Handy for you, p.2
Handy for You, page 2
Right. She had asked him a question. “Narrow it down to the ones you can afford. What’s your budget?”
Her gaze swiveled back to the wall of fixtures. “I hadn’t really budgeted for a new faucet at all. But…I guess if I can keep it around that hundred dollar mark you mentioned it won’t break the bank.”
“Okay.” He rubbed his chin, the weekend stubble rasping against his palm. He pointed to a few fixtures. “Those are all good choices. I wouldn’t go with that one.” He pointed at another faucet. “I’ve had bad luck with that brand in the past. Wouldn’t risk it.”
“Okay, so between those…” She counted, fingers pointing at each option as she considered it. “Four, which one would you choose?”
“It’s not about what I would choose. What do you want? What look appeals to you? What sort of features do you want?”
“Features?” Her face twisted into a funny grimace. “Like options on a car?”
“Sort of. Like that pull-out spray nozzle. How does that sound?”
A laugh puffed through her lips. “You know, I’ve never thought about it.”
“About what?”
“About what I wanted in my house. I mean, aside from furniture or decorative items. Stuff I could take with me when my lease was up. But everything else? The landlord chose it. Usually the cheapest thing possible, I guess. Whatever would just scrape by, get the water from the ground to the sink.”
“Well…” A smile tugged at his lips. “Now you’re the landlord. Um. Lady. Lady with her own land. You get to choose. What do you think you would like to have? In your house.”
Kari’s hand lifted to her chest and settled there, pressing against the thin cotton of her tee shirt. Rob swallowed, averting his gaze from her chest and turned to look at the wall of faucets, gleaming with finishes ranging from shiny chrome to brushed steel. She pointed at one model. “That one.”
He followed the trajectory of her finger and tapped a unit. “This one?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s ninety-nine dollars—seriously, why do they do that? Why not round up to a hundred?” She readdressed herself to the wall of faucets. “And because it has a pull-out thingy with a spray thingy and it’s brushed metal instead of shiny and it…has a brand name I recognize. Does that pass inspection, Professor?”
Her words felt like a soft punch of regret to his sternum. “Yeah.”
“Why did your face just go all funny?” Her eyes narrowed, her expression concerned.
“Did it?”
“Yeah.”
He shrugged. “Don’t know.” She could have no way of knowing she’d just inadvertently dusted off a dream of a lifetime ago. Bending, he found a box that corresponded with the item number of the faucet she had selected. “Let’s get checked out and I can install it for you.”
“You sure you’re want to do it?”
He paused, looking sideways at her. “Don’t you think I can?”
She waved her hands in front of her face. “Didn’t mean to disparage your abilities. It’s just…you’re giving up your Saturday to do this for me. I feel guilty. I could always hire a plumber.”
“Not an issue. I like doing this sort of thing.” He hefted the box. “Need anything else while we’re here?”
“I don’t know.” She looked up and down the wide aisle, then nodded at the box. “Will that have everything you need to do this? Or do we need to get additional pieces or parts or whatever?”
“I’ll get some new supply lines. Otherwise, this should have everything we need. Except for tools, of course.” He laughed at the sudden, stricken look on her face. “Which I have. Don’t worry.”
“Okay.” She nodded toward the front of the store. “Let’s get this show on the road, I guess.”
And as Kari followed him to the aisle that held the other things he needed he realized that he hadn’t helped a woman around the house in a very long time. It was a little scary how good it felt.
Chapter Two
“Are you sure you don’t want some coffee or something?” Kari fidgeted, feeling useless. No, worse than useless. Useless and very aware of the long, male legs attached to the long, lean torso sticking out from under her sink.
Something clanked and Rob grunted and shifted his shoulders, which were propped on the edge of the open cabinet. It looked uncomfortable as hell.
“Or I could just shut up and let you get on with it,” Kari muttered.
“Did you say something?” A thump sounded from under the sink. “Ow. Fuck.”
