AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Then no, I am not going to help her fix her house.”
“Not the question either.”
I blew out a frustrated breath and turned to her. “Then tell me the question so I can say no to it correctly.”
“When did you turn into such a grump?”
“When you started talking about a woman you think I might be interested in. I’m not, so whatever matchmaking you are doing, it’s not going to work.”
“Fine, I was wrong. Nolan wouldn’t be your type anyway. She’s already been married to an asshole; she doesn’t need another one in her life.”
“Funny. What were you going to ask me?”
“Nolan is thinking of knocking a wall down to open up her kitchen a little bit, but we aren’t sure if it’s load-bearing. The walls are odd in that house, so I’m not sure either. I was just wondering if you could come over and look at the walls and helps us figure out which ones are load-bearing and which ones aren’t.”
That shouldn’t be a hard thing to do.
“I swear, we are not asking for your help, just your advice.”
“When?”
“When you are available.”
I glanced at my watch. “I could probably stop by there in about an hour. Would that work?”
“Yep. I’m going to head over there now. She’s at work for a little while, but I can show you things before she gets there. Maybe if you’re lucky, you won’t even have to meet her.” Kayley turned and threw a smile over her shoulder.
“I never said that I didn’t want to meet your friend, Kay. I said I didn’t want to be hooked up with her.”
She turned and walked backward. “And I never said I was going to hook you up, Brad. I just said you might be interested in her.”
I shook my head as I turned back to my work. So maybe I was a little bit interested in meeting Nolan. Not because I wanted to get to know her, but Kayley did speak highly of her, and after hearing she was going to do a lot of the work herself, I was curious. Kayley had said she was a tomboy, and with a name like Nolan, I had a distinctive picture of her in my mind. I wondered how close I was.
An hour later, I was standing in the kitchen of the old farmhouse. I had to admit that it did have a lot of potential, but it also had a to-do list two miles long. Man, if I had the time and the money, I’d love to have a project like this to work on myself.
Kayley was on the phone in the family room as I looked around, and I heard the front door open and fast footfalls heading toward the kitchen.
“Would you freaking believe that one of the kids barfed on me today.” I turned and opened my mouth to say hello but went speechless as a petite woman came through the threshold with her shirt around her head. She was whipping it off, and it wasn’t until she had tossed it on the floor that she looked up and froze.
I didn’t want to admire—um, look—but it had been kind of hard not to when all I saw was her trim waist and gray sports bra. My gaze finally made it to her face, and we stared at one another. Her brown eyes were wide as she crossed her arms over her chest, not to hide but to look sterner. “Who are you?”
I found it odd that she didn’t seem concerned that she was half naked in front of a stranger. “I’m Kayley’s brother, Brad.”
“Oh!” She grinned and relaxed her guarded stance. “It’s great to meet you.” She stepped forward and shoved out her hand.
“It’s nice to meet you too.” Damn, she was nothing like what I had pictured.
“Nolan, why are you standing there in your sports bra?”
She looked down as if she had forgotten entirely. “Whoops, sorry, forgot. I got a little distracted when I saw your cute brother in my kitchen. How come you didn’t tell me he was so handsome?”
“Because he’s my brother,” she replied dryly. “Why don’t you go put on a shirt before you scare him away.”
She laughed, and the sound was so musical that I almost stepped toward her to tell her to do it more. Before I could say anything, she dashed out of the room. My sister reached over and put her hand under my chin.
“You can close your mouth now, Bradley. She isn’t your type, and you aren’t interested, remember?” She chuckled as she stepped away.
Chapter Five
