The Renovation: A Reverse Harem Romance Read online

  Smart move on the client’s part, if you asked me. Not to brag, but we were good at what we did.

  “Tanner? Tanner, are you here with us? Hello?”

  It was Marilyn again. Giving me shit. Kicking the old balls. I shifted in my chair, partly to make sure the boys were still there.

  “Sorry, Marilyn. Was just thinking about the tampon client from earlier today.”

  Big lie. But it sounded damn good.

  “Anyway…yes, we need to run ads in all the automotive magazines and websites…”

  When five o’clock hit, people starting popping their heads into my office.

  “Tanner, you coming with?”

  “Hey, why are you still at your desk? Let’s go.”

  “Dude, beers on the company. Whatcha waitin’ for?”

  “I’ll be right there. Save me a seat,” I yelled after them. I had another email to finish, and then I wanted to see if Jayma was really going like she said she was.

  When everyone in the office was gone, I went out to find her, but her spot was empty. She’d either headed out with the rest of the gang or had blown off happy hour.

  I took a sec to check out her desk. She had a picture of herself with another woman who had several dogs on leashes. Must have been a friend.

  Then something caught my eye. It was a letter from a bank.

  Normally, I would never snoop on someone’s desk, but this thing was just sitting out in the open, like Jayma had meant to stuff it in her bag and forgot. And I couldn’t lie. I read the first couple lines in the letter. It was something about being late on a mortgage payment.

  I looked around the office to make sure I was alone, and then turned the paper so I could read it better.

  Holy shit. A house that she had a mortgage on was going to be foreclosed because she’d not been making payments. Man that sucked. Left me with a bit of a pit in my stomach. I mean, people need to pay their bills and so forth, but anyone could fall on hard times. And I would not wish something like that on my worst enemy—if I had one.

  Okay, so now I felt like total fucking shit for reading this poor woman’s letter, which was absolutely none of my damn business. How was I going to look at her now, knowing what I did?

  Five minutes later I walked into Belden’s, where happy hour was in full swing. It was a cozy little place with good bar food and cheap happy hour beer, which is probably why the company agreed to spring for a social hour. Who was I to complain?

  And I’m embarrassed to admit it, but the moment I got there, all I wanted to do was see Jayma. My curiosity about the girl who wanted to move up in advertising, but who also owned a house that was being foreclosed on, was ruling the moment.

  I mean, how does a receptionist afford a house, anyway?

  There was definitely more to what met the eye with this one and my curiosity—not to mention libido—were piqued.

  Chapter 5

  JAYMA

  Fuckers. I’d known nothing about goddamn happy hour until Tanner spilled the beans when he was nosing around the reception area. I might be the lowly receptionist, but that didn’t make it okay to forget to include me in the office social activities.

  The nice thing about being annoyed with my coworkers was that it pushed my home problems to the bottom of my worry pile. I could only get upset over one thing at a time. Well, maybe two things. But I wasn’t about to make myself more miserable than I already was.

  Anyway, so that no one would ever forget to include me again, I was doing my best to be the life of the party. I was making the rounds speaking with everyone from the top executives down to the—well, I was the lowest person on the totem pole. Still, I wormed my way into conversations people were having, chipped in a few witticisms, and was sure to laugh hard when everyone else did. If I was going to move up the ladder, I had to make sure I was on everyone’s radar, right?

  I spotted the owner and founder of the agency elbowing his way up to the bar for a refill. I dumped the people I was talking to—or should I say listening to, since I didn’t have much to contribute anyway—and pushed my way into position next to him.

  “Oh, hi, Mr. Renner!” I said, as if he was the last person in the world I thought I might run into that night.

  He looked around, and when his gaze settled on me, he seemed confused for a second.

  Oh, for heaven’s sake. He didn’t know who I was. Or maybe he did, but not well enough to place my face when out of the office.

  Jerk.

  “Hello…” he said, as if he were leaving a blank for me to fill in with my name.

  “Jayma. Jayma Kersey,” I told him.

  “Yes! Jane! Right.”

  Should I have corrected him? Because I couldn’t bring myself to.

  Seemed he had nothing else to say.

  But that was okay, because I was ready and willing to fill the void.

  “Mr. Renner,” I said, trying not to stare at what I was pretty sure a bad toupee, “thank you for inviting us all tonight. It’s really a lot of fun.”

  Okay, that was a lie. But it was only wise to thank the person picking up the check, right?

  “You’re welcome, Jane. I hope you have fun.” He looked around, probably for someone he’d rather talk to besides me. Couldn’t say I blamed him.

  There was a tap on my shoulder. I whipped around to see who it was and gave Mr. Renner the chance to escape that he’d been looking for.

  “Hey, Tanner.” I wonder if he was going to call me Jane, too.

  “Jayma. Cheers.” He clinked his glass against mine.

  I had to admit, he was adorable in that Clark Kent/Superman sort of way with short, tidy hair, and somewhat nerdy glasses. I could just see the tip of a tattoo peeking out from his shirt collar and several closed up piercings on his ears. Was he a closet bad boy?

  Anyhow, I don’t know what the hell he was doing talking to me. He’d never paid much attention to me before.

