the fact that the girl hated me.
Granted, that was the whole point of my being such a dick to her.
“Can you do that for me?” She opened the driver’s door. “Make nice with her. Please?”
Her gaze was so earnest that I found myself nodding.
“Really?” she persisted.
I sighed and looked away as I agreed. “Yeah. Sure.”
A smile broke out across her face, the kind of smile that had every guy at school tripping all over themselves, and here I was, her brother, most likely lying to her.
But lies…they worked.
I watched her leave and then headed in, going upstairs to take a shower. Afterward, I changed into a pair of jeans and a shirt that hadn’t been burned and then puttered around the house, actually picking up after myself. That was a miracle right there.
Make nice with her.
I shook my head as I walked over to my trusty stalker window and pulled back the curtain, wondering if— “What in the hell?”
Squinting, I watched the girl next door jump up and down, trying to reach the roof of her car with a sponge with absolutely no success. A slow smile pulled at my lips.
She looked absolutely ridiculous as the minutes ticked by.
Before I even knew what I was doing, I pivoted around and went out the back door, slipping quietly between the houses. I reached the front of the house just in time to see her bend over to pick up the sponge she’d dropped.
I stopped mid-walk, totally admiring the view offered to me. Alien…human… We’re all universally predictable it seems.
She straightened as I wandered closer. I thought I heard her curse as she plucked at the sponge before tossing it in the bucket.
“You look as if you could use some help,” I said, shoving my hands into the pockets of my jeans.
Jumping, she whipped around with wide, startled gray eyes. There was no mistaking the look of surprise as she eyed me, and it was clear as we stood there staring at each other, she had no idea why I was out there.
Neither did I.
Make nice with her.
I swallowed a sigh as I gestured at the bucket with a lift of my elbow. “You looked as though you wanted to throw that again. I figured I’d do my good deed for the day and intervene before any innocent sponges lose their lives.”
Lifting her arm, she used it to wipe strands of damp hair out of her face as she watched me. Tension radiated from her. Since she didn’t say anything, I walked over to the bucket and snatched the sponge, squeezing out the water. “You look like you got more of a bath than the car. I never thought washing a car would be so hard, but after watching you for the last fifteen minutes, I’m convinced it should be an Olympic sport.”
“You were watching me?”
Probably shouldn’t have admitted that. Oh well. I shrugged. “You could always take the car to the car wash. It would be a lot easier.”
“Car washes are a waste of money.”
“True.” I walked around the front of her car and knelt, hitting a spot she’d missed. While I was there, I checked out her tires. Jesus. They were in terrible condition. “You need new tires. These are about bald, and winter’s crazy around here.”
Silence greeted me.
I peered up through my lashes as I rose. She was watching me like I was some kind of hallucination, arms loose at her sides, and damn, the entire front of her shirt was soaked, showing off a very interesting outline I shouldn’t even be paying attention to. Turning away, I took care of the roof. When I was done, she was still standing there, absolutely immobile, and that made me grin. “Anyway, I’m glad you were out here.” I grabbed the hose and sprayed down the car. “I think I’m supposed to apologize.”
“You think you’re supposed to?” Ahh, she speaks.
I slowly turned around, almost hitting her with the spray of water as I attacked the other side of the car. The slight narrowing of her eyes brought forth a great wealth of satisfaction. “Yeah, according to Dee, I needed to get my ass over here and make nice. Something about me killing her chances of having a ‘normal’ friend.”
“A normal friend? What kind of friends does she have?”
“Not normal.”
“Well, apologizing and not meaning it kind of defeats the purpose of apologizing.”
I chuckled. “True.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her shift her weight from one foot to the other. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah.” I worked my way around the car, chasing off the suds as a genius idea struck me. There was no getting rid of this girl, and the likelihood of Dee growing bored with her wasn’t going to help. I’d decided Saturday morning I needed to keep a close eye on her and I needed an excuse. There was no way this girl was going to believe I wanted to be around her when I really didn’t want to be, but if Dee was going to be her new BFF, I needed to know everything about her, and not just if she could be trusted if something weird went down. “Actually, I don’t have a choice. I have to make nice.”
She gave a little shake of her head. “You don’t seem like a person who does anything he doesn’t want to do.”
“Normally I’m not.” I hit the back of the car with the water as I picked out the first thing I could come up with. “But my sister took my car keys and until I play nice, I don’t get them back. It’s too damn annoying to get replacements.”
