just trying to scare you with this shit.”
“Well, it’s working, because I’m scared. I don’t have the money to pay for all these repairs they want, much less all the fines and late fees on top of that.”
Hearing Andie admit to being scared made my stomach twist in knots. I didn’t think I’d ever heard her say that before. It killed me to see her like this—especially knowing my own father was the one responsible for it.
“I can do all the repairs,” I promised. “You won’t have to pay for anything but materials, and I can get you a good deal on most of what you’ll need. I know a lot of people who owe me favors. I can get this done without it costing you too much.”
“Did you look at that list of everything they’re asking for? There’s no way you can do all of it yourself.”
Lifting my chin, I sniffed in indignation. “I’m going to pretend I’m not hurt by your lack of faith in my abilities.”
She shook her head, digging her fingernails into my hand to show me what she thought of my ploy for pity. My dick twitched in a spectacular display of poor timing, and I silently implored it to stand the fuck down.
“Wyatt, it’s really sweet that you want to help me—”
“I can get it done.” I steeled my expression, keeping my voice solemn. “I swear to you.”
“Even if you can, I still won’t have the money for the fines.”
“Let me talk to them. Like I said, I’ve dealt with stuff like this plenty of times before. Nine times out of ten, if you agree to do all the requested maintenance, they’ll waive most of the fees. I’ll pay your HOA president a call and let him know you’ve engaged a contractor to take care of all the violations. With any luck, that will make him happy enough to back off.”
I wasn’t above exerting a little influence of my own. If my dad had used our family name to pressure the HOA into hassling Andie, maybe I could use it to pressure them into backing off. Let them know they’d made a mistake and picked the wrong person to go after by targeting a close personal family friend.
And if that failed, then I’d swallow my pride and go straight to the old man himself. Although I suspected I’d have a better chance of winning over Rodney Phelps than my dear old dad.
Andie’s expression betrayed a glimmer of hope that shot straight through my heart. “You really think so?”
“I really do.” I squeezed her hand. “We can fix this. I promise.”
She blinked at me, and if I didn’t know better, I’d swear she was trying not to cry. “Thank you. Seriously.” As her teeth sank into her lower lip, my dick once again tried to make its inappropriate feelings known.
I pushed my chair back, grabbing the letter off the table as I stood up, and pulled Andie to her feet. “Let’s walk through everything that needs to be done so I can start working up an estimate of what the materials are going to run you.”
When I tried to slip my hand out of hers, her fingers tightened, and she hauled me back toward her. Her arms wound around my neck as she hugged me. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
I banded an arm around her, shoving my hips back to keep my inconvenient boner well away from her. My heart thumped wildly in my chest as she pressed her face into my neck, and I breathed in the sweet, outdoorsy smell of her hair.
One way or another, I was going to get her out of this mess. Even if I had to go to each and every one of my siblings and beg them to loan me the money to buy her way out of it.
There was no fucking way I’d let Andie down.
7
Andie
The day after I showed him the HOA letter, Wyatt texted me to ask if he could come over in the morning before I left for work. I told him sure, and that I’d be around until seven forty-five. But I didn’t get my hopes up that I’d actually see him when morning came.
I loved the guy, but he wasn’t exactly a shining pinnacle of punctuality and reliability. He also wasn’t a morning person. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him before ten a.m. unless he was still up from the night before.
Shattering my low expectations, Wyatt turned up