Page 69 of Not That Ridiculous

Kevin and his friend Ali, who was a couple of inches shorter than me, wiry, and startlingly handsome, wrangled the door up the drive and dropped it on my front lawn. They went back to the van and returned with what looked like a frame.

“This him, is it?” Ali said to Kevin, jerking his head at me.

Him?I raised a brow.

Kevin said proudly, “Yep.”

“Good to meet you, Charlie. I’m Ali. Get the kettle on, would you?”

I turned my head a few degrees to better aim my raised brow at Kevin.

“Don’t tell him to put the kettle on,” Kevin said to Ali promptly. He ruined it by adding, “He’s got a proper coffee machine. He does amazing lattes.”

It was hard to be annoyed at being shuffled off to make the manly men drinks when Kevin was beaming with pride as he announced my latte-making skills.

And it was anespressomachine.

“Ali’s going to give me a hand with this,” Kevin said. “Since I’m replacing the frame as well.”

“That’s very kind of him, but I can help,” I protested. “I’m not going to stand here and watch while you do all the work.”

“Cool,” Kevin said, and scratched the back of his neck. “Ali’s a pro, though, and if we do it together, it’ll take about four hours. Five, tops.”

“Fivehours?” I said.

“Yeah?”

“To fit a door?” That Gatorade comment took on a different—and somewhat disappointing—light. Apparently hewasgoing to be working hard for me, and not in the sexy way I’d been imagining.

“It’s the frame that takes the time. Why, how long did you think it would take?”

“Not that long. You put doors on my cabinets in an hour and a half, and there were eight of those.”

“Cabinet doors took you how long?” Ali said with a big grin at Kevin, who shrugged innocently. He turned to me. “Hope you weren’t paying him by the hour.”

“No, I…I didn’t pay him at all.”

I didn’t pay him at all.

Kevin grimaced at Ali. “I could really go for a latte, Charlie,” he said.

“Oh. Yeah, me too,” said Ali, clearly sensing he’d made a misstep. “Mm. Love lattes.”

I’d forgotten to pay Kevin for fixing my cabinets, and I hadn’t even asked how much the hinges he’d picked up had cost.

I was sure they’d cost more than the two lattes I made him. He hadn’t even drunk the first one. It had gone cold while he was kissing me!

I looked, wild-eyed, at the new door lying on my lawn. It was made of solid, thick, beautifully unwarped wood. As was the frame.

It looked expensive.

I’d made all that fuss at the gym earlier about paying Jasper, and somehow skated right over the fact that Kevin had already tossed free labour and cabinet hinges at me, and now not only had he bought me what looked like a very expensive door, he’d roped his friend in for hours of work.

I sucked in a breath.

“Uh-oh,” Ali muttered. “I'm gonna…yep. Gonna go and get something from the van.” He fast-walked out of there.

Kevin straightened and put his hands on his hips. He lifted his chin as if to say, Come on, then. Let’s have it.

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