They retraced their steps through the living room, stopping to get the kids and their bags, and then he followed her down the hall of a large wing of the house. He tried very hard to keep his eyes straight ahead, but it didn’t work. His gaze kept dropping to her ass, which was hugged by well-washed denim, and the sway of her hips as she walked.
“This room has the queen bed and set of bunk beds,” she said, stopping in front of a door.
“Maddie, that’s you,” he said.
“And the next door on the same side has the two queen beds,” Nola said. “The bathroom is across the hall. There’s another one at the end of the hall, on the right. So that’s it, I guess. I’ll leave you to settle in and we’ll start putting food out in an hour or so. If you need anything at all, just give a shout. Literally, if you want to. We’re pretty informal around here.”
All three of them thanked her, and then he had to focus all of his attention on not watching her walk away.
“Wait,” Maddie said. “What does she mean by the bathroom is across the hall?”
“I told you it’s not a hotel,” Ian said, nudging over the threshold into her room.
“I heard her tell you there are four guys staying at the end of the hall. What Ididn’thear was you telling me thatnot a hotelis some kind of code for me sharing a bathroom with six men.”
“Oh, I forgot to mention something,” Nola said, and Ian turned his head so abruptly he almost whacked it on the doorjamb. “At the top of the stairs, second door on the right, is a bathroom with a private sign on it. That’s for family, but there’s nobody staying in the rooms upstairs right now except for Andy and Rosie unless I stay over, and they have the master suite with their own bathroom, so it’s an unofficial ladies’ room.”
Maddie’s cheeks burned. “I’m sorry I sounded like I was complaining. I swear I wasn’t asking for special treatment.”
“It’s not special treatment, I promise, and Rosie would have told you about it if she’d checked you in. Go ahead and use it while you’re here.”
“Thank you.”
Nola returned Maddie’s smile, but then her gaze shifted to Ian and it felt as if time stopped for a few seconds as their eyes met. He felt his lips curve into a return smile and he knew he probably looked goofy, but he couldn’t help himself.
Then Maddie bumped into him while trying to pick up her overstuffed bag and the connection was broken. Nola waved a goodbye and then walked away.
Even though he was in the room next door, Ian took a quick peek inside Maddie’s just to make sure everything looked okay.
“I guess I need to remember sound carries, or maybe she has exceptional hearing,” Maddie said in a low voice that was practically a whisper and he could tell she still felt badly about being caught complaining.
“It’s fine, and nobody blames you for it. I’m a guy and even I don’t want to share a bathroom with five other guys.”
“You can’t use mine,” she said, pointing her finger at him. “The woman said so.”
“Nola,” he told her, and he hoped he’d remember to ask her where the name came from because he didn’t think he’d ever met anybody named Nola before. “And she said there’s another bathroom at the end of the hall on the right and the other guys are at the end of the hall on the left, so they’ll probably use that one the most. Most importantly, though, it looks like there are plenty of outlets in here and they don’t look a hundred years old, so you should be able to charge all that crap you brought with you.”
She was laughing when he left her room and went next door to the one he’d share with Jacob. His son had already claimed one of the two queen beds topped with matching quilts, so Ian dropped his bag on the free bed. His bag was considerably lighter than the others’, probably thanks in part to the fact the only gadget he’d brought with him was his phone. Not because he didn’t have anything else—he enjoyed streaming Netflix as much as the next guy—but because he didn’t feel like lugging them around and would just steal Jacob’s tablet if he got bored since the kid spent ninety percent of his down time staring at his phone screen.
The temptation to stretch out on the bed and “rest his eyes” for a few minutes was strong. It had been a long drive and he wasn’t twenty-five anymore. But he knew if he closed his eyes, it would be lot more than a few minutes before he opened them again, and then he’d be groggy and wanting coffee that would then keep him from sleeping tonight.
“Getting old sucks.”
“Anything specific?” Jacob asked, actually looking up from his phone. “Or just in general?”
“Too much time sitting in the truck,” Ian said. “And I didn’t mean to say that out loud.”
“Clearly a sign you should let me drive home next week.”
Right now he was tempted to agree, but he knew when the time came, he wouldn’t feel the same, so he just laughed. Jacob was a good driver, but there was a big difference between his little Wrangler and Ian’s truck and trailer. The biggest difference being that it was Ian’s truck and he didn’t like anybody else driving it.
“I’m starving.”
“When aren’t you?” Ian stretched and winced a little at the tightness in his back. “They don’t start serving dinner for an hour, so why don’t you give me a hand unloading the machines and bringing our gear in so I can park the trailer out of the way and unhook the truck.”
Jacob nodded and reached for the coat he’d tossed at the foot of his bed. “You want me to text Maddie?”
“I think we can do it.” He wanted to spend a little one-on-one time with each of the kids during this week together, so he might as well start now.