  Wait. Maybe he was sensing my tremendous potential?

  I clicked into networking mode.

  “So, Tanner, I heard you were put on the new account. The tampon one.”

  He rolled his eyes, then quickly looked around to make sure no one saw. He lowered his voice. “Yeah, can you fucking believe it? I mean, what do I know about tampons?” He blushed for a moment. Like it hurt to say tampon.

  Whoa. He was confiding in me. I didn’t understand this change in behavior, but I was going to work it.

  I looked around too, out of respect for his desire for secrecy. “I know, right. Kind of weird to have a dude working on feminine hygiene products.” I figured I could say dude since he so freely dropped the F-bomb.

  He pointed to the stool behind me and plopped on one himself. Was he suddenly my buddy?

  As I sat, he leaned closer. I looked around to see if anyone was paying attention.

  He smelled nice. Kind of like something pine-ish and clean. Hair gel? He looked like he might wear hair gel.

  “It was so freaking weird. Listening to my coworkers talk about…you know.”

  Geez. He couldn’t say the word period? Well, this was my big chance to help him.

  “Look. It’s a natural thing. You’ll get used to it.” I nodded with authority. I mean, I had been getting periods since I was thirteen, so I knew something about the subject.

  “Yeah. Well, I hope so.” He did not look convinced.

  Ugh. Bob from finance had just arrived at the gathering. I looked away quickly so I wouldn’t have to say hi.

  Tanner waved over the bartender for another round. “So what about you?” He leaned back and studied me.

  “Me? What do you mean?” Which part of my sucky life was he inquiring about?

  “You know. How’s life as a receptionist at an exciting ad agency?”

  Was he freaking kidding? I transferred calls, opened mail, kissed asses. Got paid shit.

  Stay positive. Smile.

  “Oh, well, it’s interesting. I mean, I get to meet all sorts of people.”

>   That was sort of true. I saw the mayor one time. Not sure he saw me, though.

  “But,” I continued, “I’d really like to do some account work.”

  “That’s great. You can’t be a receptionist forever. How ‘bout this?” he asked. “I can give you a couple things to work on, basic things—nothing big—but we’ll see how you like them.”

  “Oh, wow, that would be great. I’d really appreciate that.” Hell, yes.

  “Yeah, you know another—”

  “Hey, guys,” Bob said from behind us. Of course, we turned around.

  “Hey,” Tanner said.

  Bob looked around with an air of excitement. I wondered if he realized he needed to trim his nose hairs? Just imagine how hairy his back would be. Ugh.

  “This place is great!” He leaned close enough to breathe on us. “And when the company’s paying for drinks, even better!”

  He must have had tuna fish for lunch.

  “Bob, did you get your stuff straightened out?” I asked him.

  Guilt washed over his face.

  He looked down at his beer. “Yeah. Yeah, I did. Sorry for being an asshole. I was under a lot of pressure.”

  Tanner clapped him on the back. “Happens to all of us.” He got off his barstool and stood to his full height.

  What was that all about?

  “And, Bob. Next time I hear you raising your voice to Jayma, or anyone else in the office, you’ll have to answer to me.”

  Dayum, as they say.

  I could swear some beer sloshed out of Bob’s cup.

  “You got it, Tanner.” He grimaced and walked away.

  Tanner sat back down and pushed his glasses up on his nose. Nothing like a combo badass geek.

  “You can’t really do anything to him, can you?” I asked as soon as Bob was out of earshot.

  He frowned. “No, of course I can’t do anything. But he doesn’t know that.”

  Oh my god. This guy was a baller. Definitely wanted him on my team. Or to be on his. Whatever.

  And just as I was wondering if he knew how to fix up old, run-down houses, he dropped his bomb.

  “Anyway. I was gonna ask you before Bob came over if you’d like to have lunch sometime. You know, sort of like a date.”

  Oh. Oh my.

  Now it was my turn to look around and make sure no one was nearby.

  “Um, well. I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. I mean, since we work together and all.”

  But damn, he was awesome. Maybe I could quit and get a job somewhere else and then I could have lunch with him. The way he looked at me, like I was really something special, made my heart pound. And forget about how Lance had just walked.

  He pursed his lips and nodded slowly. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Probably not a good idea. Well then, let’s just have lunch as work friends. We can try out that fancy new place down the street.”

  Darn. I was actually hoping he’d try to convince me there was nothing wrong with dating a coworker. So much for that.

  “Yeah, that would be great. I’ve been dying to go there.”

  “Okay. We’ll do it.”

  Now it was my turn to ask some questions.

  “What about you? How do you like your work at the agency?”

  He took a deep breath. “Well, I love it. It’s a great job. But my hours are long, and I never seem to get to take a vacation. So that sort of sucks.”

  He was looking at me like he wanted to say something else. Like he knew me in a way that was impossible considering we’d barely had one conversation, let alone discussed anything meaningful.

  I stood up from my barstool. I wanted to get out before the alcohol had me spilling my guts. “Well, I gotta hit the road. It was great talking to you, Tanner. Thank you for the encouragement. It really means a lot.”

