Smitten Read Free Page A

unfinished basement. It consisted ofa desk, a file cabinet, and a telephone. He spent the first hour of each morning on the phone tracking down building inspectors, roofers, landscapers, and carpenters.
    As Matt finished his first call, Howie White stood at the top of the stairs and yelled down. “Hey, boss, maybe you’d better come take a look at this. There’s a lady standing at the end of the street, and she’s talking to herself. I don’t think she’s got both oars in the water.”
    â€œIs she pretty, about five feet six, with curly brown hair?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œHer name’s Lizabeth. Go fetch her. Tell her I sent you.”
    Five minutes later Lizabeth stood in front of the desk. “I was just getting ready to look for you,” she said.
    â€œI figured.” He cradled the phone to his ear and poured out two cups of coffee. “Howie had other ideas, though. He figured you were waiting to jump in front of a bus.”
    â€œI was having trouble with my feet,” Lizabeth said. “They were cold.”
    Matt handed her a cup of coffee. “Here. Maybe this will warm them up. I have to make a few more phone calls, then we can get out ofthis basement. As you can see, this is a pretty small operation. I have a partner, but he’s in the hospital in a body cast.”
    â€œHow awful. What happened?” Visions of failed building machinery filled her head.
    â€œFell off his kid’s skateboard and broke his hip. Anyway, we own seven building lots on this cul-de-sac. We’ve got three houses going up. This one’s sold. The other two are spec houses.”
    He saw the question in her eyes. “That means we’re building them on speculation. We’re using our own money to build and hoping to sell the houses at a good profit when they’re done. We subcontract plumbers, carpenters, roofers, drywallers, but we do a lot of the work ourselves.”
    Lizabeth drank her coffee and watched him. He wore a black T-shirt tucked into a pair of faded jeans, and Lizabeth thought he was the most awesome man she’d ever encountered. He was a genetic masterpiece. He was freshly shaven, his blond hair was parted and combed, and his shirt and jeans still held the crease from being laundered and folded. Concessions to civilization, Lizabeth thought. She wasn’t about to be fooled by thecrease in his jeans. Anyone with eyebrows like that and a tattoo on his arm had to be part barbarian.
    â€œOkay, I’m done.” He pushed the phone away and flipped the switch on the answering machine. “I’m going to have you paint trim today.”
    It was the easiest job he could come up with on short notice. She wouldn’t have to lift anything heavy, and she wouldn’t be near power tools. He handed her a can of white latex enamel.
    â€œAll you have to do is put a coat of this over the wood that’s been primed.”
    He gave her a narrow brush and led the way up the stairs. “You can put your lunch in the refrigerator in the kitchen, and feel free to use the phone to call home if you want to check on your kids.”
    â€œThanks, but they’ll be fine. My aunt Elsie is coming to babysit for a while.”
    Matt nodded. He didn’t want to leave her. He wanted to stay and talk to her about her kids, her aunt Elsie, her sorry house. And he wanted to kiss her.
    He wasn’t sure why he found her so desirable. Lately, it seemed the women he metwere far less interesting than the houses he built. Lizabeth Kane was the exception. Lizabeth Kane seemed like she would be fun. She reminded him of a kid, waiting in line for her first ride on a roller coaster. She had that frightened look of breathless expectation. He thought about the kiss and decided it might be considered job harassment. He’d been called a lot of things in his thirty-four years. He didn’t want to add “sexist pig” to the