Must Love Flowers(75)

“I…I have a bad back.”

“You have a bad attitude. Now get your butt outside and water that yard.” It looked like he was about to argue. He managed a few less than choice words as he made a spectacle of himself getting out of the chair. To her amazement, he did as she asked.

When he finished, he glared at her. “You happy?”

Maggie checked his work, smiled, and said, “Good job, Dad.”

He grumbled under his breath and fell into his recliner as if completely spent.

Maggie went back to her laptop, looking online for how to repair the stovetop burners. Only one was serviceable. The oven hadn’t worked in years. Her hope was that it would be an easy fix.

“What in the hell!” her father shouted. “Maggie, Maggie, do something. Stop the noise.”

Intent on reading the instructions listed on her computer, Maggie hadn’t heard anything until her father started yelling. The sound was of someone hammering.

Leaving the kitchen, she went to the front of the house. To her shock she found Nick prying away the porch steps that were about to collapse.

“Nick.” She whispered his name, hardly able to believe her eyes.

He must have heard her because he looked up and then, without a word, continued. Opening the screen door, Maggie stepped outside.

Nick seemed unaware that she was standing less than two feet away. That didn’t stop her, though. “Nick Sample, look at me.”

He looked up, and before he could say a word, she flew off the porch and into his arms. The force knocked him off-balance and he nearly toppled. He dropped his hammer and grabbed hold of Maggie around the waist, lifting her from the ground.

“What the—”

Maggie didn’t give him a chance to speak. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she kissed him with everything that was in her heart. At first he resisted, but it didn’t take long for him to return the fervor. Slanting her mouth one way and then another, she continued kissing him until they were both completely involved with each other.

“You came to help!” Maggie could barely believe her eyes. Seeing Nick meant everything. Still angry, she slapped his shoulder.

“Hey,” he cried. “Okay, okay, I’m an idiot just the way Kurt said.”

“Yes, you are. First you’re furious I came to live with your mom and want me gone, and then when I do leave, you’re furious again.”

Nick blushed at the truth. “You’re right. I can be a real bonehead, but in my favor, I am willing to admit my flaws. I’ve been miserable without you and hope you have a forgiving nature.”

To show him she did, Maggie kissed him again, and they quickly became so caught up in each other that they didn’t hear her father until he started shouting.

“Dad,” Maggie said, sliding down Nick’s body. “This is Nick.”

Her father scowled at Nick; his eyes narrowed. “Are you taking advantage of my daughter?”

Nick stiffened and met her father’s gaze head-on. “Are you?”

“I asked you first.” The two men glared at each other like gunfighters at the O.K. Corral.

“I hope to take full advantage of your daughter when the time is right,” Nick admitted.

Maggie burst out laughing. “If I don’t take full advantage of you first.”

Her father wasn’t finished with him. “What the hell are you doing tearing up my house?”

“I’m repairing these steps, old man, and you should be grateful. Fact is, I could use a bit of help, so get out here.”

“Like hell I will.”

The standoff continued.

“Then I’m leaving, and you will only have half a porch.”

“Good riddance.”

“Dad,” Maggie cried, staring her father down.

Cursing everything he could think to blaspheme under heaven and earth, Roy opened the screen door and stepped outside. Nick handed him a hammer and told him what he needed to do. While her father was busy taking apart the steps, Nick worked on repairing the screen door.

Maggie had a dozen questions she wanted to ask him. Standing on the other side of the door, the screen between them, she watched him work.

“Nick.” She said his name as if it was a prayer. “I’ve missed you every minute of every day.”

He shrugged as if to say he’d gotten along just fine without her.

Maggie smiled to herself, knowing from the way he’d returned her kiss that he felt as strongly about her as she did about him.

“You told my dad you intend to take advantage of me,” she reminded him.

He shrugged. “That’s what your dad’s doing.”

“If you believe that, then why are you here?”

He looked up and sighed. “Because I couldn’t stay away. God knows I tried. Then Mom told me what you’re doing and that you need a bank loan. She said it was unlikely with the house in its current condition.” He met her gaze. “I figured you could probably use a carpenter, and so here I am.”

“This old house needs more than a few new steps,” she said, feeling more than a little overwhelmed.

“You can say that again,” Nick said, looking around him.

He was right; it all felt so hopeless. “I called for a bid to see the cost of what it would be to paint the house and it was thousands of dollars.”