SEAL the Deal(32)
Mick stood. “This is so unfair, you’re driving me to drink. Can I get you anything, Jack? Beer? More chips?” he asked, pointedly ignoring Bess’s empty soda can and Lacey’s depleted wine glass.
“Fine. I’ll get ours,” Lacey muttered. “Another ginger ale, Bess?”
Bess nodded her thanks.
Lacey let the screen door slam behind her as she entered the kitchen. “You are a poor loser, Mick.”
“Military guys don’t like it when we’re not winning. Works to our advantage in war. Besides, I haven’t lost yet.”
“Yeah, but to resort to making up words.”
“Unsafes is a word.” Mick moved quickly to corner her in front of the open refrigerator. He gazed down at her, his lips not more than an inch from hers. “‘The lady suddenly felt unsafes in the aroused officer’s presence.’ Unsafes: the plural of unsafe when you feel very, very unsafe.” There was a playful, daring flash in his eyes. For exactly ten seconds, they both said nothing, knowing exactly what should happen next, and knowing it wouldn’t.
Jack called in from the back porch. “Hey, Maeve is claiming a zovare is a kind of window treatment. Z-O-V-A-R-E. Do I challenge her?”
Lacey’s eyes never wavered from Mick’s. “It’s a word. Zovare. My mom used to have those in our family room,” she called into Jack.
“Do I trust her, Mick?”
His eyes still locked on Lacey’s, Mick studied her. “Trust her. She’s beyond reproach.”
Sucker, Lacey thought. Zovare? That made-up word probably pushed Maeve well into the lead with that Z and V. Stepping back onto the porch, she shared a conspiratorial look with Maeve and glanced down at the score sheet. 54-point word with the triple word score space falling behind Maeve’s A tile. Not bad for a bluff.
“Girls are in the lead,” Maeve gloated.
Mick grunted, and seemed resigned to change the subject. “So what’s the next step on the house renovation, Maeve?”
“Solarium. The guys are coming to blast a hole in my family room wall soon. There was a bit of a delay because of the permits. Damn bureaucracy.”
“What the hell is a solarium?”
“A room with lots of glass—you know—like a sunroom. For plants.”
“I didn’t know you had a green thumb,” Jack said, placing three letter tiles on the game board.
“I don’t. But I had a client in DC who has a solarium. It was gorgeous, all sunny and bright and filled with orchids and exotic plants. I just knew I had to have one.”
Jack cocked his head. “So you know nothing about plants, but you’re building an entire addition for them?”
“I’ll learn.” Maeve cast Jack a sharp look. “And it’s a small addition. They’ll be breaking ground on it later this month.”
“Handpicked the crew yourself, right, Maeve?” Lacey smiled.
Maeve batted her eyes innocently. “Now what on earth are you insinuating?”
“Oh, I don’t know. It’s just that any time you hire anyone, they’re very, well—”
“Built,” Bess offered. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many hot men before in my life. And that lawnmower guy?”
All three women let out discerning sighs.
“Did you ever catch a look at him when he first revs up the motor? The way his muscles all bunch up? Oh, God.” Lacey fanned herself.
Looking annoyed and more than a little jealous, Jack and Mick slouched in their chairs.
“Don’t remind me,” Maeve said sadly. “He told me last week that he’s leaving Annapolis. I don’t know who I’ll get to mow the lawn.”
“Is that the guy I saw over here on Thursday evening?” Mick asked.
“Mmhm.”
“Well, that explains it.”
“Explains what?” Jack asked with sudden interest.
Mick let out a low laugh. “I pulled up to the house, and I see Maeve handing some sweaty guy with no shirt a stack of bills.”
Lacey laughed. “Why didn’t you just ask who he was?”
Mick threw his hands up. “Hey, if Maeve is paying cash to some guy who looks like an underwear model, I’m not asking questions. Not my business.”
Jack shifted uncomfortably. “So he’s not coming back?”
“Nope. I’ll just have to rely on the kindness of strangers.” Maeve pulled out a little of the Southern drawl from her youth.
“Don’t look at me,” Jack said. “I’m not mowing your lawn without some sort of payment in return.”
Maeve rolled her eyes, and then set her sights on Mick.
“Look elsewhere. Between my family’s house growing up, and four years of mowing Doc and Mrs. B’s lawn, I’m done with landscaping till I get a house of my own.”