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man, Rafe.”
    â€œYou should’ve remembered that, Mike.”
    Rafe hung up then, leaned back in his desk chair and spun it around until he could look out the window at the ocean scene stretching out in front of him. The King Construction building sat directly on Pacific Coast Highway and each of the brothers had an office with a view. One of the perks of being an owner.
    Another perk was reaming guys who failed them.
    Standing up, Rafe leaned one hand on the window, feeling the cool of the glass seep into his skin. Was he a hard man? He supposed so.
    His ex-wife sure as hell thought so.
    Just another reason for him to keep his distance from Katie Charles.
    A woman like that didn’t need a hard man in her life.
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    â€œNow, isn’t this a nice view?”
    Katie rolled her eyes and laughed at her grandmother. “You’re impossible.”
    Emily O’Hara grinned, fluffed her stylishly trimmed silver hair and then winked at her granddaughter. “Honey, if you don’t like looking at handsome men, they might as well bury you.”
    They were standing at the edge of the yard, watching the action. The men worked together seamlessly, each of them concentrating on a certain area, then helping each other out when needed. Naturally, Nana had noticed Rafe right away, but Katie could hardly blame her. The man was really worth watching.
    Katie’s gaze went directly to Rafe, on the opposite side of the yard. Since that morning when she’d stood up for him to Joe, Rafe had been avoiding her. She couldn’t quite figure out why, either. Maybe it was a guy thing, embarrassing to have a woman defend his honor? She smiled to herself at the thought.
    â€œWell, well. I can see now that you’re doing plenty of noticing.” She draped one arm around Katie’s shoulders. “He’s quite the hunk, isn’t he?”
    â€œHunk?” Katie repeated with a laugh.
    â€œYou betcha. The question is, what’re you going to do about it?”
    â€œWhat can I do?” Katie watched Rafe as he grinned at something Arturo said and she felt a delicious flutter in the pit of her stomach.
    â€œHonestly,” Nana said with a shake of her head, “youth really is wasted on the wrong people. Katie, if you want him, go for it.”
    â€œHe’s not a cookie I can grab and wrap up.”
    â€œWho said anything about wrapping him up?” Nana laughed and advised, “I was thinking more that you should unwrap him. Just grab him and take a bite. Life’s too short, honey. You’ve got to enjoy it while you can.”
    â€œUnbelievably enough,” Katie said, “I’m not as freewheeling as my grandmother.”
    â€œWell, you could be.” Nana shook her head and said, “I loved your grandfather, honey, but he’s been gonea long time and I’m still alive and kicking. And, so are you. You’ve been burying yourself in your work for so long, it’s a wonder you can step outside without squinting into the sun like a mole.”
    â€œI’m not that bad!”
    â€œDidn’t used to be,” her grandmother allowed. “Until that Cordell twisted you all up.”
    Katie frowned at the reminder.
    â€œThere’s a whole wide world full of people out there and half of them are men,” Nana told her. “You can’t let one bad guy ruin your opinion on an entire gender.”
    Is that what she was doing? Katie wondered. She didn’t think so. Sure, Cordell King had hurt her, but she wasn’t hiding. She was working. Building her business. Just because she hadn’t been on a date in…good night. She hadn’t been on an actual date with an actual man since Cordell and that was more than six months ago now.
    How had that happened?
    She used to be fun.
    She used to call her friends and go out.
    She used to have a life.
    â€œOooh, here comes the cute one,” her grandmother whispered.
    Katie came out of