“I bought all kinds of dishes and treasures for the cottages at the antique store in town,” she babbled.
“But not a single sugar bowl,” he added.
“Or a creamer.”
They stood there at her kitchen counter talking about coffee condiments, and she swore it was turning into the sexiest conversation she’d ever had.
He was so close she could smell the beach on his skin. They moved at the same time, sat across from each other at the little table, sipping coffee. Even though she was famished, the cookies sat on a pretty plate between them untouched. She wasn’t hungry for cookies.
“Here’s what I was thinking,” Daniel said. He had a great voice. He could be on the radio. But what was he talking about? A museum?
“…and we could do a barter. I’ll fix your wood, the steps and the registration counter and the window sashes, if you find and furnish period pieces, set up displays in my museum. All on my dime of course. I want the best.”
“While you’re in Georgia?”
He nodded enthusiastically, a young man ready to set out in search of new horizons. She understood why he would want to spread his wings. She just didn’t like it. And if she was honest—the truth embarrassed her—she might not like his bossy attitude when it came to Bryman, but she was attracted to every other single thing about him.
“Sounds like a perfect plan.” She injected more happiness into her voice than she felt. “For me.”
“Winters up here are brutal. Just leaving your house to check on my places will make it worth my while.”
“Okay.” Having Daniel do woodwork would save her a bundle. “But it still doesn’t seem fair.”
“I have more ideas about what you can do for me.”
Whoa. Her face turned pink. He couldn’t mean what she thought he did.
“Let me document the work we do here at Blue Heaven. Take before and after photos that I can add to my museum collection. I have some old pictures, too. Maybe you do as well? From when your family came up summers?”
“I think so. Well, my mom does. But she can send them to me.”
Daniel took a breath. Things were beginning to go his way. “I have a friend at
Discovery Architect.
He knows Bryman, knows me. I’m betting the Blue Heaven restoration will be the thing that finally gets him to write us up. A summer resort on a Great Lake. Perfect.”
An illogical tiny corner of disappointment wedged into her heart. He was way more interested in her property than he was in her. But hey, he trusted her with his money. That said something.
****
Daniel’s earnestness was winning her over. He’d grabbed her hand across the Formica table and rubbed her palm with his thumb. Did he realize that what he was doing ramped up her attraction to him? She didn’t care. His skin against hers felt good. She didn’t pull away.
Car doors slammed and engines revved to life. Then within seconds, the air around them was still. Really? Five o’clock already? They’d been talking for hours, but it had seemed like minutes.
“When can I see the rest of the house?”
What was left were the bedrooms, two of which were crammed with boxes of antique store finds for the cottages, and the empty laundry room. Of course he probably wanted to check out her claw-foot tub in the bathroom.
After he’d quickly glanced into the other rooms, they ended up in her favorite room of the house right now. Her bedroom. This was the only room she was really comfortable in. Here were all her things: red laptop, flat screen television, iPod, and docking station. Her big bed from the condo and the white eyelet comforter with matching pillow shams. The weathered oak floor scattered with colorful rag rugs, the Battenberg lace curtains hanging at the window. She’d painted this room herself, before the movers came with her bed. The warm cream-colored walls showed off old brass wall sconces.
“Wow,” Daniel said, not paying as much attention as she thought he would to the sconces. He sat on the bed.
“Yeah, a real room.” Her heart sped up. He was sitting on her bed. She wanted to walk up to him, put her hands on his chest and push him down onto the mattress.
Her heart beat double time. Triple. She tried to take deep calming breaths. This was ridiculous. He sat innocently on her bed. Looking at her. Not her wall sconces. Not the wavy glass in her window. Her. Right before her eyes, he turned into the Superman she’d wanted him to be. Helping her take her dream to the next level.
“Lovely,” he said, and she didn’t know if he meant the room or her. The way he gazed into her eyes, as if he could see down to her soul, made her think he was interested in her, not her property.
Daniel got up from the bed and came to her without breaking eye contact. She let him come, couldn’t help it, couldn’t fight it.
“You are an amazing woman, Eva Delacroix.”
She stood rooted to the spot as he approached her, the air between them thick with desire.
