Smitten Read Online Free PDF Page B

into a corner. “You win. But you have to work with me. I want you where I can keep an eye on you.”
    â€œWhat kind of an attitude is that?”
    â€œIt’s the best attitude I can manage right now.”
    Four hours later Lizabeth pushed her damp hair from her forehead and readjusted the baseball hat Matt had given her. She hadn’t been more than three steps away from Matt all morning, hammering one nail for his twenty, and she was sure he was slowing his pace so he wouldn’t embarrass her. He’d slathered suntan lotion on her fried neck, bandaged the bleeding blisters on her hands, and kicked a carpenter off the project for unnecessary cussing. He was driving her crazy.
    He looked up when she paused in her hammering, and he smiled at her. “Want a soda?”
    One more soda, and she was sure she’d float away. He’d been pouring liquid into her since ten o’clock. Undoubtedly he knew what he was doing, but she couldn’t take any more. “We have to talk.”
    Thank goodness. He didn’t think he could endure another half hour of watching her work. She seemed so frail, with her curly hair tucked under the baseball cap and her yellow T-shirt clinging to her slim frame. He wanted to whisk her away to a cool restaurant. Get her all dressed up in something pretty and feed her strawberries dipped in chocolate.
    â€œWe could take an early lunch break and talkin the shade, under the trees,” he suggested hopefully.
    â€œI don’t want to take an early lunch break. I want to work like the rest of the men. I just don’t want to work with you .”
    â€œWant to run that by me again?”
    â€œYou’re overprotective. It’s sweet of you to want to take care of me, but I need to stand on my own.”
    She began to hammer while she talked. “I want to be accepted as an equal out here. That’s never going to happen if you keep hovering over me like a mother hen.”
    He had a news flash for her. She was never going to be an equal. She was going to be the boss’s wife. Equal that!
    â€œThis is just your first day as a carpenter. You don’t know anything.”
    â€œI know lots of things. I know how to hammer a nail. I can’t hammer nails as fast as you can, but I can hammer them just as well. Look at this one. It’s perfect.”
    Matt looked at the nail and agreed it was pretty good. “Okay, so you can hammer a nail, but you have no common sense. You let yourself get sunburned and blistered. And you try to carry things that are too heavy for you.”
    He was right. She’d been stupid. “I’ll be better. I’ll keep my hat on, and I’ll wear gloves.”
    â€œWhat about the heavy stuff?”
    â€œYou’ll have to settle for two out of three. I want to pull my weight.”
    Matt pressed his lips together. Damn stubborn female. She had him. There was no way he’d ever fire her as long as she wanted the job. And there was no way he could force her to obey his every command. He couldn’t exactly duke it out with her if they had a disagreement. She’d never go out with him then.
    He took a deep breath and studied the toe of his work boot while he got his temper under control. “If you want to continue to work here, you’re going to have to work with me.” He saw her nose belligerently tip up a fraction of an inch, and he held up his hands. “However, I’ll try to be less of a mother hen.”
    â€œI suppose that’s an okay compromise.”
    The truth was, she enjoyed being next to him. The excitement was always there, but running parallel to that was a comfortable rapport. Matt Hallahan felt like a friend. Despite his tattoo, he felt like someone she’d known and liked for a very long time.
    And as long as she was being honest with herself, she had to admit that a part of her enjoyed being clucked over. It had been a lot of years since anyone had