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“Shoot him.”
“Drew!” She turns to me with a strained smile. “He’s joking. We don’t have any guns.”
“I sure hope not.” I smile and shake my head at her brother who’s laughing while playing his game.
“Brothers.”
“Don’t I know it.”
“Anyway, what were you doing here again?”
“I’m your helper for the day. Surprise!”
“Yes. The surprise is on me.”
“Ready to get started?” I take one of the cups out of the tray and hand it to her.
“Thank you?” she says like it’s a question while taking it, making me chuckle.
“It’s a hazelnut blend. I heard it’s pretty good. Take a sip.”
“Okay, but you know you didn’t have to bring anything.” She takes a sip from the cup, I’m sure just to be polite, but she nods and says, “Mmm…this is pretty good.”
“Yeah? I took a chance you’d like it.”
“Paid off. I do have a thing for hazelnut.” She takes another sip. “I love Nutella.”
“So do I! Looks like we have some good things in common.” I smile at her
“Great, are you going to kiss now?” Ryan says, eating another donut.
“Or just get down to it in front of our door?” Drew says.
“Shut up, Drew!” She looks over her shoulder. “Ryan, save at least one of those for Axel. I don’t feel like hearing him whine if he sees we had those.” She sighs turning back to me. “I’m…yeah.” She looks at me apologetically. “You don’t have to stick around and help me. I can figure this out by myself.”
“Are you kidding me, there is nothing I’d rather do on my day off than help you and…” I look at her brothers shoving each other. “Your…ah…entertaining, hopefully not quite juvenile delinquent brothers out.”
She laughs, touching the coffee cup to her chest. “They seem a bit much at first. They’re really notthatbad.”
“Thanks for sticking up for us, sis,” Ryan says.
“Seriously though, if I’d known it was you Rachel was sending over, I would have told her no.”
“Ouch!” Ryan shakes his head. “You brought the good donuts and coffee for no reason. You struck out again.” He walks over and pats his sister on the shoulder. “At least let him start working, pretend to give him a chance, Lexi. Because we seriously don’t know shit about fixing a porch.”
She brushes his hand away and puts a hand on my chest, catching me by surprise, and gently pushing me back through the door. Then removing her hand to close the door behind her. “Now, once again. I’m sorry about them.”
“You don’t have to apologize for that, and anytime you feel like putting your hands on me, you can. I fully consent to it.” I can see the little smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. “And he’s right, you should let me help. I’m just here to help. You don’t have to owe me a thing. But if I leave here without helping you, my aunt will wring my neck. Then I might have to arrest her, then it’ll be a whole family drama thing…and do you want to be responsible for that? Help me by letting me help you.” I give her my most endearing smile.
She sighs. “Since you put it like that, how can I say no? I don’t want to be responsible for destroying someone else’s family.”
“I didn’t think so.” I try to hide a triumphant smile. “And from what I can see you’re going to need the help.” I look around with a critical eye. My aunt was wrong; this is going to need more than a few pieces replaced. “So, ready to get to work? I mean after you’ve had your coffee of course.” I point to the cup in her hand. “I can start by doing some assessments while you finish and let you know what’s what.”
“That’d be great, Noah, thanks.” She holds out her hand all formal and shit. Like it’s some kind of business deal.
Nah, that’s so not how we’re going to start this. I take her offered hand in a firm shake and pull her into me, inches from her face. “You’re more than welcome. Anytime I can do anything for you…let me know.” I bite my lip and slowly let it slip out of my mouth as she watches, and visibly swallows. Yeah, that’s better.
With a nervous smile, she says, “Okay, sure.” She pulls her hand away from mine and places it around her cup with the other one.
