Free Hired by the Brooding Billionaire by Kandy Shepherd Page B

knees.
‘Nothing could be more unattractive or unappealing to a man,’
her sister, Lynne, had chortled when she had first seen Shelley decked out in her knee pads.
    ‘No. You don’t understand,’ she said to Declan. ‘I don’t want a girlfriend either. I mean, I don’t want a girlfriend ever.’
Foot in mouth again
. ‘I like men. I’m not gay. I’m happy being single.’
    Was that relief that lightened his eyes? Relief she was single? That she wasn’t gay? Both?
    ‘No plans for marriage and family?’ he asked, which surprised her.
    She shook her head. ‘Plenty of time for that yet. My career is too important to me right now.’
    He didn’t reply. Of course, she couldn’t resist chattering on to fill the silence that fell between them. ‘There...there was a boyfriend in Melbourne. It didn’t work out. I’m planning to travel after I finish your job. No point in getting involved with anyone in Sydney if I’m leaving. Men...well, men are more trouble than they’re worth.’
And she just said that to a man.
Again she mentally beat her fist against her forehead.
    ‘I get it,’ he said and she got the distinct impression he was trying not to smile. There was another long pause, which this time she refused to fill. ‘So your
friend
Mark is coming tomorrow?’ he said finally.
    ‘Yes,’ she said, jumping on the change of subject. ‘Let me show you what we’ll be doing.’
    Declan glanced at his watch. Shelley gritted her teeth. He always seemed to want to be anywhere but in his garden with her. At first she had found it insulting. Now she was beginning to realise it was just his way.
    She’d learned now not to ask if she was boring him. Her policy was to take him as she found him. Fact was, though, she liked him way more than she should. She would be very disappointed if he cut short this time with him and headed back indoors.
    Not that she would ever let him know that.
    ‘Come let me show you what happens when people misguidedly plant indoor plants out in the garden,’ she said.
    He frowned. ‘I don’t get what you mean,’ he said.
    ‘You’ll see,’ she said, thankful that he started to follow her and not to stride off back to the house.
    She led him to the area of garden near the eastern border with the house next door. ‘These two trees are probably the main points of contention for your neighbours,’ she said. ‘They’re
ficus benjamina
.’
    ‘More Latin,’ he said with that quirk of his dark eyebrow she was beginning to find very appealing. ‘Translate, please.’
    ‘Otherwise known as weeping fig,’ she explained. ‘A very popular potted plant. But planted out in the garden in this climate they can grow to thirty metres in height. Their roots are invasive and damaging.’ She pointed. ‘They’ve already damaged the fence and probably your neighbour’s paving and underground plumbing pipes too. They’re a tree suited to a park, not a domestic garden.’
    ‘So a
giant
garden invader?’ he said.
    ‘Exactly. They have to go.’
    Declan indicated the neighbour’s house. ‘He’s already invoiced me for repairs.’
    ‘Really? A neighbour would do that? Did you pay him?’
    He scowled. She would hate to ever see that formidable expression aimed at her. ‘I told you, I want these people off my back. I paid him.’
    She shrugged. Seemed as if whatever he had paid would be water off a billionaire’s back. ‘You shouldn’t hear any more from them once Mark and I get these darn trees out—and all the potato vine twined around them. There’s a big mulberry on the other border fence—we’ll get rid of that too.’
    ‘A mulberry tree? I never knew we had one. I like mulberries. My grandmother had a mulberry tree and I’d spend hours up its branches.’
    She had a sudden flash of a little black-haired boy with purple mulberry stains all around his mouth and mischief in his blue eyes. He must have been an adorable child.
    She diverted her thoughts to the adult Declan. ‘The