Sweeping The Bride Away. Michele Dunaway

he’d be a mite upset if someone had just pulled this surprise on him. However, he rationalized, he was going to fix her house, so in the end that made it all okay. And despite how pretty she was, he wasn’t going to hit on her the way she obviously thought he was.

      His gaze scanned the porch. She did need a few new boards, but nothing really major. “Why don’t you show me the rest?”

      “Front door needs painting,” Cassidy said as they walked through it. “All the windows need to have working sashes. Something about the springs being broken. When the city inspector lifted the one in the bay window, the whole window fell out.”

      Blade nodded. “That’s not difficult. I know where to get the parts.”

      “Good.” And with that, Cassidy was on a roll. Twenty minutes later Blade was certain of two things. One was that the city inspector had been overzealous in citing things that he really didn’t need to have cited. The other was that Cassidy Clayton had grown up with every possible advantage in life.

      His bedroom, which he’d shared with his two older brothers, would have fit in the master bedroom closet. The master bathroom of the house, which needed all new plumbing fixtures, was bigger than the living room and kitchen where he’d grown up.

      Sure he had a house about the same size now, but he’d worked and sweated for every brick. Cassidy had simply been born into it.

      “That’s all of them,” she said. “Think you can have all this work done in a week?”

      Blade stared at her. She’d pushed her hair behind her ears and was peering earnestly up at him. Darn, but she was pretty.

      “I’m going to have to work nights to get these all finished,” he said. Where those words had come from, he would later decide that he didn’t know. They’d just slipped out. He was the boss. He could do what he wanted, and he could work days.

      “You want time and a half?” She seemed shocked.

      “I didn’t say that,” he replied, trying to backtrack. “Jake gave you our bid already for all hours worked. No matter what time of day, fixed hourly rate. You only have about twenty hours of work.”

      “So what’s the catch?”

      Was there a catch? He thought about it a second and dismissed what Jake wanted him to do out of his head. “No catch. It’ll take me about four days of about five hours each. I’ll get here at four and leave by nine.”

      She frowned. “Look,” he said, “That’s the best I can do. I’ve got other jobs in the queue, as well, and somehow I’m going to have to balance everything. So I won’t get here until four. But I will get your predications done and have them done before your deadline.”

      The thought of him in her house at night seemed so… “I sometimes have to work at night,” Cassidy said, pushing thoughts of Blade in her house at night out of her mind. That was not a path she should tread. He raised an eyebrow, encouraging her to explain, and she felt the need to. “I’m an image consultant, and depending on the day I attend dinner functions and…”

      Suddenly he didn’t want to hear about her social life. He cut her off. “If you aren’t here to let me in, then I’ll need a key and your alarm code.”

      He almost wanted to laugh at her horrified reaction. “We are licensed and bonded, ma’am.”

      “Cassidy,” she corrected automatically. She hated being called ma’am. It made her feel old.

      “Cassidy.” He rolled her name on his tongue and decided that he liked it. “Well, Cassidy, since I’m here, shall I get started?”

      Her mouth puckered. “You’re starting the job tonight?”

      He folded his arms across his chest. “Is there a problem with that? I’m already here, and I need to make a list of stuff I need. Plus, you don’t have time to spare.”

      He was right.

      Cassidy gulped and tore her gaze off Blade’s chest. Last night Sara had said something about stroking it and discovering if his chest was smooth or covered with dark whirls of hair.

      If he took off his shirt when he worked in the Texas heat she’d know.

      Whoa! Wait right there. Those were not thoughts she should have. Think of Dan, think of Dan.

      Oh, God. Dan. He’d be over in less than an hour to take her out to dinner. He had some clients to impress. That meant she needed a shower, and she needed to redo her makeup and…Then again, she also needed to have her predications fixed. What was it Blade had asked?

      Normally she wasn’t so scatterbrained. Maybe it was the stress of everything. Her parents had dumped the selling of the family home and moving the few belongings they wanted to keep into her lap.

      “No problem,” she said after finally remembering his question about whether he should get started tonight. “Just stay on the first floor.”

      The last thing she needed was for him to be in her bedroom. Thankfully that had been one room that hadn’t needed any repairs.

      “I’ll try,” Blade replied, his gaze sweeping over her.

      “See that you do,” she said, suddenly feeling the need for a long, cold shower. She now knew the truth. She couldn’t blame her physical reaction to him on beer.

      Turning, she disappeared up the stairs. She had the distinct impression that he stared at her legs the whole time.