thinks I’m you?”
Cami sighed. “Did you tell him you’re not?”
“Now why would I do that and waste a perfectly good opportunity to mess with his head?”
“Don’t you have work or something?”
“Yep.” Eyeing Annabel warily, Dimi grabbed Cami’s purse off the dresser, dumping it out onto the bed. Rifling through, she pounced on the tube of lipstick and pocketed it. “Don’t you have work, too?”
Cami had made her way through college by sewing clothes. By using her own designs and materials obtained at cost through school, she made enough money for tuition, books, gas and her mortgage. Whatever was left over went into the redo-Cami’s-town-house fund, which meant she ate lots of cheap soup, but she’d gotten used to it. “Less than usual now that I’m looking to get my designing going.”
“Hmm. I’m trying to convince my boss to let you come redesign the studio.”
Redecorating Dimi’s kitchen studio for her cooking show would be nothing short of huge. “Really?”
“Really.” She grunted when Cami threw her self at her and hugged her hard. “Jeez, wait till you get the job.”
“Thank you!”
“Yeah.” Dimi disentangled herself and headed toward the door.
“Wait. You’ve got my lipstick.”
“You owe me. Hey, want to double date with me this weekend? The guy I met at the doughnut shop has a brother who needs a date.”
“I already agreed to go out with Great-Aunt Lulu’s cousin’s brother-in-law.”
“Mom caught you, huh?” Dimi looked superior, and not just because she was wearing a great-looking suit while Cami had managed stained slacks and a wrinkled blouse.
“How many times do I have to tell you, screen your calls.”
“He doesn’t sound that awful,” Cami said in her defense. “He’s got all his hair.”
Dimi slanted her a look of sheer pity. “Have we forgotten who’s setting you up? Mom has a terrible track record. You know this.”
“It’s not that bad.”
“No? Remember Ed? He had all his hair, too.”
Unfortunately most of that hair hadn’t been on his head. The guy had been a virtual gorilla. Remembering that, and all her other recent pathetic dates, Cami sunk to her bed, mystified. “What do you think is wrong with us?”
“Nothing’s wrong with me. But you? You’re a case.”
“Thanks.”
Dimi pointed to the living room. “What about pretty boy? Why don’t you go out with him?”
Humiliating as it was, Cami always told Dimi the truth, even when her sister didn’t want to hear it. Like that time Dimi had gone out with a resident doctor and had come home dancing on air, baffled because her “perfect” date hadn’t kissed her at the door.
Cami had been the one to break the news-the large piece of spinach stuck between Dimi’s two front teeth, the result of the lovely Italian dish they’d had two hours earlier.
Dimi, queen of hygiene, had nearly died.
“What happened?” Dimi asked, already sensing something good. “Don’t even say nothing.
“All right, fine. You want the horrifying scoop. I answered the door naked and pretty boy, as you call him didn’t even notice.”
“Didn’t notice, or was being polite?”
“Dimi, I was
Dimi considered. “Define naked.”
“I had a blanket, but it kept slipping.”
Her twin shook her head. “Why are all the cute ones gay?”
“I don’t know,” Cami answered, miserable at the thought of all that magnificent maleness going to waste. “So I have to take the blind date. I have no other prospects in sight. None.”
“Don’t do it, Cam. Refuse. All you ever do these days is go on blind dates. You’re just sabotaging yourself. Setting yourself up for failure.”
“Am not.”
“Are, too. You have this fear of commitment.”
“Funny, last time I looked, you were a food-show host on cable television, not a damn psychiatrist.”
“Your fear is fueled by Dad’s seven marriages and Mom’s inability to find a man for herself,” Dimi continued. “Everyone knows this but you. Just give up on the blind dates, okay?”
“You’re the one who just asked me to go on another one with your friend’s brother!”
“That was for me, not you. Now face these stupid fears and find your own man.”
“Spoken by the goddess of love, who herself hasn’t had a decent boyfriend in two years.”
“I don’t have any damn fears!”
“Really? Then why are you always agreeing to go out with these guys, none of whom ever work out because they’re from some other planet entirely?”
Because she really was pathetic. But she couldn’t maintain any sort of self-righteous anger because she did have fears. Big time. “This is the last one.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Really.”
“Just call Mom and cancel.”
“Hell, no. I value my life, thank you very much.”
“Fine,” Dimi said, disgusted. “Suit yourself. But if he has buck teeth and a bad toupee, not to mention breath from the sewer plant, don’t blame me.”
“Fine.”
“Fine! And stop stealing my lipstick.”
“It’s my lipstick,” she called, but it was too late, Dimi had slammed the bedroom door.
“Love is the pits,” she muttered, and slipped her foot into her shoe, too late remembering Annabel’s “present” until it squished between her toes.
3
THEY SIGNED the contract, and because Tanner had reservations about his new client’s mental capacity, he got a good chunk of his fee up front. He agreed to remodel in three shifts. First, the back half of the town house, consisting of the master bedroom and bathroom and the small spare bedroom.
Next, they’d do the living room, kitchen and second small bathroom. And finally, the back deck, which overlooked the lake. Old, rotting and rickety, the entire wooden structure needed to be redone before his client could get any serious sunbathing in without being terrified.
He figured she loved sunbathing. With her sexy body and come-hither looks, he imagined her in a red bikini. A skimpy, red bikini, one that was going to be the dominant feature in his sexual fantasies for the rest of the day.
Renovating the entire town house was slated to take approximately one and a half months, the first phase two weeks of that time. This meant, of course, that Tanner’s new client was going to be sleeping on the couch for the foreseeable future.
She’d claimed not to mind that, or living in a construction zone, but he was sure she didn’t have the slightest clue as to what she was getting herself into.
He’d found most people didn’t, even the ones in the profession, as Cami now was. They simply wanted the