Kari bit her lip and closed her eyes. Great. Not only was she taking advantage of her neighbor, now she’d injured him. She crouched and found him squinting at her, rubbing his forehead.
She grimaced. “I’m so sorry. Didn’t mean to make you hit your head. I just wanted to know if you wanted me to make some coffee or something. I feel useless as heck just standing around while you fix my sink.”
A weak grin slid across his face. “Coffee after noon? I’d be up until dawn.”
So, he wasn’t Scandinavian. Her mother would have offered coffee from sunup to sundown without thinking twice. “Anything?” Kari winced at the pathetic tone she couldn’t keep out of her voice.
He dropped his head back and continued to fiddle with whatever he was fiddling with. “You really don’t have to. I’m having a blast.”
“Sure seems like it, what with the swearing and the traumatic brain injury.”
“Well, if you could find an old towel or something to cushion my back, that’d be a help.” His voice sounded distracted and there was another clank.
“That I can do.” Kari hopped to her feet and nearly sprinted to the linen closet in the hall, stretching to the top shelf to find the store of towels she kept after they had gotten too threadbare for anything other than rags. Scooting back to the kitchen, she crouched next to him. “Towel.”
Rob rocked his hips side to side to inch out from under the sink and Kari swallowed as his tee shirt rode up, exposing a strip of bare stomach. She’d estimated that Rob was a bit older than her forty-two years, but there was no question that he kept himself fit. She lifted her gaze to his face, heat flooding her face at the gentle curve of his lips as he tugged his tee shirt down. I wasn’t perving on you! she wanted to protest.
But it wouldn’t be one hundred percent true. Rob was a little awkward and a lot eager, but he was also generous and helpful. He dog-sat for his daughter. He was helping Kari with her plumbing. He didn’t ask for anything in return.
And, if Kari was being honest, the man was cute. Seriously cute. As in silver fox matinee idol cute. As in Central Casting could find him a job as George Clooney’s cousin cute.
She offered him the towel and he twisted to lay it in the cabinet, settling back and inching under the sink again without a word. He took a wrench and applied it and a pair of pliers to the pipe, pushing them in opposition, grunting as the fitting gave way. This time, knowing his attention was on the plumbing, Kari allowed herself to appreciate the play of lean muscles in his arms, of the way his abs tensed under his tee shirt as the pipe gave way.
“Excellent.” He set the tools down beside him and picked up another wrench, doing something else with it, then scooting out to get to his feet and pull the whole assembly out, absorbed in his task, seemingly not even remembering Kari was there.
Having Kari looking on while he worked was distracting as hell. Rob tried to cover by examining the old faucet, though there was no need. The thing was going in the trash. It should have gone there years ago from the look of it.
But he wanted something to focus on so he wouldn’t think about the way Kari had blushed when he caught her looking at him. He wasn’t too proud to admit he appreciated an admiring glance, but Kari was right here next door. He needed to be careful. He knew all too well that starting something would almost certainly be followed by ending something, and he wasn’t about to have a next-door neighbor who hated him. Having an ex-wife halfway across the country hating him was bad enough.
“Problem?” Kari’s voice squeaked a bit and he shook his head.
“No, but I’m glad you decided to get a new unit. This thing is probably original to the house and wasn’t long for this world. Now I just need to get the new one installed and you’ll be right as rain soon.”
“Rain. Great. More water. Maybe my roof will leak next.”
“That’s awfully pessimistic of you.” Rob opened the box with the new faucet and laid out the parts on the counter. “Think about something happier. When we first met you mentioned you just got back from a cruise, right?”
“Yup. Caribbean.”
“Sounds swanky.”
“It was okay.”
He lifted his gaze to her face. She was looking out the window at the backyard. There was something sort of wistful about her expression. “Why only okay?” he asked.
She sighed and looked down at her hands. “Just not my type of thing. Very hectic, very busy. Lots of people all the time.”
