“Brothers…am I right?”
“Do you have one?”
She shakes her head. “A sister and she isn’t any better.”
“Do you wanna grab something to eat after this?” I ask, shooting my shot because I have been dying toask her out but didn’t feel the vibes were there on her part until the kiss.
Her smile is immediate, and I know I have her. “I’d love that. I just want to take a few minutes to look everything over to make a list of supplies I’ll need, and then we can go.”
“Perfect.”
She doesn’t waste any time moving away from me, heading straight toward the bank of cabinets. They are filled with so many parts, both big and small, that I’m not sure she’ll want to continue any further once she gets a good look. The size of the job has to be daunting. It’s why I gave up on organizing everything years ago. This isn’t just our mess, but that of the guy who owned this before us too.
“Wow,” she says as her fingers skate over a shelf of tiny boxes filled with bolts of every size. “There’s a lot here.”
“Too much.” I drop down into the chair at my desk and keep my eyes on her as she continues down the row of cabinets. “Sorry.”
“This is great,” she says, confusing me. Nothing about the contents of the cabinets is great. They’re a freaking mess, and every time I open a door, I’m quick to close it. “This is going to be fun, actually.”
I’m so shocked by her words, I could practically fall out of my chair. “Fun? What’s fun about that?”
“Do you think a really hard-to-fix car is fun?”
“It’s a challenge.”
“That’s this for me. Organizing a laundry room is easy. But this—” she waves her hands around the dingy garage “—is the best kind of challenge.”
I’m not going to argue with her. If this is a challenge, then that means it will take a lot of time. If she needs a lot of time to finish the job, that means she’ll be here a lot. That is a win-win for me, and I’m not going to do anything to talk her out of it.
“Do you have a date you need this done by?” she asks as she glances at me from across the garage.
“No. Take as long as you need. It’s been like this for years.”
“It might take me a few months since I’ll be fitting in this job when I have time.”
Months would be perfect. Any amount of time would be great as long as it means she’ll be here. I’ll handle Liam. Lulu is too good for him, and I know he is falling for Sharla even if he pretends it is nothing more than fun. “That’s fine.”
Her smile widens. “Then I’m done. We can go eat.”
“You’re done?” I can’t keep the shock out of my voice. “Really?”
She starts to move back toward my desk, carefully stepping around shit Liam left out on the floor. “Yeah. I’ll need a lot of things. Too much to make one list for right now.”
“I’ll pay for them.”
“This is a gift.”
“Your time is a gift, Lulu. The supplies, I’ll buy.”
She opens her mouth to argue, but I can’t let her go out of pocket to fix our disaster of a garage.
“No arguments.”
She gives me a tight smile, and I don’t know her well enough to figure out if she’s annoyed or happy. “Fine, but I get to pick the restaurant tonight.”
“Burgers?” I ask.
She shakes her head as she sits down at Liam’s desk, looking completely out of place here. “Pizza.”
