Free Huckleberry Harvest by Jennifer Beckstrand

gently tugged her back down.
    Okay. He had nice, rough work hands. So. What.
    Cradling her hand in his, he retrieved the wrench from the toolbox and laid it in her palm. “This is a wrench,” he said.
    “Seven-sixteenths,” she replied.
    He raised his eyebrows and flashed a quick smile. Actually smiled. He had very nice teeth.
    She held her breath and commanded her heart to quit skipping about like a drop of water on a hot skillet. Who cared about Noah’s teeth? Nobody should care about anybody’s teeth. She didn’t even care if Noah had real teeth or false teeth. It was none of her business.
    “How do you know what size this wrench is?” he said.
    She spoke slowly and loudly to keep her voice from shaking. “It says so right on the side.” She pointed.
    He kept smiling while keeping hold of her hand as if she needed help lifting the wrench.
    She casually pulled her hand away. “With five sisters and two brothers, I tag along after my dat quite a bit. I helped my dat build a washhouse for my mamm. And my twin brother Max fixes old bikes and scooters and sells them. I help him out sometimes. I like to fix things.”
    “Okay then,” he said. He pulled the bottom drawer from the oven and set it aside. “Look under there and see if you can find the air shutter.”
    “Nae. I don’t need to.”
    “Cum,” he said. “A girl who builds washhouses should know how to convert an oven.”
    “Because I never know how many ovens I’m going to convert in my lifetime.”
    When he scooted away and made room for her, she could tell he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. This was all her own doing. She’d have to follow through.
    She lay on her side with her face toward the oven. Shining the flashlight, Noah crouched beside her and bent over until his head nearly touched the floor. “Do you see that shiny pipe sticking down from the top?”
    “Here?” she said.
    “Jah. Tighten it down about two turns, but don’t force it.”
    She did as he instructed, trying to keep her hands steady. She certainly did not want to be the one to blow up Mammi’s house.
    “Gute,” he said.
    “Do you want to make sure I tightened it enough?”
    “Nae. I trust you.”
    She turned and studied his face, only a few inches from hers. Was he being sarcastic since she’d made it clear that she didn’t like him? She couldn’t detect any scorn in his expression. He seemed content to let her do it.
    “Now, do you see the red cap to your left? You need to remove it with a crescent wrench.”
    She sat up, pulled a crescent wrench from Noah’s toolbox, and held it up for his inspection. “Three-quarters?”
    His mouth twitched as if he were resisting a smile. “I like you a lot better than I did five minutes ago.”
    She laughed softly as a warm liquid pulsed through her veins. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
    He erupted into a smile. “Okay. If you feel good about that.”
    The room felt as if someone had turned on the new oven. If only Noah would stop looking at her that way, her temperature would definitely improve. She lay back down with the crescent wrench poised for action.
    “You need to remove the red cap. Give it a couple of twists. It doesn’t take much to get it off.”
    Mandy twisted the cap off, and Noah showed her how to invert the regulator to be ready for LP gas. When they finished underneath, Noah slid the oven away from the wall and stepped into the space behind it. “Now I need to put on the fittings and hook up the gas line.”
    He pulled the balsa wood cork from the hole in the wall he had drilled on Friday. “Could you hand me the Teflon tape,” he said. “Do you know what that is?”
    She found the yellow tape at the bottom level of the toolbox and passed it to him. “Of course I know what Teflon tape is.”
    He smirked. “Of course you do.”
    Mandy grinned with her whole face. “We both know how smart I am, but I’m wondering where you learned to install appliances. Did your dat teach you?