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barbecue sauce on your fingers and a pile of bones on
your plate.
    She tipped back her beer to swallow the last of it and
leaned back in her chair.
    “That has to be one of the best meals I’ve had in ages.”
    Alex grinned at her. That grin was beginning to do things to
her insides that she wanted to chase away.
    “Better than five star service and three waiters?”
    She sobered. “Let me say something in my own defense. I’m
not a snob, despite what I’m sure you think by now. It’s possible the people I
hang out with, usually for business, have rubbed off on me. But this was a great
meal and very pleasant conversation. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed
myself this much.”
    He winked at her. “Maybe we’ll have to try it again.”
    She felt her own lips curved in a smile. “Maybe we will.”
    They listened to soft music again on the way home. When she
got out of the car he walked her to the door.
    “I had a nice time, Livy. I think I got a better measure of
you than if we’d done nothing but discuss business.”
    She lifted an eyebrow. Oh? Is that good or bad?”
    “I’d say real good. And I think you have the same feeling.”
    “Mmm, maybe.” No, no, I don’t. I can’t afford to.
    “We’ll have to do it again.”
    He took both her hands in his and leaned forward, just
barely brushing his mouth against hers.
    “Isn’t it nice to let down that wall once in a while?” he
asked in a soft voice.
    She blinked. “Wall?”
    “You’re very special, Livy.”
    “Special?” Her voice sounded far away to her. She was still
reeling from that lighter-than-air kiss.
    “Uh huh. I have a feeling you don’t even know how special.
But I’m going to show you.”
    He rubbed his thumb over her bottom lip. “Sleep tight,
Olivia D’Angelo. Pleasant dreams. I’ll be seeing you soon.”
    She stood in the doorway, watching him drive away, then shut
the door. Leaning back against it, she touched her mouth with the tips of her
fingers. Her lips still tingled. She had a feeling Alex McMann might just turn
out to be more than she could handle. Certainly more than she’d bargained for.
And it scared the bejesus out of her.

Chapter Three
     
    The McMann brothers spent the better part of the next four
weeks on the Concordia project. Josh immersed himself in the main library and
spent hours on the Internet trolling for information on the Old West and things
that could be combined with modern architecture in a practical manner. He filled
page after page with preliminary sketches, throwing many of them out, starting
over, sometimes staying so late Alex told him to go home to his wife while he
still had one.
    Josh did take three days to fly to Wyoming with Tyler to see
the property where the village would be built. They walked the land, took
pictures, talked to people. Spent a long time at the county courthouse asking
questions about permitting, about politics, about what people liked around
there. They’d learned long ago that getting square with all of that up front
saved a lot of heartburn later on.
    Tyler was through with the project after that for the moment
and went back to his usual routine of supervising ongoing jobs. His hard work
would come when he and Alex sat down to figure out the finite cost estimates
and then when the actual construction began. Usually when they had an
out-of-town job it was enough for him to spend half the week there and the
other half on other jobs. But the way this one was shaping up they might have
to make adjustments.
    “Good thing you’re single,” Alex pointed out. “If we get the
job you may be moving to Wyoming for a while.”
    “We’ll have to hire someone to take over supervision of our
others jobs still underway,” he pointed out.
    “Start looking, just in case. I don’t want to be scrambling
at the last minute if I don’t have to.”
    Josh was back at work on his sketches, refining them so
they’d have good product to present to Concordia. He expected changes.