“Good. I’ll come get you about six.”
“I’ll be ready,” Remi said. He watched as Cristie hurried out to get to work. The sound of applause behind him had Remi turning to look at Richie.
Richie made an exaggerated bow. “And I bow to the master.”
Remi grinned at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yeah, you do. The male who couldn’t get his mate to give him the time of day, now has that same mate taking him shopping to decorate the house the way she wants it.”
Remi laughed. “We’ll see. She might not show.”
“Oh, she’ll show. I have no doubt.”
Chapter 15
Cristie pulled up in front of Remi’s house at about seven minutes to six that evening. Instead of honking the horn, which she thought was immeasurably rude, she got out of the car and went up onto the front porch to knock on the door. She was about to knock again, when the door opened.
Her eyes about bugged out of her head when she saw Remi standing there wearing a pair of faded jeans, zipped up, but the top button unfastened, shirtless, with drops of water sprinkled across his shoulders and chest as he rubbed a towel against his thick dark wet hair.
“Sorry, time got away from me. Give me two minutes,” he said. He left the door opened and hurried back down the hallway.
Cristie stepped into his house and peeked down the hallway after him, just barely catching a glimpse of a muscular back before he disappeared inside one of the rooms. She fanned herself as she shook her head. “Lord help me,” she whispered.
“What’s that?” he called out.
“Nothing. I didn’t say anything,” she called back. Almost immediately she heard a blow dryer turn on. It only ran for about forty-five seconds before shutting off. She heard him brush his teeth, then the clatter of the sound of his toothbrush settling into the cup he kept it in, then his footsteps as he left the bathroom.
Less than a minute later he was coming up the hallway toward her as he pulled a clean teeshirt on over his head and his now dry shoulders, pulling it down to cover his trim waist and almost reach his hips, hugged so nicely by his jeans. He shoved his feet into a pair of sneakers that sat beside the door,then turned to look at her as he ran his fingers through his hair. “Sorry, it’s still wet. Takes forever to dry, I just kind of let it do its thing,” he said, smoothing his hands through it again.
“Looks great,” she said, paying particular attention to the dark, wavy locks springing away from the straightened directions he’d obviously brushed it into. “I’m actually kind of jealous.”
Remi looked around the living room, then down at his clothes. “Of what?”
“You, your hair. You know how long I have to fight my hair to make it look like I didn’t just get out of bed, and here you are, slap it with a towel, blow a little hot air at it, smooth it with your hands and you look like it was professionally styled so you could step onto the runway.”
“At the airport?” he asked, pretending he was confused.
“No. At a fashion show. Like a model,” she said.
“Oh, you think I’m pretty,” he said, teasing her.
“You know you’re pretty. Get in the car,” she said, walking out of his house, expecting him to follow.
Remi snickered a little as he grabbed his keys and his wallet off the coffee table in front of the sofa, locked the door behind himself and followed her out the door.
Cristie made small talk on the way to town, pointing out this place or that. When she drove past the turnoff for the highway that led to Travis and Libby’s house, and Basilio and Renata’s house, she pointed that out, too. “Kaiser and his family live off that highway. They’ve got a really pretty piece of property, and a beautiful home. Kaiser lives in the guest house set a little apart from the main house.”
“I like him. He might be my new best friend,” Remi said, gazing steadily out of the passenger side window.
She looked his way briefly. “He’s my best friend.”
“No rule saying that he can’t have more than one best friend.”
“I guess not,” she said, quickly glancing his way again.
They rode quietly for a mile or two before she asked what had suddenly occurred to her. “I don’t guess you know he’s left town.”
“I do, actually. He came by for a while the night before he left.”