I started to grin, because the whole thing was ridiculous. It wasn’t like I needed keys to get anywhere. Not like this girl knew that. I made a mental note to text Dee as soon as possible.
She laughed. “She took your keys?”
The small grin slipped off my face as I returned to the side she was standing on. “It’s not funny.”
“You’re right.” She laughed again, and it was a nice laugh—throaty. Kind of sexy. “It’s freaking hilarious.”
I scowled at her. Of course, my keys were on the kitchen counter, but still, she could be more sympathetic to my plight.
Her arms folded across her chest. “I’m sorry, though. I’m not accepting your not-so-sincere apology.”
My brows rose. “Not even when I’m cleaning your car?”
“Nope.” Her smile grew, and that plain face suddenly wasn’t really plain. “You may never see those keys again.”
“Well, damn, there went my plan.” A reluctant smile broke free. Her attitude was…interesting. Entertaining. “I figured that if I really don’t feel bad, then at least I could make up for it.”
She tilted her head to the side. “Are you normally this warm and sparkly?”
I walked past her to where the outdoor spigot was. I turned off the water. “Always. Do you usually stare at guys when you stop over, asking for directions?”
“Do you always answer the door half naked?”
“Always. And you didn’t answer my question. Do you always stare?”
She blushed a deep pink. “I was not staring.”
“Really?” I grinned as I turned around. “Anyway, you woke me up. I’m not a morning person.”
“It wasn’t that early.”
“I sleep in. It is summer, you know. Don’t you sleep in?”
A piece of hair had snuck free of her bun again and she pushed it out of her face. “No. I always get up early.”
Go figure. “You sound just like my sister. No wonder she loves you so much already.”
“Dee has taste…unlike some,” she said, and there it was again, the attitude. “And she’s great. I really like her, so if you’re over here to play big, bad brother, just forget it.”
God, she was a little firecracker.
“That’s not why I’m here.” I gathered up the bucket and various sprays and cleaners, and when I glanced over at her, I thought she might be staring at my mouth. Interesting.
“Then why are you here, other than delivering a crappy apology?” she asked.
Placing the supplies on the porch steps, I lifted my arms and stretched as my gaze flickered over to her and staye
d. “Maybe I’m just curious why she is so enamored. Dee doesn’t take well to strangers. None of us do.”
“I had a dog once that didn’t take well to strangers,” Katy quipped.
For a moment, I didn’t move, and then I laughed—a real laugh—and it sounded strange to my own ears. Shit. She was quick.
Her gaze dipped, and then she cleared her throat. “Well, thanks for the car thing.”
And she was clearly dismissing me.
I crossed the distance between us—and I hadn’t even moved that fast—but based on her soft inhale, I’d caught her off guard. I was right in front of her, and she smelled like peaches again.
“How do you move so fast?” she asked.
Ignoring that loaded question, I let my gaze roam over her face. What was it about her that had my sister bouncing all over the place? Her tongue was sharp as a knife and she came across as intelligent, but there were literally billions of humans like her. I didn’t get it. “My little sis does seem to like you.”
She opened her mouth and then snapped it shut. A moment passed. “Little? You’re twins.”
“I was born a whole four minutes and thirty seconds before she was.” I lifted my gaze to hers. “Technically she is my little sister.”
“She’s the baby in the family?” Her voice sounded different as she lowered her gaze.
“Yep, therefore I’m the one starved for attention.”
“I guess that explains your poor attitude, then,” she shot back.
“Maybe, but most people find me charming.” Sometimes.
Her gaze flicked to mine and then stayed. Something shifted in those gray depths. “I have…a hard time believing that.”
“You shouldn’t, Katy.” Her name sounded strange on my tongue and in my thoughts. That damn little piece of hair had fallen free again, brushing her cheek. I caught it between my fingers. “What kind of color is this? It’s not brown or blond.”
She tugged her hair free of my grasp. “It’s called light brown.”
“Hmm,” I murmured, lowering my gaze. “You and I have plans to make.”
“What?” She stepped around me, putting some space between us. “We don’t have any plans to make.”
I sat down on the steps, stretched out my legs, and leaned back on my elbows. Plans. Plans. I needed plans. My mouth was moving faster than my brain.
“Comfortable?” she snapped.
“Very.” I squinted up at her. The front of her T-shirt had dried—the greatest idea known to man and Luxen formed in my thoughts. “About these plans…”
She remained standing. “What are you talking about?”
