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rather you stay.” Whack! Whack! “I like the way you distract me.”
    No, no, no . After that infamous pinky swear, flirting from this man was one thing she did not need. “If I distract you, it will take you longer to get finished. If I leave you alone, you’ll be done and out of here in no time.”
    He turned then, resting the door against the frame. His T-shirt had hiked up in the front as well. The strip of skin bared there was just as sleek and tight as the other, only this one was marked down the center by a line of dark hair.
    “Is this about protecting your aunt? Or is thereanother reason you want me out of here?” He stepped away from the door, crouched at the toolbox left open on the floor. “It’s obvious you think I’m here to hurt her. Or use her. Which I’m not.”
    Perry hopped up to sit on the counter. “You came in guns blazing. Whether or not you meant to hurt her isn’t the point.”
    Jack’s mouth twisted. “Bad first impression, huh?”
    “Oh, yeah.” She nodded. “So bad.”
    “Well,” he said, picking up a paint scraper, discarding an awl. “I’m doing my best here to make amends.”
    She remained silent, and that caused him to look up from where he’d been searching through the tools.
    His eyes glittered. The shadow of his beard appeared darker from this angle. Dark and sexy, giving him an edgy sense of heat. It was a look that was predatory—not one she’d expect in a handyman.
    Then again, that’s not what he was, was it?
    “Della is the only family I have. Protecting her is what I do.” And it wasn’t a need to protect based on some misplaced sense of failing to keep her parents safe.
    Perry didn’t know what she’d do if she lost Della.
    Jack got to his feet. “There’s nothing wrong with being protective. I may be skeptical about ghosts and psychics—”
    “Skeptical or disbelieving?”
    His expression spoke before he did. “Same thing, isn’t it?”
    “And you don’t think that hurts her?” This is what no one seemed to get. Della didn’t spend her timecasually tossing around her visions like discount coupons for anyone interested in what she was selling.
    Her visions were who she was. Rejecting her gift equaled rejecting her.
    And Perry knew exactly the hurt that caused her aunt, no matter Della’s stiff upper lip.
    Jack turned back to the door, knocking loose chips and clumps of decades-old paint. “I’m not a physical threat. Whether or not I buy into what she says she sees—”
    “Jack! This isn’t about what she says. It’s about what she sees. Do you not get that? It’s real. The police have been able to use her visions. That’s also real.”
    He threw the scraper at the toolbox; it clattered across the kitchen floor, but she doubted he even noticed. He was busy with the old door, picking it up and hefting it outside where she heard it splinter across the courtyard.
    She started to jump down from the counter, was stopped when he swung out of the doorway toward her and blocked her with his hands on the counter at her hips.
    His chest heaved. His pulse throbbed at his temples. The tendons in his neck stood in sharp relief, and she swore his nostrils flared.
    She didn’t know this man at all, yet she didn’t feel the least bit afraid. Only curious as to what her words had set off inside him.
    “Listen to me, Perry. There is only one thing here that’s real,” he said, his tone harsh, his words measured. He held her gaze for several long seconds. She didn’t flinch, and he held it still.
    But then the tic in his jaw lessened, and the sense of imminent explosion faded away. He dropped his gaze from hers to the charm she wore around her neck. And when he spoke again he did so with a bit of a tremor in his voice.
    “The only thing real right now is that I’ve got a door to fix and not much daylight left to do it. So, yeah. You’re right. It’s probably best if I finish up without you around to distract me.”

4

    J ACK ENDED UP spending