Finding Refuge Read Online Free Page A

belly. It radiated outward,
weakening her knees. He wasn’t built bulky. His muscles were lean, layered on
by hard work. He slathered sunscreen across his bare skin, muscles sinuously
shifting under the tanned surface. Her fingers itched with the urge to help him
lotion his back.
    He pulled on a black White Sox cap and climbed the stairs
into the building. After a moment, she spotted him moving through the bare roof
trusses with the other men on the framing crew, nail gun in hand.
    Andri swallowed hard. Great. He’d be right where she could
see him at a glance, laying plywood for the roof. How was she supposed to
concentrate on helping Rachel when he was out there, the sun glistening on his
bronzed skin?
    She had promised Rachel she’d think about going out with him,
but, oh my, thinking about him at all could get seriously out of control now.
She shifted the wire coil on her shoulder and trudged into the building. Even
if she could keep herself from looking out the windows every five minutes, it
was going to be a very, very long day.
    ****
    Travis loved hauling a nail gun around, forty feet above the
ground, the sun spreading warmth across his skin as he secured sheets of
plywood on a dramatically pitched roof. Nothing else forced him to live
completely in the moment the way roofing did. Under those conditions, thoughts
of anything outside work fled. His focus was simple. Get the work done, don’t
get killed. One wrong step, one slip, was all it took at this height.
    He concentrated on the position of his feet and the balance
of his body weight. The pine scent of the wood engulfed him. He heard only the
staccato pounding of the framing crew’s guns blowing nails into boards.
    Work. Just work.
    He didn’t want to think about the paperwork piling up at the
office, or his intense frustration with Danny.
    He didn’t want to think about the darkest brown eyes, or
long, thick, wavy hair, or that low, grainy voice.
    He shoved everything aside. After a while, nothing reached
him but the work. Hard, methodic, muscle-killing labor.
    The morning flew by, and when Travis paused to pull his ball
cap off and run his hand through his damp hair, he noticed the other guys were
heading down for lunch break.
    He left his cap by the nail gun and walked across the roof. He
swung down through the trusses and dropped to the floor ten feet below, then
pounded down the temporary stairs to the ground floor. Outside, the men who
brought their lunches to the site sat on stacks of plywood and two-by-fours,
eating in the slight shade cast by the tall buildings.
    “Hey, Travis!”
    He turned at the shout and saw Rachel Garrett emerge from
the open doorway of the unit across the walkway. She waved, beckoning him as
she walked to her van, so Travis obliged and trotted over. “What’s up?”
    Rachel grinned at him. “You just coming down for lunch?”
    When he nodded, she said, “Come on, join me and Andri. We
brought plenty of food today.”
    “Andri’s here?” His stupid heart jumped just saying her
name. He clamped down on his reaction.
    “Yep, she’s playing gofer girl for me.”
    No, Travis . His stomach growled.
Hey, it was just lunch with a couple of friends. What could be the harm? “I
don’t even care if you brought chick food. I’m starving.”
    Rachel grimaced as she opened the van and reached for the
cooler. “Oh, please, when have I ever eaten chick food?”
    “Let’s see, what grade were you in when you were crushing on
my cousin, Alec? Tenth?”
    “You’re seriously bringing that up?”
    He laughed. “Yeah, and you were so worried he’d think you
were a tomboy that you wore a dress to the Memorial Day picnic and picked at a
teeny little salad when all of us knew you would have killed everyone there for
a steak.”
    She swatted his arm. “And you let me think he liked me even
though he had a girlfriend, jerk. How does leftover chicken and potato salad
grab you?”
    “Works for me.”
    “Good.” She pressed the