He considered this as he settled the gasket and threaded the hoses through the hole in the back of the sink. He was a pretty gregarious guy, but even to him, that sounded like it might be a bit much. Kari had a much more quiet, self-contained vibe about her. “Doesn’t sound very restful.”
“No, it wasn’t. Lots of activities too. I would have preferred to curl up with a book on a lounge chair or something.”
“They don’t leave you alone to do that if that’s what you want to do?”
“Oh, they do. It’s just that there’s always something going on around that lounge chair. Games or parties or families with a lot of screaming kids. We docked in Nassau one day, and walking around the city is just one long string of people trying to get you to come into this shop or that one… Frankly, I was happy to get home.”
What would make a woman who seemed as reserved as Kari want to do such a thing in the first place? “Why did you go if it wasn’t your type of scene?”
“I won it at work. It’s not like I spent money on the ticket or anything.”
“Nice that you could find out it’s not your thing without spending money on it, I guess.”
“True.” One corner of her mouth quirked up. “You’re an always look on the bright side type, aren’t you?”
He settled back down on the kitchen floor, preparing to stick his head under the sink again. “I suppose so. I try to be, I guess. I mean, most things in life aren’t tragedies. Anyway, you got home from the stressful cruise to a nice quiet house and some relaxation, I guess.”
To his surprise, Kari started to laugh.
She couldn’t help it. It was perfect, somehow. And if she didn’t laugh, she’d cry.
Nice quiet house indeed. She’d come home and before she’d even unpacked her dirty clothes, Sam had come over and asked Kari the question she’d been dreading since Kari’s mother died, tearing the lid off of a lifetime of secrets and lies.
That had been two weeks ago. And Sam hadn’t called since.
The tears did come then, with a suddenness that shocked her. Kari’s mouth twisted and she clapped her hands over her eyes. The harder she tried to clamp down on the emotion, the harder her chest heaved, sobs wracking her lungs. Then there were arms around her, pulling her into a hard, warm chest, hands rubbing her back.
“Shh. What’s the matter?” His low voice was right in her ear, soothing.
Her hands still pressed against her eyes, she took one deep, shuddering breath. Then another. Tears still trickled, but the out of control sobbing was over. She pulled her hands away from her eyes and set them on his shoulders. He stepped away at that, releasing her. She wished he hadn’t. That brief bit of human contact, of comfort, had been like water on a thirsty plant. She took another breath, steadier this time.
“I’m sorry. I…I’ve just been under some stress lately.” She lifted her gaze to meet his, swiping her fingertips under her eyes to get rid of the moisture. He frowned, concern etched into the lines around his eyes. “I’m okay. Really.”
“You don’t seem so okay to me,” he said. His hand lifted and reached halfway between them, then fell.
She waved him away. “No. I’m fine.”
“If you say so. Do you want to talk about it? How fine you are?”
She shook her head. No, she didn’t want to talk to this attractive near-stranger about how she’d kept her mother’s secrets and lies only to be found out by her only living relative. And maybe losing that most precious relationship in the bargain. Shame and embarrassment would swallow her whole if she did that. Pile her panic about home ownership on top of that horrible little story and he might run screaming from her house. And at the same time, it all seemed so pathetic. So small.
Avert your eyes, we don’t talk about the madwoman next door. Seriously. She was a mess.
“Okay. Want me to continue to work on your sink? I’d leave you alone, but…then you wouldn’t have any water.”
She grimaced. “Please. Can we just ignore my awkward outburst? Pretend like it didn’t happen?”
“If that’s what you want.” His expression remained grave.
“Thanks.”
He nodded, then sank to the floor again and wriggled into the cabinet. “Not too much longer and I’ll be out of your hair anyway.”
She wanted to tell him she wasn’t counting the minutes until he could leave. That she actually enjoyed his company. It had been an awfully lonely two weeks. And she was getting used to seeing his long, jeans-clad legs sticking out from her kitchen cabinets.
“Can I…make you lunch or something? As a thank-you?”
