Chapter 11
After such packed days, when Kelsey arrived at the Sabrina Raven estate the next morning, it felt like the rehab had been in full swing for the better part of a month.
As she’d anticipated, she’d been tired enough to sleep like the dead last night.
Committed to not skipping a night of bringing home one of the shelter dogs, but knowing she was too exhausted to give a high-energy dog the attention it would need, she’d chosen Max, a laid-back, eight-year-old bulldog who was content to snuggle the night away.
And despite leaving the estate so late, driving back and forth for Max, grabbing a bite to eat, and forcing herself to do a load of laundry, she’d still managed to get eight hours of sleep. As a result, she was rejuvenated and ready to face another physically and mentally demanding day.
Though she’d only known him a few days, she wasn’t surprised to find Kurt not only awake but knee-deep in a house project while waiting for her to arrive.
She glanced at her watch, reaffirming that it was in fact only minutes after seven.
How long had he been at it? It seemed he needed remarkably less sleep or downtime than the average person.
He just went, went, went, reminding her of a ping-pong-ball taskmaster, when he wasn’t hyperfocused on the dogs.
When he was with them, he was slow and purposeful, and time fell away.
And even though she should’ve guessed he’d be tinkering with one project or another, she was still a tad thrown off at finding him on his knees with the upper half of his body buried in the cabinets underneath the kitchen sink.
This left the rest of him, from mid-chest down, on display.
Her pulse quickened instinctively. The man truly didn’t have an ounce of fat on him.
Growing up, her brothers had been so engrossed in bodybuilding that she’d almost been turned off muscles entirely. But nothing about Kurt turned her off. Not only did he have the perfect physique, but he was equal parts Cesar Millan and the Property Brothers.
And unlike with her reflection-addicted brothers, she’d not once caught Kurt gazing at himself in a mirror.
He didn’t eat like a weightlifter either.
With her brothers, it had been egg whites, chicken breasts, and protein shakes.
Kurt, on the other hand, ate anything. Actually, he ate a whole lot of anythings.
He seemed to have a metabolism of fire that magicked food straight into muscle.
Dropping her purse on the table, Kelsey forced out a loud, confident good morning. Rather than his typical blue jeans, Kurt was wearing a pair of khaki cargo pants and a dark-gray T-shirt that had slipped upward enough to show off the smooth olive of his lower back. Wow.
How long had it been since she’d fantasized about someone she worked with? The answer slowed her pulse a beat or two. As if she could forget. College. Sophomore year. Lab partner and best friend, Steve. Sorry, Kels, I just didn’t feel it.
“Morning,” Kurt said, looking at her from over his shoulder while still inside the cabinet. “Mind joining me?”
Join him? Under the sink? “Um, I think we’ve reached the point in the morning that I admit I don’t know anything about plumbing.”
He backed out from the cabinet and rested against the balls of his feet. His smile was easy and fabulous, and his teeth gleamed white. And there was a grease smudge running across his bicep. Kelsey hadn’t known grease smudges could be sexy.
“You don’t have to know anything about plumbing. But your hands are smaller.”
As much as she might like to, this wasn’t something she should opt out of.
For this rehab to work smoothly, they needed the house—plumbing included—to be functional.
She tugged off her hoodie, not wanting it to get dirty.
When it was halfway over her head, she said a quick prayer that the wash of cool air on her belly wasn’t because her T-shirt had come up with it.
She was two inches taller and fifteen pounds heavier than she’d like to be, and he was most certainly out of her league.
That was fine. But the last thing she wanted was for him to think she was putting herself out there like she’d done with Steve.
There were some lessons she didn’t need to learn twice.
“Where to, boss?” There was no use wasting time. She needed to deflect her nervous energy.
“Why don’t you take the left cabinet? You’ll be able to reach the pipe easier. I’ll take the right.”
Pulling free the elastic tie she kept on her wrist, she shoved her thick hair into a knot, then sank to her knees. “Am I going to be loosening or tightening?”
“Tightening,” he said, shifting to give her space. “See the new elbow joint? It’s PVC. Nothing in this house was PVC.”
