Page 35 of The Billionaire Experience

“I’ll pick you up in ten minutes.”

Reagan loved the home improvement store. She stepped through the sliding double doors and inhaled. The fresh smell of broken-down cardboard boxes and the faint hint of paint lingered in the air. A tinny voice announced over a loudspeaker that help was required in the kitchen department. Forget Disney World. This was her utopia.

Since she was a kid, she’d loved fixing things. Simple changes made a huge impact—an adjustment to a wobbly chair made it comfy again. Painting the baseboards in a fresh coat of white brightened the entire room. Her grandfather had been content to let her tinker when she’d been young.

“I’d never been inside one of these box stores until I moved here,” he said.

“And?”

“Intimidating.” He slanted her a glance.

“Really? All I see is possibility.”

He tipped his head back to take in the massively high shelves before offering a thoughtful nod. “Yeah, okay. Maybe I would feel that way if I was as masterful as you at repairs.”

She allowed a small smile. Masterful. Once again, he had pointed out her capability. She could get used to that. “Well, I know from experience that return visits to swap one sink for another have a way of sucking the fun out of being here. No one likes to stop a project in the middle because you don’t have the right O-ring.”

“Sounds kinky.” He canted an eyebrow, holding her gaze for so long that her thighs tingled. She ignored the sensation and focused on the task at hand—they were in public. “This will go faster if we split up. Can you find your way around without me?”

“Of course.” He scoffed. “Give me half the list. We’ll race.”

“You’ll lose,” she said, her competitive side materializing at the slightest nudge.

“We’ll see.”

She copied half of the list from her Notes app and texted it to him. Five minutes later she was on the other side of the store placing the lumber order for a project she was excited to begin. She’d always wanted to build shelves in the closet in the larger of the two spare bedrooms.

Once she’d paid and an employee had loaded the lumber into the bed of her truck, she went back inside to see how Brody had fared with his half of the list.

She found him in front of a washer-dryer combo, arms folded over his chest, mustache smiling, and a twinkle in his eye. A woman with red curly hair wearing a floral-patterned dress was standing close to him—too close, in Reagan’s opinion.

An unexpected surge of jealousy shot through her. She’d recently read an article about opportunistic women who lurked around hardware stores to pick up men, and here she was witnessing it in person!

Before she could scold herself for overreacting, the woman touched Brody’s arm. As far as Reagan knew, he had one sister, and Reagan and Jaylyn had met. No way could the adorable redhead’s cheery attire be confused for hard-as-nails Jaylyn’s glam-goth style.

Reagan marched toward them, arguing with herself along the way. There was nothing to be upset about. The kiss between her and Brody was over and done and nothing she planned on repeating. Plus, she wasn’t looking for a boyfriend.

“But he’s here with me,” she said under her breath, a breeze kicking her hair as she sped toward him. It didn’t matter if they never kissed again. The fact that he was flirting with another woman so soon after kissing her made her blood boil.

He threw his head back and laughed at whatever the woman was saying.

Before she thought through what she was going to say, Reagan was standing in front of Brody, practically touching him with her body. “Hey, honey! Did you find everything okay?”

He spared her a brief surprised glance before apparently deciding to go along with the whole honey thing. He slung his arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his firm torso. “Hey, sweetheart. Funniest thing. I was lost, turned around and asked for directions, and look who I ran into.”

The red-haired woman stuck out her hand for Reagan to shake. “Hi, I’m Chloe.”

“Zander’s girlfriend,” Brody supplied, smug. “Can you believe it? Small fucking world.”

Zander’s girlfriend. As in Brody’s brother.

Reagan swallowed a groan. Nice to know she was still capable of sticking her foot into her mouth. As awkward as that made this exchange, she felt a hefty dose of relief as well. Chloe was most certainly not flirting with her boyfriend’s brother.

“I’m Reagan.” She shook Chloe’s waiting hand. “Brody’s handywoman.”

“Oh, wow.” Chloe’s eyebrows rose. “It’s good to meet you. Both. I wondered when I would finally meet the enigmatic Brody Crane, but I didn’t expect to run into him while shopping for a new washer and dryer. And I definitely didn’t expect to meet his, um, handywoman.”

Reagan kept her smile pasted on her face, aware of Brody’s gaze drilling a hole through the side of her head.

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