Construction Beauty Queen by Sara Daniel

didn’t intend for me to like you more because of the hard work I’ve had to endure, but I do.”
    He slathered on the antibiotic cream, trying not to dwell on how much he liked her, too. “So this is a little experiment into how the other half lives. Are you planning to go back to your old life when the novelty of being treated like a normal person wears off?”
    “There’s no going back.” Her tone was serious. “I made a clean break. I left my credit cards, checking account, everything with my parents when I walked away Tuesday morning.”
    After watching her pull shingles, he could imagine how determined she’d looked when she made that choice. Kimberly never would have turned her back on her cushy life.
    He let his fingers linger on Veronica’s left hand for a moment longer than necessary before he released it and stood up. He wanted to step outside to give himself some space again, but he settled for sitting across the table from her before he reached for her other hand. “They’re your parents. They’ll take you back.”
    “I don’t want them to, not if I have to agree to their conditions. I’m living life on my terms now.”
    He flipped her hand over and winced at the damage. Veronica had blisters to match those on her left hand, along with a raw scrape across the palm. She also had a deep scratch going down her thumb that he hadn’t noticed when he inspected it on the roof.
    She hadn’t breathed a word of complaint.
    “What kind of conditions?” He raised his gaze to her beautiful, flawless face. Whatever it was had to be bad if she was putting up with this much pain without a single tear.
    She shook her head. “Marrying someone I’ve never been on an actual date with, who doesn’t care I exist, just so he and my father can merge their businesses together. Besides all the backward notions about needing a marriage to seal a merger, the merger’s not right for either of their businesses.”
    Matt’s hand tightened around hers. “You came here to get away from your boyfriend?”
    She rolled her eyes. “There’s no boyfriend. You’ve touched me more today than he ever has. You’re also hurting my hand right now.”
    He immediately relaxed his hold and focused on the job he was supposed to do. He had no reason to be jealous. Clearly, the other guy was a schmuck. Matt kept his fingers gentle as he applied the antibiotic cream. “How could you work with these kinds of scrapes?”
    “That’s what you were waiting for, wasn’t it? For me to whine that I broke a nail? My manicurist is likely to faint when I come home to repair my cuticles—right?”
    “A certified nurse could faint over these scratches. I think you should go to the clinic and have a doctor take a look at them.” The over-the-counter antibiotic cream he was using might not be enough to prevent an infection. And if it wasn’t, he was solely to blame.
    …
    Veronica took over and finished securing the gauze. “I don’t need to go to the clinic. I’m going to finish out my day working in your office.”
    “I suppose you could try to find my computer or shred some papers or something,” Matt said.
    Veronica sighed. Minutes ago he’d held her hands so tenderly she’d wanted to crawl on his lap and let him hold her. His soulful eyes had promised if there were any way for him to take away her pain, he’d do it in an instant.
    But then he had made comments to remind her that he didn’t see value in anything she could offer his business and she ought to go marry Mr. Always-in-a-Meeting-Leave-a-Message-With-My-Assistant. “Office work can be productive and beneficial to your bottom line, you know.”
    Hands properly bandaged, she walked out of the trailer to start the real, productive work of her day. She stopped in the middle of the gravel drive and looked around for her ancient, ugly car. Darn. She’d left it at the construction office when she’d ridden to the roofing job with Matt.
    The screen door slammed, and Matt’s