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A scraping sound across the room startled her. Jake emerged from the fireplace grate. Soot covered his hands and streaked his cheek. “Want to come look?” Her mind still on the message from the teacher, she approached the fireplace. Jake made room on the hearth. “See these cracks? Crumbling mortar, loose stone. Feel this.” He reached for a river rock, and she touched it. He placed his hand over hers and wobbled the rock, but she barely felt the movement for the jolt that went through her at his touch. She jerked her hand away. His eyes scanned her face, which grew warmer by the second. She studied the blackened rocks as if mesmerized by them. “So the, uh, loosened rocks caused it to smoke?” Was that her squeaky voice? “Right.” She still felt his touch on her hand, though it was now cradled safely in her lap. She ran her other palm over it and felt the protrusion of her ring. Stephen. Wonderful, steady Stephen. She still felt Jake watching her. She was probably glowing like hot coals by now. Confound it. “So, you can, uh, patch it or something?” “Or something.” She wondered if the amusement in his tone was caused by her question or the fact that she’d ripped her hand away as if he’d jabbed her with a poker. She flickered a glance at him, but it stuck and held. The amusement slid slowly from his face, replaced by something else. Something that made her stomach feel as if it contained a batch of quickly rising dough. You just had to look. Heat radiated off his arm, inches away, and flowed over her skin. She could smell the faint scent of pine and musk. She looked away. Told her heart to stay put. Deep breaths. She sucked in a lungful of his woodsy scent. Ix-nay on the eath-bray. Meridith jumped to her feet and put distance between them. Jake cleared his throat, then leaned into the grate. “Don’t see any daylight.” Back to business. “That’s good, right?” “Not if you want to use this thing. Flue’s blocked. Debris or bird’s nest, could be anything.” “You can fix it?” He pulled out of the grate, wiping his hands on his jeans. “Sure.” Meridith hated how unsettled she felt around him. And the faulty fireplace only prolonged his presence. Why did he have to make her feel this way? Why did she have to keep reminding herself this was business? “Can
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