Love and Other Surprises by Robin Wells Page B

visit. Despite his best efforts to concentrate on work, he kept seeing her bright eyes, her unruly mane of hair, her tempting, bee-stung lips. And the memory of those long legs of hers made it darn near impossible to focus on the construction estimates he’d been trying to review all afternoon.
    Matt frowned and pushed back his chair. He should be worrying about her impact on his business, not his libido.
    Well, he only had to put up with her for a couple of months. Surely he could handle that. Just two short months, then life would be back to normal.
    Cheered by the thought, Matt grabbed his coat and headed down the hall. He pulled up short when he saw one of his carpenters fiddling with the door to her office.
    “What are you doing?” Matt asked.
    The man pointed a screwdriver at Robert’s nameplate, which dangled by a single screw. “Takin’ this off for the little lady.”
    Matt stared at the wobbling nameplate and clenched his jaw. He wasn’t ready to have it removed. No one could ever replace his close friend and partner, and seeing the empty screw holes in the door would only remind him of his loss.
    Ali must intend to put her name on the door. Tension coiled through his neck. How dare she make a decision like this without consulting him—especially since he’d made it clear that their partnership was temporary? Who did she think she was?
    Your new business partner,
he reminded himself grimly,
whether you like it or not.
    Still, there was something high-handed about the move that struck a nerve. He brushed past the carpenter and entered the office.
    The nameplate wasn’t the only change, he realized as he stood in the middle of the room and looked around. She’d wasted no time putting her imprint on the place. She’d already rearranged the furniture, and from the number of plants strewn about the office, it looked like she’d bought out the local nursery. He spotted Ali in the corner behind a ficus tree, half hidden by its leaves as she tugged it into position.
    Play it cool,
he warned himself.
    “What’s going on here?” he asked as casually as he could manage.
    She looked up and smiled. “Just settling in.”
    “I see you couldn’t wait to get your own name on the door,” he commented.
    Ali straightened, wiped her hands on her jeans and regarded him quizzically. Matt thrust his hands into his pockets and tried to look nonchalant, but he had the uneasy feeling that she saw right through his act. “I’m not interested in having a nameplate,” she said quietly. “I just don’t want to feel sad every time I walk through the door. Seeing Robert’s name up there was pretty hard to take. I hope you don’t mind. I thought I’d put up a doorknocker to hide the screw holes.”
    Matt guiltily diverted his gaze to the floor. Nothing she’d ever done or said gave him cause to think she was into self-aggrandizement, and he knew she missed Robert as much as he did. Maybe more; she was Robert’s sister, for heaven’s sake. He was looking for reasons to dislike her. Matt shifted uneasily.
Give her a break,
he told himself.
    “Actually, I’ve been meaning to take it down myself,” he admitted. “I just never could quite bring myself to do it.”
    Ali gave him an empathetic smile. “I know how that is,” she said softly. “I felt the same way about making any changes at the house, even though the place reminds me so strongly of Robert I practically feel like crying every time I walk through the door. Then it dawned on me that Robert never knowingly made me sad when he was alive, and he wouldn’t want to do it now.”
    Matt regarded her with interest. “So what are you planning to do?”
    “Redecorate. Re-paint and paper the walls, reupholster the living room furniture, hang some new window treatments.”
    What the heck was a “window treatment”? The windows were fine as far as he could tell. “I don’t know who does upholstery work, but I’ll give you the names of the paint and wallpaper