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“I wish the electricity would come back on,” she stated, dropping her arms, oblivious to the knots in his gut. “I have so much work to do. My laptop may only have a couple hours left of charge.”
“What are you working on?”
“I have an event scheduled for a client in four weeks. I need to adjust some things on the spreadsheets and set up another schedule for an event I’m working on for a bridal party.” Zara started picking up the garbage and bundling it all in the empty bread sack. “Plenty of work to do with no Wi-Fi, but I’m going to get backed up if I can’t get some emails done in the next few days.”
Braden listened to her talk of the event scheduled a week before his next party. Zara was efficient, and the passion for her work came through in her tone. She definitely was career driven, but was that all there was to her life? He’d not heard her mention friends and he knew there was no boyfriend. He’d never met a woman who remained so closed off on a personal level.
“Why don’t you work?” he suggested. “I’m going to head to my car, charge my phone and turn it on to make some calls.”
He needed to check in with Ryker to see if he’d located the missing art piece in London. Then he needed to see if Mac was stuck at the main house, most likely since Mac’s flight back to Miami would’ve been canceled with this weather. Braden would have to call his sister, too, because...well, he worried about her even though she hated her older brothers fussing over her.
Hopping to her feet, Zara nodded. “Yeah. I need to do something. I’m not one to sit still and do nothing. After I draft my emails I’m grabbing a shower.”
“With cold water?” he asked.
She smiled down at him. “I have a gas hot water heater.”
His eyes raked over her body, and the very last thing he needed was an image of her naked, soapy and wet body with only a thin door separating them.
Rising to stand before her, he took the trash from her hands and headed for the bedroom door. “I’ll be in my car for a while. I’ll throw this away on my way out.”
He left the room before he would give into temptation and join her in the shower. He needed to let Mac know that, so far, nothing had turned up. This house was damn big, but the secret hidey-holes were literally bare, save for the yellow chair and romance novel.
After throwing away the trash and bundling up, Braden tried to get through the mounds of snow to his car. There was no way to get there without soaking his feet once again because the snow was up to his knees; but he needed to check in, and once the engine warmed up, he could put the heater on full blast.
Most likely his battery would’ve been fine to talk inside the warm house, but he couldn’t risk Zara overhearing his conversations.
Powering up his phone as he slid behind the wheel and tried to ignore his freezing wet feet, Braden watched as seven texts popped up on his screen. Mac had sent two, and the other five were from a frantic Laney asking if he was all right.
He decided to call her first because an angry woman, especially an angry Irish woman who happened to be his sister, was not someone he wanted on his bad side.
“You better be in a ditch with little cell service,” she answered.
Braden laughed. “Not quite in a ditch, but I’m stuck at a friend’s house and the electricity is out.”
“What friend?” she asked, skepticism dripping from her voice.
“You don’t know her.”
“Her? So you’re shacking up and can’t return my texts? I had you lying in a ditch bleeding and with the roads closed, and no one saw you and you’d died all alone.”
Braden pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “I assure you, I’m fine, and I’m not shacking up. To be honest, I’d feel better if I was.”
Laney laughed. “Whoever she is, I want to meet her. Someone has you in knots. I like her already.”
He wasn’t in knots. Really, he was completely knot free and in total control. Just because he’d had to physically remove himself from the house since Zara was going to shower didn’t mean he couldn’t keep his wits about him.
“I’m at Zara’s, okay?” He tried to keep his tone level so she didn’t read any more into what he was saying. “I was worried about the roads, so I offered her a ride home. On the way, I got pulled over by a deputy and was informed there’s a level two snow emergency on the roads and I was to stay put. So here I am.”
“Aww, poor baby. Stuck in a house with a beautiful woman. Don’t think I didn’t see you two dancing at the party. And great job getting into the house, by the way. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you had some weather god on your payroll, as well.”
