Tangled in Tinsel: The Celebration Series, Book 1

Ididn’t just see the most beautiful woman alive completely naked, did I? Holy crap, I did, and she knew it.

“She didn’t have any clothes on!” Tommy screeched beside me.

“Come on,” I ushered Tommy to the back door as quickly as I could.

“But she was naked! Gross!”

I laughed as I walked him inside. We had been out back for a few minutes looking up at the dark sky, searching for falling stars. It was something that he loved to do every night I was home and the sky was clear.

Once inside, Tommy took off to find his mother. “Mommy, our neighbor was naked, and we saw her!”

Corrine’s eyebrows lifted high, and Tommy launched himself onto the couch next to her. “You were spying on our new neighbor?”

I leaned against the wall between the kitchen and living room area. “No, we were walking back up to the house, she came out of her bathroom and dropped her towel. She had no idea we were out there.”

“But she saw us,” Tommy added.

“What?”

I shrugged, “I guess we got close enough to the house that the motion light triggered. When she saw the light flash on, she looked out and must have seen us standing there. She dropped to the floor.”

Corrine burst out laughing. “Well, did you at least enjoy the view?” she asked me with a sly grin.

“No, it was gross,” Tommy reiterated while I wiggled my eyebrows.

“Come on, little stud, let’s go get you ready for bed. It’s past your bedtime.”

“What’s a little stud?” Tommy eyed me critically as if he were weighing my words to be either good or bad.

Corrine muffled a laugh behind her hand while I thought for a moment, “Um, how about we discuss that another time. Come on, let’s get you to bed.” I hustled him off while playing back the scene I’d witnessed through the glass. She was spectacular.

The image of her and the conversation we’d had earlier filled my mind the entire time I got Tommy ready for bed. Casey was an amazing woman, determined to do things on her own, but still willing to let someone help her if she needed it. I liked that. I liked that a whole lot.

The next morning, my alarm went off at five, and I climbed out of bed and took a quick shower. I couldn’t wait to spend the day with Casey. It didn’t matter that she probably wasn’t interested in me as a man; I was interested enough for both of us. If nothing else came out of it, I knew we would end up being good friends.

At a quarter after five, I jumped in my Jeep and drove down to the local bakery that opened at five each morning and picked up two muffins, two Danishes, and two chocolate donuts, all still warm from the ovens.

At five-thirty on the dot, I knocked on Casey’s front door, my toolbox at my feet and our breakfast in the white bakery box resting on my palm.

The door jerked open, and I tried to push the memory of her standing naked out of my mind. As hard as I tried, I felt like I had x-ray vision as I took in the baggy sweatpants and sweatshirt. She couldn’t hide that amazing body behind baggy clothes anymore—not from me.

“Well, aren’t you the prompt one?” she said as she held the door open and refused to make eye contact. “Come in.”

“Good morning, Casey, how are you this morning?” I asked as I picked up my toolbox and walked into the house. “I got us some breakfast on my way over.”

Casey closed the door behind me. “Since when is there a store between your house and mine?” She looked my way, but didn’t meet my eyes. Obviously, she was extremely uncomfortable about last night, so I needed to nip that in the bud real quick.

“No, I ran down to the bakery and picked up some things. I can smell the coffee, so let’s eat one of these while they’re warm and talk about our game plan.”

She relaxed at my suggestion, and I followed her into the kitchen after I set my toolbox down. “Those smell good. How do you like your coffee?” She stretched up on tiptoes, her sweatshirt lifting and revealing a small patch of skin on her lower back. Oh man, this was going to be brutal.

“A little sugar, no cream.” I cleared my throat and broached, “About last night—”

She held her hand up, her back stiff as it faced me, “I don’t want to talk about last night.”

“Casey,” I waited two seconds, but when she didn’t turn or respond I continued, “turn around and look at me, please.”

She hesitated, but finally turned, her mouth in a stern line.

“You’re a beautiful woman, and yes, I am going to admit that I was staring at you through the window. It’s not often that a gorgeous woman is completely naked in front of me. I know I shouldn’t have been staring, but you surprised the hell out of me when you sauntered in and dropped the towel.”

She cringed, “I did not saunter.”

“Yeah, actually you did,” I said around a bite of my muffin.

She pegged me with a tight look. “I did not saunter. I merely was relaxed and walked into the room. How the hell was I supposed to know that peeping Toms would be outside?” She filled the coffee while I waited. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”

I laughed, “I’m not, but I am sorry that we surprised you,” I shrugged, “and just so you know, Tommy thought it was gross.”

Casey laughed as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“So how about we forget it happened? I’ve seen plenty of naked people in my job, as I know you have working in an ER. Let’s just let it slide and move on.” I reached for the cup as she set it on the counter.

“Fine, thank you,” she stated.

“I will tell you one thing, though,” she looked over her shoulder at me as she reached for the coffee pot, “curtains are the first thing I’m putting on the list of supplies for your house.”