“I’m not going to ask if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
” She felt the wetness of the cabinet base as she crawled half in.
“Was it leaking?” Suddenly he was cramming into the other half and sucking the air right out of her lungs.
He smelled so good, and he was so close.
Their hips and legs were only inches apart.
“It started dripping last night.” He passed her a pair of pliers and pointed with a pen-sized flashlight. “See where I’m pointing? Those are compression nuts. I can’t fit my hand into the crevice with the pliers to tighten them enough to seal it.”
Compression nuts. Hold it together, Kels.
Thank goodness for the elbow joint separating them, though it did nothing to block out his smell.
It took her a few inhalations to discern what it might be.
Bar soap, like the basic kind her mom had bought when she was a kid; Axe deodorant, like her brothers wore; and a touch of sweat all blended into the perfect male potpourri.
Her skin was humming with energy. She felt like she was waking up from hibernation, and she was starving for… For what? she wondered. Him? His body? Sex? All of the above?
She dropped the pliers on the second half turn.
“Sorry if it’s uncomfortable,” he said, passing them back.
“It’s righty-tighty, isn’t it? It feels like I’m tightening it.”
“It is. A couple more turns, with a long twist on the last one, and you can move to the other nut.”
A burst of laughter escaped, and Kelsey pressed her forehead against the new elbow joint. “I’m sorry. We’re in too cramped a space to talk about nuts without me taking it wrong.”
“We’re in too cramped a space to not talk at all, so pick a topic.”
“How are the dogs?” she asked, choosing something familiar and safe.
“Nut-free, though a few of the females still have their ovaries.”
Kelsey giggled. “I think you’re delirious because you never sleep.”
“I got a full six hours last night. I never get more than that. If I’m delirious, it’s that intoxicating perfume you keep putting on.”
Kelsey jerked reflexively and banged the back of her head on the bottom of the sink. “Ow. And I’m not dosing myself in perfume to rehab dogs, thank you. It’s body wash, citrus mint, and it wakes me up better than coffee.”
“Citrus mint, huh? Any chance you’ll switch it for a bar of Ivory soap so I can work around you easier?”
She dropped the pliers again. Did he really just say that?
Thank God for all those years of learning how to be snarky with her brothers when they were dishing out their endless jokes and pranks.
“I think I got it on the last turn there. And I have this. I don’t need you in here for the last one.
And no to the Ivory soap. I like my body wash.
It makes me happy. You can spend the next couple minutes looking for nose plugs if you’d like. ”
It was Kurt’s turn to laugh as he backed out of the cabinet and sank against the balls of his feet again. “No thanks. I’ll deal.”
“Or I could pick you up a bottle. If you start using it, it’ll be like we belong to the same citrus-mint tribe.”
“No thanks. Too girlie. If I used that stuff, the dogs might no longer recognize me as the alpha male.” He stood up and headed over to the toolbox, facing away from her.
This made her a little less self-conscious about her rear end sticking up exactly like his had been.
She forced her focus back to the job at hand.
It was no use wishing for a tiny, petite body.
Besides, her height came in handy often enough, and thanks to being so active, those extra pounds were mostly stuck to her curves.
After several turns, and sprouting a hand cramp, Kelsey managed to tighten the next nut till it no longer budged.
She scooted out and left Kurt to test the faucet as she headed to the screened-in porch for Pepper.
Kurt had given Kelsey the green light to handle the loyal Rottweiler whenever she wanted.
This morning, Pepper could hang out in one of the runs while they started on the other dogs.
When she got to Pepper’s crate, Kelsey found it empty.
A look out into the backyard proved the Rott had already been let out into the single run at the far edge.
In one side of the double run, there was a quiet and calm hundred-and-twenty-pound bullmastiff.
He was a striking brindled color and so easygoing that Kelsey had decided to name him Buddy.
With two dogs in the runs, it was time for the morning feeding routine. Kurt followed her into the main parlor where they’d been starting the lengthy process. Kelsey could hear the kitchen faucet running and figured he was testing it to be sure the leak was stopped.