Undone (A Country Roads Novel) by Shannon Richard Page A

there weren’t any dead bodies in there at the moment, Paige was still completely creeped out going in there.
    With her newly pilfered tools, Paige pulled up the carpet on one side of the room, rolling it as she went. When she’d reached the furniture, she’d dragged Tara upstairs to help her move the heavy desks to the other side of the room, sans carpet.
    “These floors are beautiful,” Tara said, sitting down in Paige’s chair. “We should rip out all of the carpet.”
    After the carpet was rolled up and dragged into the hallway, Paige went around the room and pried out the tiny nails around the edge. It was at this point that Verna stuck her head into the room.
    “What in God’s name are you doing?” she screamed, outraged. “Mr. Adams is not going to approve of this.”
    “He already said it was fine,” Paige said, giving her a sweet smile.
    “Nothing is good enough for you, is it? You just have to come in here and wreak havoc,” she said as she stormed out of the office.
    Yeah, Paige and Verna were going to get along real well.
    By four o’clock she’d set up her desk and computer. She decided to start reading through the instructions on the program she was supposed to use. About an hour later, there was a knock on the door and Paige looked up to see Brendan leaning against the doorjamb. He was wearing his navy blue pants and shirt and his five o’clock shadow.
    Dear God he doesn’t play fair.
    “You’ve been busy,” he said, looking around. “I ran into Mrs. Wisenbacker downstairs, who yelled at me for helping the havoc-inducing harlot get a job. I see you’re making friends.”
    “She didn’t like my shoes,” Paige said.
    “What?”
    “My shoes,” Paige said, turning in her chair so she could show Brendan her feet. “Apparently only harlots wear red shoes.”
    He pushed off the doorjamb and walked into the room, stopping next to her desk. He looked down at her feet and his gaze slowly traveled up her legs. Heat rushed into her cheeks and she was thankful she was still sitting down.
    “She’s crazy,” he said, finally meeting her eyes and grinning. “I’m a pretty big fan of those shoes.”
    “What are you doing here?” Paige asked, trying to focus on something besides the way he was looking at her.
    “I came to pick you up. Your car’s ready.”
    “Why did you come to pick me up?” she asked, panicked. She wasn’t prepared to be in a close, confined environment with him.
    “Because I told your dad I would. I can’t believe you ripped the carpet out of here,” he said, looking down at the floor. “It looks a lot better without it.”
    “Thanks. Can you help me carry the carpet downstairs?” she asked, pointing to the hallway where the rug still sat.
    “Are you serious?”
    “I can’t carry it by myself,” she said, standing up. If he was here she might as well get him to do something useful besides scrambling her brain.
    “What’s in it for me?”
    “What do you want?” she asked, before she could stop herself.
    She was flirting with him. Why was she flirting with him? Stupid thing to do really.
    “I have a couple of ideas,” he said as his gaze flickered to her mouth.
    There was another knock and they both turned to see Mr. Adams walk into the room.
    “Brendan,” he said in his big booming voice.
    “Mr. Adams,” Brendan said, holding out his hand.
    “You come here to check up on your girl?” he asked, shaking Brendan’s hand and clapping Brendan on the back with one of his large hands.
    His girl? Brendan’s girl?
    Paige’s stomach flipped. She opened her mouth to correct him but Brendan cut her off.
    “Yeah.” He winked at Paige. “She’s done a good job with this office.”
    “She sure has,” Mr. Adams said, looking around. He looked down at the floor, a thoughtful expression on his face. “You know, I’ve been wanting to get rid of that red carpet for a while now. And these wooden floors are looking mighty fine. Maybe you’ve got something