Read Online Operation: Married by Christmas by Debra Clopton - Free Book Online Page A

almost a decade, yet she was at a loss for words. She’d better get over it or this project wasn’t ever going to get finished. Besides, he wasn’t showing any emotion at all.
    â€œCan I offer you something to drink? Coffee, soda?”
    She shook her head. “No thanks,” she said, intent on getting to work. “How did you start doing gates?” That was not what she’d intended to ask. She’d intended to tell him it was time to get to work. She didn’t need to know any personal details about his life.
    He opened the refrigerator and turned his back to her as he studied the interior. “After you left, I went ahead and used my degree in architecture, but I wasn’t happy with my work. So, when I discovered a way out I never looked back.”
    â€œI see.” Haley nodded, thinking she heard a double meaning to the words never looked back. She decided now was a perfect time to put them back on track…before she said something she might regret. “I think the drawings will be fairly easy to sketch out,” she said, feeling stiff and awkward.
    He turned, holding a pitcher of tea. The man had always loved sweet tea. It was amazing with all that sugar that he’d kept such a sleek physique—that she had no business admiring. What a dope she was!
    She swung around, flopped open the notebook she’d laid on the counter and studied the first idea. She concentrated hard on it. They were going to open the story up with Mary and Joseph arriving home after becoming man and wife. They needed a backdrop of the interior of their home. There was also a small bridge in several scenes. “Have you thought any about the bridge?” she asked, listening to him fill glasses with ice and feeling as if she was coming down with a case of the shakes.
    â€œActually, I already started it. I couldn’t sleep after the meeting last night so I went out to the shop, and the next thing I knew I was building a bridge.”
    She smiled at him over her shoulder, despite her growing discomfort. “You never were much of a procrastinator.” He didn’t smile, but the corner of his lips curved slightly. A frog suddenly settled in Haley’s windpipe, and she was grateful for the tea he handed her. Their fingers brushed as she took the glass, and Haley felt the touch all the way to her toes. Will pulled his hand away, seemingly unaffected.
    She was obviously crazy.
    â€œI don’t have a lot of time to waste,” he said, sipping his tea.
    The clock above the stove ticked the seconds out as they stared at each other. “Then we’re in the same boat. I have a job to get back to. So the sooner we get it done, the quicker both of us can get on with our lives.” There, she felt better. She met his steady gaze straight on.
    Tick. Tick. Tick.
    â€œRight,” he agreed.
    Haley watched his Adam’s apple bob.
    Tick. Tick. Tick.
    â€œSooo, let’s get to it,” she said, swinging back toward the papers on the counter.
    When Will stepped up beside her, leaning over the papers to study them, her heart jumped—again. What was she doing? This was crazy. She couldn’t take it—“Okay,” she snapped, pushing away from the counter and the inch that separated their arms from touching. She stomped across the room to the far counter and swung around to glare at him. “I can’t do this.” No, Haley, no!
    He turned to stare at her. All it took was the blank expression on his face to send her blood pressure through the roof! “That does it! Stop with the blank looks. You’re the one who blew up at me the other day and now every time I’m around you look like a wax dummy in a museum. We are walking on eggshells, and I can’t stand it.”
    He lifted a perfect thick eyebrow. Other than that, his expression didn’t change.
    â€œSay something. You had plenty to say when we had an audience.”
    His brows