Page 22 of Hero Next Door
Okay, that was a good point. But I wasn’t willing to let this one go.
I leaned closer to him, closing the distance between us until it was almost gone and fighting the sudden urge to do more than just talk. Sure, we might be close enough to kiss. That didn’t mean we were going to, and it sure didn’t mean I wanted anything like it.
I was making a point. That was all.
“I can pay you back for all that,” I whispered, trying to make my voice strong and failing miserably. “And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”
He snorted softly. “So I’ve paid for it, and you’re going to pay me back and then make me pay you again for the damage you think I caused? And here I thought you were logical.”
I bit my lip, my eyes floating down to where his mouth was smirking and then back up to his gaze. What were we talking about again?
Oh. The kitchen. The damage.
Him paying for it. Me paying him back. Him paying me.
Why the hell was I having so much trouble keeping track of the details? Details were what I did for a living!
I took three steps back, forcing some space in between us, and took a deep breath in, trying to clear my head. “That’s a good point. I guess I won’t pay you back, but I still blame you for the damage. So how’re you going to make up for it?”
He raised a finger to tap at his lips, a smile growing there. “I’ll have to think about it. Ask me again tomorrow.”
A slight cough sounded out to our right, and we both whirled like kids who’d been caught doing something we weren’t supposed to be doing. Avery was standing at the corner of the house, her eyebrows high and her head turned so she could give us some major side eye. Accompanied by a smirk I knew all too well.
“Did you actually need something, Avery, or were you just stopping by to snoop?” I asked.
The smirk turned into a grin. “Well I was bringing you lunch, actually. Figured you two might need something to eat after all your hard work. But it looks like you’re about to have each other for lunch so...” She shrugged, turned, and disappeared like she’d changed her mind about feeding us.
I raced after her. If she had food, I wanted it.
And I needed to disabuse her of whatever she was thinking about what Dev and I had been doing before she started making plans for our wedding.
* * *
By the end of the day, we’d managed to not only mop up the lake in the kitchen, using the mops and buckets Dev went into town to buy, but also pick out a new floor for said kitchen, replace the faucet in the way normal human adults might replace a faucet, and take out the old cabinets. We’d talked about moving on to the cabinets in the dining room but had decided that enough was enough for one day.
We were now cooking toast, scrambled eggs, hash browns, and sausage in what was left of the kitchen.
“Is breakfast for dinner a normal thing for you?” I asked, looking across the spread.
“Flip those hash browns!” Dev said by way of answer.
I flipped as ordered and then looked at him, eyebrows lifted as I waited for a response.
“Yes,” he finally sighed. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best meal of the day. Best options, anyhow. And I eat it as often as I can.”
“As often as you can? Like, three times a day?”
He pointed the spatula he was doing the eggs with at me. “If I didn’t think it might kill me, I would. Only I’d include blueberry pancakes to what we’ve made here.”
I laughed. “Blueberry pancakes? That’s... specific.”
He just shrugged. “I’m famous for them.”
Then he did some fancy flippy thing with the pan and the eggs flew into the air. Only the flippy thing must have been meant for something else, because instead of the eggs falling neatly back into the pan, they flew right at me and landed with a splat on my feet—and the slippers I’d brought with me from Nashville.
I jumped and yelped, then started hopping around as the hot yolks dripped right through the fabric of the slippers. I kicked them off, still yelping, and looked back to find Dev trying very, very hard not to laugh.
“You send me through the wood on my front porch. You shoot me with a firehouse of water. And now you’re attacking me with eggs? If you didn’t want me here, Dev, you could just say so. Are you always this...”
