Beyond Repair Read Free Page B

the eighties. It had three warp pipes on it and underneath said, “In my zone.”
    I didn’t know if he was making fun of me or if he really liked it. But it was my favorite shirt, so I didn’t really care. “Thanks. Old school.” I stared at his arms as we shook. They were big. Not bulky bodybuilder muscles big, but big as if he worked with them a lot. I tried to remember if Kyle told me what he did for a living, but then I realized we were still shaking hands, so I dropped his.
    “No school like the old school,” he replied automatically.
    He had a smile that turned up more on the left side. Combined with his voice, it made my stomach heat up more, which was weird. I ignored it and focused on what he’d said instead. “Are you quoting The Incredibles ?”
    Because, if he was, that was pretty frigging cool. That was one of the few movies I didn’t mind watching a million times with Mia.
    He scratched the back of his neck. “Wow, you caught that, huh? Yeah. My nephew loves that movie. You have a daughter, right? Kyle told me.” He flashed that smile at me again. Nice.
    I could work with small talk about Mia. I smiled back, hoping it looked casual. “Yeah, she’s three. Almost four. She loves that movie.”
    It was kind of nice talking to Kyle’s hot friend, but my stomach was churning. I needed to leave before things got weird. He was going to figure out soon that my eyes kept focusing on his well-defined arms peeking out of his t-shirt. The sleeves were too short—I guess because he was so tall—but it looked good on him. “Hey, it was nice talking to you, but I have to run. Zoey’s going to kill me for being late.”
    “Yeah. Nice meeting you.”
    “You, too!” I gave a little wave and headed to my car. After backing down the driveway, I noticed Chris watching as I drove off. I gave a weak smile, but my stomach flipped and not in a good way. I took some hand sanitizer from the bottle I kept in my cup holder, my thoughts clearing as I rubbed my hands together. Those feelings I had were … strange. I couldn’t let that happen again. I couldn’t trust anyone. Not even my brother-in-law’s gorgeous friend.
    But I could talk about him with my sister.
    * * *
    At Zoey’s house, I sat on the floor of Mike’s new room, unpacking his clothes from boxes and putting them away. She was in a better mood than I had expected, and I was just finishing when she walked in.
    “I’m taking a break,” she announced, sitting on the bed that I made earlier. “Feel free to keep working.”
    “Gee, thanks.”
    Zoey ignored my not-so-subtle sarcasm and chatted about the decorating ideas she had, like painting and changing out the light fixtures. I couldn’t concentrate on anything she was saying.
    “I met the new neighbor,” I blurted out, watching her for a reaction.
    “Oh, wow .” She leaned forward on her elbows. “I wanted to let you see for yourself. What did you think?”
    I sat down cross-legged in front of another box and looked inside. Toys. “I bumped into him. Literally. He was really nice.”
    “And?”
    I looked up from the toys that I was pulling out of the box. She was about to fall off the damn bed, she was leaning so far toward me.
    “And tall?” I offered.
    “Brooke.” The way that she said my name reminded me of when she threatened to tell Mom I tried to go sledding down the steps when I was nine.
    “Fine! And really hot! Just … wow.” I was going to leave it at that, but for some reason, I couldn’t stop talking. “Why didn’t you give me a heads-up that a super tall hot guy with sexy arms was moving next door to me?”
    Zoey’s mouth dropped open. “Listen to you! Mom and I have been trying to get you interested in Kyle’s friends for over a year, and you obviously weren’t ready.”
    She moved away as I chucked a stuffed animal at her. “Mom can do that because she doesn’t know what happened. You do.”
    “We’re not starting this now,” she said, throwing it back at