  I wanted to shake his hand, but that seemed ridiculously formal. So, I reached up and gave him a mini-hug. I didn’t care if anyone saw. It was way better than a handshake anyway.

  Chapter 6

  WYATT

  I’d never seen such a mess.

  In all the years I’d worked as a plumber, with all the nastiness I’d had to fix, I had never seen a mess like the one that was Deer Plumbing’s financials.

  On top of that, numbers were not really my strong suit, so that made things even worse. But I was determined to learn. I had to learn, now that Dad was in the final stages of Alzheimer’s.

  I’d been backpacking somewhere on the other side of the world—I can’t remember exactly where—when I’d checked email and found an urgent message from my mother. Could I come home?

  Was I in Thailand? Or was it Cambodia? Anyway.

  I got the first flight home that I could. Dad had fallen and bumped his head. Mom wouldn’t usually have called me home for something like that. When you work in the trades like my dad did, you got hurt every once in a while. It was expected.

  But he wasn’t getting better. They checked him for a brain injury, but all the tests came back negative.

  That’s when our family doctor found Dad had Alzheimer’s.

  He was the hub of our family, a real high-quality man, and my biggest supporter. To say it was devastating didn’t begin to describe it. I knew the road ahead was not going to be easy. And that included taking over the family business.

  I’d tinkered in plumbing for as long as I could remember. But I hadn’t intended to do it as a career. After my travels, I’d planned to go back to college.

  So much for that.

  Now, I was dealing with unpaid tax bills from years gone by. Dad had not really been one to worry about the details. He just wanted to make sure his customers were taken care of. Hell, he didn’t really even care if they paid him or not, I realized as I faced a shoebox full of unpaid invoices.

  My cell rang, and I saw it was my mother. “Mom.”

  “Hi, honey. Are you still at work?”

  “Yup. Just trying to sort out some of the finances.”

  “Well, a call came in from a customer. Sounds like an emergency.”

  “Okay. Text me the number, and I’ll call them right away.”

  Yes. The bookkeeping could wait.

  It was a straightforward house call. No hot water.

  The poor homeowner… When I told her she was going to need a new hot water heater, she looked like she was going to cry. Although to be honest, almost every time I gave someone news like that, they looked like they were going to cry. Women, men, it didn’t matter. No one wanted to spend their hard-earned cash on something as utilitarian as a new hot water heater.

  But hey, if you want hot water, you’ve got to have something to heat it with.

  “How much will that be?” Her eyes were hopeful.

  I ran my hand through my hair to stall. From the looks of the house, it was pretty darn obvious she was operating on a tight budget. In fact, I was kind of surprised what a dump the place was. What the hell was she doing living there?

  Before I could answer, her cell rang.

  “Excuse me, one sec, please.”

  She scurried off, giving me the chance to admire her tight little body and wavy red hair. I’d never been a redhead sort of guy, but she was hot as hell in what I guess were her work clothes—a clingy little dress and some low-cut boots.

  I took a second to look around the kitchen. I had to say, the place had great potential. It would be fun to breathe some life into it.

  “Okay, got that taken care of. Now, where were we?” she asked.

  Shit, she had the most perfect splay of freckles across her nose. And those dark eyes. Such a contrast against her pale skin.

  “Right. Well, a new hot water heater, installed, will run you about fifteen hundred bucks.”

  She swallowed hard. “Really?” she said in a small voice.

  “I’m afraid so. Do you own the place?”

  Of course she owned it. No one would rent a place like that.

  She nodded. “Yep. It’s all on me. No landlord to go to.”


  The way her shoulders slumped just about killed me.

  “I might be able to work on it a bit, see what I can do.”

  “Really? You could do that? Oh, that would be great.” She gestured toward the kitchen sink piled high with dishes.

  She must have seen me looking at some fresh cookies sitting on a cooling rack. “Hey, want a couple butter cookies? And I can make you some coffee.”

  Now, she was talking.

  I set to work to find out if there was anything salvageable about the hot water heater. Honestly, it should have been replaced awhile back, but no one ever did that until they were in dire straits. Couldn’t say I blamed them. You can do a lot more fun things with fifteen hundred bucks than buy household appliances.

  I guessed she didn’t have anything else to do, at least not until she had hot water, because she pulled up a stool and started chatting while I worked.

  “So, when did you take over for your dad?”

  “Um, pretty much in the last year.”

  “I was sorry to hear about his Alzheimer’s. Your mother told me when I called.”

  I stole a glance at her sympathetic face. God, she was gorgeous.

  “Thank you. I hadn’t planned on taking over the business from him, but what can you do? Duty calls.”

  She nodded. “What would you be doing if you hadn’t taken it over?”

  Boy, I’d spent a lot of time thinking about this one.

  “Well, I’d had plans to travel through South America. I’d already spent a bunch of time in Southeast Asia.”

  “You’re a wanderer!”

  I took a gulp of the coffee she’d given me. “Yup, I am. I mean, I was. That’s all behind me now.” I hated the way that sounded. Shit.

  “No, no, no. You’ll get back out there some day. You’re not trapped. I’m trapped.” She looked down at her hands.

  “What do you mean you’re trapped?” It was as if a dark cloud had floated over her pretty face.