Down by Contact - A Seattle Lumberjacks Romance by Jami Davenport Page B

off the front
porch they’d never be heard from again.”
    “That bad?”
    “You two know Zach. He’s not into
appearances. He’s also a procrastinator. If it’s not football, he
puts it on a back burner.”
    Both women met each other’s gazes and said
in unison. “It is that bad.”
    “Is he hiring someone to clean it up?”
Rachel ordered another round of drinks.
    “No, I’m cleaning it up. I got Zach into
this mess, and I feel responsible for taking on some of the chores,
but I don’t really have the cash to hire anyone.”
    “Girl, you are in deep doggie doo.” Lavender
grabbed her second drink and took a long suck on her straw.
    “I know. Just shoot me. I was hoping we
might put our heads together for the greater good. I’m
desperate.”
    “You came to the right place.” Lavender’s
smirk danced across her face. “Tyler might help.”
    “He hates Zach.”
    “Exactly. Which is why he’ll help. When he
finds out Zach isn’t cleaning up the place, Ty will grab the
offensive guys and jump right in. The place will be ready in no
time.”
    Kelsie thought about it. “That might work,
but what’s the incentive besides making Zach look like an ass?”
    “For Ty, that’s enough. Besides I know how
his mind works. He’ll make it into a competition. Offense versus
defense. Zach won’t be able to resist the chance to best him. You
wait and see.”
    “And poor Derek will be there to make sure
they don’t kill each other,” Rachel sighed and checked her text
messages.
    “Do you think it’ll work?” Kelsie looked at
each of them. Both women’s eyes gleamed with mischief.
    “Oh, it’ll work.”
    Right up to the point that Zach murdered her
with his bare hands.
    Kelsie drank up. She might as well enjoy
life while she could.
    * * * * *
    Zach must have fallen asleep and been
slammed awake in the middle of a war zone. He pulled the pillow
over his head to drown out the sounds outside. Half-asleep, a weird
dream swirled in his head—lots of noise, Harris barking orders,
guys jaw-jacking with each other. Metal clanking against metal.
Loud bangs, noises suspiciously sounding like small engines,
pressure washers, brush cutters and the like roared in his head. A
diesel truck idled near his window.
    The bottom fell out of that space between
asleep and awake and plunged him headfirst into reality. Zach shot
up in bed, looking every which way in the large tower suite.
    What the hell? More banging, more roaring,
more guys shouting over the noise.
    Not a dream. Not one fucking bit. Leaping
out of bed, Zach yanked on a pair of sweats and a T-shirt and
stomped through his house toward the location of the majority of
the racket. He swung open his door with such force it slammed into
the side of the house and shuddered as if it’d drawn its last
breath. Hands on hips, Zach surveyed the organized chaos.
    “What the hell is this?”
    The closest guys averted their eyes and
refused to answer. Zach stepped to the nearest machine and cut it
off. It died with a sputtering choke, which was exactly what he
planned to do to a certain someone or multiple some ones.
    Harris stepped forward, a smirk as wide as
the Columbia River on his face. “We’re cleaning up this hell hole
and helping out the pretty lady here. My guys and I are suckers for
a damsel in distress.”
    The entire offensive team down to the
lowliest rookie stopped what they were doing, shut off machines and
stared. Silence replaced the earlier din as Zach squared off with
Tyler. He opened his mouth to kick the quarterback off the property
when he caught Kelsie out of the corner of his eye. She stood off
to one side, dressed in ratty blue jeans, which looked incredible
on her, a dirty white T-shirt, and scuffed tennis shoes. In her
hands she held a small towel. Right now she was wringing the
daylights out of the defenseless piece of cotton. Their eyes met,
and he read her silent plea to play nice.
    Fuck. This was Kelsie’s stunt.
    He glared at her, knowing