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“The same, actually.”
Her eyes went round. “Really?”
“Yeah, I’m a tinkerer at heart. Drove my mother nuts as a kid. Can’t be much of an engineer if you don’t go to college, though.”
“True.” She tapped her spoon pensively against the inside of her bowl and peered through the window behind her for a moment. “I considered engineering briefly when I was in college. There were a lot of job opportunities for people wanting to go into product development and computer engineering, but I really wanted to work outside in the fresh air sometimes. That’s why the project manager part of my job suits me. I actually get away from my desk.”
“And you get to put on a hardhat and get your shoes dirty, huh?”
She shrugged. “Or at the least, to be by a window so I could get some natural light. Even early humans came out of their caves sometimes.” She laughed, and he couldn’t help but laugh along with her. It was so infectious when she laughed like she meant it, and she didn’t try to stifle it. Her joy was refreshing, and he felt like a plant leaning toward her as if she were a bright light and he was starved for energy.
Maybe he was.
“I think we’re evolutionarily coded to seek the sun,” Valerie said.
Tim bobbed his eyebrows at that and spooned up some cereal. “Speaking of sun, do you think my house seems dark?”
She cringed and leaned against the bench’s padded back. “It is, but you’ve got to blame the trees for that.”
“I never cut them back because I wanted privacy from the neighbors. I guess a fence could do the same job.”
“Well, I don’t know. Fences are great if that’s your style, but trees are natural and they’re less obtrusive. You could try pruning back the trees a bit and installing skylights in strategic locations. You might also benefit from raising the pitch of the roof.”
“I’d probably feel a little less claustrophobic if I did.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to just scrap the house and start from scratch?”
“I thought you said you liked troubleshooting. Did you change your mind just that fast?”
She rolled her eyes. “No. There’s troubleshooting, and then there’s reinventing the wheel. I’ve got ideas for your house. You owe me big time for them. I think you know that. That’s why you brought me out on your boat, I bet. So you could feed me sugary cereal and make me forget how much work you’re making me do.”
He wasn’t going to bother correcting her on that. It served his purposes well for her to think that. “I’m also giving you sunshine. All that delicious Vitamin D has got to be worth something to you.”
“Mmm. Maybe…if that Vitamin D is the kind administered below the waist.” Grinning, she tipped her bowl a bit to the side and scooped up a golden marshmallow bit—the pot of gold.
Cheeky wench.
He’d always thought Heidi had a hell of a unique knack for unsubtle innuendo, but apparently, she wasn’t so singular.
“Maybe you’ll get lucky,” he said, suppressing a chuckle.
“Mmm.” Her tongue flashed out to clean up a bit of milk at the corner of her mouth, and naturally, from there, his mind went to licking it off her from wherever he wanted to pour it.
Maybe take her out on the deck and lay her out…He could already picture the rich white liquid pooling between her breasts and dripping down from her nipples.
He reached out and palmed her breast, catching her nipple between his finger and thumb.
At her little moan, he drew away, but not before appreciating the stiff peak thrusting against the fabric of her dress.
He needed to pace himself or he was going to be balls-deep in her before he’d even learned her exact age, alma mater, and coffee preferences.
He forced out a breath and crossed his arms over his chest. “So, tell me about your sister. What’s really with the running act? Convince me she’s as wild as you make out.”
Valerie forced out a breath of her own and slowly dragged her tongue across her lips. “Well, if you met her, you’d understand. She’s like a little kid you don’t want knowing your business because she’d tell it to some stranger at the first opportunity. I think she gets off on taking me down a peg whenever she can, so I try to keep my movements hidden from her.”
“So you were the good girl, huh?”
Valerie shrugged. “My grandmother still thinks I am, at least. I’d like to not disabuse her of that notion. She expects me to be a good influence for Leah because Leah is so susceptible to peer pressure.”
