She put it off as long as she could. After all, if she pulled the little cord attached to the motor she could effectively still put the garage door up and down manually. Yes, it would be a thousand times more convenient if she could merely push the little remote control button from her car to put the door up and down automatically, but it wasn't the end of the world. Besides, Katniss had lots of other repairs that needed to be made around the house. A working garage door would just be a luxury at this point.
And really, the other repairs—or more specifically, the repair men who showed up to do them—were a big part of the reason she had waited so long to call someone to fix the garage door. She'd had one too many encounters with very poor customer service and she dreaded another.
With a scowl she recalled the men who had come to install the new hot water heater and tracked mud all through her house. Or the man who made suggestive comments to her the entire time he repaired her dishwasher. Even the quiet ones were usually late or took up her entire day. In general, she just avoided calling for a service repair if she could help it, choosing instead to try to solve the problem on her own.
But after two separate Saturdays wasted trying to fix the garage door herself, Katniss finally broke down and called the only garage door company in town. It did not go unnoted by her that since they were the only company in town doing these types of repairs, she was at even greater risk of poor customer service. Sighing, she made the call and was told someone would be out the very next day. Pleasantly surprised, she made a note in her desktop calendar that said, "Garage Door Repair!" and underlined it three times. If this was going to be her Christmas gift to herself this year, she may as well try to get excited about it.
That night she talked to Prim on the phone. Since Prim had started her residency at the hospital, she worked erratic hours so she tried to call Katniss whenever she had some down time to catch up. It worked out well that Katniss worked from home, and could be available almost anytime to chat. Tonight Prim seemed exhausted, so Katniss offered to cut the call short.
"You sound tired little duck; go on to bed and we can catch up later," she said.
"I know, but I miss you and I feel like we never get a chance to truly catch up," Prim replied, with an uncharacteristic whine in her voice.
"Well, it's not like you're missing anything here," Katniss said. "My life is pretty boring. Same old, same thing happening."
Prim laughed. "Well maybe if you got out of your house once in a while you might meet someone," she teased.
Katniss made an irritated sound. This was the same conversation they had at least once a week.
"Okay, well how about you get out of the house and come see me instead?" Prim asked. "I'm off most of tomorrow morning. We could meet for breakfast or an early lunch if you want."
Katniss sighed. "I'd love to Prim," she said. "But I have some stupid garage door repair person coming tomorrow. And you know how that goes. They say they'll call with a timeframe of when they'll arrive, but they never arrive on time. And who knows how long they'll fuck around once they're actually here. I'm pretty much stuck here all day."
Prim laughed. "Well, you have fun with that. And call me if your garage door repairs don't take as long as you think. We can grab lunch before I head back to the hospital."
"Sounds good," Katniss replied, but inside she knew it was very unlikely she would be able to meet Prim tomorrow.
…..
Her phone rang at promptly 8 am, startling her from a deep concentration in her home office.
"This is Katniss Everdeen," she answered, her usual response during business hours.
"Ms. Everdeen? This is Peeta Mellark with the garage door company," came the response on the other end of the line. "I'm just loading up the truck here at the store and then I planned to head your way. Will that be convenient to your schedule?"
"Um, yeah," she stammered, completely floored by his concern over whether or not it was convenient to her schedule. "Sure. I'm here. Just, come on by."
"Great!" he answered enthusiastically. "I'll see you in about a half hour."
Sure you will, Katniss muttered to herself after she had hung up the phone. When a repair person said a half hour, what they really meant was two hours at least.
It was this way of thinking that led to her surprise when exactly 30 minutes later she saw a repair truck pull up in front of her house. And if she wasn't expecting them to show up on time, then she was really in for a shock when she saw the repair person get out of the truck.
Now, normally Katniss was not the type of person to stereotype, but let's face it: she had recently had a long string of repairmen in her house doing different jobs. And all of them had been what you would consider a typical repairman. That is, they were all middle aged, slightly large around the mid-section, smelled like cigarette smoke and didn't seem to feel the need to hitch their belt a notch to prevent showing off their rear ends when they bent over.
