Aiden turned me and pulled my back to his front, settling his arms around my waist. “When he gets home, you and Tessa check in?”
“Yeah. Donna, too.” I stared at the floor that needed to be sanded and tried to ignore his hard body behind me. Both of my sisters were great at cheering people up or just listening to them. “When Quint has a rough one, we usually bug him until he gets back to his sunny disposition.”
“I was in high school with Quint. Great wide receiver as well as golfer,” Aiden said. “I didn’t know he’d gone into smoke jumping. Doesn’t he have a bunch of brothers? I played baseball with Rory until I got suspended from high school for a week.”
“He has five brothers.” The Italian side of my family procreated well. Heck. So did the Irish side. I had a lot of cousins. “Quint’s girlfriend broke up with him right before he left, and then he had to find dead bodies in rubble, so he’s going to need some meddling from us.” As cousins went, Quint was a good one. He was also a good man, and he deserved some fun as well as peace. Plus, he was better with a project going on, so we’d have to think of something to preoccupy his mind for a bit. I looked around the kitchen that needed work.
“No,” Aidan said, resting his chin on my head. “I want to do this myself.”
I got that. Plus, the idea that Aiden was setting down roots gave me tingles in my abdomen. The more work he did himself, the more he’d want to stay put. “Maybe you guys could go golfing? Do you still golf?”
“Yeah. I went undercover in Mississippi at a Country Club dealing drugs and worked pretty hard on my handicap. I’ll ask Quint to go golfing if that’d help.” Aiden felt solid and sure behind me.
This was all too good to be true. We should probably talk about us or what we wanted or something. “Aiden—”
A pipe groaned beneath the kitchen sink and then water burst out.
Aiden moved instantly, setting me aside and dropping to his knees. “Damn it.” He reached for the wrench and ducked under, swearing in Gaelic. “Hey. Hand me the plug wrench, would you?” His voice was muffled.
“Sure.” I walked in the water pooling on the floor and dug into the toolbox, handing over the plug wrench. This wasn’t my first leaking pipe.
“Thanks.” Aiden fiddled as water continued to pour.
“Sure.” Yeah, I was a little smug I could help fix the sink. I stepped over his legs and my heel caught on his jeans. Crap. I scrambled for balance but slid farther, landing on his legs and hitting my head on the side of the counter. Water sprayed me right in the face, and I turned away to cough.
Aiden grasped my arm and set me out of the spray. “You okay?” He didn’t even sound surprised.
“Yeah.” I shook water out of my hair and it sprayed everywhere. My head didn’t even hurt. My entire front side was soaked, however.
A sharp knock sounded from his door.
“That’s the pizza. Get money from my wallet.” He ducked back under the sink, his muscles moving nicely. The spray of water trickled and then stopped.
I wiped water off my face and shook out my shirt before taking cash out of his wallet, which was on the counter. I’d pay, but I didn’t have any personal cash right now. Even in the bank. Then I wiped off my feet before walking out of the kitchen and through the empty living room to the door. I opened it, more than ready for dinner.
“Hi.” A stunning and very curvy redhead stood on the porch—without a pizza.
I blinked water out of my eyes, acutely aware of the feeling of mascara running down my face. “Hi.” I wiped off my cheeks and looked past her for a pizza car. Nope. “Can I help you?” New neighbor? Wonderful. She really was pretty.
Her eyes were a light blue that matched her frilly shirt that was tucked into dark jeans. She had the ability to look dressed up in jeans, which was something I’d always admired. The Chanel handbag over her shoulder completed a perfect look, along with the four-inch red checkered wedges. When she spoke, she had the perfect southern accent. The one that sounded like warm molasses sliding over your skin. “I’m looking for Aiden Devlin. Rumor has it he lives here.”
Of course she was. “Yes. Can I tell him who’s here?” More importantly, I wanted to know who she was.
She smiled full and red lips. “Tell him his wife needs to talk to him.”
Chapter 2
The entire world lurched to a stop, and my mouth went dry. My brain fuzzed. The woman’s lips moved again, but I couldn’t hear her through the wild buzzing of bees that somehow had gotten into my head.
She poked me in the upper arm. “Hello?”
The woman hadpokedme? Oh, hell no. I swallowed. Kind of. “Aiden?” My voice came out a whisper, and I cleared my throat. “Aiden!”
He emerged from the kitchen with the wrench still in his hand. “What? I said that the money—” He stopped cold. Water dripped down his muscled chest. “Sasha?”
I blinked. In slow motion. I think I heard the blink.
“Hi, Honey.” She smiled and muscled past me, using her generous hips to do so. “We need to talk.” She didn’t spare me another glance. “Tell your Twinkie to get lost.”
