Page 28 of The Best Laid Plans

My eyebrows climbed, disappearing somewhere underneath my Tigers hat.

He looked away, the hot man muscle in his jaw bunching up like that was its job. “No one needed me to be nice. They needed me to sack the guy throwing the ball and stop the guy running with it.”

“Well, like I said, if you can find someone to share their hotel room, I’m sure they’ll know that you were very good at that.”

Burke’s jaw tightened before he shifted his gaze over to the carriage house.

Mycarriage house.

“How many bedrooms you got in there?” he asked.

My mouth fell open, then snapped shut. “Two,” I said warily.

His eyes flashed, and then, somehow, his hard mouth softened into a wicked-looking smile. “Perfect.”

“You are joking.”

Burke spread his arms out. “You wanted me here, right? As the owner of this fine, lovely property with all its ... quirks and charms.”

I set my hands on my hips, my mind racing. Arguments sprang to the tip of my tongue, but they all shriveled to ash because he did own it. And he wouldn’t be able to find a hotel room easily for the next week, and ... I did want him to be a part of this.

Damn it.

“Rendered speechless,” he mused. “I’m stunned by how quickly we’ve managed to come to a peaceful agreement.”

With a snort, I turned my attention back to the soft dirt in front of me. The unearthed tulip bulb sat there, right on top of the pile, and I decided that maybe I should stop until I wasn’t so ... annoyed out of my mind. I snatched the gardening gloves off my hands and tossed them onto the front stoop.

“There’s only one bathroom,” I told him.

“I think I can manage, if you’re up to it.”

“And I’m pretty sure the hot water heater needs to be replaced,” I continued. “My last shower was ice cold, and I knew my eager, intrepid property owner would love to take care of that when he showed up this week.”

He licked his lower lip, and something quivered in my stomach. I glanced away.

“New roof. New water heater. No builder. Anything else?” His eyes were burning as he bit out the words.

Internally, I was screaming at the top of my lungs. It took so much more energy to maintain witty, sarcastic banter, and I found that I missed simple niceties something fierce.

But I straightened, crossing my arms over my chest.

“The price of lumber is up twenty-five percent since Amie and I figured the renovation budget, so you’ll have to talk to the estate lawyer about how we should cover the cost of that.”

His eyes were unreadable and unwavering. “That it?”

“It’s all I can think of for now,” I answered seriously.

“Excellent.” He snatched up a duffel bag from the back seat of his rental car. “I’m assuming I’ll know which room is already taken?”

I nodded. “The blue one is mine. You can have the yellow bedroom down the hall.”

He eyed the house like it might bite him upon entry. “Does it have a bed?”

I smiled. It probably would’ve looked like a sweet smile too, if I hadn’t been gleefully imagining the impossible size of him crammed onto the piece of furniture in that room. “Of sorts.”

His face did that thundercloud-darkening thing again.

I wasn’t even sure it could be considered a twin bed, and there was no way his long-ass legs would fit. But that was not my problem.

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