Page 17 of Firecracker

“Kidding. I don’t expect the prom queen to know anything about construction.” She’d probably hurt herself if she tried to hammer a nail.

A crease appeared between her eyebrows. “Prom queen?”

“You were, weren’t you?”

“Well, yes…”

He shrugged.

“You say it like it’s a bad thing.”

Tyler sighed. “It’s not a bad thing.” It just meant she was out of his league. But then again, she was two years older than him, gorgeous and had been dating the football team’s wide receiver—she was already out of his league because of those things. “I’ll be back.”

He made a few trips up and down with insulation and cans of paint. By the time he had everything upstairs—some of it stored in his own apartment, since now that Arden was occupying the place, he couldn’t just stack boxes and piles of lumber everywhere—he was hot and sweaty. And watching her move around her small kitchen didn’t help.

He fucking loved yoga pants on a woman. They were tight and stretchy and showed off a gorgeous ass perfectly. Not as well as a bikini, but as far as clothing went…only a tight pair of jeans compared. Or maybe a pencil skirt. He’d seen women wearing skirts that hugged their butt…

If anyone thought he was obsessed with female anatomy, they’d be right.

Women were amazing. Goddesses. Sometimes he found it hard to believe that such beautiful creatures existed in the same universe as him. Their soft curves and smooth skin and silky hair, the way they moved and smiled…Christ. He knew there was more to women than just the physical, and he appreciated all that too, but when faced with female beauty…he was in awe. He didn’t mean to be objectifying, but readily admitted to checking women out on the street on a regular basis, just because…damn. They were beautiful.

And now he was doing it with Arden.

Of course, she was at the top of Mount Goddess, or wherever it was that goddesses hung out, and she had been since he was about fourteen.

“Okay,” he said. “Here’s the deal. I’m ready to start your bathroom, but that’s gonna mean you don’t have a bathroom for a while.”

She regarded him with wide eyes. “For how long?”

“Hard to say. Depends on my work schedule. I could get started today, but I have to work tomorrow. After that, I have four days off. So I could do some demo work today, and then be ready to really rock and roll on Wednesday. But I probably won’t get it all done in four days, so it might be a couple of weeks before you can use your bathroom.”

She blinked. “What am I supposed to do with no bathroom?”

“Use mine.”

Her lips parted and she stared at him. “No, really.”

“Really. Why not? I’m right across the hall. Even if you need to sneak in during the middle of the night, that’s fine.”Don’t go there, don’t think about Arden sneaking into your bedroom, don’t…

She nibbled her bottom lip. “Maybe I could use Mila’s bathroom.”

Tyler frowned. “Well, sure, I guess you could. It’s farther away though. And remember, I work twenty-four-hour shifts, so there’ll be a lot of times I’m not even home.”

“Oh. Right.” She nodded. “You don’t mind a stranger using your apartment?”

“You’re not a stranger.”

Her lips pursed and, fuck, that made him want to kiss them. Then she smiled. “Well, thank you. I appreciate the offer.”

“Sorry you’re being put out.”

“No, no. I knew that was the deal when Jamie offered me a place to live. I’m grateful. I’ll try to stay out of your way.”

“And I’ll try to make it as painless for you as I can.”

“If I helped, maybe it would go faster?”

He eyed her. “Yeah, I’m still not convinced about your construction skills. If you’re like your brother, it’s probably better if you don’t help.”

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