Down by Contact - A Seattle Lumberjacks Romance by Jami Davenport Page A

than a stuffy,
spoiled bi—uh, brat.” Zach did have a few rules he lived by. He
never called a lady a bitch, even if said lady deserved the
title.
    She shot to her feet, her blue eyes blazing
like six-guns in the hands of a Wild West outlaw. “Why,
you—you—”
    “Now, now, sugar, watch your manners.” He
shook a finger in her face, but abruptly pulled it back when Kelsie
looked ready to gut him and mount his head over her mantle.
    Taking a visible, deep breath, she sat back
down. She clasped her hands in front of her on the table. “We need
to set up an appropriate time for me to peruse your house to see
what we’ll need to do in preparation for the gala.”
    He rolled his eyes. “My house looks just
fine.”
    Kelsie looked him up and down and raised one
perfectly plucked eyebrow. The eyebrow said it all. With that one
eyebrow she’d reduced him to an awkward high school kid without a
penny to his name wearing an outdated suit that didn’t fit.
    “Okay, fine. We can meet on Monday evening
at 7:00 p.m.” He scribbled his address on the title page in the
book, ripped it out, and gave it to her.
    Her eyes grew big as she took the page from
his hand.
    “What’s wrong? It’s just the title
page.”
    Kelsie shook her head and sighed. He’d
screwed up again, but he didn’t see what the big deal was. “Fine,
I’ll get you another book.”
    “You don’t get it, do you? This book is a
cherished possession, more than just a book. Regardless of an
article’s material value, you need to show respect for other
people’s property.”
    Zach stared at a point on the wall over her
head. He felt like an idiot, but he’d be damned if he’d tell her
that. “This isn’t going to work out.”
    A fleeting moment of panic crossed her face
before cool, superior Kelsie took over. “It’ll work out fine. I
love challenges.”
    Then it hit him harder than a block by a
three-hundred-pound tackle. Waitressing at a banquet. The piece of
shit car with all the stuff piled in it. The desperation he’d seen
in her eyes at the charity ball. This bullshit career of hers.
Kelsie was down on her luck. Maybe even flat broke.
    She needed this job. Because of that, she
needed him .
    The thought brought a smile to his face.
Payback is a bitch. For the first time, he sensed he had the upper
hand with her, and he’d use every bit of power he had to make this
mean girl do restitution for all the nasty, bitchy things she’d
done to him in high school.
    She’d work for every penny the Jacks paid
her. He didn’t want to attend manners class. He didn’t give a
flying seagull’s ass about Veronica Simms’s demands. They’d forced
him to attend against his will, and he planned on giving Kelsie as
much hell as she’d given him as a high school kid with his first
crush. Not that he’d be mean about it, not like she had been and
most likely still was. Nope, he’d prove he had more class that she
ever did, but he wouldn’t cooperate with her stupid demands,
starting with homework assignments.
    Their gazes met and held. His breath caught
in his throat. His heart flopped over, despite his brave stance.
She still had the power to make him grovel for a smidgeon of her
affection, but she’d never know it. Never.
    Despite how much she’d done to him, how much
she’d hurt him, she still got to him in ways no other woman ever
had.

 
    CHAPTER 5
Opponents on the Same Team
    The next morning, Coach Jackson summoned
Kelsie to the Lumberjacks’ headquarters. She sat in the reception
area, hands folded in her lap, knees pressed together, and wearing
that one good suit. Eventually, she’d need to get it dry-cleaned,
but for now she’d make do. At least, she had a closet to hang it
in.
    Kelsie had confined her blond hair to a
sleek ponytail and added a small amount of makeup to her face,
conserving the expensive cosmetics the best she could. Despite her
attempts at frugality—a skill she’d never needed in the past—her
money was depleting at