“You’re pretty great yourself,” she answered, her words coming out in a husky whisper.
He was as close as he could get without taking her into his arms, and still he looked at her, not smiling, just holding her gaze. He smelled like the beach. Her eyes fell to his mouth.
Her stomach growled.
They both laughed.
“Hungry?”
She nodded, her eyes closed. She was a little embarrassed. What she was hungry for was his kiss.
As if he could read her mind, Daniel took her in his arms and kissed her.
Strong arms, soft lips, warm mouth. She could melt into him, she was melting, her thoughts dissolving. Anybody who could kiss like this, so deep and sweet, was worth taking a chance on.
He finally broke the kiss, immediately putting his mouth on her neck and kissing her there, his lips trailing down the V of her blouse.
Her heart roared with need, like thunder. Wait. That
was
thunder. Real thunder. Outside the window.
“The windows are open,” she said, reluctant to let anything, even the rain that had started pouring in sheets, interfere with was happening between them.
“I’ll close them,” he said.
Eva went toward the beach side of the house, while he headed into the office. She was just about to slam the last living room window shut when she heard a baby cry. She listened harder. Another sound, like a crazy woman screeching. As she closed the last window, she saw a big black cat, tail swishing, staring at the weeds next to her door. The cat Bob said lived in her shed.
The cat ignored the rain, slowly heading for the weeds, then backed up screeching when another cat, this one a dirty white with orange splashes, reared up, claws extended, hissing.
Black Cat skulked away and White Cat, looking bedraggled, skinny, and sad, swished her tail while eyeing Eva through the rain-streaked window.
“Oh, honey,” Eva said, opening the door, hoping the cat would come in. It retreated into the weeds, where Eva saw the little nest of kittens, tiny as thumbs, curled on a soggy piece of old cardboard.
The kittens had not been there yesterday when she’d washed the windows. They were so small. Newborns. Thunder clapped and lightning ripped the sky. These babies needed to be warm and dry, now, but when Eva went outside to try to move them, Mama cat bit her hand.
Eva went into the kitchen to wash her hands, thankful that Mama’s bite had not broken skin. She’d need to find a vet. Daniel leaned against a wall, talking on his cell. He said a terse good-bye and pocketed his phone.
“All set,” he said, indicating the windows. She nodded then opened a can of tuna, flaking it onto a plate.
“Help,” she said, when Daniel came up behind her and kissed her neck, his hands holding her tight around her waist, pulling her body close to his. She wasn’t sure if she was asking him to help her or asking the universe to help her resist him. She handed Daniel the plate of tuna, which he accepted with a quizzical frown, and went looking for a blanket. She quickly grabbed one from the linen closet and motioned for Daniel to follow her to the living room. She dropped the blanket next to the door and placed the plate of tuna on the porch. Then, while she was still pointing out the kittens to Daniel, Mama rushed to the plate of food.
While Mama ate as if she were starved, Daniel scooped up the kittens, cardboard and all, and plopped them gently onto the blanket inside the house.
Mama was in after them within seconds, hissing at Eva and Daniel and fussing over her babies. The plate on the porch was empty. Eva closed the door and gently pulled the kitten blanket a little further away from the door. Mama licked her babies in between throwing furious looks at Eva and Daniel.
“You’re a fierce Mama, aren’t you?” Eva spoke softly to the cat. “You’re taking really good care of your babies.” She looked at Daniel. “Some day, I want to be a mom like that.”
Eva, flustered by her admission, went into the kitchen and got Mama a bowl of water and another can of tuna. Before she put it on the plate, Mama came running. She had babies to feed, and to do that, she needed nourishment.
Eva went to check on the kittens. Daniel’s big, banged up hands carefully rolled the wet cardboard away as the kittens tumbled together like a big fluff ball onto the warm, dry blanket. Mama came yelling, but somehow she didn’t seem quite as fierce with two cans of tuna in her. Soon, the kittens set to nursing; Mama purred with contentment.
“I envy her,” Eva said, before she could stop the words from escaping.
