“Get busy on what?”
He made a gun with his hand, forefinger pointed at his head, and made a loud bang sound as he dropped his thumb like a hammer. “I got so many ideas going in my head I forget to start at the beginning sometime. I was chatting with Mr. Wise earlier and he tells me you’ve decided to redo your boutique on Magnolia, after all.”
“Yes. But I don’t see what that has to do with your company.”
He held his grin. Today his skin looked rougher, or maybe it was that his face was flushed. He certainly seemed agitated. “I just come to tell you I’m available for any kind of jobs and installations you might need in getting your place fixed up again. Besides this day job, I’m quite a handy man. Ask Mr. Wise. I done all kinds of jobs for him.” He pointed to her door. “Why don’t we step inside to discuss it?”
“How did you learn my address, Mr. Cody?”
“Didn’t I say? Mr. Wise give it to me.”
Carly doubted that. When she’d leased the space for Flawless, she was still living at her Aunt Fredda’s. But like the reporters that had flocked around, he found out somehow. But she didn’t like the idea of being accosted at her front door.
She lifted her chin. “We’ll have to talk another time. I have a lot of things to do today. Drop by Flawless after ten a.m. tomorrow. We’ll be assessing the damage.”
She saw his lids flutter down, as if he didn’t want her to look directly into his gaze. “You’re right. I should have waited. But to be honest, I just want your business so bad. You see, I read all about you in the papers. You’re famous.”
His fanboy grin annoyed her. “Not anymore.”
“I mean, a real celebrity.” He didn’t seem to know when he was being shut down. “First you’re a supermodel and now you saved a man’s life. I guess that makes you practically a superheroine, too. Who knows what you might do next? Make a movie, maybe? You sure are pretty enough.”
“That’s very flattering.” She reached for her phone and pulled it out.
“Now, now, I don’t talk to flatter a woman like you. I meant every word.”
“Thank you. But I’m pretty much just living my life like the next person these days.”
“That’s what I was thinking. The day we met, you didn’t say a thing about saving a man’s life. And it was just hours after. Most folk would have been bragging up a storm about what they’d done. But not you. I guess extraordinary things happen to a person like you every day. Too bad the fella you saved didn’t care if he lived.”
“That’s not been proven, Mr. Cody.” Carly heard the chill in her voice but, really, this man had no business here. “How did you get up to my floor?”
“One of your neighbors was kind enough to let me through the security gate. Saw me standing there waiting. Guess he took one look at my van and attire, and figured I’d be pretty easy to pick out if something wasn’t on the up and up.”
The fact that he had a ready answer annoyed Carly. “Like I said, another time.”
He took a step forward. “I won’t take above half a minute of your time.”
“Mr. Cody—”
“Uh-oh. I don’t want to make you mad.” He began backing away. “Not my intention at all. I’m just so damned impressed. I don’t suppose you’d let me take you out to dinner, just to show how much I admire you.”
“I don’t date strangers.”
“Hoo-whee. That look of yours just about froze my privates off. Must be another of your supermodel superpowers. I can see how you might need it. Looking so beautiful and all. You must get hit on more than a nail in a hammer factory.”
Carly’s hauteur expression collapsed into a smile. “Really, Cody, you’re too much.”
He grinned right back at her. “Now see. I made you smile. That just makes my day. I can go back to work a happy man.”
Carly relented. Maybe she was being needlessly rude. “What sort of side work do you do?”
“Almost anything. Electrical, ductwork, paneling, insulation, flooring. You name it. I can even put in a security system for you. I did that for Mr. Wise.”
That caught her attention. “You put in the cameras in the parking lot at Magnolia?”
“I did. And over at some of the other Wise properties.”
“By yourself?”
“It’s not rocket science. Why don’t we make a list of what you need and I’ll give you a good deal? A cut-rate deal for the heroine of the hour. Seems like the least I can do.”
Carly glanced at her phone for the time, mostly as a reason to offer an excuse. “I’m sorry, but I’m expecting a business appointment to arrive in ten minutes.”
“My dinner invitation still stands. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go. How about Bonnell’s? The chef’s been on the Food Network and everything.”
“Thank you, but no.”