Beyond Repair (3 page)

“Chris.”

I tilted my head as he spoke. His voice was low and hypnotizing, melting the block of ice sitting in my stomach. I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. He took my hand and thankfully didn’t do one of those bone-crushing handshakes that guys sometimes do. “I like your shirt.”

My shirt was a tribute to the old Super Mario Bros. game from the eighties. It had three warp pipes on it and underneath said, “In my zone.”

I didn’t know if he was making fun of me or if he really liked it. But it was my favorite shirt, so I didn’t really care. “Thanks. Old school.” I stared at his arms as we shook. They were big. Not bulky bodybuilder muscles big, but big as if he worked with them a lot. I tried to remember if Kyle told me what he did for a living, but then I realized we were still shaking hands, so I dropped his.

“No school like the old school,” he replied automatically.

He had a smile that turned up more on the left side. Combined with his voice, it made my stomach heat up more, which was weird. I ignored it and focused on what he’d said instead. “Are you quoting
The Incredibles
?”

Because, if he was, that was pretty frigging cool. That was one of the few movies I didn’t mind watching a million times with Mia.

He scratched the back of his neck. “Wow, you caught that, huh? Yeah. My nephew loves that movie. You have a daughter, right? Kyle told me.” He flashed that smile at me again. Nice.

I could work with small talk about Mia. I smiled back, hoping it looked casual. “Yeah, she’s three. Almost four. She loves that movie.”

It was kind of nice talking to Kyle’s hot friend, but my stomach was churning. I needed to leave before things got weird. He was going to figure out soon that my eyes kept focusing on his well-defined arms peeking out of his t-shirt. The sleeves were too short—I guess because he was so tall—but it looked good on him. “Hey, it was nice talking to you, but I have to run. Zoey’s going to kill me for being late.”

“Yeah. Nice meeting you.”

“You, too!” I gave a little wave and headed to my car. After backing down the driveway, I noticed Chris watching as I drove off. I gave a weak smile, but my stomach flipped and not in a good way. I took some hand sanitizer from the bottle I kept in my cup holder, my thoughts clearing as I rubbed my hands together. Those feelings I had were … strange. I couldn’t let that happen again. I couldn’t trust anyone. Not even my brother-in-law’s gorgeous friend.

But I could talk about him with my sister.

* * *

At Zoey’s house, I sat on the floor of Mike’s new room, unpacking his clothes from boxes and putting them away. She was in a better mood than I had expected, and I was just finishing when she walked in.

“I’m taking a break,” she announced, sitting on the bed that I made earlier. “Feel free to keep working.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Zoey ignored my not-so-subtle sarcasm and chatted about the decorating ideas she had, like painting and changing out the light fixtures. I couldn’t concentrate on anything she was saying.

“I met the new neighbor,” I blurted out, watching her for a reaction.

“Oh,
wow
.” She leaned forward on her elbows. “I wanted to let you see for yourself. What did you think?”

I sat down cross-legged in front of another box and looked inside. Toys. “I bumped into him. Literally. He was really nice.”

“And?”

I looked up from the toys that I was pulling out of the box. She was about to fall off the damn bed, she was leaning so far toward me.

“And tall?” I offered.

“Brooke.” The way that she said my name reminded me of when she threatened to tell Mom I tried to go sledding down the steps when I was nine.

“Fine! And really hot! Just … wow.” I was going to leave it at that, but for some reason, I couldn’t stop talking. “Why didn’t you give me a heads-up that a super tall hot guy with sexy arms was moving next door to me?”

Zoey’s mouth dropped open. “Listen to you! Mom and I have been trying to get you interested in Kyle’s friends for over a year, and you obviously weren’t ready.”

She moved away as I chucked a stuffed animal at her. “Mom can do that because she doesn’t know what happened. You do.”

“We’re
not
starting this now,” she said, throwing it back at me. She screamed as I threw another one and held her hands up. “Honestly, I knew you’d think he was good looking, but that was it. I didn’t think he was your type.”

I gripped the side of the box so I wouldn’t throw anything else. “And a guy who’s a head shorter than me is?”

She bit her lip before answering me. “I didn’t think you’d be into such a … big guy.”

A big guy. She meant tall, strong, and could really do some damage to me if he wanted to. Kind of strange, since the guy who
did
do damage to me was completely average. “I’m not into him.”

