Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 82132 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82132 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
But I worry about it. I worry about it a whole damn lot. Because helping a single mother I’m wildly attracted to is the last place I need to be. It’s a place I swore to myself I’d never be again.
I know that.
So why didn’t I simply just stay away?
CHAPTER TEN
GABRIELLE
Icollect the broken spindles littering the ground and make a pile near the driveway. The front of the house looks a little bare without them, but no spindle is better than missing every third and every sixth one being broken.
My muscles groan as I stare back at the house and take in my handiwork. Not bad.
Aside from the spindles, the steps leading to the porch are gone. I tore out all the weeds popping up in the landscaping and yanked a few plants that were overgrown. The porch light that hasn’t been changed since at least the eighties is now in the trash can.
I still need to clean the baby trees out of the gutters.
The ladder leans against the house right where I left it. I shake it, summoning the courage to give scaling the rungs another shot. The gutters were going to be my first plan of attack, but I chickened out when a not-so-strong breeze nearly yeeted me across the lawn.
It felt like that, at least.
“Woman up, Gabby,” I say, sliding gloves out of my pocket and onto my hands. Then I grip the rails. “Get your butt up there and do the damn thing.”
Voices drift around the house, replacing the hammering and drilling from the last couple of hours. I place one foot on the lowest rung. Dylan and Jay will be here any second, and they’ll try to talk me out of going up there. Heck, they both have already tried today. Besides, if I’m ten feet up in the air, it’ll be harder for Jay to bring up our earlier conversation.
“Look, kissing you would’ve been giving in to the moment. Did I want to kiss you? Of course. You’re gorgeous. But it would’ve been wrong of me to do that because it wouldn’t have gone anywhere.”
Hmm. Right.
The gutters, Gabs. Get to the gutters.
The ladder is steadier than it was earlier. Still, I keep my weight leaning forward so I don’t tip backward. There’s no need to play with unnecessary risks any more than I already am.
Jay’s voice is warm, and the deep notes find me before I find him. The sound drags across my body, caressing it in a way that isn’t safe for a woman this far off the ground. Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be safe if I had both feet planted firmly on the soil either.
“Thanks again for the shirt.”
“Thanks again for the shirt,” I say, mocking Jay’s words that echo through my head. I scoop my hand in the gutter and fish out a heavy, water-laden pile of yuck. I ought to throw this on you, Jay.
Why has he convoluted my brain with all his mixed signals? He doesn’t want to connect with people. He accepted my coffee. He almost kisses me, calls me gorgeous. He went out of his way to help my sons. He doesn’t want anything, obviously, between us, but how am I supposed to understand his behavior?
Why come over here? Why show up for us two days in a row? Why air up Carter’s ball and help Dylan fix the porch?
My insides clench as I recall the bulge in his pants.
I don’t think he’s screwing with me to be a dick. But he’s screwing with me, nonetheless. And I plan on screwing with him right back.
I drop the pile of yuck into the bucket I hung off the ladder earlier.
“Mom on a ladder never ends well,” Dylan says.
I look down at him. “Very funny.”
“I’m going inside and taking a shower. I don’t want to see how this ends.”
“Did you get the deck all done?” I ask, ignoring Jay standing next to him.
Dylan nods. “Yeah. Jay helped me.” He peers at him out of the corner of his eye. “He let us have some boards.”
I can’t quite work out Dylan’s tone. It’s steady and void of overt sarcasm, but the edges of his words are a little too raw to be conversational. I hope he wasn’t a complete brat to Jay all afternoon.
I move my attention to Jay. The sight of his sweaty T-shirt clinging to his body makes my mouth water. Play it cool, Gabby.
“Thanks again for the boards,” I say, mimicking his words about the flannel.
He nods knowingly, shoving his tongue into his cheek. I smile with a cockiness I might regret later. Oh well. Gotta roll with it now.
“Can I go in?” Dylan sighs.
“Yes. You can go in,” I say. “Make sure you thank Jay for his help.”
He hops over the missing stairs and lands on the porch. “I did.”