Read Online [When SEALs Come Home 04] - Heated by Anne Marsh - Free Book Online Page B

citizen,” he protested.
    “Prove it.”
    “Okay. Will and Abbie were planning on building their dream house,” he said, picking up their conversational slack. He looked serious, which was even cuter than his grins.
    “I don’t think Abbie’s going to be building anything on her own. And that’s not a character testimonial for you.”
    “I’m going to help,” he continued. “A bunch of the local firefighters are getting together, and we’re going to put the house in.”
    “Wow.” Which, as witty remarks went, did not top her previous contribution to the conversation. “You’re going to build her a house?”
    He shrugged. “They’d picked out one of those kit houses from Sunset Magazine . It shows up in a bunch of boxes on a flatbed truck, and then you put it together.”
    He made the whole project sound easy, like constructing a spaceship from Legos or slapping together a tree house with a few odds and ends. If it was that easy, though, everyone would have a house and no one would be renting.
    “Have you ever built a house before?”
    “You don’t think I can do it?”
    She thought he could do whatever he put his mind to.
    “Because Uncle Sam had me on more than one construction project.” He winked at her. “The US Navy has a whole mobile construction battalion.”
    She eyed him suspiciously. “Were you actually in it, though? Because you seem more like the type to blow stuff up to me.”
    “I can blow things up and build houses. I’m multitalented.”
    Fine. Joey was moral, upstanding, and a host of other adjectives. Unfortunately, her head—and other, more southern parts of her anatomy—was stuck on one word. Hot. Joey was hot.
    “Our first meeting is on Saturday,” he said. “Come with me. You can help out.”
    “I don’t know how to build a house.” She’d hung a picture last weekend and duct-taped a leak in her sink. Neither of which qualified her to mess around with walls and windows and doors, even if they did come in some sort of paint-by-numbers house kit.
    “I’ll teach you. You’ll learn.” She liked that he didn’t pretend that she knew how to do something when she didn’t. It wasn’t a big deal in his world. If you wanted to learn, you learned.
    So why not? She liked Abbie Donegan, even if she didn’t know the other woman well. She couldn’t begin to imagine what it was like, being newly widowed and with a baby on the way. Mentally, she ran through her calendar. She didn’t have to work, and she didn’t have any other plans. She was still suspicious that Joey wanted to label some mutual house building as more than it was, but helping Abbie out was the right thing to do. She could handle Joey.
    “What time does the team start on Saturday?”
    “As soon as it’s light.” Joey leaned forward. She recognized the naughty twinkle in his eyes. Whatever words were coming next were intended to rile her up. “It might be simpler if you spent the night at my place the night before.”
    “In your dreams.” And hers, if she was being honest. “I’m helping out, not putting out.”
    “Got it.” He nodded. “We have a date for Saturday.”
    And this was why avoiding Joey altogether was a much, much safer plan. “Saturday is not a date. Swinging a hammer doesn’t count, and dates involve food and fun stuff.”
    “Kissing. I take your clothes off, while you peel mine off. Bedroom stuff.” He rocked back on his heels and grinned. “I can do all that too, although it would definitely be safer to finish the hammering portion of the day’s events first, unless...”
    “Don’t say it.” Being around Joey sent her mind straight to the gutter, because she could think of a dozen different and thoroughly enjoyable ways he could hammer her. “Saturday. Eight o’clock. I’ll come ready to work.”
    “Uh-huh. You say ‘tomato’ and I say ‘tomahto.’” Date , he mouthed and then he tapped her steering wheel. “Turn the key.”
    Of course her engine sprang