“Well, he’s single. In case you’re wondering.”

I wasn’t wondering. But it was kind of cool to have that information, even though nothing was going to happen. “He’s just something really nice to look at. Like a six-foot-four sculpture at a museum.”
Of a mythical god who can never exist in real life.

“Oh, he’s more than pretty, Brooke. Just a really nice person. You should see him with his nephew. And he does construction and helped build houses for some charity.”

“Construction, huh?” That was a sexy profession. Hard working, good with their hands. Strippers dressed as construction workers sometimes, right?

I shook the thought. There was no reason for me to be thinking about him at all, let alone like some hormonal teenager.

Zoey studied me for a moment. “You look like you’re constipated.”

“Excuse me?”

“You look constipated when you’re trying not to think about something.”

“I do?” I was kind of sad for two reasons. I didn’t want to be so easy to read, and I didn’t want people to think I had constipation issues.

“Yeah, you do. So I know that you have a thing for Chris.”

I put my hands to my head and rubbed my temples. I had forgotten how mentally draining it was to downplay an attraction to someone. “He’s nice to look at. I wouldn’t say I have a thing for him.”

“Sure, you don’t.”

“I don’t. We only said like two sentences to each other.” I went back to unpacking, hoping she’d take the hint that I didn’t want to talk about it anymore. I wasn’t crazy about this little … mini-attraction. For almost five years, I strove to be in control of everything in my life. That was why I didn’t have any sort of relationship outside of my family.

And now? Here I was, thinking about Kyle’s hot friend and apparently looking constipated. Wonderful.

Kyle stuck his head into the room, tossed a bottle of water at me, and then one at Zoey. “You guys doing okay?”

I looked at the seal on the bottle cap. “Yeah, thanks for the water.”

“Brooke met Chris,” Zoey announced.

“Oh, good. Nice guy, right?” Kyle looked at me, and I shrugged.

“She was very …
taken
by him.”

I threw another stuffed animal at her. “Shut up! I wasn’t.”

Zoey picked up the pillow from the bed and threw it back at me. “You’re the one—”

“Stop it, both of you!” Kyle jumped in, and then looked at me with his mouth hanging open. “Is that true? You like him?”

“No. God. Why are you guys so obsessed with this?”

Kyle shook his head. “Because you haven’t shown any interest in anyone for years.”

“And I’m
not
showing interest. I only said he was good looking.”

“Well, I guess it’s good that you’re not interested. He’s not seeing anyone right now, but one of our buddies tried to set him up a few times and he always said no.”

“Smart guy. We know how well set-ups go.” I glared at Zoey, who stuck her tongue out at me.

Chapter Three

A
FTER ZOEY AND KYLE MOVED,
I kept our normal routine to help Mia with the change, even though things were anything but normal. First of all, I couldn’t see my sister whenever I wanted to. Secondly, I looked out of my window every five minutes to see if Kyle’s hot friend was outside. I was kind of bummed that I hadn’t seen him since the day he moved in. He must have been busy doing construction stuff with his shirt off.

So, I was taken by surprise when Mia and I were in the backyard playing catch on Friday afternoon. She looked toward the next yard, which was open to ours, and started waving frantically. “Hi!”

The ball she threw hit the side of my head because I was busy staring at Chris, who walked toward us wearing yet another t-shirt with sleeves too short. Why did I like that so much?

He picked up the ball and handed it to me. “You okay?”

I took it from him and tried to act nonchalant, as if giant balls hit me on the head all the time. But then his mouth formed the uneven smile I’d thought about since Monday, and my attempts went out the window. I stammered instead, “Um, yeah. I’m fine.” Shaking the fog from my brain, I looked at my daughter so Kyle’s hot friend wouldn’t distract me. “Mia, this is our new neighbor. Remember we talked about this? He’s Uncle Kyle’s friend.”

Chris turned his attention to her. “Hi, Mia.”

“What’s your name?” she asked, tilting her head up.

“Chris.”

“You’re really tall.”

He crouched down in front of her. “Is this better?”

“Yes. Do you do karate like Uncle Kyle?”

“No, I don’t.”

“I do. I’m really good. How old are you?”

“Thirty-one. How old are you?”

