For the Love of Pete by Sherryl Woods Read Free Book Online Page B

abundantly clear that she was strictly off-limits to Pete in particular.
    Of course, he admitted to himself, that only made things interesting. There was nothing on earth that Pete liked better than a challenge. That it happened to be provided by a woman he'd once loved just made it that much more fascinating.
    Jo managed to hide out till dusk, certain that once the light died Pete would be forced to quit for the day.
    Now she stood in the front yard and gaped at what had once been the porch. It was a yawning, empty space that stretched out between where she was and the door. Four-by-four posts propped up the porch roof.
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    Thanks to the dimming light and shadows, getting inside suddenly seemed treacherous. The only alternative was to go around back, but she wasn't even sure if her key worked in that lock, which raised something of a quandary. How the devil was she supposed to get inside without crawling over the threshold in some awkward spectacle?
    She was still pondering her choices when the front door opened, startling her so badly, she dropped the bags she was carrying. Thankfully, nothing she'd bought on her shopping spree was breakable.
    "There you are," Pete called out from inside. "I was wondering when you'd be back. I didn't want to leave till you turned up."
    Jo frowned. His presence was precisely why she'd stayed away so long. She'd hoped to outwait him. She should have guessed he'd stay put just to be perverse.
    "Where's your truck? Did you deliberately hide it?"
    He grinned. "Took it home and walked back," he admitted. "I figured you'd turn right around and leave if you saw it parked out here."
    "Damn straight," she muttered.
    His grin broadened. "Still stubborn as a mule, I see. Come on, Jo. What's the big deal? I thought you might have some trouble getting inside, so I stuck around. End of story. I didn't stay just to annoy you."
    He glanced at the bags now scattered at her feet. "Did you buy out the stores?"
    "Only a few of them," she said, regarding him warily. "Since you're here, make yourself useful and open the back door."
    "Why haul all that stuff around back when you can come in this way?"
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    "How do you suggest I step up and into the house?"
    "You always have me to help," he suggested. "That's why I'm here, after all."
    Jo couldn't see his eyes at this distance and in this light, but she suspected there was a wicked glint in them. "You?" she asked skeptically.
    He leaped down, then came toward her. When he was closer, she could spot the amusement glittering in his eyes. She backed up a step, bent over and grabbed haphazardly for the bags, holding them in front of her as if they would somehow ward him off.
    He just kept coming. "Hope none of that stuff you're carrying weighs too much," he joked as he scooped her up, then shifted her till she was snuggled securely against his chest. "Nope. Light as a feather."
    "Pete, put me down this instant," Jo grumbled, even though the faint scent of his aftershave and the masculine scent that was as familiar to her as salt air made her feel vaguely weak with a sudden, unwanted longing.
    He stopped in his tracks and gazed into her eyes. "Now, the way I see it, you have two choices. You can let me give you a litde boost inside or you can face the indignity of trying to scramble up there on your own while I stand here and watch." He grinned. "I imagine it'll be quite a show. You always did have the cutest little butt around."
    "You're a pig!"
    "You're not the first to suggest that," he noted calmly. "So, what's it going to be?"
    "Just get me into the damn house and then go away," she said.
    "You'd send me away even after I got dinner all ready for the two of us?"
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    "I would send you away if you'd spent your last dime on it," she said firmly.
    "Heartless," he said mildly. "I'd never have guessed it."
    "Some traits develop over time," she commented wryly as he stepped onto a precarious arrangement of cinder blocks she