Even if I’d won Callan’s heart, this old house had already claimed his soul. He couldn’t live without the farm. “I wouldneverask him to leave here.”
“I guess you’re stayin’ then.”
Finally, I could give her a believable smile. “I guess I am.”
The crepe skin on her neck crinkled when she peered over her shoulder at Matilda. “And what about you, little Til?”
Matilda bolted upright and blinked at Mim.
“What do you say about comin’ down to my place tonight? My old man is off fishin’. You wanna keep an old chook company?”
Matilda tilted her head. She didn’t understand all the words.
“I’ve got ice cream and a real big TV,” Mim added.
“Yeah!” Matilda bounced over the bed and wrapped her arms around my neck. She grinned and said, “Please?” in her sweetest voice.
Mim’s thin lips curled into a smile. “You take the night off. Enjoy yourself,” she said. “Me and my little Til are gettin’ up to no good.”
I sank lower inthe tub.
Warm water and sweet citrus bubbles pooled around me, and I sipped my wine before edging the glass along the tiles to settle by the wall. The hollow ache inside my chest unknotted. Tired muscles relaxed. Lila’s room wasn’t a gateway waiting to swallow me into a bottomless void. I didn’t break down. I was calm. Fine, even.
My eyelids fluttered closed, and I let my hand dangle off the side of the tub as I sank low enough for the frothy bubbles to tickle my chin. I might have dozed off for a minute or two.
The bathroom door snapped open.
No knock, just the turn of the metal handle and the shock of the cold air gushing over my bare knees. Heavy steps stopped almost as quickly as I launched out of the water to snatch the towel off the rack and clutch it against my body.
“Sorry.” Callan almost choked on the word. “Mim said you were up for Til’s bath time, so I assumed…”
His mouth pressed in a line, a slash of embarrassed pink burning his cheeks. He was glaring down at his boots. No… His eyes were narrowed on a spot behind me.
What had caught his attention?
I swiveled my head, just enough, and gasped at the pink curve of my naked backside reflecting in the mirror.
“Callan?”
A pained “Erin” is what he managed to say in response, but his eyes didn’t shift.
I bit down on my bottom lip, but I didn’t move the towel to cover more of my body. Most of my thighs were bare. A sliver of my waist. There wasn’t much he couldn’t see.
“What are you looking at?” I wanted him to admit the reason his chest was heaving on those big breaths was that he liked looking at me.
“You know I’m looking at you.”
“You’ve seen that before. We went swimming on the weekend.”
“That’s not the same, and you know it.” His eyes darted back to the mirror, and the shock of it was just as powerful as the first time. He splayed his palm on his chest and took a deep breath, but he didn’t look away.
“You dressed up tonight,” I said.
“I thought I’d take you out to dinner.”
Water trickled down my legs. The chill seeping through the open door was enough to turn the trail into bumps. “Is that really what you want to do?”
“Right now? No.”
