There were endless reasons why he should step back, why he should stop holding her fiery gaze, why he should walk right the hell out of here.
But Kira was right. He got off on fixing things. He should have kept his mouth shut about this tree-farm shack, about lots of things he’d said to Kira since he met her.
Except now, looking at her bundled into her new coat with its faux-fur-trimmed hood, like she was ready for an arctic expedition, he found himself opening his mouth again.
‘How’s the main house?’
She narrowed her eyes at him like he had nefarious motives for asking. ‘It’s fine.’
‘You sure?’
Her internal struggle on how to answer was written clearly across her face. She didn’t want to ask him for help, obviously. But that house was at least a hundred years old and had been vacant for the past three, according to Logan. There was no way things were running perfectly in there.
Not that it was any of his business if they were or not. He could just leave. He could tell his sister and her crazy neighbors that he’d found nothing, that he wasn’t going back, that he had work to do. He could walk away and leave Kira here with her new farm and her wide eyes and her lack of customers.
But what he wouldn’t be able to do was to stop thinking about how she might be unsafe in that house. The town was worried about her encountering some mythical dead body, but what they should be worried about was carbon monoxide poisoning. Or a gas leak. Or faulty wiring.
So, yeah, he wanted to fix a few things for her. If she let him.
Was that so wrong?
Kira blew out a long dramatic sigh. ‘I guess if you really wanted to, you could maybe look at the boiler for me. I don’t seem to be getting much heat. So, I mean … if it would be fun for you…’
‘I’ll check it out.’
She might have been rolling her eyes at him, but he had already turned around and walked out of the cabin. His dogs were waiting for him. Pudgie had dozed off under a tree, Odie immediately started yapping at the sight of him and Elizabeth loped loyally to his side.
‘Come on,’ he said, and Elizabeth and Odie followed, the big dog at his hip and the little one scurrying around his feet. He turned around to see Kira scooping Pudgie up and carrying her in her arms. She whispered something in the old dog’s ear. He decided it was best to ignore what seeing her snuggle his favorite dog did to him, turning his insides soft and achy. It was just the sort of thing to have him renovating her entire house by the end of the week.
He shook his head and trudged toward the main house. He was just going to make sure it was livable and then he really would stay away from this farm and this woman who wasn’t even remotely interested in him and he didn’t need in his life anyway. Regardless of how his dogs felt about her. They also ate trash so they didn’t exactly have discerning tastes.
The house was an old Victorian with a big wraparound porch. It looked like a dilapidated version of a doll’s house Jeanie used to have when they were kids. He climbed the front steps, promising himself that he was just being neighborly. He would have insisted on helping even if Kira had been an old man, or a nun, or anyone, really. Although maybe he wouldn’t have been quite as eager about it.
‘Stay,’ he told the dogs, but Kira huffed behind him.
‘They can come in.’ She cuddled Pudgie closer. ‘We can’t just leave the poor babies outside,’ she crooned.
‘Right. Of course.’ He opened the door, and Elizabeth and Odie raced inside.
Kira laughed and he added the throaty sound of it to the things he was ignoring.
The temperature in the house wasn’t much better than outside. No wonder this woman had taken to wearing comforters.
‘Kira, it’s freezing in here.’
She put Pudgie gently on the sofa and tucked a fleece blanket around her. He would swear the dog grinned at him.
‘I know. That’s what I said.’
‘You didn’t. You said you weren’t getting much heat. I don’t think you’re getting any.’
She shrugged. ‘Semantics.’
‘Kira.’
‘What?’
‘You can’t live here like this.’
Her mouth set in a firm line. He was about to get kicked out on his ass if he didn’t scale down the protective vibe.
‘I can and I do and I’m fine.’ She spun on her heel and marched off toward what he assumed was the kitchen in the back of the house. ‘The boiler is in the basement if you want to look at it.’ She gestured to a door under the main staircase. ‘Otherwise you can feel free to get the hell out.’
She didn’t look back, just left him standing in her entryway hall feeling like an asshole for wanting to help her. He should go, clearly. He had things to do other than be abused by irrationally angry Christmas-tree farm owners: things like his actual job. But … but it really was freezing in here and he said he would take a look and, damn it, he couldn’t just leave her here like this.
The radiator in the hall clanged like someone was hammering the pipes and then hissed like an angry cat. He took that as a sign. He would just take a quick look. Besides, his dogs were gone; Elizabeth and Odie had totally abandoned him to follow Kira, and Pudgie snored loudly from the couch.
Might as well take a look.
He found Kira an hour later in the kitchen nursing a cup of coffee with all three dogs curled up at her feet. He ignored this cozy picture of domestic bliss and instead launched into his findings.
‘You need a new boiler.’
Kira raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow. ‘No kidding.’
Bennett sighed and ran a hand down his face in frustration. Why was she making this so difficult?