And just like that, the tension was broken as we both laughed. We spent a good twenty minutes plotting out the day and eating breakfast. Good thing I got a selection, because out of the six things I had purchased, four of them were already gone, and it was not even six A.M. I was glad that Casey was not the type of girl to not eat in front of a man. In fact, she devoured the food and made little purring noises and moans as she went along. I tried not to put the picture of her last night and those sounds together, but it was really difficult.

I cleared my throat, “We need to move your furniture to one side so we can start with the carpet. That’s going to be the hard job, and once we get the carpet up, you can start pulling the staples while I start cutting out that piece of wall.”

“Do you do this stuff often?” she asked as she popped the last piece of her donut into her mouth.

“I help out where I can.” I got up and filled my coffee mug, turning back and topping off her mug, too. “You want more cream?”

“Yeah, just a little bit.” She didn’t seem to have a problem with me making myself at home, so I went into her fridge. You could tell a lot about a person by his or her refrigerator. Of course, she had only been to the store once, but what lined the shelves were the important things for her.

She had several bottles of flavored creamer, soy milk, mayo, mustard, eggs, and her hydrator looked full of fruits and vegetables. “What, no ketchup?” I asked as I closed the door.

“You want ketchup in your coffee?” A confused look crossed her face, and I barked out a quick laugh.

“No, I was checking out what was important to you, the staples that you bought, and there is no ketchup.”

“I’m not a big fan of it.” She shrugged. Okay, one thing to remember I thought to myself.

“You ready to get to work?” I asked while I glanced around her living room.

We moved most of the furniture out of the room. At one point, I walked back to her bedroom with an end table. I stood at the door and stared at the bed, it was lying on the floor, no frame under it; the frame was propped up in the corner. Another thing to add to the list.

Once the furniture was out of the way, I pulled out two dust masks from my toolbox I’d filled last night with all the equipment I figured we would need today. With the carpet smelling this funky, I could only imagine what the dust would do to us.

“It’s probably safer if we don’t inhale this stuff.” I tossed one over to her and watched as she pulled it on without question. Man, if this had been Corrine, she would have put up a huge fuss about wearing the mask, but then again, Corrine never would have helped with these kinds of things.

We started with one corner. Casey held up the edge while I began cutting it with a sharp box cutter.

“Why are you cutting it there? Wouldn’t it be easier to roll the whole thing up at once?” Her voice was muffled behind the mask and I stared at her bright blue eyes. They were so freaking gorgeous that they made my dick jump in my pants.

“Easier maybe, heavier yes. We cut it into three-foot strips to make it easier to manage,” I replied as I went back to my task. As we rolled away the top layer of carpet, we found the beaten mat practically flattened to a pancake against the flooring and stained in a ton of spots.

“This is gross. I wish I had taken this out before I had even moved in.”

“It would have been easier, but if you had done that, you wouldn’t have had my help.” I winked at her because I knew she couldn’t see my smile.

She laughed as she continued to roll up the pieces as I cut them. An hour later, we had the carpet and padding up and started on the laborious job of pulling up all the staples.

“You weren’t kidding when you said there were going to be a lot of these. It looks like they put a staple every six inches!” She yanked another one up using a pair of pliers I had given her.

“It does seem that way.” I pulled out another few pieces. “Do you mind if I start working on the wall? I’d like to get that section cut out so we know what we are looking at. That way we can get to the hardware store to pick up the supplies right after lunch.”

“Yeah, go ahead, I’ll keep plugging along.” As we worked, Casey and I shared stories about our jobs—humorous events that happened out on the streets and inside the sterile environment of the hospital. Ironically, she had more funny stories than I did, and I loved listening to her talk.

“Shit,” I muttered as I pulled the wallboard back and it crumbled at my feet. A pungent sweet odor wafted out from the cavity.

“What?” she asked from her kneeling position on the other side of the room.

I looked back at her, “It’s worse than I thought it was going to be, or at least as bad as I hoped it wouldn’t be.”

Her voice grew pensive. “Crap, how bad?”

Since this was an interior wall, there was no insulation, but the boards on the opposite side were covered in black. “What’s on the other side?”

“My office.” She came over to me. “It’s not supposed to be black, is it?”

I shook my head in the negative. “Looks like it was leaking for a while. The wallboard on the other side needs to be replaced, too.”

She sighed, “I’m sorry.”

I laughed, “Why are you apologizing? You didn’t ask for this.”

“Yeah, but I feel guilty that you’re doing so much work.” She peered up at me, her eyes shining brightly as they met mine.

The urge to run my fingers over her cheek and pull her to me crashed through me, and I reached for another piece of wallboard instead. “If I didn’t want to help, I wouldn’t have offered, Casey.”

“I know, but—” she started to speak, but I turned to her and interrupted her.

“No buts, I said I would help you, and I’m going to.” A crease marred her perfect brow, and if my hands hadn’t been so dirty, I would have brushed a thumb over them. “You go back to pulling those staples. I’m going to cut more of this out, and then work on the other side.”

She began to turn away, then stopped and looked back at me. “Why are you helping me?”

“’Cause I’m that kind of guy.” I winked at her—and I want so damned bad to get to know you that it almost hurts.