He's grumpy. He's shirtless. He's good with his hands… He's also my best friend's brother and the bane of my existence.

My plan was simple. Career, marriage and kids by the big 3-0. Instead my stepfather's company went bankrupt taking my career (and relationship) with it. Now I'm fixing up my grandma's ramshackle house in Violet Ridge, Virginia, trying to find a handyman who doesn't mind being paid in brownie bars and bless your hearts.

Unfortunately the only handyman who doesn't require six months and a kidney is Hendrix Evers.

I'm searching “how to sell a kidney” when Rix proposes we help each other out. He'll fix up the house if I let him stay rent-free. To everyone else he's a hardworking, small town hero, but he's also my best friend's older brother, so I know the truth. He's rude, juvenile and has a long history of ruining things for me.

But when my attempts at DIY end in a flooded bathroom and almost falling to my death through a rotting porch, I figure I don't have much to lose. Somehow I've become the breadwinner for my mom and little sister and the adoptive mom to a pug with anger issues. I can use all the help I can get.

Surely we can co-exist for one summer without burning the house down or strangling each other, right?

This was so not in the plan.