Page 11 of The Christmas Tree Farm

‘It’s better in here than I thought.’

She wanted to punch him. Unfortunately, manners were still a big deal in the South, so she refrained.

‘Thanks.’

He knocked on a few walls and reached up to poke at the ceiling. ‘Looks okay.’

Kira ground her back teeth together. ‘Wonderful.’

He turned to face her and suddenly the fact that they were crammed into a tiny space together was very evident. He was taller than she’d first realized. For whatever reason that made her angry, too. Like just be average, would you? Ugh.

‘I’m sorry for worrying you like that,’ he said. ‘I was only trying to help.’

‘So is that your thing?’ she snapped. ‘You get off on helping people?’

He blinked. ‘I wouldn’t say I get off on it.’

‘You know what I mean, you like to fix things. You’re a fixer.’

‘I … well…’ his frown deepened. ‘Maybe I am.’

Kira scoffed. How predictable. This big Boy Scout liked to fix things. Well, she didn’t need that kind of energy in her life right now. This was her big endeavor; she didn’t need this guy waltzing in and trying to take over with all his … ideas … and … concerns. However valid they may be.

‘And you?’ he asked. ‘What gets you off?’

‘What?’ she sputtered, her face immediately heating.

He chuckled, low and deep. ‘You know what I mean. What’s your deal? You’re bad at letting people help you.’

Why was it so crowded in here? Had he stepped closer or had she? For the first time in days, she was warm.

‘Actually,’ she said, straightening to her full height, refusing to crane her neck to look up at him. ‘My whole life all people did was help me. I rarely did anything for myself ever. I didn’t need to. We had people for that.’ She sniffed. ‘But this is different. This is for me.’

‘Accepting help is different than letting other people do everything for you.’ He was definitely closer, his light gray eyes locked on hers.

This new coat was too warm.

Kira cleared her throat. ‘Yes, well. I think you’ve done enough helping for one day.’

ChapterFour

He was standing dangerously close to Kira. Dangerous, because she looked like she might strangle him. Dangerous, because he had the sudden urge to pull her closer. Which was insane. You wouldn’t try to snuggle with a feral cat, and tugging Kira into his arms right now would amount to the same thing.

Her cheeks had turned pinker the angrier she got with him and at this point were downright rosy. She blew out a breath, fluttering the bangs away from her forehead. He hadn’t had a chance to notice just how beautiful she was the other day when she was clearly upset and wrapped in an old blanket, but today … today he was noticing. But he should stop noticing, because noticing would do absolutely no good. Not only was she incredibly not interested in him noticing, but he had very specifically sworn off beautiful women. Not to mention he was only here temporarily.

There were endless reasons why he should step back, why he should stop holding her fiery gaze, why he should walk right the hell out of here.

But Kira was right. He got off on fixing things. He should have kept his mouth shut about this tree-farm shack, about lots of things he’d said to Kira since he met her.

Except now, looking at her bundled into her new coat with its faux-fur-trimmed hood, like she was ready for an arctic expedition, he found himself opening his mouth again.

‘How’s the main house?’

She narrowed her eyes at him like he had nefarious motives for asking. ‘It’s fine.’

‘You sure?’

Her internal struggle on how to answer was written clearly across her face. She didn’t want to ask him for help, obviously. But that house was at least a hundred years old and had been vacant for the past three, according to Logan. There was no way things were running perfectly in there.