“Three, but almost four.” She held up three fingers, and then changed them to four, just in case he didn’t understand. “What’s your phone number?”

“Mia!” I frowned at her and shot Chris an apologetic look. “Sorry about that, she just learned ours and wants to know everyone else’s now.”

Chris laughed. “No worries.” He paused and rubbed the top of his head. “So, I was wondering … I’m watching my nephew tonight. He’s four, just like you almost are, Mia. Maybe you ladies would like to hang out with us and watch
Toy Story
or something.”

“Yeah!” Mia yelled before I could answer. She ran away and attempted a cartwheel. After landing on her butt, she started spinning in circles. I shook my head and looked away before I got nauseated.

He stood up, his eyes meeting mine. “Is that okay with you?”

I broke eye contact as I debated my options. I could make up an excuse, but hanging out with two kids seemed harmless. It was a play date. I had done those before. I always dreaded them because I hated small talk, but Mia loved them. She was already excited, and the thought of her asking why we couldn’t go if I backed out was heartbreaking.

Besides, he was safe. Kyle had known him since they were kids. And Chris wasn’t interested in dating, so this was really a new neighbor thing.

“Of course it’s okay. Do you have the movie?”

He shrugged one shoulder, his face turning pink. “I kind of have all the Pixar movies.”

Why was that so cute? “Good to know, neighbor.”

“Do you guys like spaghetti?” he asked.

“Mom, can we make cupcakes?” Mia yelled from across the yard.

I nodded. “Spaghetti sounds great. We’ll bring cupcakes.”

After we had decided on a time, he waved to Mia and headed back to his house. The moment he disappeared from view, I pulled my hand sanitizer out of my pocket.

* * *

Chris told us to come over around five. When we arrived, he was outside with a little boy, shooting basketballs in the driveway.

“Hi guys, this is Ryder,” Chris said, catching the ball as it bounced off the hoop. “Mia, do you want to play?” He handed the ball to Ryder and went to pick up another one that was on the ground. He held it out to her.

Mia was practically drooling. The basketball hoop was set up a couple of years ago for my nephews, and since they were pretty protective of it, she’d never played. Now it was as close to the ground as possible, and the little boy was just having fun, going nuts and shooting free throws.

“Come on, Mia!” Ryder said.

She took the ball and joined her new friend. Chris walked over and stood next to me. “Hey,” he said, playfully bumping my shoulder with his arm.

My stomach dropped. Not in the panic attack way I was so used to, but in a way
that felt foreign and
kind of nice.
My shoulder was all tingly and …

Fuck.

It was a friendly gesture; it should not turn you on.

“Hey,” I replied in a higher pitched voice than how I usually spoke. Why couldn’t I think of something with more than one syllable?

Chris didn’t seem to notice. Or, more likely, he ignored that I was the most socially awkward person in the world. “I’m glad you came. It’ll be good to get to know each other, and Ryder will love having another kid to play with.”

“Thanks for asking us. This will be fun for Mia, too.” I paused, trying to think of a way to continue the conversation. “Do you watch Ryder a lot?”

“I usually watch him a night here or there, so my sister and brother-in-law can hang out by themselves. But this time he’s actually spending the weekend because they went away. I’ve never had him this long before.”

“Are you worried?”

Chris laughed. “Nah, not really scared of four-year-olds.” He paused. “Okay, maybe a little.”

I nodded, distracted by Mia shooting the ball like crazy and blocking the hoop from Ryder. “Mia.” I raised my eyebrows at her.

She turned to Ryder. “Your turn!”

Chris looked impressed. “Maybe you can teach me how to give those scary looks. It’s probably a good thing to know when you have a four-year-old for a weekend.”

I shook my head. “It can’t be taught. It’s one of those skills you automatically develop when your kid is born.”

His mouth twisted for a second, and I wondered if I had offended him. But then he smiled again and we slipped into easy conversation. He asked questions about the neighborhood and the house my sister moved to, so I had no problem talking about safe topics. I didn’t even use my hand sanitizer once.

When Ryder and Mia lost interest in shooting hoops, we moved inside. The kids settled in front of a train set Ryder had brought over with him. I followed Chris into the kitchen to help, but cooking spaghetti was not rocket science. He set the water to boil and dumped a jar of Prego into a pan to heat up. I wound up sitting on a barstool as he manned the stove.