He lifted his head—carefully this time—and looked at her. “You sure?”
She nodded. “Nothing fancy. I have the makings for ham sandwiches. Some chips. Beer, even.”
He let his head fall back and readdressed the pipes. “That sounds perfect.”
Kari nodded and moved to the fridge, taking out ingredients and assembling two lunch plates, stepping carefully around his legs. By the time she was done, Rob had finished with the faucet, run down to the basement to turn the water back on (seriously, how had she not even known where the main water valve was? Why did she think she could own a house? Who was she fooling?) and they were sitting at the little table in her dining room.
He looked around, taking in her minimal décor. She had plans to paint every room in the house, but for now, all the walls were stark white. His gaze roamed over the framed art posters, the little chest of drawers with a piece of whitework embroidery laid on top, and back to Kari’s face.
“That’s a nice cloth thingy on the chest there. Did someone make it for you?”
Kari shook her head. “No. I made it.”
His eyebrows went up. “Impressive.”
“My mom was very keen that I know traditional Norwegian hand-crafts like hardangersøm. I grew up doing it. Now I mostly need to keep my hands busy doing something. Knitting, embroidery…always something.”
He took a sip of beer, his dark gaze pinning her. “I take it back. That’s not impressive. It’s very impressive.”
Kari’s blush should be registered as a dangerous weapon. It made Rob think decidedly carnal thoughts that he had no business thinking. Better to get on more neutral ground.
“What do you do for work?” he asked.
“I’m an office manager and bookkeeper for a small publishing house,” she said. “Nothing terribly exciting.”
“My daughter would probably think it was very exciting,” he said.
“She wants to be an office manager for a company that makes instruction manuals?” Kari’s eyebrows quirked in humorous disbelief.
“Well, she wants to work in publishing. She’s been trying to get editorial work for a while now. Doing some freelancing, but she’d love to go full-time.”
“If we get an opening I can let you know since I’ll be practically the first to know,” Kari said. “Seeing as I’d be the one posting it. But there aren’t a lot of jobs like that out there. And certainly not in this neck of the woods.”
He sighed. “I know. I tried to get her to look into something more practical, but Mia’s both hardheaded and a dreamer. It can be a bad combination.” He picked up his sandwich and bit into it. A simple thing, a sandwich. But it had been a long time since anyone had made one for him. It tasted good.
“What do you do?”
“I’m the IT director for a computer game company.”
“So you could not only fix my sink but my computer too? Wow.”
“Does your computer need fixing?”
“No.” An unexpectedly sly smile flitted across her face and he felt another bolt of attraction run through him. “Besides, you’ve already fixed my sink and all I’ve been able to offer you in return is a sandwich. I’d better not push my luck.”
“It’s a good sandwich. Also, don’t underestimate the power of beer as a motivator. Anyway, I’m happy to fix your computer if something goes wrong with it. Or anything else.”
She sighed and looked around the room. “There’s so much to do. I hate all these white walls, but I don’t even know how long it will take me to paint a single room. Or how much paint to buy. Or…anything, really.”
“You’ve never painted a room before?”
She shook her head. “I’m the first person in my family to own a house.” She laughed a brief, reflective laugh. “Like I said before, when you first suggested I get a new faucet it was kind of a shock to me to realize I could do that. That it wasn’t up to the landlord to decide. That there is no landlord.”
He sipped his beer, thought for a moment. “Yeah. That’s one of the nice things about homeownership. But it’s also overwhelming sometimes.”
Kari’s eyes went wide. “You feel that way too?”
He shrugged. “Sure. Sometimes.”
“I thought I was just being a big baby. I finally got what I wanted—a home of my own—and then I don’t know what to do with myself.”
Rob nodded. “It’s kind of like when you’re a kid and you can’t wait to grow up and make your own decisions. Then you’re an adult and you sometimes wish someone else would make a decision for you—because it’s exhausting being in charge. And it’s scary sometimes.”
