“I don’t think so. Maybe you can line up the stupid stripes. Richard doesn’t seem to have an eye for it,” she said.
“Hey,” Ben protested. “I’m just here as an artistic consultant.”
“Not anymore,” his sister-in-law informed him. “You’re on the team.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re male and you’re a Carlton. I want all of you to pay.” She grinned at him. “And I want Kathleen to win that bet.”
Ben frowned at her. “If I didn’t love you so much, I would not let you badger me into doing this, you know.”
Melanie beamed at him. “I know. Now, please, help before we run out of paper.”
Ben took a look around the room to see what was left to be done. So far Richard had only managed to successfully hang a half-dozen strips, not even enough to finish one wall. A very large pile of soggy, tangled paper was testament to earlier failed attempts.
“Are you sure you’re going to have enough, as it is?” he asked skeptically.
Melanie gave him a smug smile. “I bought extra, since Richard insisted he was going to do it.”
Ben noticed that Kathleen was taking in the friendly byplay with an oddly wistful expression on her face. To his surprise, she struck him as someone who was used to being left out but who desperately wanted to be part of things.
“You know,” he said mildly. “I hear that Kathleen is amazingly adept at hanging wallpaper.”
Kathleen’s gaze immediately clashed with his. “I never said any such thing.”
Ben shrugged. “Pictures, wallpaper, how different can it be?”
She gave him a look brimming with indignation. “You can’t be serious.”
“You saying you can’t do this?” he asked.
“Of course I can,” Kathleen retorted. “But I never told you that and I most certainly never compared it to hanging pictures in my gallery.”
He held out a roll of paper. “Care to show us how it’s done?”
She gave him a suspicious look, but she accepted the paper and stood up. Winking at Melanie, she walked over, looked at the wall measurements Richard had jotted down on a board straddling two sawhorses, spread out the paper, cut it, smoothed on paste and had it on the wall in about five minutes flat. Richard stared at her in awe.
“My God,” he murmured. “What are your rates?”
Kathleen chuckled. “No charge. Actually I did the bedrooms in my house one Saturday afternoon. It was fun.”
“Fun,” Richard repeated incredulously. He turned to Ben. “She thinks this is fun.”
Ben kissed the tip of her nose. “I knew there was a reason I brought you along tonight.”
“And here I thought it was because you couldn’t resist my company,” she said.
He shrugged. There was little point in denying it, not even with his brother and sister-in-law paying avid attention to the entire exchange. “That, too,” he said. “Tell me what you need and I’ll help. Richard, you and Melanie can go and wait for the pizza.”
“I thought you were buying,” Richard complained.
“Hey, you’re getting two free workers, one of whom actually appears to know what she’s doing,” Ben retorted. “You can pay for the damn pizza.”
“Seems fair to me,” Melanie agreed, holding out her hand so her husband could help her out of her chair. “Come on, Richard, let’s give these two some privacy.”
“What do they need privacy for?” Richard asked. “They’re supposed to be hanging wallpaper.”
Melanie tugged him toward the door “Maybe your brother will get some other ideas,” she told him. “This is a bedroom, after all.”
“It’s the baby’s room,” Richard protested indignantly, even as he followed his wife out the door.
Ben glanced at Kathleen and saw that her cheeks were pink. “Don’t pay any attention to the two of them, especially Melanie. She may not be too fond of her doting husband, but she’s very big on romance these days. She’s as bad as Destiny.”
Kathleen’s gaze caught his. “Actually I was sort of hoping she was right.”
Ben stared at her, not entirely sure he was comprehending. This was one of those things he definitely didn’t want to get wrong. “Oh?”
“I was hoping you might have an idea or two that required privacy.”
“Such as?”
“I wouldn’t mind so much if you kissed me,” she told him, moving closer. “Being around those two has given me a couple of wild ideas of my own.”
Ben tucked his hands under her elbows and held her in place, scant inches away, close enough that he could breathe in her vaguely exotic scent. “I thought we’d agreed—”