Page 21 of Beg, Borrow, or Steal

Apparently I’ve just awoken the beast. The pink splotches on her cheeks are gone. Her hands move to her hips. Shoulders set. She will strip naked right now just to prove to me that my barb didn’t land.

“From the rumors around town about you knocking over an entire display at Harriet’s Market just so you could get a good look at my legs, I’d think you’d be excited to find me in anabsurdly thinPJ set.” She tips her brows. “Yeah, I heard.”

So much for buying their secrecy.

“I couldn’t help but stare.” I pause and smile. “They just looked so real for a humanoid. Your person does incredible work.”

“He might be able to find you an actual heart if you want me to ask.”

“Nah—I prefer mine frozen and cold.”

Emily steps a little closer and my bare skin prickles. “Why are you doing construction right now, Jackson?”

I give her a look that implies how obvious it is. “Because this house is so dilapidated that if I don’t work every chance I get, it might collapse on my head.”

Her eyes widen slightly. “Please tell me you are not doing your own renovation?”

“Who else would do it? A woman who has nothing better to do with her time than annoy the shit out of me called my contractor and asked him not to take the job. And while she was at it, she told the whole damn town to stay away from me too. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

Emily blinks and looks to the side, clearly biting her cheek to hold back a smile.Vindictive woman.“I take it you couldn’t find a different crew to take it on?”

“Oh, I did—but they’re not available anytime in the next six months.”

Not a lick of remorse on her face when she looks in my eyes. In fact, she shrugs and her chin dimples. “Oh well, I guess you’ll just have to sell the place and move. I hear the North Pole is nice.”

I hold up my trusty hammer. “Why? I’ve always wanted to build a house. Looks like I finally get my chance.”

Her smile falls. “You can’t do this renovation yourself, Jack.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because you’re a teacher, not a contractor. Have you ever built anything in your life?”

“If you saw my Lego creations as a kid you wouldn’t be asking me that question. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a wall to finish working on.” I head back around the house and up the porch stairs, making it to the landing before I hear the click of Emily’s boots following behind.

“You’re going to do more worktonight?” she asks.

“Yep.”

“No. You can’t. It’s too loud for me and Ducky to sleep.”

“Who the hell is Ducky?”

She’s trying to peek around me to see in my house. “Ducky is my cat.”

I find this endlessly amusing. “Why do you have a cat?”

“To cook in my soup for dinner tomorrow.” She rolls her eyes dramatically. “She’s my pet! Why else would I have a cat?”

Sometimes it’s so hard not to fully smile around her. Not to bust out laughing if I’m being perfectly honest. But I don’t because that would just go to her head and make her think she’s won this round. (Which…maybe she has.)

Something else I shouldn’t do: notice how the hairs at the back of her neck are curling up. Her bangs too. She always wears her hair perfectly styled to school. But right now, and like the day I saw her with wet hair, it’s messy and waving in every direction. A little frizzy. And it’s so damn charming. Emily orchestrates and micromanagesevery facet of her life to perfection, but she can’t control her bangs against humidity.

I have the strongest urge to wrap one of those curls around my finger.

“I didn’t take you for a pet owner.”

“And I didn’t take you for someone who would present his nipples to anyone on the other side of his front door, but here we are learning new things about each other,” she says, gesturing to my shirtless body. And again, I’m having to smother my laughter. Judging by the sparkle in her eyes, I think she is too.

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