The little dark-haired woman peered up at him. “So, Gigantor. Are you going to fix our store?”
Ben smiled wide and held out his hand. “I’m sure going to try. You are…”
She blinked and shook his hand. Her dark eyes took in his tats. People couldn’t help but look. The bright red, green and blue ink was meant to attract attention. Cesar was a genius with ink and used him as a test subject to try out the brighter and deeper inks that were coming out. “Jaime.”
“Pleasure.” He clapped his hands together and both women pried their eyes away from his ink sleeve. “Now, where’s all my power? I’ve got work to do.”
Darcy kicked into action. Those long legs headed to the bare tree. “I see you have some materials already.”
He followed her over to the tree. Keeping his eyes at the back of her head was far more difficult than it should have been. “Yeah, just some foundational things. I’m going to need more. So what exactly can I get my hands on?”
Son of a bitch, he needed to stop thinking about his hands and this woman.
Intent on her body language, his chest tightened. Darcy linked her fingers together, her knuckles going white before her grip loosened. She tapped one thumbnail against the other. His girl was nervous.
“Right. Well, I—” she turned to him, “I just have to say one thing first. I really don’t know how I’m going to thank you, Ben. I can finesse a schedule tighter than a marine sergeant, but you ask me to do this and… Well, I’m just lost.”
Surprised that she’d own up to not being able to do something, he jammed his hands into his pockets. He didn’t want her thanks. The minute she mentioned the broken bike and ragey behavior, he’d had a really bad feeling. Blackstone’s was right around the corner from the shop his brother worked at. And just how many little girls had a bike injury out there right now? There had to be a few. It was a common thing for kids—he was just being paranoid.
His niece Brittany was the only thing that his brother John cared about. Add in his already dodgy behavior and it wouldn’t surprise him to find out his brother had done something stupid.
Now Ben just had to figure out a way to make sure John didn’t get into any more trouble.
He punched up the wattage of his smile, pleased to see a return bend to her distracting mouth. A little too pleased. She had a mouth made for a long, hot kissing session followed by a bottle of wine and a whole lot of sweaty foreplay. And damn if he didn’t like foreplay.
Foreplay and Darcy Tucker was not a good idea. He had to remember that.
“I’ll just put you down in the ‘you owe me one’ column and collect later.” Fucking hell. He was not going to collect later.
She tucked her hands into her sleeves. There sure must be something interesting about her shoes, because she kept staring at them. “Sounds good to me.”
He laughed. “That was a joke.”
“No, I pay what I owe. And this is business.”
“It’s a favor for a friend.”
She finally met his gaze. “We’re not friends.”
That only made him smile wider. “We could be if you did more than grunt at me on your way into your side of the house.”
Her eyebrows rose. “You’re no better.”
“We’re both to blame.”
She took a deep breath. He watched her consciously relax her shoulders and draw in two breaths. “I will be deeply in your debt if you pull this off.”
“Darlin’, there’s no if. This will be awesome.”
The corner of her mouth twitched. “Confident.”
“This is my element.”
“I seem to remember.”
He couldn’t stop grinning at her. “Let’s see if I can outdo our house.”
Her pupils dilated and her gaze dropped to his mouth. “My house.”