Chapter Eleven
Fifi
If I didn’t want to bury my sister somewhere on the slopes of Kilimanjaro, I might’ve actually hugged her.
Because Mr. Cranky Pants?
Mr. Brood-By-the-Lake?
He wasalmost smiling, not quite.
Not fully.
But there was a twitch at the corner of his mouth that hadn’t been there, and a softness around his eyes. A flash of amusement even surfaced when Sienna had flounced out of the dining room like a matchmaking tornado wrapped in fleece.
And now he was looking at me, really looking.
And I wasnotprepared.
Because the look on his face?
That wasn’t a casual, ‘oh hey, innkeeper’ glance.
This look was apanty-droppinglook.
I felt it like a zap, low and warm, right behind my navel. My heart stuttered, and my stomach twisted, while my brain, formerly full of helpful words likebiscuits,schedules, anddo not flirt with guests, had officially left the building.
Retreating now would just confirm how flustered I was, and I wasn’t about to let a handsome guest and one misplaced backpack be my downfall.
So, I pulled out the chair, sat down across from him, and said the first thing that came to mind.
Which, in retrospect, was a mistake.
“I swear, I’m alwaysstrippingover her stuff.”
Pause.
Silence.
I blinked.
His eyebrow arched.
My face caught fire.
“I meanttripping,” I blurted. “I swear I meant tripping, not stripping. I—I don’t—strip, at least not around backpacks. Oh myGod. No,I don’t strip at all. Anywhere. Well, in my bedroom, but who doesn’t?”
Ben set down his coffee slowly, like he didn’t want to scare me, but also didn’t want to miss a second of the trainwreck currently happening across the table.
“Good to know,” he said, his voice calm but undeniably amused. “I’d hate for a backpack to be your undoing and lead you to a life you were uncomfortable with.”
I buried my face in my hands.
“No,” I moaned into my palms. “You don’t understand. This is why I’m banned from professional interviews. My mouth just bypasses the filter. It’s not even my mouth’s fault. It’s like my thoughts come out before I’ve officially approved them for public consumption.”
“I noticed,” he said.
I peeked through my fingers at him.
