His body went rigid as he stacked paint cans on the bench. He was quiet long enough that she wondered if he was going to answer her. “Who’s asking? You or your parents?”

Resting her hand on his back, she discovered tense muscles. “I am.”

“My mother was sick for a long time. She didn’t have health insurance, so her illness wiped us out. We had to take a second mortgage on this place.”

As she let her hand drop to her side, Sydney was already sorry she’d asked. “Oh. I see.”

He turned to her. “No, you don’t.”

She was startled by the bitterness she heard in his tone and saw on his face.

“All you see is a house full of old furniture where nothing has changed since the last time you were here when in fact, a lot has changed.”

“That’s not all I see, Luke.” With her hand on his face, she compelled him to look at her. “That’s not all I see.”

“I didn’t go to college because by the time she died, my scholarship was long gone, and I had a choice of holding on to this place or paying for school. Since I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else, I chose to keep the house.” He finally looked her right in the eye. “I’ve never regretted that.”

“This is a great place. I totally get why you’d want to keep it.”

“I know your parents think I’ve been standing still all this time, working the same job I did as a kid, but that’s not the case. I paid off that second mortgage—and the first one—years ago. I own this place free and clear.”

“That doesn’t matter to me.”

“It matters to them.”

“They just want what’s best for me. I told them they have to trust me to figure that out for myself.”

He released a frustrated growl and rolled his hands into fists that he propped on his hips. “I really want to touch you right now, but I’m filthy.”

“I don’t care.”

Smelling of varnish and paint thinner, his hands framed her face and tilted it up to meet his intense gaze. He kissed her forehead, her nose and then her lips. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to ensure your happiness, to make you smile, to hear the laugh that seems to come all the way from your toes.”

“Luke. . .”

“I don’t know if I’m what’s best for you. Only you know that. But I guarantee you no one else will ever want you the way I do.”

Her eyes fluttered closed as his lips found hers in a hungry, desperate kiss that had her clinging to him. All at once, he slowed it down, softening his lips and teasing with his tongue.