stepped back and raised his palms in a gesture of surrender. “Chill, man. Just a little harmless flirting. I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Get out!” Boone commanded and pointed toward the door, his expression deadly.
“I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean anything by it. I didn’t know she was your woman. I swear.”
“She’s not my woman, but that still doesn’t give you the right to manhandle her.” Boone’s eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. Boone was big, but the bald guy was bigger and Boone had a bum knee.
The guy puffed out his chest. “She ran into me.”
“Look, look.” Tara winnowed her way between the two men. To Boone she said, “I did run into him. It was my fault.” Then to the bald guy she said, “Dude, cheesiest pickup line ever and borderline offensive.”
“Borderline!” Boone snorted.
“Okay, it was offensive, but I’m sure…” She waved a hand. “What’s your name?”
“Rodney.”
“That Rodney meant nothing by it.”
“Didn’t mean a thing.” Rodney raked a lascivious glance over her body and Tara regretted her snug-fitting T-shirt. She’d worn it for Boone’s sake, knowing that it clung to her curves. She never thought twice about being too provocative for the moving men.
“Out.” Boone pointed toward the door. He plucked his wallet from his back pocket, peeled off two onehundred-dollar bills and a fifty and thrust them at the man.
“Hey, the deal was for five hundred dollars.”
“That was before you insulted Miss Duvall. You’ve only done half the job, that’s all I’m paying for.”
Rodney looked like he was going to protest, but then he shrugged. “Suit yourself. You’re gonna have fun loading up that van with your gimp leg.” He turned, hollered to his partner who was in the back room packing up Tara’s home office, “C’mon, Joe, we’re outta here.”
“Wow,” Tara said to Boone as the front door slammed behind Rodney and Joe. “That’s one of the best jobs of shooting yourself in the foot that I’ve seen in a long time.”
“What? I was supposed to stand by and just let him grope you?”
“He didn’t grope me.”
“He was inappropriate.”
“He was, but it’s not your place to defend me, Boone. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
He snorted, folding those steely arms over his chest, blocking her out.
“What’s that noise supposed to mean?”
“I’m not going there.” He limped over to the kitchen counter where boxes were stacked, half-filled with the dishes Rodney had been packing up.
Tara wasn’t going to let him get away with that. She scurried after him. “Where aren’t you going?”
He turned to face her. His dark eyes flashed a warning. “You can take care of yourself, huh?”
She squared her shoulders, drew herself up to her full five foot four. “Absolutely.”
“Your faucet leaks.”
“So what?”
“At the end of the month you’re chronically low on cash from helping out your free-loading friends and you’re forced to subsist on ramen noodles and food sample giveaways at the grocery store.”
Tara cringed. It was true. “Times are tough. I can’t turn my back on people in need.”
“Not even when you’re one of those people? I know that worthless boyfriend of yours cleaned out your savings before he left town.”
A sick feeling settled in her stomach. “How do you know that?”
A rueful expression softened his angular mouth. “Mrs. Levison likes to gossip.”
“It’s not really any of your business.”
“And yet you’re always trying to meddle in mine. Face it, Duvall, you’re too generous for your own good.”
She notched her chin up. “I consider generosity a positive trait to have.”
“Not at the expense of your own welfare. Do you know how hard it is to sit across the street watching you making the same mistakes over and over?”
“No. How hard is it?” she asked impishly, hoping to get him off her case by embarrassing him. Humor was her weapon of choice.
It worked. Boone’s face flushed. “Time’s wasting,” he mumbled.
“And you just made things worse by running off the movers.”
“Hell, if you hadn’t been so flirty, I wouldn’t have had to run them off.”
Oh no, he didn’t just say that! Outrage shoved a cold barb down her spine. Chuffing out her breath, she sank her hands on her hips. It took a lot to piss her off, but seriously? He was making this her fault? “Excuse me?”
“You know what your problem is, Duvall?” he asked.
“You mean, besides being too generous?” Her tone was as cold and brittle as a Montana winter.
“You have no boundaries.”
His criticism stung, but it wasn’t the first time she’d heard something similar. Well, fudge crackers. She was who she was and if he didn’t like her, he could kiss her derriere.
Her mind flashed to an image of Boone’s lips planted on her bare backside and she instantly grew hot all over. See? No boundaries. The man made a good point. Damn him.
“You dress too provocatively. No wonder the mover was eyeing you like chocolate candy. Your shorts are too darn short.”
Her head shot up and she caught Boone checking out her legs.
Holy ham sandwich! He was jealous!
Hmm. Tara suppressed a grin, touched the tip of her tongue to her upper lip. “Sorry. I’m not going to wear a snowsuit just to suit you and I don’t appreciate you making me feel badly about myself.”
To his credit, Boone looked chagrined, but then he went and ruined it by saying, “I’m not responsible for how you feel. I’m just calling it like I see it.”
“Hey, you’re not my big brother.”
“Thank God.”
“Why do you say that? I’m a good sister. A great sister, in fact. I can play shortstop and I don’t scream when my brothers put bugs down the back of my shirt, and I have cute girlfriends for my brothers to date and I—”
“Because if you were my sister, I’d be arrested for the thoughts I’ve been having about you.”
“Oh.” She blinked. Grinned. “What kind of thoughts?”
“Illicit thoughts.”
Imagine that. She sidled closer. “Real-ly?”
Boone stepped back, shook his head. “Duvall, you have no boundaries.”
“I have five siblings,” she explained, not knowing why she bothered other than the supreme satisfaction of knowing that he wanted her. For months, she’d been trying to charm him, but he’d been immune. Or so she’d thought, but apparently he put up a good front. Yet here he was admitting he liked her when she was moving thousands of miles away. What lousy timing.
“Five? That’s quite a brood.”
“Three brothers, two sisters. When you grow up in a crowd, it’s a free-for-all. Try riding in the back of a minivan where you can’t