Fixed Up by Maddie Jane Page A

like her doing too much. She probably shouldn’t be taking this class at all, but she insisted. She’s better off letting me take care of her.’
    Okay, maybe the health stuff was a big fat lie, but the rest of it was one hundred per cent true. Shelia did not need to be learning DIY at her age. Frankly, Luke thought it was ridiculous.
    â€˜Again—’ Harper said ‘—not your decision. Your mother showed a lot of enthusiasm today and clearly wants to learn. You should respect that and encourage her to go for it. God knows I wish my mother was open-minded enough to learn to look after herself.’ Harper’s lips clamped shut and she walked away.
    Luke waited a moment before stepping towards her. Harper was up the front of the room cleaning the whiteboard. She turned and shot him an angry look over her shoulder as he approached.
    â€˜Sorry,’ he said. And actually meant it. ‘I know I’m pretty heavy on my feet and I have been told in the past I snore. I shouldn’t have disrupted your class.’
    She kept wiping, even though the board was clean.
    â€˜And I realise I’m not a woman and have no place here, but maybe I could help out. I have great carpentry skills and I can lend you any tools you need for your classes, save you any hire costs you might have for equipment.’
    Harper’s hand slowed, then stopped. He saw her inhale before she turned.
    She stared up at him. Her cheeks were flushed and her chest rose and fell in a most distracting way. His gaze dropped to a thin silver chain around her neck. A tiny hammer pendant was just visible as she leaned forward. It hung in the V above her breasts, drawing his eye and stealing his breath away.
    â€˜I don’t need help.’ She didn’t raise her voice, but he felt its strength. ‘From you or anyone else. This is my business, my class. Mine alone. You toe the line, sit quietly at the back of the classroom or I will kick you out so hard your head will spin.’
    But his head already spun.

Chapter 6
    Harper gripped the whiteboard eraser. She wished she knew how to handle Luke. She’d just given him a huge telling off and he was still smiling at her. Like she could do no wrong. And instead of really, really pissing her off, it gave her warm fuzzies she hadn’t felt for a long time.
    A long time.
    He stood there before her saying, being, doing everything wrong—yet she liked him. All the women in the class had liked him too.
    And she liked him a lot . Which brought her back to the warm fuzzy feeling that snaked through her whenever Luke was around. She had to clench everything, fists, teeth, those womanly bits she’d forgotten she had, just to stop herself melting in a tragic puddle at his feet. So wrong, because she wasn’t the pathetic, puddling sort. She couldn’t be. Two of them in one family was more than enough and Harper had made the conscious decision years ago to be the strong, independent one who never, ever, friggin’ ever needed a man.
    Could have a man if she wanted, yes.
    But needed? Big fat negative no.
    And it had become her catch cry. Her philosophy. Her mission statement as well as her mission. Men not required.
    Do it yourself.
    And if she didn’t live the rule? All. Would. Be. Lost.
    Luke didn’t understand how important it was that the class was female only . Yet she felt she’d laboured the point enough already. What more could she possibly say?
    â€˜The whole point of the girls-only thing—’ she said it again ‘—is so they can ask daft questions. Often they know nothing. Nothing. “What’s a wrench?” or “How do you make the ladder stand up?”’.
    Luke tried to cover a snort of laughter but failed miserably.
    â€˜You laugh. You say your mother doesn’t need to know this stuff. But if on some level she didn’t want to know this stuff she wouldn’t be here.’ Was it Harper’s