Read Online What a Bachelor Needs (Bachelor Auction Book 4) by Kelly Hunter - Free Book Online Page B

and give her some tangible, fucking help. Now , this week, while she still feels obliged to take it. Is that a good enough reason for you?”
    Seth just stared at him.
    “I have got a protective streak I can’t even see past when it comes to this woman. I take one look at her and all I want to do is kiss her better.”
    “Hey.” Seth held up his hand for Jett to stop. “Too much information.”
    “You did ask.”
    “Won’t be making that mistake again.” Seth ran a hand around the back of his neck and started walking back to his pickup. “All right. Start ripping up the deck and getting the holes dug ready for the concrete. I’ll send a couple of the boys over to help and try and find you that beam. And I want spicy pepperoni on my pizza and a case of beer for every one of my workers who turns up here, regardless of whether they’re here for four hours or five minutes.”
    “Done.”
    “And you do not talk to me about wanting to kiss anything better ever again.”
    “Got it.”
    “Because I will staple your mouth shut.”
    “My kissing lips are zipped.”
    “Jett!” his brother barked. “No. More. Talking!”
    Okay.
    He loved every last one of his brothers but none more than Seth.
    Seth was a legend.
    *
    Mardie arrived home just before eleven on Tuesday night, turning into the drive and cutting the engine before sitting back and staring at the array of ropes and tarpaulin lit by her headlights. Someone – she assumed Jett – had covered her porch and a goodly section of her roof in thick builders plastic and tied it up like a demented present. Heaven only knew what she’d find underneath.
    The path to her back door had been cleared, probably hours before, and it had been snowing ever since but she could still see it faintly, and there was some kind of light fixture tucked in under the eve, right at the corner, where there had never been a light fixture previously. Strange as it might seem, this was her house and she tracked these things. The light came on as she opened the car door to get Claire out. Motion sensor activated, and that was just plain handy.
    Not to mention presumptuous, inevitably expensive, and not something Jett Casey needed to be doing for her.
    So why the hell was he doing it?
    She’d given him a list of what she wanted done this week.
    Could the man not stick to a plan at all ?
    With her hands full of Claire in her carrier, Mardie scowled her way around to her back door, at which point another light came on, illuminating the steps.
    “Goddammit!” And, yes, okay, maybe she’d thought about replacing the broken light out the back, and maybe it should have been on the to-do list, but still…
    She stomped inside and grumbled her way through to the kitchen, turning lights on as she went. She took a still sleeping Claire and put her to bed, blessing the timer on the new heating system and the deep sleep habits of her little girl.
    Claire rarely woke during the late night transfer from her grandma’s house back here.
    Back in the kitchen, hands freer than they’d been all night, she picked up a note that had been left on the bench. ‘Stay off the porch – the concrete’s still setting’ the scrawl declared boldly. ‘Stay off the floor in the front room – it’s still not dry.’ There was more. ‘End of stock clearance on outdoor lights. Seventy percent discount. I thought of you.’ He’d left the boxes for the lights on the counter, alongside a receipt, and the price was beyond reasonable and edging towards a steal. Huge red stickers on the boxes confirmed the big discount.
    So.
    Lights.
    Mardie’s indignance huffed out of her reluctantly.
    Porch.
    She made her way to the front door and opened it and damned if a light didn’t come on automatically and light up her porch area as well. She saw a new deck plank here and there, a new railing for the steps, but otherwise it looked much the same as always…except sturdier. She looked harder. New bolts and braces for the