Free Mismatch by Tami Hoag

circus. A man on a tractor was mowing the knee-high lawn. There were people going in and out the front door of the house. In addition to the plumber’s van, there was a phone company truck and an electrician’s van parked in the driveway next to a rusted blue Ford pickup. It took him several minutes to pick Bronwynn out of the crowd, and when he did, he hardly could believe his eyes.
    She didn’t bear much resemblance to the magazine cover girl. Her face was streaked with dirt, her red hair was up in a haphazard ponytail. She wore a yellow T-shirt which was three sizes too big and faded denim cutoffs that made him choke.
    Holy Mike, she had a pair of legs . . . they were long, long,
long,
and slim. They ended in a pair of sneakers that were so battered they were held together with adhesive tape.
    As Wilson parked the truck, Bronwynn dropped the hedge clippers she’d been butchering a shrub with and came toward them. Right on her heels was a sheep with a blue velvet ribbon around its neck.
    Bronwynn’s heart skipped when she saw Wade climb out of the delivery truck. She blamed it on the canned spaghetti she’d had for breakfast. At the second little jump, she decided to give credit where it was due. Wade Grayson was a good-looking man. Anyone would have said so.
    The morning breeze tossed his thick hair. The sun gilded the golden strands, emphasizing the darker hair that was streaked throughout. Bronwynn suddenly was struck with the wild urge to run her hands through it. She knew it would be silky and warm. The idea made her feel silky and warm.
    Get a grip on it, Bronwynn,
she told herself. What she was feeling was only a residual reaction from rejection. It was one of those Freudian things. It wasn’t because she was truly attracted to Wade Grayson—even if he was incredibly good-looking and moved with sexy grace. He wasn’t her type. All she had to do to know that was look at what he was wearing.
    The man was supposed to be on vacation. Black linen trousers and a pin-striped dress shirt did not make the kind of outfit a person could wear to sprawl in a hammock or hike in the woods. His feet couldn’t do much relaxing in wing-tip shoes.
    “At least you’re not wearing a tie,” she said by way of a greeting.
    Wade frowned at her. “Of course I’m not wearing a tie.” He didn’t mention he’d been reaching for one earlier that morning, but had caught himself before he had a chance to tie it. He felt naked without it.
    Bronwynn brushed her bangs back out of her eyes and squinted. Above the noise of the tractor and the top forty music blasting out of a boom box on the porch she said, “I thought you were supposed to be resting and relaxing, not taking a summer job delivering for Hank’s Hardware.”
    “It’s a long story,” he said, his gaze falling on the animal that stood beside Bronwynn staring up at him with curious brown eyes. “What is that?”
    Bronwynn glanced down then gave Wade a look. “It’s a sheep, Wade. You don’t get out of the city much, do you?”
    “I know it’s a sheep,” he said irritably. “Why is it following you around?”
    Dropping down on her knees, Bronwynn stroked the animal’s narrow black head and ran a hand back over the soft white wool, beaming at it like a proud mother at her new baby. “This is Muffin. She’s the first pet I’ve had since I was a girl.”
    “You’re a little out of touch then, Bronwynn. Most people get a dog or a cat.”
    “I’m not most people.”
    Wade arched a brow. “I’ve caught on to that fact already.”
    He looked around at the bustle of activity and gave his head a little shake. “You believe in diving right in, don’t you? Are you sure you want to go to all this trouble? I mean, this old building may not be able to hold up much longer. Why sink a lot of money into it unnecessarily?”
    “The house is structurally sound,” Bronwynn said, standing and dusting her hands off on the seat of her ragged cutoffs. “I had a building