“Not necessarily. What do you think I do first when I land a new job?”
“I have no idea.”
“I learn those plans inside and out. I don’t just show up and start banging nails.”
She laughed, which she hadn’t expected to do with him. “You don’t?”
“Nope. You heard the part about me being a professional engineer, right? I do know how to read a set of plans, and yours were exceptional.”
“Really?”
Nodding, he said, “You did a great job of melding the new portion of the inn with the historical elements of the remaining portion and bringing the building up to current code.”
“That was my goal. I’m glad you liked what I did.”
“My biggest concern when Mrs. Hendricks told me she was bringing in an architect from Boston was that the new inn wouldn’t fit the aesthetic of the town.”
“Before I did anything, I spent days researching the town, the inn, its history. I even read about Admiral Butler and your family’s store. I came and took photos and explored every corner of the town and the area. I did my research.”
“I’m impressed.”
“I can’t believe you thought the Boston architect would just phone in a job like this.”
“I didn’t think that. Exactly.”
“Right…” The cab was dark, so he couldn’t see her roll her eyes to high heaven. “Well, now you know that’s not what I did. And PS, that fireplace was off by six inches.”
“Yes, it was. I already conceded that one to you.”
“And the order from the lumberyard was off by ten percent.”
He looked over at her. “Was it?”
“Yep. Fortunately, we hadn’t touched it yet, so I was able to prove to the yard that they shorted us.”
“Huh. Well, sorry about that.”
“I didn’t ask you not to sign for stuff because I don’t trust you. I did it because the budget is on my shoulders, and I need to be aware of what’s coming in and making sure it matches up with the order.”
“I’ve been duly chastised.”
“If it weren’t for the fact that Butler is a cell phone never-never land, this wouldn’t have happened. You could’ve called me, I could’ve told you what I ordered, and you could’ve confirmed it was correct before you signed. But it doesn’t work that way around here.”
“You get used to it.”
“I will never get used to being without my phone during the day.”
“Soon enough, we’ll have Wi-Fi working at the inn again, and you’ll be back in business.”
“Somewhat. Being here is still like stepping out of the twenty-first century into the stone ages.”
“Now, that’s not true. We don’t have cell service. That doesn’t mean we’re stone-aged.”
“Yes, it does! You don’t even know how the rest of the world works.”
“I do know. Believe it or not, I get off this mountain once in a while and venture into the real world. I even own a cell phone.”
“Gasp,” she said. “You do not!”
“I do, too. I bought it last year when I was working in Rutland and driving back and forth, figuring I ought to have a way to call for help if my truck broke down.”
“What do you do with it?”
“Stuff.”
She snorted with laughter. “You can’t do a damned thing with it in this town.”
“I know it might surprise you to hear that I don’t spend my entire life in this town. The Butler Inn is the first project I’ve had inside Butler itself in two years. I do stuff all over the Northeast Kingdom as well as other parts of Vermont.”
“Wow, you’re a regular man of the world.”
“Yes, I am. You did hear me say I lived in SoCal for six years, right? I became a regular cell phone professional during those years.”
“I’m suitably impressed.”
“Gee, thanks. Impressing you was my only goal tonight.”
She turned in her seat so she could better see him. “You set goals for tonight? What’re the others?”
The low rumble of laughter coming from him felt like a victory. Brianna had discovered he didn’t laugh or smile very often. “I walked right into that trap, didn’t I?”
“You did. So are there other goals?”
“Mostly, I hoped to survive dinner and get home as quickly as possible.” He turned on the windshield wipers to contend with the sudden onset of snow. “But so far, I’ve discovered you’re not completely awful away from work.”
“Oh gosh, that’s like the best compliment I’ve ever received. Did you get that from a book on how to charm a difficult woman?”
“I wasn’t aware that I was trying to charm you.”
“Yeah, charm isn’t one of your talents.”
“You’ve noticed my other talents? What are they?”
“Hmm, let me think. You operate a mean nail gun. You appear to be quite talented in the area of grumpiness and surliness. Let’s see.” She tapped her chin. “What else?”
“That’s more than enough, thank you very much.”
“Why are you so cranky? Were you always that way?”
His grip on the steering wheel tightened ever so slightly, but she noticed. “Not always.”
“What happened?”
“Life happened.”
“Ah, yes. Good old life. She can be a bitch when she wants to be, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“You want to talk about it?”
“God, no.”
“With me or anyone?” she asked.
“Anyone. What’s the point of talking about shit that happened years ago?”
“There’s no point unless the past is affecting your present. I learned that in therapy.”
He took his eyes off the winding road for a second to glance at her. “What else did you learn in therapy?”
“That until you deal with the past, the present is always going to be a bit of a mess.”
“Is your present a mess?”
“Kinda. I’m working on fixing that, but these things take time. That’s the one good thing about being here. It gets me away from the crap I left at home.”
“I don’t want to be curious about you, but alas…”
“Ah-ha,” she said with a laugh. “You just can’t help yourself, can you?”
“Easy, slugger. I said I was curious. That’s a long way from intrigued or enthralled.”
“FYI, intrigued and enthralled mean the same thing. Just like curious and interested mean the same thing.”
“I’m not interested.”
“But you are curious. Intriguing.”
“You’re starting to irritate me again.”
“I wasn’t aware that I’d ever stopped irritating you.”
“You didn’t, but you started irritating me less.”
She laughed again, surprised to be having way more fun than she’d expected to, and they weren’t even to their destination yet. “Where is this place we’re going, anyway?”
“Coming up in a mile or so.”