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“Guess I was a bit distracted.”
“Distracted?” The frown between Quinn’s brows deepened. “What gives?”
No way he was going to tell his brother that he’d had dinner and dancing with Sandra on his mind. They’d had such a good time, talking, laughing, and dancing. The dancing, of course, was his favorite. A legitimate excuse to hold her close, and once other patrons joined them on the floor, it was easy to simply blend in. If he closed his eyes, he could almost still feel Sandra swaying in his arms. And that was probably how he mucked up the measuring.
The lights from the filming crew dimmed in the distance. One by one they came out of the back of the house, smiling, chatting, and waving at Paxton as they walked by and tossing departing words of encouragement at Sandra. It made no sense, but it bothered him that everyone seemed to like her so much.
“You contemplating the immortality of the crab?” Quinn crossed his arms.
“Why’s this not done?” Ryan walked into the room that he’d expected to find all the sheetrock up. “Guess I’d better help or we’ll fall behind.”
Shaking his head, Quinn dropped his arms by his side and turned to Ryan. “Just for the hell of it, show him how to use a tape measure.”
Ryan looked from one brother to the other, his mouth hanging slightly open, utter confusion covered his face.
“Don’t ask.” Paxton sighed, and smiled at Sandra approaching.
“Hey.” She stopped in front of him.
He resisted the urge to reach out and hug her or take her hand or just run a finger down that soft cheek. But the workplace was not the place for public displays of affection. “You look like the cat that swallowed the canary.”
“Something like that.” Her shoulders hitched with excitement. “My license came through and Polly says I can have afternoon appointments since Margie, her regular manicurist, only works mornings.”
While he considered what this meant for their workday, she flung herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck. He’d barely wrapped his arms around her waist in a return hug when she tensed and took a step in retreat. Her cheeks flushing a soft pink, and her head dipped, she glanced over at Ryan busying himself with the sheetrock on the opposite wall. “Sorry about that.”
He shook his head. “Nonsense, this is good news for you.” No point in mentioning that he wished he could have held her longer.
“The downside is that I won’t be able to work on the house every day. Do you think that will be a problem?”
He leaned back against the doorjamb. “That should be fine. You already work here more than you need to. You’ve banked enough hours of sweat equity that you could never show up again and you’d still get the house.”
Her eyes lit up. “You guys look at it that way?”
“Not us, the charity.”
“That’s nice, but I still feel like a slacker if I don’t show up at all.”
“Don’t even think about it. All is fine. Though we’ll miss you.”
“We?” she teased.
“I’m sure everyone here has enjoyed working with you, but I’ll definitely miss having you around.”
“You will?”
He bobbed his head and his heart did a two-step when her smile blossomed. “Is it awful of me to say I’m glad?”
“Not even a little.” He shook his head.
“I’m going to miss being here too.”
That had his cheeks tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“You two going to get back to work or keep up the grinning competition?” Quinn muttered on his way through the room toward the door without slowing or saying anything further.
Stepping further apart, he briefly considered pulling her into his arms and dipping her for a dramatic kiss just to tick off his grumpy brother, but decided that would be opening a can of worms that could seriously backfire. For now, he was going to have to keep his hands—and lips—to himself.
Sandra could still feel the warmth of that too-brief hug from a few minutes ago. She hadn’t meant to hug him in front of everyone, but she was just so darn excited. “This means I’ll be able to save even more money for furniture and what not when the house is finally ready.”
