“It really is.”

He looked at her for a long moment. Then nodded. “Okay.”

She blew out a relieved breath. “Really?”

“I get it.”

She tipped her head. “You do?”

“I didn’t tell my family about the sassy, sexy blond I was coming all the way up here to see.”

She smiled softly. “Why not?”

“Because they’ve already noticed that I haven’t been going out as much, and I haven’t had a woman at my place since July.”

Her eyes were totally round, she was sure, by the time he finished. Oh boy, huge, flashing, cherry-red sign. He hadn’t had a woman at his place since they’d met? She had the impression that not having women over on a regular basis was very unusual. She hadn’t been with anyone since she’d met him either and that was giving her a very itchy, uncomfortable, uh-oh feeling. But to know it was the same for him…

“You should definitely go look at Linda’s furnace,” she said. She crossed the room and grabbed her phone off the short breakfast bar between her kitchen and tiny living room.

She glanced up at him as she scrolled through to find her friend Max’s phone number.

Mitch was watching her with an unreadable expression. She blew out a breath. “You do actually know how to do all the things you told the women you could do?”

“Yes.”

“You’re sure you can fix all of it?”

“One hundred percent.”

She dropped her arm and regarded him. “What do you do for a living?”

“Whatever my grandma’s restaurant and bar, or my cousins’ tour company, needs me to do. I can fix anything. Motors, electric, plumbing, brickwork, roofs, drywall. You name it.”

Without meaning to, she let her gaze travel over his body. His big, hard, muscled body.

In three seconds he was in front of her, crowding close.

“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly, feeling her body lean into his instinctively.

“You can’t look at me like that without me coming over here and taking you up on what you’re offering.”

“Was I…” She had to stop and wet her lips. “Was I offering you something?”

“This sweet body spread out on that countertop behind you,” he said with a nod.

“I was checking you out.”

“Yeah and wanting everything you know I can do to you.”

Well, that was true.

“I… you… need to go get those repairs done.”

“You’re throwing me out because I freaked you out.”

“I…” She pressed her lips together and nodded. “Yeah.”

“I haven’t wanted anyone but you since we met.”

“Yeah, that’s… a little freaky.”

“You’re sorry I haven’t fucked anyone else since you?”

God, when he talked like that how was she supposed to stay on topic? Especially the topic of not wanting him to be all hers all the time, and to hell with the fact that she was too damned young to be serious about someone.

“Not sorry,” she confessed.

“Me neither.”

Her heart kicked in her chest. “You’re not falling in love with me,” she told him softly.

“That would be ridiculous,” he agreed.

“It would.” But it really should have felt more ridiculous than it did.

“But,” he said, “I don’t want to be with anyone else. And I’m afraid I might not get over that.”

Another kick against her rib cage. And a shot of fear. Because she felt the same way if she were being totally honest.

“You don’t want to move to Iowa,” she pointed out.

“I don’t mind it so far.”

She gave a soft laugh. “Give it time.”

“Okay.”

She sobered immediately. “Mitch—”

He lowered his head and covered her mouth with his. He kissed her long and deep, cupping her face with one hand and her hip with the other in a sweet, possessive hold.

When he broke the kiss long seconds later, he simply said, “Don’t freak out.”

Too late.

4

An impressive fifteen minutes later, Mitch was in a bulky winter coat with a toolbox in hand—thanks to Paige’s friend Max—and was walking up the front sidewalk to Linda Ritter’s house.

He wasn’t even sure how that had all happened. It was like Paige snapped her fingers, and everything she needed to get him out of her apartment and, most importantly, out of her personal space, had appeared.

The door had almost hit him in the ass on the way out.

You just want her because she’s safe. She lives a thousand miles away and she doesn’t want a relationship. It’s safe to think you want more than sex with her because you barely know her.

That was all true.

Somehow, it wasn’t making him wonder less about the men in her life since July.

He hadn’t meant to be celibate. He hadn’t met her and thought she’s the one for me forever. But all the women he'd met since then had just been, well, less.

Which was crazy because he barely knew Paige.

“Mitch!”

Linda’s voice calling to him from the porch of the big, two-story house, pulled his attention away from his infatuation with the blond who had practically dressed him in this coat and shoved him out the door.

“Hi, Linda.” Mitch gave her a smile and climbed the steps.

“Thank you so much for coming over.” The older woman gave him a bright, sincere smile.

“Of course. You don’t need to go without heat if I can do something about it.”

She looked genuinely touched by that. “But you don’t even know us.”

“Well, I don’t need to know you to know you get cold when it’s twenty-two degrees outside,” he said with a smile.

Twenty-two fucking degrees. He’d never been in weather this cold. It was great. He certainly wouldn’t want to work outside in it on a regular basis, but the air was brisk and fresh and he found it exhilarating.

And he didn’t have to know Larry and Mike to know that they wouldn’t use that word to describe the weather when they were up on those rooftops trying to mend the holes.

He might not feel exhilarated after he climbed up to help them out either.

“I guess you’re right,” Linda said. “I really didn’t want to ask you, but when I heard you were looking at Paige’s furnace…”

“It’s completely fine,” he assured her, feeling a twinge of guilt over Paige’s furnace story. It hadn’t even been his story. Thank God he did know about heating and air-conditioning. And all of the other things the ladies, and town, needed help with.

He shook his head with a grin as he followed Linda into her house. This was exactly how Autre, Louisiana worked. If someone needed something and you could do it or provide it or help with it, you did. Period. No questions. He liked that Appleby and Autre had that in common. Just with a seventy-something-degree temperature difference separating them this time of year.

It also fit that a Landry would be in town for about two hours and would already be involved in the town festival and pitching in to help. His grandparents would be so proud. His dad too. Sean Landry had always told him, “Don’t be any trouble. Help out and do your part. Make ’em glad you’re there.”