I yawned and absently clicked through my emails. “I’ve heard that before. But on that note—"
“Yeah, I know,” he said. “You have to study.”
“I’ll sleep in tomorrow. I promise.” I meant it, too. I’d been looking forward to a lazy day for weeks, and I wasn’t about to pass it up now that I’d managed to clear my schedule.
Patrick hummed his grudging approval. “It’s not as good as a hobby or doing something that isn’t school related, but it’s a start.”
* * *
CRASH
At seven on the dot the next morning, I awoke with a gasp as an earth-shaking crash reverberated through the house, rattling the pictures on the walls.
Holy shit, the house is falling down, I thought, still dazed from sleep as I rolled out of bed, grabbed my glasses and sprinted for the door. Maybe it was an earthquake or something.
Another loud crash sounded—this was definitely from inside the house, I decided, and stumbled down the stairs, still clad in just my sweats and a t-shirt, my disheveled hair loose and flying around my face. A third crash shook the stairs beneath my feet, and I leaped from the third stair to hit the ground floor with a soft whump before I took off toward the source of the noise.
“Mom?” I hollered as I jogged into the kitchen. “Dad? Is everything okay?”
“Sorry!” a voice called.
A man’s voice, coming from the family room. Heavy footsteps thumped against the tile floor, and a tall frame appeared at the doorway between the family room and kitchen, obscured in shadow.
“I’m supposed to be here,” the man said and took another step forward. “Your folks let me in.”
I reached over and flipped the wall switch on, and when light flooded the room, I squinted and took a step back in shock.
“Nice to see you, Josie,” Andy Pallas said, flashing an easy grin. “Did I wake you up?”
Andy Pallas, my sister’s fiancé’s brother, which would make him my—future brother-in-law? I wasn’t completely sure. Sam paired us up to walk together at her wedding, and he was perfectly nice. Handsome—he could have been his brother Nicky’s twin, albeit with fewer tattoos—and just as friendly and polite as George had always been with me.
But outside of the rehearsal and the wedding, I didn’t really know him at all.
“I—well, yeah, but it’s not your fault . . .” I peered around him, through the doorway and into the family room, where a sizeable hole was visible in one of the walls, along with a small pile of dusty rubble and an abandoned sledge hammer. “What are you doing here?”
He crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame, that smile still in place. “Renovations. I’m a contractor and your parents hired me to gut the downstairs and change things around a little.”
I sagged against the nearby countertop. “Renovations? Now?”
Andy nodded. “Yep. We’ve had it scheduled for a few months now. I’m knocking down a couple of walls today.”
He took a step forward and—shit, he looked good in a form fitting t-shirt and worn jeans, I realized. Andy in a suit was nice, but Andy with his bare arms exposed, smooth muscles flexing in the light was—
“Josie?” he prompted.
I looked up from those distracting arms, into that equally distracting face. “Sorry, what?” I yawned theatrically. “Still tired.”
“I asked if it’s okay with you that I’m here,” he said.
I frowned. “Not really up to me, is it? Anyway, you’re here already.”
Andy shrugged. “I just don’t want you to be uncomfortable is all. I still need to do the work, but I can at least try and work around you if there’s an issue.”
I blinked a few times, furiously trying to process his words. He was…trying to be considerate, I realized. Of me, mousy little Josie Walsh. It was kind of sweet, really, even if I knew there wasn’t a lot he could do about any of it.
His eyes swept down my body, and I suddenly felt exposed, even under an oversized t-shirt and baggy knee-length pajama pants. I curled my toes against the tile floor and prayed that he wasn’t eyeballing my stubbly legs or chipped toenail polish.
“It’s totally fine,” I finally said, and looked up to meet his smile. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll work around you.”