first drafts, or second drafts since they originated from yours. I’ll keep working on them.”

I stood from the chair and leaned into her, waiting until she made eye contact. “These are the ones that I want.” Grabbing my sweatshirt from the floor, I strolled to the door. “Get those to the glazier and get back to me with a quote,” I told her on my way out.

“I don’t work for you, I’m working with you, remember?” she yelled to my back. I could hear the smile on her face. I didn’t know why, but I liked being the reason she was smiling.

* * *

Dinner was at my dad’s tonight, and I was the first to arrive this time, taking the driveway for myself.

Suck it, brothers.

My father gave me a once-over when I walked in. I wasn’t in my best clothes, coming from the jobsite, but that wasn’t unusual. We weren’t exactly fancy-dress people .

“Good. You were starting to look scraggly,” he said. “Grab the mixer and finish the mashed potatoes.”

“Uh, thanks.” I scratched at my newly shaved jaw.

After working with Claire earlier, which had been better than I expected—granted, my expectation had been pretty damn low, but still, it was cool to see what she had done with my original idea—I had taken off work a little early so I could stop by the barbershop on the way home and get a haircut and shave. “Where’s Sheila?”

Dad’s new girlfriend had been making the meal for our family dinner for a few months now. I had no issue helping out, but usually Sheila had it covered, sometimes with Maeve’s help.

“She had to stay late at the diner. One of the servers called in sick, but she should be here any minute.”

“And after a long day on her feet, she gets to come home to a fresh-cooked dinner. Good job, Pops.” I slapped him on the shoulder as I passed him in the kitchen.

“Look at you, talking in full sentences again. Having a real conversation. Claire must be good for you.”

“Claire? What does she have to do with anything?” I asked.

Where the hell had that come from?

“Woah, someone decided to show us up, looking all pretty,” Wyatt joked as he came into the room holding Jane, Maeve right behind him.

“I don’t look pretty, jackass. You wish a haircut could make you look this good.”

Wyatt wrapped his arm around Maeve’s waist and brought her in for a deep kiss. She pulled back and looked up at him with stars in her eyes. The love they felt for each other was palpable, and I found myself happy that Wyatt had found that rather than annoyed by it.

Wyatt and Maeve were still figuring things out between them when Kayleigh and I broke up. They got together just afterward, and it had been pissing me off to see them together. It felt good to leave some of that behind, finally. Wyatt deserved to be happy, the way he stepped up when our mom died.

“Who’s the new guy?” Luke asked as he walked in with Sebastian Devereux.

Luke and Sebastian had been best friends since childhood and stayed friends over the years despite growing into totally different people.

Where Luke was a buttoned-up police officer, serious and rule-abiding, Sebastian was a tatted-up ladies’ man who thought of laws as more like suggestions.

“Christ, everyone’s a comedian today.” I threw my hands up. “I got a freaking haircut and a shave. It’s happened before. I don’t know why everyone is making such a big deal out of it.”

“It’s ’cause you looked like a fucking hobo before,” Wyatt piped up.

I pushed the hand mixer into his free hand and pulled Jane to me. “Fuck all of you. I’m taking the baby, you finish dinner.” I flashed my middle finger in the air and turned toward the living room.

Sheila walked into the kitchen just as I was walking out. “Well, don’t you look so handsome. Doesn’t he look handsome, Charlie?”

The room went silent for a split second before every one of them doubled over with laughter.

I closed my eyes and tried to take a breath, but my chest rumbled with the laugh that I was holding back. “Thank you, Sheila.”

As I walked past her, taking Jane with me to the living room, Sheila said, “I stepped into something there, didn’t I?”

The rest of the dinner went by with many further comments on my appearance.

My family liked to razz each other whenever they could, but they’d mostly left me alone since the breakup.

I didn’t think my attitude invited playful banter.

Now that they had an opening that didn’t set me off entirely, they took total advantage of it.

It was kind of nice to feel a little more like my old self again.

Thinking of Kayleigh could still send me into a tailspin, but it was getting easier to pull myself out of it recently.

Even seeing Georgie and Tom Ingram, Kayleigh’s parents, at Millie’s wasn’t as painful as it had been before.

Georgie had thought that Claire and I were together, and I didn’t get a chance to correct her.

It must have gotten back to Kayleigh by now.

Did it bother her to think of me with someone else?

No.

I wasn’t going there. It wasn’t any of her business who I was with, even if it wasn’t the truth.

The front door opened, and a moment later, Juliet came into the kitchen. She wore the same perpetual scowl on her face that she always did.

“Did you start eating dinner without me?” she asked Luke, indignation dripping from her tone.

Luke raised his brow. “I wasn’t sure what time you were going to be here. You told me you and Erin might be going out after the spa.”

“Well, we didn’t. Erin had things to do.”

“Okay.” Luke was using his de-escalation voice that he’d learned from his years on the force.

He looked around the room. The family table that used to hold everyone just fine was full now that Jane was in a high chair rather than being held on someone’s lap and Sebastian had joined us.

“Here. Sit down. I’ll make you a plate.”

Luke moved to give her his seat, but my good mood from earlier had vanished, thanks to Kayleigh getting in my head. I wasn’t sure what was worse, living in a shit relationship like Luke or thinking what you had was real, only to be blindsided that it wasn’t.

“I’m going to take off, actually. Thanks for dinner, Dad.” I held out my chair for Juliet.

“You don’t have to leave, man. I was done eating anyway.” Luke was also up from his chair, offering it to Juliet.

“No, I have work to do. Get things in order for next week and shit,” I said. “Have a good night.” I nodded my goodbyes, pausing to kiss Jane on the head, and left.

I took the long way home, hoping a drive would clear my head a bit. As I drove past the Cove’s End Motel, I thought I saw Claire’s car parked in front of a door that was probably supposed to be white at one time but was now stained yellow and rusting.

I shook my head. Yeah, right. Like Claire DeLuca would be caught dead in a shithole like that.

It crossed my mind to text her, maybe see if she wanted to grab a drink or something, but I didn’t.

She was already shocked every time I wasn’t a complete dick to her.

If we hung out tonight, I would put us right back to square one with my shitty mood.

I drove home instead, my thoughts a swirling mess of confusion as I tried, and failed, not to compare Kayleigh to Juliet to Claire.