The man who was currently getting out of the repair truck in front of her house was anything but typical. The first thing Katniss noticed was the shock of blond curls and the fact that he was young. Quite young. Great, they sent Dougie Howser to fix my garage door, she thought.
It's not that Katniss was old, exactly. But at 32 she was starting to notice that college kids looked younger and younger each year. And this man, or boy rather, who was walking up her sidewalk toward her front door, could not be a day over 20. Still, that didn't stop her from watching him from her spot in her office, which conveniently had a window that looked out over the front lawn.
She braced herself for his knock and then, after a moment she stood and made her way nonchalantly to the front door. "Oh, you're here," she told him when she opened the door.
"Yes, Ma'am" he responded, and a wide smile lit up his face, making his bright blue eyes sparkle.
Katniss immediately scowled at the use of the word "ma'am." It made her feel every bit of her impending middle age and she hated it. She didn't look or feel like a "ma'am" thank you very much.
His smile fell in the wake of her scowl, but he still had an earnest look. "I'm Peeta," he said. "Here to fix your garage door."
"I know," she said, shortly.
He bit his bottom lip then and looked away briefly before trying again. "So, if you could show me real quick what the problem is, I'll get started and be out of your way," he said.
"Oh, sure," she agreed. "It's this way." She opened the door further to let him inside and then gestured for him to follow her through the house and out to the garage. Once there she pressed on the automatic button located on the wall to demonstrate the problem. The door made a grinding sound but didn't budge. "It only works about one out of ten times," she explained. "Otherwise I have to pull the cord to disconnect the motor and then lift it manually."
She walked over to the heavy metal door and bent down to grasp the handle and lift the door. But before she could even start to heave the door up, Peeta was there behind her grabbing the handle just below her own hand. "Here let me," he admonished as her hand fell away and she allowed him to lift the door instead.
Katniss rolled her eyes. "I can do it," she said with a little huff. But even she knew the heat she felt in her face wasn't just because she felt a bit patronized. There was something about the warmth from his hand when it brushed against her just. Even if it was only for a moment, there was something when they touched.
"I know you can," Peeta replied to her evenly. "But if I'm going to repair it, I need to feel it moving on the track so I can assess the problem."
"Oh," she responded, at a loss to say more. She watched as he examined the track and then the sensors that were supposed to signal the motor to run when one of the remote controls was pushed. Finally, he pulled the door partially back down and ran his hand carefully over each panel of the door. Katniss watched him the entire time, trying not to notice the way his shoulders filled out the dark blue t-shirt he wore, or the way his forearm flexed when he was moving the heavy door. She tried in vain not to let her gaze land on the back of his dark corduroy pants when he bent to look at the lowest panel, or to notice the slight stubble apparent on his strong jaw.
"Unfortunately, I'm going to need to take the whole door down," Peeta said apologetically. Katniss could feel her jaw clench. It figures, she thought. She knew this wasn't going to be easy and it would certainly be expensive.
Outwardly she only shrugged. "Fine," she said, trying to feign indifference. "Do what you have to do."
"So I'll take this down, fix these two panels," Peeta indicated which panels with his hand as he spoke. "Then I'll reset your track and realign the sensors. That should take care of it."
"How long will all this take?" Katniss asked. She was still hoping to meet Prim for lunch and now it seemed like with this much work to fix the door that was definitely out of the picture.
"Just a few hours," Peeta responded, his cheerful smile back in place. "If you need to be somewhere it's fine. I can finish up out here and leave through the garage door. You can pay later."
"No, no. It's fine," Katniss waved him off. "It was just lunch with my sister. It's fine." She started heading back toward the door that led into the house. "Just, um, let me know when you're finished."
