Breathe For Me (For Me 1: Xander)

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen

Chelsea worked the phones like she'd never workedthem before. Failed at the first fifteen calls-and the nextfifteen. She probably needed to do this in person with the plansand her artist impressions to help people understand what she wason about. But she didn't have time. As it was she was squeezing allthese calls in amongst the data entry, filing and design mock-upsshe was supposed to be doing as part of her internship. FortunatelySteve had turned out to be an awesome ally and a whiz at dataentry. And even though she knew it was a lost cause already, giventhe pop-up had been scheduled to be built and go live this week,she refused to give up. She was not a quitter.

Except for when it came to Xander. But shewasn't about to fight a battle she could never win. He'd hadenough. He'd called it. But she was mad with him-he wanted more,yet wouldn't give more. He had walls of steel around his heart andhe wasn't going to let anyone break them down.

Fine. She wasn't going to hurt herself bytrying. She wasn't going to think about him any more.

"Hey Chels, you seen this?" Steve calledacross the small office.

She walked over to read the screen over hisshoulder. "No way," she breathed. "No way. Is it forreal?"

Steve picked up the phone and handed it toher. "Only one way to find out."

Some random company had put an offer of a tiny siteon the Facebook page she'd created to detail and publicize theevent. Her fingers trembled as she pushed the buttons to contactthe person listed. Was it legit or not?

Xander couldn't stay away. Late in the evening hewalked down to the site with Hunter matching his stride. A smallsquare structure was perched on the corner of a construction zone.Logan had worked damn fast-the legend. But Chelsea had worked evenfaster. To have achieved this in less than twenty-four hours?

But Xander couldn't smile. He was thinkingabout her every second, every minute, every hour of this damn longday. Still dreaming up the most outrageous scenarios to see how farshe'd get before she got the giggles. Not that there was any pointin thinking that way. It was over.

But he couldn't stay away. How she'd gottenthe foundations done so quick he didn't know. Then he saw the twobuilders grinning and chatting with her and figured it. It alsoticked him off.

She glanced over and saw him. Her expressionchanged completely-instantly lighting. He felt an intense sense ofpleasure that she responded so swiftly, so naturally like that. Hecouldn't stop his own huge grin back. She might smile for others,but she ignited for him.

"Been sweet-talking guys to help you outagain?" he teased as she walked towards him. He wished she'dsweet-talk him.

"They're sponsors actually," she answeredearnestly. "I'm putting a sign up thanking their company."

Yeah, it wasn't for the company promo thatthose guys were working late. "It's looking good."

"Thanks," she answered.

That's when the awkwardness arose. It waslike she'd just remembered they weren't 'together' any more. Herface flooded with color and she turned away. "How did you find us?"she asked.

He held up his phone with her Facebook pageon it.

"Oh." She bit her lip and nodded. "Well youwant to take a closer look? It's getting there." She walked himover towards the small shack.

It really was small, just big enough for thepizza oven and the work counter and a space under the roof forcustomers to linger while waiting for their pizzas.

They'd placed the plants all over the roofbut were still working on filling the walls. She was putting theherbs in patterns-vertical stripes. It was amazing.