“Looks like your first guests have arrived,” Daniel said, ignoring, or maybe not hearing, her comment. Eva thought about the black cat still outside, hoping he had a secret entrance to the shed or at least some shelter.
She picked her cell up from the table. “Do you have the number for a vet?”
He took her phone in one hand and his in another, then punched in a number. “Used to go to school with her. She’s the best, also the only, vet in town.”
“I have to leave.” Daniel handed her phone back, already walking toward the office. “There’s an emergency at the four-square.” His museum. She felt a rush of disappointment. So, they were not going to continue the kissing. She wanted to see where it would lead. But that was probably foolish. He turned around to finish his sentence. “The museum roof is leaking. Bob’s over there with Frank.” He was leaving.
Get over it.
She stared at the vet’s name and number, not really seeing the words or numbers.
“I’ve got to get into dry clothes,” she said.
He smiled, his mind clearly on his Bryman property and not the kiss they’d shared less than ten minutes ago. Or the fact that she’d just mentioned taking off her clothes.
Thunder clapped and Eva shivered. She had kissed Daniel, had agreed to let him help her with the restoration. Maybe those had been wrong decisions. Their priorities were in conflict. His involved working her crew on his own second shift. And moving all the way to Georgia for the winter, while she stayed here alone to freeze.
Chapter Six
At the local grocery store, Eva loaded up with pet supplies and a frozen pizza. In the checkout lane, someone tapped her on the back. Jane had a single item, a tube of toothpaste, in her hand.
“Oh, please, go ahead of me,” Eva said.
Jane eyed her cart. “No, that’s okay. I just wanted to say hi. I see you’ve come with pets.”
“Other way around, really.”
Jane raised an eyebrow but didn’t inquire further.
“It’s a really good thing I like cats,” Eva said, starting to pile her cans of food and a forty pound carton of litter onto the counter.
“That’s your dinner?” Jane said, when she unloaded the frozen pizza.
Eva shrugged.
“Why don’t we go out to Pointe Lacey? They have a great seafood place right on the pier.”
Eva thought about it for a minute. She did owe Jane a bottle of wine. The rain was slowing down and the frozen pizza looked pitiful when she saw it through Jane’s eyes.
An hour later, they were seated at a table by the restaurant’s window, sipping yet another wonderful bottle of Chardonnay. Eva planned to stick to a single glass, because, one, she wasn’t much of a drinker, and two, Jane was, so Eva had offered to drive.
“What are you going to do here in the winter?” Jane asked. “Blue Lake is dead from January until June. And it gets damn cold.”
Eva thought about Daniel’s offer. Should she tell Jane? What the hell.
“I got an interesting offer,” she said.
“Really?” Jane asked. “You’re going to stay?”
Eva didn’t state the obvious. She really couldn’t afford to go elsewhere. Jane would have known that if she’d looked at Eva’s business plan. Her projected earnings for the first year would just about cover expenses. She hoped.
“So what’s the offer?” Jane picked up the bottle of wine and refilled her glass. She started to pour some for Eva, but noticed her glass was still half full and returned the bottle to the silver cooler at the side of the table.
Eva told Jane about Daniel’s barter deal.
“I sense some hesitation on your part,” Jane said.
Eva took a drink of her wine. “Should I trust him?”
Jane seemed fascinated. “Why wouldn’t you?”
Eva didn’t want to get into it, which made the waiter bringing their meals just then perfect. Or so she thought. After a bite of her seafood and pasta, Jane asked again. “Why not trust him?”
Eva finished chewing her bite of steak. It was way better than frozen pizza, but even she knew she should have ordered red wine with it instead of sharing Jane’s Chardonnay. Ah well.
“Everything okay, ladies?”
“You know, I’ll have a glass of Pinot Noir instead,” Eva said. She handed her almost untouched glass to the waiter.
“Good choice,” he said, taking away her glass.
Jane looked at the wine as it left the table with obvious dismay, but she didn’t say anything. She was still waiting for Eva to explain herself.
Eva hedged. “Well, he didn’t want to give me the loan. Then he recommended his brother for my work crew. Hell, he recommended most of my crew. Who he then hired to do second shift at the four-square.”
Jane nodded, her eyes going misty.