"Sure," he said. Katniss could practically feel his eyes on her as she walked away. Just as she stepped through the threshold into the house she turned back quickly and sure enough she caught his eyes darting away from her guiltily. She could hardly blame him since she had been checking him out first.
….
The noise coming from the garage seemed disproportionate to the work that needed to be done, but what did Katniss know? Maybe it really did need to sound like the entire right side of her house was being torn off in order to fix one measly garage door. Still, Katniss couldn't really concentrate and it wasn't just the noise but her curiosity that drew her back outside to check on the progress. And Peeta—if she was being honest, she wanted to check on him again, too.
She was more than a little surprised to see that he already had the entire door off and had replaced the track with a shiny new one, which she assumed he brought in the large company truck he drove. "Oh wow," she gasped. "You've done a lot!"
He was kneeling on the ground, working on a hinge on part of the door and he looked up when she spoke, giving her a large grin. "Yeah, it's going good. Shouldn't be too much longer."
She nodded back and turned to leave again. "It's not bothering you, is it?" Peeta asked. "All the noise?"
"What? No!" she lied.
"Good," he said, still bent over the hinge he was working on with a screwdriver. Katniss watched as the muscles in his arm rippled when he applied more pressure and turned the screw into the metal and wood. Her eyes flit from his arms to his mouth when he spoke again. "I tend to be a bit clumsy, so that translates to loud," he was explaining. He gave a little laugh but she didn't respond. She was too busy watching his lips move and noticing the way his brow furrowed when he was straining especially hard to fit the door hinge together. The entire scene was so undeniably sexy that she could not seem to stop herself from staring.
Finally he finished with the hinge and he stood up, breaking her out of the trance. "I tried to fix it myself," she found herself saying. "I don't usually like to call in for repairs." She had no idea why she was sharing so much information with this guy. She wasn't normally the type to share much of anything.
Peeta sent her a small but friendly smile and then bent to pick up the next panel and put it in place. "Why not?" he asked. "I mean, I'm sure you can handle it on your own, but why not call in some help?"
"Because dealing with repair people can be a real pain," Katniss retorted, belatedly realizing what she'd just said. "No offense," she added.
Peeta laughed out loud. "None taken," he replied. His blue eyes twinkled at her for a moment and then he began the process of screwing in the next hinge.
"Not that you're like, a typical repair person," Katniss added, her mouth apparently now speaking without her brain's permission. Peeta raised his eyebrows, a smirk playing on his lips, but did he not respond. "I mean, you're great. I'm sure you know what you're doing, even though you are so young…." Katniss trailed off. She really didn't know why she couldn't seem to shut up. It was so unlike her.
"I promise I'm old enough to fix your garage door," Peeta said, but there was humor in his voice, not offense. He moved now to reattach the chain to the top of the door and reset the motor. Thankfully, just then Katniss' cell phone rang and she had an excuse to remove herself from the vicinity before she said anything else stupid.
"Excuse me," she said quietly.
When she was finished with the uneventful work call, Katniss forced herself to stay put in her office. What was she even doing out in the garage before anyway? Was she flirting with him? Maybe Prim was right; maybe she did need to get out more. But then, none of the guys she'd ever met out at the bars or anywhere else came close to being as attractive as the man currently driving screws into her garage door at the moment.
Thinking about him drilling those screws into the hinges distracted her enough that soon she was completely zoned out, revisiting the image of the muscles in his arms contracting and the bead of sweat that had run down the side of his face while….
Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the sound of a very loud knock on her back door. Startled, she jumped out of her seat and headed to the back door, realizing it must be Peeta trying to get her attention. Was he finished already? She felt a pang of disappointment that he would be leaving, even if it did mean she would have plenty of time to meet Prim for lunch now.
She swung open the door expecting him to be standing there, but instead he was crouched down next to one of the sensors near the garage door.
"Did you knock?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, without looking up from what he was doing. "I'm all finished and I know you want to meet your sister. But first I wanted to show you something." He stood up fully and turned to face her. "Hit that button," he said, pointing at the remote opener attached to the wall nearest to her. She did and the newly repaired garage door went up smoothly.
