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around his chest as he looked to where the roof met the sky. He’d forgotten the building’s height. The sheer magnitude of the distance from ground to top.
    Shake it off. Breathe in. Breathe out. Don’t look down. Just look up.
    Air pumped through his lungs and the constriction loosened. He climbed the scaffolding, only thinking of Kennedy. His fear for her driving him upward. Instinct. Memory. Kennedy. That he still cared for her this much rattled him.
    No. Damn it. He wanted her. Her expertise and her body. Nothing more. “Where are you? What’s going on up there?” he yelled as he reached the top and jumped onto the roof.
    “I’m stuck in a squirrel hole. Didn’t see it until my foot broke through the wood. I can’t get the damn thing out.” A steady chorus of curse words followed. “Stupid squirrels. Shit. Shit. Shit. We’ll have to inspect and shingle the entire roof before installing the solar panels.”
    He grinned. After growing up with construction crews, Kennedy’s language could make a sailor blush. “Screw the roof. We can fix it with an extra crew. You okay?” he called.
    “The only thing that hurts is my ego.”
    He followed the sound of Kennedy’s voice until he saw her leaning back on her elbows with her face lifted to catch the sun’s rays. Her brilliant curls cascaded down her back and across her shoulders.
    His mouth dried. How he’d loved raking his fingers through her wild hair, holding it to tame her. Possess her.
    A muscle twitched in his jaw. He dropkicked the memory out of his brain. “You’ll get more freckles if you lay about tanning,” he said.
    She looked at him over her shoulder. “I’ll take an extra freckle or two. I need sunshine.” She narrowed her eyes as he approached. “Looks like heights don’t freak you out anymore.”
    His heart pumped. “I seem to remember a certain person goading me into a cure.” He kept his voice calm and modulated. “I’ll get you out.”
    She tossed her copper hair. “Hope I don’t have to carry you down.”
    His libido zoomed at high velocity through his veins. “No worries.” He knelt and peered inside the gap. Her foot was lodged between a pair of two-by-fours. “There’s a squirrels’ nest on the rafters. We’ll have to set traps.”
    “You aren’t going to kill any squirrels on my watch,” she said. “I don’t like the problems they cause, but I don’t want to see them hurt.”
    “The traps will be humane.” He touched her shoulder. “I promise.”
    She trembled, then wiggled out of his reach. “Better set a lot. Squirrels have made a comeback in Sweetbriar Springs.”
    “The manager should never have decapitated that snake six years ago.” She’d jumped into his arms screaming when she’d first discovered the five foot black snake’s remains. And man, he had enjoyed the hell out of holding her until she calmed down. “Population exploded.”
    “Don’t remind me. I still hate thinking about that rat snake’s headless body.” She shuddered. “Please focus. I don’t want to be stuck up here all day.”
    His chest squeezed. Strange sensations, protectiveness and tenderness, ached inside his ribcage. “Afraid of me, too?” he asked.
    She looked at him, then shifted her glance away. “As if.” He moved old shingles out of the way and slipped his hand down her leg to find the top of her boot. “I’ll get your heel out of this mess with minimal damage to the merchandise.”
    “ Merchandise? ” She arched her brow. “You’d better be talking about the roof.”
    His gaze lingered on her light skin where the pulse jumped in her neck. He itched to draw a line from the tiny freckle alongside the tender hollow all the way to her moist, pink lips.
    “Of course.” He jerked the lace free on her boot, sightlessly felt for the back.
    “Careful. I just bought this pair.”
    “Your boot’s in good hands.”
    He tugged her foot out, caressed the arch with a sweep of his hand until he reached the taut