As much as she tried to keep a straight face, she couldn’t. “I don’t think she needs my help.”
“Not her, me!” he cried. “She’s killing me here!”
Shrugging, Sydney walked over to stand next to her niece. Placing her arm around her, she said, “Some guys don’t like to be called out on their…size,” she said with a smirk in his direction. “You should play nice.”
Nodding, Haley smiled at him. “I’m going to go look up your sister-in-law, so you better be telling the truth.”
“I never lie,” he said confidently, and this time Sydney was the one to snort.
Loudly.
Clearing her throat, she looked down at Haley. “Why don’t you go inside and see what you want for lunch? I’ll be right in.”
Haley waved goodbye to Kyle and took off around the back of the house. Once they were alone again, Sydney studied him. “Is your sister-in-law really a gymnast?”
“Future sister-in-law and yeah. It would be a weird thing to lie about.”
She wasn’t about to open any cans of worms here over his lying, so instead, she simply nodded. “Well, thanks for distracting her. I honestly wasn’t looking forward to going inside and arguing with her.”
“My brother Hunter is a fireman now and has a four-year-old and I’ve done a ton of babysitting. I learned quickly what it takes to distract a toddler mid-tantrum. Granted, it doesn’t always work, but I’ve got a pretty good success rate. I figured I’d try it with her and see if it worked.”
“I had no idea what I was even going to do when we got back here. All I knew was that I needed to get her home.”
“It’s going to get better,” he said, his voice soft and calm.
And for some reason, a nervous laugh was her first response. “Are you sure? Because right now, it doesn’t feel that way.”
He looked up at her and smiled and…damn. He had a really great smile. His sandy brown hair, gray eyes, and dimples made one very appealing package.
Still.
Down girl…
“Um…I should go in and…you know…lunch.” She took one step back and then another. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“That would be great. Thanks.”
With a smile of her own, she turned to walk away.
“Thanks, Pixie!” he called out, and all the good feelings she had just seconds ago disappeared.
3
For the better part of the week, Kyle didn’t see Sydney.
Well, he saw her, but she completely ignored him.
And that wasn’t easy to do considering he was all over the front of her house.
He had talked to Jake about the front porch, and they decided to tackle that and replacing the garage doors before he would start anything inside the house. It seemed a little crazy considering how much needed to be done inside, but for safety reasons, getting in and out of the house had to take top priority.
Hammering in one of the new spindles on the deck, he stopped when he heard a car door slamming shut. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Sydney getting out of the car. She stood and stared at the car for a solid minute and that piqued his curiosity. Was there something wrong with it? Was Haley okay? He was about to move when she did.
Opening the trunk, she began pulling out grocery bags and he figured she could use a hand. He might have a habit of saying the wrong thing, but he certainly had manners. Jogging down to the car, he smiled. “Hey! Let me give you a hand.”
She glared at him. “Thanks, but I’ve got this.”
There were easily twenty bags and he knew it would take her several trips—which is what he said to her.
“I can handle it,” she said, and Kyle could tell she was annoyed, but it didn’t stop him. He quickly scooped up half of the bags and began walking toward the house. “Hey! What the hell?”
But he kept walking. Sydney caught up to him in the kitchen and he smiled at her and walked back down the stairs to the garage to get the rest. He knew she was going to follow, but he didn’t break stride or wait up for her. At the trunk of the car, however, she slammed her hand down.
“I was talking to you,” she said, clearly pissed at him.
“Where’s Haley?”
“At a friend’s,” she snapped.
“Look,” he said with an easy grin, “I’m just trying to help you out. Everyone can use an extra set of hands when they’re bringing in groceries. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, Pix.”
If he thought she was pissed before, her expression turned positively furious.
“Um…”
Stepping in close, Sydney poked him in the chest. “You know what? I didn’t want your help, and I certainly didn’t ask for your help! And considering I’m the homeowner and this is my house, my car, my food, it’s my responsibility! You’re here to work on the house, got it? And if you can’t handle that without…without doing things no one asked you to, then I’ll call Jake and ask him to send somebody else! Got it?” She scooped up the rest of the bags, slammed the trunk shut, and stormed off.
What the…?
He was about to chase after her when Haley and her friend came whizzing down the driveway on their bikes. Forcing himself to relax, he turned and smiled at them. “Ladies.”
And damn if they didn’t both giggle.
“What are you up to today?” he asked.
“We wanted to go up to the pier, but I promised Aunt Syd I wouldn’t go without talking to her first.”
“Ah. Gotcha.” Nodding, he asked, “Did you check out Violet’s routines?”
“Holy crap!” Haley said excitedly. “They were so cool! She’s amazing! And you’re related to her? Does she teach gymnastics now? Can she give lessons?”
“Um…”
“Oh, my God,” Haley’s friend chimed in. “Is she the one you sent the links to?”
“Yeah! Did you see that triple flip thing she did? I would love to be able to do that!”
“Me too!”
He took a step back from all the chatter and looked toward the house and wondered if Sydney was going to come back out or if he should go in and try to talk to her. The girls ran into the house, so he opted to stay outside and tried not to even think about their conversation as he went back to work. He was working alone again today. Once the demolition of the steps was done and the new ones framed in, he had told Jake he was good to go solo. Now, with the steps completed and the work on the porch almost done, he felt like he was making good strides. He’d hate to have his boss pull him off this job, but if Sydney had that much animosity toward him—and clearly she did—there really wasn’t anything he could do about it.
You could maybe be the bigger person and clear the air…
Maybe. But he had a feeling her issues had more to do with her current situation and he was a convenient target.
At least…he hoped that’s all it was.
As he continued to work, his mind wandered to what he could have done to piss her off. It wasn’t possible that she was still mad at him after all this time, was it?
When all the spindles were in place and secured, Kyle straightened and stretched. The entire area was going to need to be painted, but that would happen when the rest of the exterior was getting finished. For now, it might not look pretty with so much random bare wood showing, but at least he knew it was all sturdy and secure. He turned to pack up some of the tools when he saw Sydney step out the front door.