Read All You Can Handle (Moments In Maplesville Book 5) for Free Online

yesterday, but today?” Kimmie lifted her shoulders in a hapless shrug. “Fix it. Please!”
    Ian sat at the dining room table, which was covered in various electronics. He took the robot he and his twelve-year-old sister had built over the course of the last three weeks and peered inside, hoping he could spot the issue without having to open the acrylic body casing.
    Actually, having to break open the body casing wouldn’t be a bad thing. It would give him an excuse to stay away from the garage apartment. He needed some time to think before he faced Madison— Sonny —again.
    “Please don’t tell me it’s broken,” Kimmie said.
    “Give me a minute to look at it,” Ian said.
    Kimmie was convinced that most of her classmates in the science and technology category at this year’s science fair would be doing something pertaining to the Internet or telecommunications. She wanted to go “old school” and work with animatronics. Being a bona fide gear-head, Ian had been geeked with her choice. He may have had more fun working on the science fair project than Kimmie had.
    “Everything looks good from here,” Ian said, twisting the robot around in his hands. “You’re sure it’s fully charged?”
    “It’s been on the charger all night.”
    “If that’s the case than it should have enough juice to stay powered for at least—“ Ian stopped short as he looked at the small round side table where the charger sat. “Umm, Kimmie,” he said, walking over to the table. He picked up the cord, which dangled over the edge. “Was the charger itself plugged into the outlet?”
    Kimmie’s mouth dropped open. “I...thought so.”
    Grinning, Ian plugged the charger into the wall socket and then plugged the robot into the charger. It lit up, its arms moving up and down, its square head turning from left to right.
    “Yes, yes, yes!” Kimmie pumped her fist in the air, then dashed over to him and lifted the robot from his fingers. “Now I can shoot my next scene.”
    Ian folded his arms across his chest. “I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t shoot your movie until after the science fair?”
    “These are just practice scenes,” she said as she fiddled with the Sony Action Cam handheld video camera Ian had bought her for Christmas.
    He knew he should order her to get back to learning her information for the science fair, but Ian decided to leave her to her movie making for now. Even though he thought building a robot was the coolest thing on the face of the earth, Kimmie was more concerned with making them the stars of her next big feature film. His baby sister was determined to take Hollywood by storm. She just had to get through junior high first.
    Ian made his way back to the kitchen. He stopped with his hand on the door, his head falling forward as he sucked in a deep breath. He wasn’t ready to go back into the garage.
    Was it the coincidence to top all coincidences, or was it just his bad luck that the woman who had occupied every square centimeter of his brain since she’d pulled out of the parking lot of The Corral last night would be the same person who Vanessa had described as the perfect candidate to rent his garage apartment?
    Coincidence or not, the question was what exactly was he going to do about it?
    When he’d opened his front door and saw her standing there, it was like a dream come to life. Until she mentioned sneaking into his room. Then he remembered the young, impressionable pre-teen who slept just down the hallway from him.
    That’s when Ian realized how so very dangerous it would be to have the woman he’d spent the night fantasizing about living just a few yards away.
    A part of him wanted to tell her that the apartment was no longer available. He could say that he and Vanessa had gotten their wires crossed and the apartment had been promised to someone else.
    But what would he say if, in a few weeks, she discovered there was no one living there? In a town as small as Maplesville, it