Katniss clapped as if very impressed. Peeta rolled his eyes and laughed. "That's not what I wanted to show you, but yeah, it's fixed."
Katniss giggled—actually giggled, which was just not something she did. "There's more?" she asked. She was perfectly content with a garage door that went up and down when she pushed the button.
Peeta's eyes narrowed slightly and he had a smirk on his face. He stretched his arm out and crooked his finger, directing her to come closer. Katniss felt her heart skip a beat in her chest. What did he want? Still, she felt her feet moving her across the concrete floor toward the now open garage door.
"This," Peeta said, pointing to a little box attached to the side of her house, "is your new keypad. Let me show you how it works."
"Where did this come from?" Katniss inquired, a note of wariness creeping into her voice.
"I had an extra one in the truck," Peeta explained. "There's no charge." Katniss felt her features relax. She could barely afford the repair of the door, much less some fancy outdoor key pad that she didn't ask for.
"So," Peeta continued. "To program your code, you hit this button, then punch in any 4-digit number, then hit this button again." Katniss tried to pay attention to what he was saying, but suddenly they were standing very close together in front of the keypad. She could feel his warmth again and he smelled, unbelievably, like cinnamon and vanilla.
"Now you try," he was saying. He looked down at her and she looked up, her eyes wide as she swallowed slowly.
"Wh-What?" she tried.
His eyes were like a placid lake on a beautiful September day and they seemed to reach deep into her soul. The world seemed to melt away as they stood there for a long moment, staring into each other's eyes. Finally he cleared his throat and looked away.
"Just, um, here…" he said, and he took her hand in his own and guided her first finger to the keypad. Katniss visibly shivered from the touch. "What do you want your code to be?" he asked.
"You pick," she said, her voice barely a whisper.
Gently but firmly he moved her finger to type in the code 5683. Then he moved her finger through the code again, repeating his instructions in a soft, steady voice.
"There," he said, finally releasing her hand. "All set."
"Thank you," she said, her cheeks flushed.
"So you can use this in case you get locked out, or you can give the code to friends if you need them to check on a pet, or whatever. Oh, and you can program it through your phone so that you can access it remotely," Peeta listed the many features of the keypad, but his voice had taken on a nervous quality.
"And you can change the code anytime," he continued. "Like after I leave, for example, since I know this one. It's sometimes easier to remember if you choose a code that also spells something."
Katniss was running her fingertips over the keypad, examining the grid that looked much like a phone keypad, with letters present on each of the numbers. From where he stood close by he could see her cheeks had started to turn pink again. She had just worked out what 5683 might spell. L-O-V-E, she thought, blushing further and wondering if—no hoping—that he did it on purpose.
There was only one way to find out.
"No, I think I'll leave it," she said boldly, taking a step closer to him. One side of his mouth turned up and he reached out and touched a piece of hair that had come loose from her braid, gently tucking it behind her ear.
"Or," she said, licking her lips and watching as Peeta worried his own bottom lip between his teeth, "I could change it. Maybe….5477?" Using her first finger she demonstrated the code, slowly tracing the numbers that spelled out K-I-S-S.
Katniss fought to keep the grin off her face as Peeta drew even nearer to her, his hand slipping up her jaw and cradling her face. "I think that is a very excellent idea," he said just before he captured her lips with his own.
The kiss was searing, filled with all the warmth and passion she had detected in Peeta. He was gentle, but insistent, running his thumb along her jaw and slipping his hand into her braid at the base of her neck. She wrapped her hands around his neck, sliding her fingers through the blond curls there just as she had wanted to from the moment she first saw them.
They broke apart, only for a moment, before she leaned up and reclaimed his lips with even more fervor. When they finally slowed down enough to catch their breath, Katniss spoke first.
"Peeta?" she said. "You might want to keep that code memorized. I think you might be using it a lot."