Humming along to a hip-hop track, she swayed her hips as she worked, feeling better with the completion of the first wall. Things had come together a lot faster than she’d expected. Dove’s Nest would soon look like a brand-new inn.

But what secrets were these walls hiding?

“Not bad.”

She shrieked and jumped as she spun around to the sound of the voice. Her hand flew to her chest, where her heart threatened to break through, and she yanked the earbuds from her ears. “Jesus, Wes. Trying to kill me?”

He laughed. “Sorry. I knocked and rang the doorbell for, like, ten minutes; then I started to worry about you…”

Her cheeks warmed. “How did you get in?” She’d locked all the doors downstairs.

“Yeah, we may need to put a new lock on the front door,” he said, clearing his throat.

“You broke in?”

“I was coming to your rescue,” he said, entering the room.

She cocked her head to the side. “And what were you going to protect me from? Spiders? Dust mites? Hard work?”

“Asks the woman who was stuck in a staircase weeks ago,” he said, shooting her a pointed look.

“Touché,” she said. “But why are you here anyway? I thought you were enjoying a free night out while Marissa was with her grandparents?”

He was wearing old jeans, ripped at the knees and already speckled with multicolored paint, and his black T-shirt had a hole in the collar—obviously old working clothes. But his hair was gelled in a spiky mess, he’d shaved his usual five-o’clock stubble, and a faint smell of cologne lingered on the air, competing with the scent of wet paint. Obviously, he’d been intending to go to Trent’s Tavern that night.

Why the change of heart?

He entered the room and handed her a coffee. “I did go out, but then I felt guilty that you were here working alone, so I went home and changed, and here I am.”

Needing to hide her overly pleased expression, Sarah took a sip of the coffee and nearly choked on the taste of a strong liqueur.

“Wait, that one’s mine. Spiked.”

“You think?” She handed the cup back to him and accepted a new one.

“So you gave up a night out to work?” She struggled to hide her pleasure as she studied him. He looked even hotter than usual, and her pulse raced. She’d refused the offer to join him at the bar, so as not to complicate things or risk encouraging the growing sexual tension between them further, and yet here he was.

“Yeah… Though it looks like you have things under control.” He looked around the room. “What were you rocking out to a few minutes ago?”