Can't Tie Me Down! (Sinclair Sisters 1)

He took a second to calm his riotous heart before he came out from under the bonnet. She was sitting on his desk, swinging her feet and still wearing the clothes Amir had brought her.

“Your date’s over early.” Keir grabbed the rag beside him and wiped his hands.

She shrugged. “It was long enough, and the food was good.”

His stomach actually lurched at what he was about to ask. “Is he the one? You planning on marrying Amir?”

“No, but somebody should. He’s really pretty adorable.”

Yeah, Keir didn’t like hearing that one bit. “If he’s that adorable, how come you aren’t jumping on the Amir train?”

“No zing.”

Now that warmed his heart and made him perk up. If there was one thing he and Mairi had in spades, it was zing. “So, Lethal Weapon, then? Which number?”

She arched her eyebrow at him. “I can’t believe you asked that.”

“All of them, then,” he said as he sauntered toward her. “I hope you’ve got plenty of chocolate. It’s going to be a long night.”

“Have you seen my kitchen? There’s only chocolate up there.”

Keir didn’t say anything, because he had noticed the excessive amount of chocolate that had been delivered. It made his one lonely pack of potato scones look pathetic.

“Come on then, let’s go watch Mel Gibson blow stuff up.” Before he could second-guess himself, he put a hand on either side of her waist and lifted her from the desk to place her on her feet.

He’d half expected her to complain about him manhandling her and was surprised when she didn’t. Instead, she slid past him and headed for the stairway up to her apartment.

“I need to lock up here. I’ll be up in a minute,” he told her.

“I’ll put the kettle on. If you come up before I’ve changed, make tea.” She disappeared up the stairs, leaving Keir to stare after her.

This felt different. It felt...friendly, and it was freaking him out a little. For two years, Mairi had threatened him with everything from calling the police to setting fire to his bike if he came into her home. Now, she was inviting him in to watch movies. And his weak and pathetic heart couldn’t help but hope this meant things were changing between them, in a way that wouldn’t end when the geek boys left. That maybe, just maybe, he was breaking through the wall she’d built and actually getting to her. It was almost too much to hope.

Keir quickly locked the garage, then washed up in the small bathroom next to his office. There were oil marks on his jeans, but the navy t-shirt he wore had managed to survive his work unscathed. With one last check to make sure everything was secure, he bounded up the stairs to Mairi’s house.

There was no sign of her, but the first Lethal Weapon DVD was on the sofa, waiting to be loaded into her ancient player. The rest of the world might have moved on to streaming movies, but money was too tight for the Sinclair sisters to abandon their small collection of movies on disc.

He popped the DVD into the player, got it set up ready to start, then made two huge mugs of hot, milky tea. By the time he was placing them on the crate they used for a coffee table, Mairi had surfaced from her bedroom.

“Thanks,” she said as she picked up the mug.

She wore a pair of gray pajama shorts with an oversized sweatshirt that had a faded picture of Snoopy on the front.

“I remember that sweatshirt,” Keir said as she curled into the corner of the sofa, tucking her feet beneath her.

They’d bought the sweatshirt together in a backstreet shop in Glasgow one summer’s day while they’d been wandering around the city. Mairi had thought the bright pink sweatshirt with the massive Snoopy was super cool, so Keir had bought it for her. She’d put it on right there and worn it for the rest of their day together.

“I wear it to bed when it’s cold,” Mairi said, not looking at him. “It’s good for sleeping in.”

Keir didn’t know what to make of that. He’d thought that everything from their relationship had been thrown out—along with him.

“Grab those Thorntons chocolates, will you?” Mairi pointed to the huge box propped beside the door, and Keir did as she asked.

She opened the box and put it on the middle cushion of the sofa, so they could share. Or, so it would act as a barrier between them. Keir started the movie, tossed the remote to Mairi—who would have a meltdown if she didn’t have control of it—and made himself comfortable on the other end of the sofa.

By the time Danny Glover had said he was “too old for this shit,” they’d made a decent dent in the chocolates and relaxed into the couch. Out of the corner of his eye, Keir saw Mairi scratch her head, and he remembered the comb. Without a word, he got up and retrieved it, along with the detangling spray.

“Come here.” When he sat back down, he tossed a cushion onto the floor between his feet.