Love and Other Surprises Read Online Free PDF Page A

correct some of the damage by showing him documents to support her ideas. Surely facts and figures would convince Matt that she could make a positive contribution to the project.
    Ali hurried to the desk in the living room that served as her home office, pulled a design association magazine out of her briefcase and strategically placed it on the living room coffee table. “There,” she murmured.
    By the time she heard Matt open the door a few minutes later, she felt more than ready to present her case.
    But then he stepped into the kitchen, filling the room, making it suddenly seem both smaller and warmer. A primal awareness made her pulse lurch. Annoyed at herself, she stepped toward him. “Let me take your coat.”
    Matt shrugged off his jacket and handed it to her. She carried it across the room to the coatrack, inhaling the scent of leather and shaving cream.
    A fleeting fantasy raced through her mind—the image of Matt stripped to the waist, his face lathered, his biceps bulging as he wielded a razor.
    She turned back toward him and her gaze snagged on the dark hair peeking out of his unbuttoned shirt collar. Her cheeks burned and she averted her eyes. She couldn’t afford to indulge in ridiculous daydreams—not when her whole future hung in the balance. Especially not when the daydreams left her feeling as rattled as a key chain.
    She ran her hands along the sides of her jeans to dry her damp palms. “I’ve put some water on for tea,” she said. “But if you like, I can make some coffee or get you a soft drink or make some hot chocolate…”
    “Tea will be fine.” Matt lounged against the counter and stretched out his legs. “Can I help with anything?”
    The question took Ali by surprise. After his Neanderthal behavior at the cafe, she hadn’t figured him for the domestically helpful type. “I’ve almost gotten everything together,” she said. “Why don’t you go on into the living room?”
    He pushed off the counter. “Want me to build a fire?”
    “Sure. That would be nice.” Ali drew a sigh of relief as he ambled through the doorway. Now that he was out of the kitchen, she could breathe again.
    Ali pulled the sugar bowl from the cabinet and placed it on a wicker tray, then took a lemon from the refrigerator. Peering into the living room, she saw Matt kneeling in front of the fireplace, expertly arranging a stack of logs.
    Where the heck were the knives? She rummaged through a drawer, then yanked open two more.
    She hadn’t unpacked her kitchen utensils yet and wasn’t familiar with Robert’s. For that matter, she wasn’t familiar with much of anything in this house. It occurred to Ali that even though Robert’s insurance had paid off the mortgage and she owned the home outright, she really didn’t feel at home here.
    Ali glanced back into the living room. Matt certainly didn’t seem to have that problem. She watched him locate a box of matches in the bookcase with easy familiarity and expertly light the fire.
If I were in charge of finding matches, we could have frozen to death,
she thought wryly.
    Ali finally found a knife and quickly sliced the lemon into wedges. She peeked back in the living room as she arranged them on a small plate. Matt was settled into a wing-backed chair, his leather cowboy boots stretched out under the coffee table. He looked right at home.
    Matt must have visited Robert here often, she thought. A twinge of regret again coursed through her that she hadn’t seen her brother at home in his dream house.
    A home that Matt built.
The thought startled her. Of course—why hadn’t she realized that before? Robert had designed it, but Matt would have been the one to actually oversee its construction. It was the way their partnership had operated.
    Ali grabbed a bag of cookies and threw a few on a plate. It was somehow disconcerting to realize that Matt knew intimate details about the place where she lived—the depth of the bathtub, how long she could stay in the