Unexpectedly You Read Free

this mug. Her lungs deflated, making it hard to take a deep breath.
    As if he knew when she needed comforting, Bogie, the eighty-pound golden retriever who’d become her constant companion since she’d adopted him a year ago, rubbed up against her leg.
    Sitting on her haunches, Emma pressed her face against the warm furry softness. “That devil even woke you up, didn’t he?” She gave the gentle giant another squeeze. How had she managed to live without having a dog in the house? Easy. Stefan had been allergic to everything.
    Another loud bang erupted outside, and Bogie’s tail quickly hid between his legs.
    “If I let you outside, can you go Cujo on that man?”
    But the dog simply whined, his floppy ears remaining limp against his graying whiskers.
    “Don’t you worry, bud,” she said, straightening her legs and then fisting her hands. “I’ve got this.”
    She fought the urge to run back to her bedroom and bury her head under a pillow of denial. On unsteady legs she marched down the dark hallway straight to the closet and pulled out Stefan’s fleece jacket, instinctively wanting the reassuring warmth around her. She fumbled with the zipper. Taking slow, deep breaths, she clenched and unclenched her hands to stop the trembling. Fury simmered in her chest. Tension pulsed in her head.
    This was always her reaction right before she came within two feet of McKenna.
    She pulled herself together and snuck a peek out of the narrow, stained glass window that flanked each side of the front door. She was too far away to see his expression but imagined those deep blue eyes and how they zeroed in on her lips when she spoke, or the intimidating thing he did with his brows. Or how his mouth curled into that sneer she hated. She tried not to think about the few times when those same lips seemed sexy. Like when he smiled, which hardly ever happened, especially when she was around.
    Without giving herself a chance to change her mind, she swung open the front door and stepped outside. Last night’s rainfall brought on a cold front, and she shivered beneath the fleece. She kept her steps solid as she stormed to where McKenna hunched over a six-foot folding metal table.
    With her hands firmly planted on her hips, she waited for him to turn around and acknowledge her presence. The wet grass soaked through her flimsy slippers, and she curled her toes but stood her ground. She noticed that despite the cool, overcast weather, he had on jeans and a T-shirt that looked like it had seen the inside of a spin cycle one too many times. Up close, she could make out the sinewy muscles of his back beneath his T-shirt. Unlike Stefan’s wiry runner’s frame, McKenna had a strong, powerful upper body, which flexed in interesting ways as he attempted to keep his plans from flying off the table.
    Frustrated at herself for even comparing the two in her mind, she cleared her throat loudly, surprising McKenna enough that he lost his grip on the plans and the papers blew off the table into the wet, muddy ground.
    * * *
    Inch by inch, Mitch McKenna turned, nudging his sunglasses down to his nose to take in Emma LeFleur from the top of her messed-up bed hair down to the pink furry balls that peeked beneath her flannel pajama pants. He clenched his teeth to keep a sneer off, triggering a sharp pain in his jaw. The woman would reduce any man into wearing a mouth guard.
    She’d picked up his project plans from the ground and held them out to him.
    Cursing under his breath, he took the muddied papers and tucked them under his armpit. “Thank you,” he said grudgingly.
    “Do you have any idea what time it is?”
    Here we go again.
    “We have a noise ordinance in our town, and you are most definitely violating it.”
    He deliberately curled his lips into what he now hoped was a sneer. “Then file a petition to stop me. Wait, you did—and lost.” He turned his back.
    “Fine. I’ll just call the police.”
    “You mean Officer Landis? The same