He slipped his mask off and stepped closer to her. “Sounds like a plan.”
Ford reached over and tucked a stray hair that had slipped from her ponytail behind her ear. He probably didn’t mean anything by it, but it sent a shiver of awareness across her skin. Then he stepped back, lifted the hem of his T-shirt, and brought it up to wipe his face, exposing the hard planes of his abs and sending her thoughts to the four corners of the earth for the three-point-two seconds it took him to let his shirt drop back down in place.
“There’s just one problem,” she said, struggling to remember things like breathing and—oh yeah—eating. “I haven’t been to the grocery store this week.”
He gave her his cock-eyed grin that she’d gotten a little too used to seeing over the past few days.
“Pizza or Chinese?” he asked, taking the sander from her hand and walking it over to their makeshift supply table.
“I think they should combine both,” she teased, finding her bearings now that his pheromones weren’t close enough to whisper sweet nothings in her ears. “I’d scarf down a General Tsao’s thin and crispy.”
The look of pure horror on his face had her giggling so hard that she didn’t pay attention to where she was stepping on the stairs, and her foot landed on the wrong spot on the third step from the bottom. The wood did a weird shimmy as it creaked and sank underneath her. Her scream was barely to her lips when Ford’s strong arms wrapped around her. In the next heartbeat, she was pressed up against his chest. Would it really be that bad if she just melted into him? Or nibbled his ear? Or—
Regina! Snap out of it.
“You can put me down now.” Or never, she was good with that, too.
“Yeah,” he said, his voice sounding lower, rougher than usual. “Are you okay?”
The moment her feet touched the floor, her answer changed to a needy no, but she managed to shove the truth back before she said it out loud. “That step is all wonky. It’s on the never-ending fix it list.”
Ford took a closer look at the step. “I could fix it.”
“Yeah?” She should be looking at the step, but instead she was checking him out. Again. “Juan has some specialty parts on order to do the repair.”
“Let me know when they’re in and stay off of it until then.” Then he grabbed his T-shirt collar behind his neck and yanked it over his head. “Let me just go grab another shirt, and I’ll be good to go get food.”
He just needed a new shirt? She was more worried about her panties after that show of abs and shoulders. A woman could get used to having him around: rescuer, fixer, hottie—now that was a dangerous combination.
An hour later and they were seated at the neighborhood pizza joint with a half-eaten pepperoni pizza and a mostly empty pitcher of beer between them, and she was getting the inside scoop on one Ford Hartigan, twelve-year-old middle school cop.
“You really were the hall monitor?” she asked, although she already knew the answer.
Ford nodded as he took a bite of pizza.
“Did that mean you let your brothers off easy when they skipped class?”
He scoffed. “No way.”
“So you’ve always been about the rules.” Color her completely not shocked.
“For the most part,” he said and took a drink of his beer. “How about you, did you know you wanted to be a wedding planner?”
She shook her head. “I love to organize things and knew I wanted to be an event planner, it’s why I double majored in business and hospitality management, but the wedding part just sort of happened accidentally when my cousin needed help with her nuptials. Turns out, I love helping people plan for their big day. Once the house gets done, I’ll be able to meet clients in the salon and display past wedding pictures to help give people ideas. Then, if everything works out, I’ll be hiring employees and maybe even franchising out. Not too bad for sort of falling into it.”
“So, you weren’t the type of girl who planned her wedding in the second grade?”
“Not even close.” Even as a kid, she’d known she was different. Maybe she couldn’t place her finger on it, but she knew it was true. She took a drink of her beer before the memories could take hold. “I was too busy following my dad around to job sites, which brings everything full circle, since he was a contractor and now I’m up to my nose in renovations.”