Kayla let go and ran over to her bed, pulling her laptop into her lap. I smiled and backed out of the room into the hallway, feeling like a million bucks. Ryan walked quietly ahead of me, and I followed him down into the kitchen. I stood there for a moment, watching him pace with a smile on his face. He must have been feeling the same exhilaration from Kayla’s response that I was. He walked over and wrapped his arms around me, squeezing me tightly as I laid my head against his chest. He pulled away and stepped back, shaking his head and still smiling.
“That is insane,” he said in disbelief. “That is the happiest I have seen my daughter since before the divorce. I mean, I knew that this would help her, but I didn’t realize that it would jumpstart that beautiful little soul inside of her. She is truly happy about this whole thing. I can’t even begin to tell you how ecstatic I am to have brought you into our lives. You truly have made a huge difference.”
“Aww,” I said, moved by his words. “Kayla’s
hug was all I needed to remind me how important all of this is to you and her. She has really made an impact on my life, and that hug was like the best thing that has ever happened between her and me. Maybe she will begin to be herself again, and maybe she and I could actually have a relationship. Thank you, Ryan.”
“Thank me? For what?”
“For bringing me into your lives.” I laughed.
“You seriously have the biggest heart ever.” He chuckled. “You are the one that is saving Kayla and me. We should be thanking you.”
“Well, let’s just say that maybe we are saving each other,” I replied, my cheeks blushing.
“I think you might be right,” he said, looking over at me.
If the hug didn’t do it, that sultry stare did. I was in way over my head, but I didn’t feel like I was drowning at all. In fact, I felt more comfortable at that moment than I had my entire life.
Chapter Eleven
Ryan
When I decided to redecorate, I was more than happy to volunteer my time, especially since it meant I would get to spend time with Alissa. One thing that I completely neglected to realize was the fact that in order to transform the house, I would first need to get all the old stuff out. Alissa showed up bright and early, right after the school bus had taken Kayla off to school. Kayla wanted to stay and help so badly, which made me feel better, considering she wasn’t taking the redecoration too hard. When Alissa arrived, she was carrying two cups of coffee and was more awake than I was on my best day. She came bopping through the kitchen, smiling at me as she laid out her plan of attack. I grumbled into my coffee with sleepy eyes and smiled as she looked up at me with her hands on her hips.
We spent the entire day moving everything out of the house for the truck to pick up. She had arranged for a custom shop to pick all of our old things up, minus the art, and have it put on consignment at their shop in the city. The art was actually quickly scooped up, and I mean quickly, as in hours after she left the day before, by a dealer out of Phoenix who was planning on holding a show with all the pieces. They purchased all of it outright so that we wouldn’t have to deal with the show and commissions. They were pretty positive they would sell every single piece almost instantly. I was just glad to get rid of it all, except the piece that Kayla wanted. When we were done moving everything out and stripping the curtains, she went to her car and brought in several boxes containing new curtains, shelves, and everything else I could imagine.
We decided to order all new cabinets for the kitchen because it was quicker and pretty close in price, so the guys were there to take measurements for that and the granite. It was pretty much a circus in the house, but I appreciated that she wanted to expedite the process so that we wouldn’t have to live in a construction zone for very long. She put me to work hanging shelves, and even though I was more than happy to oblige, I couldn’t seem to keep my concentration focused on the task at hand. Alissa looked fucking amazing, with a form-fitting tank top, short cutoff shorts, a sweater tied around her waist, and Chuck Taylors. Her body looked even sexier than I had imagined before, and every time she walked past, I seemed to not be able to keep myself from falling into a lustful trance. I knew I needed to be a little more mannerly about the whole thing, but her curves were killing me, and I really wanted to take her right there on the ladder.
As she turned back around, I looked away, going back to focusing on the shelf I was screwing into the wall. I realized very quickly that I had screwed it in lopsided, and I shook my head, reversing the drill and pulling them back out. I could feel Alissa walking up behind me, and I could hear the light giggle coming from her throat.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I don’t know.” I chuckled. “I guess I got distracted.”
“Come on down,” she said, reaching her hand out. “Let’s eat some lunch, and then we can continue. We’ve been killing it this whole time.”
“Sounds good,” I said.
We went down, and Alissa fixed us a couple of sandwiches and some chips for lunch. We sat in the kitchen, staring around at the boxes of dishes and such that we had pulled from the cabinets. It was a bit of a mess, but I knew within a few days to a week, it would look so much better.
“So,” I said, looking over at her. “How did you get into interior design?”
“Well,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I thought, ever since I was Kayla’s age, that I wanted to be an architect, designing skyscrapers that reached the clouds. I really liked the design aspect of the whole thing. However, as I went deeper into those classes, I realized architecture isn’t as glamorous as they make it seem, and I started drifting toward interior design because I liked the artistic side of things. The part where you create the life of the building, not just the structure itself.”
“So, did you switch your major?”
“I did,” she said, nodding her head. “And when I got out of school, I landed an internship with Wyatt Interiors. It was really an eye-opener since it is such a large firm, but I realized I’d rather work for myself. So, after the internship, I forged out on my own and haven’t looked back ever since. I mean, I really love having my own business. It was stressful at first, before I got my first real client, but I had been doing free gigs privately while working for the firm, so I had been able to develop a portfolio. It only took me about a month to get my first paying gig. It was a baby nursery, and I was so damn excited. It was probably the most in-depth decorating I have ever done.”
I laughed, remembering my first gig. “My first job was like overkill, too. The people were so impressed that they posted my work on Pinterest and everywhere else. I realized quickly that spending that much time on one gig was going to be impossible in the future, but I am proud of what I did there.”
“Did you always want to be a landscape architect?”
“I didn’t, actually,” I said, chuckling. “I have a degree in computer programming and did that for a quite a while, but it was so boring, and financially, there was a definite cap unless you invented something cool, like the iPhone. So, one day, I said screw it, and I quit. I started working random jobs to see what I was really interested in, and lo and behold, I fell in love with landscaping. I took some classes at the college and then started my own company. The portfolio work I did was mostly for friends and family, but it did the trick for sure.”
“Wow, that’s quite the risk to take,” she said with wide eyes.
“Well, I had been really good with money, and computer programmers do pretty well, so I gave myself a time limit. If I didn’t find anything by then, I would go back into the programming business. It didn’t take me long to realize where my passions were, and luckily, Christina and I had plenty of money left over to start the company and get it off the ground. She was involved for a little while, but once Kayla came along, she stopped working and just handed it over to me.”