Rocky Mountain Angels Read Online Free Page A

pushing you into what he wants you to do?” Dazzling Joe was losing a bit of his shine.
    Ben shrugged. “I’m not really sure what I want to do, so it’s as good as anything, I guess.” He turned the dolly back toward the door. “Well, I guess that truck isn’t going to unload itself.”
    ***
    Eli was straining to see what Mari and Ben were doing. Ben had taken the second load of boxes in and stayed longer than he had before. Eli had discovered that from his drafting table in his second floor office, he had a good view right into the tall windows of Mari’s living room... if he stood up... and leaned. She had her hair pulled back today with a colorful hair gizmo, but some of her wavy curls had slipped out and were falling around her face as she worked. Eli was a sucker for curls.
    She stood to put books on the top shelf, and Eli noted that she was wearing a bright, patterned, long-sleeved top over tight jeans tucked into those useless snow boots of hers, and in a flash, he was back in his front yard with Mari in his grip slipping every which way on the ice. He relived her hands on his forearms and the way her eyes seemed to reflect the stars.
    Ben stepped out the door, and Eli shook his head in an attempt to focus on the blueprints he needed to finish. “I may as well be out there, for all the work I’m getting done in here.”
    He drank another slug of his coffee and ran his hands through his hair. Eli spent a lot of time with women, but they didn’t usually captivate his thoughts when he wasn’t with them. And he’d never, ever been jealous of his little brother before.
    He got up and turned his drafting table away from the window.
    ***
    Joe was eating a turkey sandwich, staring out the window of his on-site trailer at the synagogue his construction company had been building since mid-summer in Denver. The timing had been perfect, and they had moved inside just a week before the first snowfall. It was nearly complete, and Joe was itching to move on to the next project—a ritzy, gated-community apartment complex being developed by Tony and Bud Marshall. He seriously hoped that Eli would have the plans ready for their approval by their 8 a.m. meeting with the two men.
    The door opened as he tipped up his bag of chips to get the last of the crumbs, and in walked a tall, slender woman with short, blond hair in a long navy wool coat and a red beret hanging off the back of her head. Joe smiled, wadded up his lunch trash, and lobbed it into the trashcan before rising and coming around his desk to greet her with a kiss. “What brings you all the way out here?”
    Beth Havland slid her hands around his neck and pulled him down for another. “I would think that would be obvious.”
    Joe’s smile melted somewhat. “You didn’t drive all this way just for a kiss, did you? You know your gas budget—”
    “I know, I know. My gas budget ‘won’t support needless driving.’”
    “Beth, you were the one who wanted help getting out of debt. I’m only trying—”
    “I know.” She pulled off her hat and leaned her head against him. “But I’ve had a hard morning, and I needed you, and you’re terrible about answering your phone. Believe me, I tried calling.”
    He stroked her hair. “Hmm, I’m not sure I even picked it up off my night stand this morning.”
    She leaned back to look at him. “I know. After three times, Eli finally picked it up.”
    Joe looked contrite and leaned back to sit on the edge of his desk. Sliding his hands down her arms, he pulled her to stand between his legs. “What happened this morning?”
    “Well, you know how Professor Linson gave me an extension on my big accounting project?”
    “Yeah.”
    “And you know I’ve been working on it every day.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Well, I finished it last night.”
    Joe grinned and gave her hands a squeeze. “Good job, I knew you could do it.”
    Beth’s lip trembled. “And I lost it this morning.”
    Joe shook his head in