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ever thought about. Usually, anyway. Except at the moment his mind was occupied by a

petite wildcat in lamb’s clothing.

“Heard she gave them a hard time,” Bob said, spitting tobacco juice into a nearby cup.

Jake smiled and leaned back in the chair. “Yeah, she sure did. Took them on with no

fear. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

And they’d well deserved it. Idiots. Bunch of grown men leering at a beautiful woman, and then shouting at her like teenagers out for a joyride to pick up chicks.

Not that he’d behaved any better. He shook his head, amazed at his own big mouth.

Like he didn’t have enough to worry about, he’d gone and asked the little tigress out on a

date. He was way out of his league with that one. But her snobbish attitude got to him.

“Just the kind of woman you need. Somebody with a little fire, maybe light one under your too-long-a-bachelor rear end.” Bob winked at him, the wrinkles around his

eyes smiling.

“I don’t need a woman at all.” Women were complications that he didn’t have time

for. And he especially didn’t need a woman like Lucy Fairchild. He’d spent his entire

childhood listening to someone rail at him about not being good enough, about not

measuring up.

His father’s constant barrage of degrading comments still lived inside him, just waiting for failure to rear its ugly head and prove his father’s words true. How he’d never

amount to anything. How he was useless and stupid, and as worthless as his mother.

Even years later, despite building a successful business, those words stayed with him, haunted him. They hid inside him, not growing, but never going away. He’d spent

all these years trying to prove his father wrong. He might be a blue collar worker, but

he’d make a success of his life.

“Come on, Bob. You know how busy I am. The last thing I have time for is a woman.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, boy.” Bob lifted his heavy girth out of the chair, which

creaked in relief at its offloaded burden. On the way past Jake’s desk, he squeezed his

shoulder. Jake looked up at him. “You’ve spent a lifetime runnin’ from that ghost of your

daddy. You need to put that to rest. It’s time to find a good woman who’ll appreciate

what you got to offer.”

Maybe Bob was right. Jake had spent all these years learning the trade, saving his money, working toward the day he could start his own business.

And when he had, he’d worked like the devil was chasing him trying to build it up.

Now he was thirty-five years old, and if he was going to get married and have kids, he

probably should get out there and find a woman.

But Lucy Fairchild certainly wasn’t going to be that woman.

“She’s not my type.”

Bob laughed and spit. “That’s what we all say. Right up until they lead us down the

aisle.”

“She’s a rich career girl. You know I don’t date girls like that.” He’d never let anyone make him feel the way his father had. No, he stuck to his own kind. Girls who

weren’t born into money, who wouldn’t look down on someone whose blood wasn’t blue

like theirs.

“Hey, you’re the one who asked her for a date. I guess you’re stuck.” True enough. Talk about a disaster. She’d probably expect some fancy, expensive restaurant that wasn’t in his budget. Too bad. She’d have to make do with the kind of

place he liked to eat.

“Lemme ask you a question,” Bob said.

“Shoot.”

“If this woman’s such a snob, if she stands for everything you hate, why did you ask

her to go out with you?”

“Hell if I know.”

But he did know. After Bob left the trailer, Jake sat at his desk and propped his feet

up.

He knew exactly why. Because she was gorgeous. The first thing he’d noticed were

her long legs and curvy body. Then her wild, curly hair that flew everywhere around her

face, the tawny strands glittering in the sunlight.

Plus, she was interested in him. He’d been with enough women to recognize when

one was attracted to him. Her sea green eyes had studied him, held him, measuring,

assessing.

Wanting.

He knew all about want. There were a lot of things he wanted in life. Some he’d managed to get. Some he hadn’t gotten yet, and some he never would.

Not a betting man, he’d still lay a wager that he could get Lucy Fairchild. Maybe not

permanently, but at least for a while. Which was all he had time or inclination for, anyway. Going out and having some fun with a woman was great. A woman who wanted

anything more from him could look elsewhere. He didn’t know what Lucy wanted.

Probably nothing. She didn’t even really want to go out with him in the first place, any

more than he’d wanted to go out with her.

The fact she wore a painful vulnerability on her face like some women wore hot red

lipstick wasn’t his problem. If he spotted something in her akin to the aching loneliness

he occasionally acknowledged within himself, then tough. He wasn’t her savior.

As it

was, he could barely save himself.

She represented nothing but a challenge. And he liked challenges.

So, he’d show up at her doorstep tonight and see what happened. Take the rich girl

out and show her a slice of life she’d probably never seen before. If nothing else, the

night should be interesting.

Chapter Two

Lucy glanced at the grandfather clock in the front hallway and wrung her hands, mentally reviewing the speech she’d planned to give Jake when he showed up.

She wasn’t going out with him. Making that date with him today had been a huge mistake, and one she chalked up to a mind too preoccupied by her father’s notion of

marrying her off. She hadn’t had her wits about her and stupidly agreed to a date she now

had no intention of keeping.

It would be a waste of both their time. They had nothing in common, and she had too

many other things on her mind to dally with a construction worker. No matter how sexy

said construction worker was.

She tamped down butterflies that