Finding Faith (Return of the Dragons)

Or was she overthinking all of this? She just didn’t know, and that was part of the problem. And hell, it was probably a nonissue anyway. She was worrying over falling for him because of her attraction, without really getting to know him, but who was to say he saw her the same way?

And if she was torn between hoping he did and hoping he didn’t, well, she’d just have to deal with the conflicting emotions. She knew she wasn’t ready to find out.

And maybe she never would be.

“You okay now?”

Nodding, she gave him a small smile as she recapped her water bottle. “Ye

p. Dust is all gone.”

The return smile he gave her was just big enough to crinkle his eyes. And if her heart melted a tiny bit when she saw it, well, she was just ignoring it. And that was that.

“That’s good. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to you,” he replied. Before she had a chance to latch onto that statement and overanalyze it to death, he continued. “So, I looked under the sink in the bathroom and noticed the pipes look pretty rusted. I’m guessing the rest of them in the house are in about the same condition.”

Smile turning wry, she nodded and opened the cabinet under the kitchen sink. “Yep, they definitely are.”

Pulling a small flashlight from his pocket, he crouched down and looked, whistling low when he saw the still wet cabinet bottom. “That they are. This pipe completely rusted through. You obviously knew that, though.”

“Yep. We turned the water off, and when I told the others this wasn’t something I could fix—or that even if I could, it would just keep happening over and over until we got the whole house back in shape—they finally agreed to have someone come in here and do the work. I came to see you the next day.”

Curiosity shown in his dark eyes as he stood. “You guys were definitely looking for privacy if you had to talk them into having someone come fix this place up. I get it, though. We all need a break from people every now and then. That’s part of why I like living in a small town.”

“Really? I would have thought a town this small would be like living in a fishbowl most of the time.”

He chuckled. “It’s definitely that, too. But there are also plenty of places to go when I need to get away from everyone and have some time to myself. And I know every single one of them. I don’t think I could live in a city and not be able to find the solitude I crave sometimes.”

“Yeah, I can see how they balance each other out. And I guess it can be nice to live in a place where you know everyone. There’s always someone you can talk to. We lived in a small city before, so I never knew anyone except some friends and a few neighbors.”

“Well, now you live here. You’ll get to see for yourself how it feels.”

She gave him a weak smile. Honestly, she wasn’t sure how long it would take her to work up the nerve to go into town for more than just a grocery run. Hopefully not too long. Maybe she could start with the little bookstore she saw the day before. She was dying for some new books.

Refocusing on Cody and the conversation, she nodded. “Yeah, I will. I guess I forgot for a moment that this is my home now, too.”

Both sides of his lips turned up in a smile, causing a dimple to pop out in one cheek. For crying out loud, couldn’t she get a break when it came to how good looking he was? Every time she turned around, there was something else drawing her in.

Not good looking. Sexy.

The thought whispered through her mind, and she knew it was her own, not her dragon’s, and she felt her cheeks warm. She didn’t want to add sexy to his list, but as she stared at that smile, she knew it was only fair.

“Well, if no one has said it yet, welcome home,” he replied, his voice a low rumble in the kitchen. Her knees weakened slightly at his words combined with that smile, but luckily he spoke again before she could embarrass herself more. “So, are you the one who’s been fixing some of the things around the house?”

Her eyebrows rose with surprise. “Yeah. How’d you know?”

“I noticed the newer improvements. And you said they thought you could fix the pipe, so I took a guess.”

“I’m pretty handy,” she murmured, suddenly feeling shy. “My dad taught me a lot, but I have a knack for it. I can figure out what’s wrong with something and how to fix it pretty quickly. Honestly, I could have replaced that rusted pipe. But I knew it would just keep happening, or something I actually couldn’t fix would break, so I fibbed a bit.”

He glanced at her over his shoulder as he looked around the dining room, and even from the distance between them, she could see amusement dancing in his eyes. “So they’d agree to having someone fix the house. Don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret. I would have done the same thing.”

Their eyes locked for a long moment, and when he finally looked away, she had to remind herself to breathe. This whole not letting herself get sucked into her attraction to him business was going to be even harder than she’d thought it would be.

They fell silent as he finished making notes on the first floor, and when he followed her up the stairs, she wore she felt his eyes burning into her. The butterflies took flight in her belly as a tingle of awareness crept down her spine.

She was going to need him to finish this estimate and leave before she completely lost her mind. If they hired his company—and they probably would—how was she going to handle him in her home every day for however long this project would take?

Oh, God, how long would it take? Weeks? Months? She needed to learn how to handle her shit fast, or she really would end up insane.