“You remember the whole ‘getting my ass over here and playing nice’ thing, right? That also involves my car keys?” I crossed my ankles as I glanced at the tree line. Man, I was such a liar. “Those plans involve me getting my car keys back.”
“You need to give me a little more of an explanation than that.”
“Of course.” I sighed. “Dee hid my keys. She’s good at hiding stuff, too. I’ve already torn the house apart, and I can’t find them.”
“So, make her tell you where they are.”
“Oh, I would, if she was here. But she’s left town and won’t be back until Sunday.”
“What?” She paused. “I didn’t know that.”
“It was a last-minute thing.” Uncrossing my ankles, I started tapping my foot. “And the only way she’ll tell me where the keys are hidden is by me earning bonus points. See, my sister has this thing about bonus points, ever since elementary school.”
The bonus points thing was true.
“Okay…?”
“I have to earn bonus points to get my keys back. The only way I can earn those points is by doing something nice for you.”
She let out a loud laugh, and I looked at her, my eyes narrowing. “I’m sorry, but this is kind of funny.”
Her lack of sympathy for my nonexistent problem was amusing. “Yeah, it’s real funny.”
Her laughter was slow to fade. “What do you have to do?”
“I’m supposed to take you swimming tomorrow. If I do that, then she’ll tell me where my keys are hidden—and I have to be nice.” Totally sounded like something Dee would say. I was rather proud of myself.
Katy stared at me for a moment, and then her mouth dropped open. “So the only way you get your keys back is by taking me swimming and by being nice to me?”
“Wow. You’re a quick one.”
Her laugh this time was actually quite evil sounding. “Yeah, well, you can kiss your keys good-bye.”
I cranked my head back and waited for her to say she was just kidding. “Why?”
“Because I’m not going anywhere with you.” Smugness rang in her voice.
“We don’t have a choice.”
“No. You don’t have a choice, but I do.” She looked over her shoulder at the front door. “I’m not the one with missing keys.”
Huh. Perhaps I was a bit too much of a dick the first two times I talked to her. Good thing she didn’t know I briefly considered burning her house down. “You don’t want to hang out with me?”
“Uh, no.”
“Why not?”
She rolled her eyes. “For starters, you’re a jerk.”
I nodded. “I can be.” Not going to disagree with that.
“And I’m not spending time with a guy who’s being forced to do it by his sister. I’m not desperate.”
“You’re not?”
Anger flashed across her face, and again, it transformed her features. “Get off my porch.”
Completely committed to my plan, I pretended to consider it. “No.”
“What? What do you mean, no?”
“I’m not leaving until you agree to go swimming with me.”
She was so going to blow a fuse. “Fine. You can sit there, because I’d rather eat glass than spend time with you.”
I was genuinely amused by that statement. “That sounds drastic.”
“Not nearly.” She started up the steps.
I twisted at the waist and caught her ankle. Damn, her skin was incredibly soft. Fragile. I kept my grip loose. Her gaze lowered to mine, and I forced a smile that had gotten me excused from many school assignments. “I’ll sit here all day and night. I’ll camp out on your porch. And I won’t leave. We have all week, Kitten. Either get it over with tomorrow and be done with me, or I’ll be right here until you do agree. You won’t be able to leave the house.”
She gaped. “You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I am.”
“Just tell her we went and that I had a great time. Lie.”
When she tried to pull her leg free, I held on. “She’ll know if I’m lying. We’re twins. We know these things.” I paused, thoroughly enjoying myself. “Or are you too shy to go swimming with me? Does the idea of getting almost naked around me make you uncomfortable?”
“I’m from Florida, idiot.” Grabbing ahold of the railing, she pulled her leg and got nowhere. “I’ve spent half my life in a bathing suit.”
“What’s the big deal?” Warmth built under my hand, surrounding her ankle.
“I don’t like you.” She drew in a deep breath, causing her chest to rise. “Let go of my ankle.”
“I’m not leaving, Kitten.” Holding her glare, I lifted my fingers, one by one. Screw the whole keeping an eye on her thing. Now this was pure principal. A challenge. “You’re going to do this.”
Her lips curled back, and I waited, barely able to contain a grin, because I knew she was seconds from laying into me. Maybe even kicking me. But the door opened, stopping her.
I glanced up and saw her mom. There were…bunnies on her pajamas.