Page 78 of The Best Thing He Never Wanted

That made him smile. “Thanks.”

He didn’t bother to explain that he enjoyed fixing things before they became an issue. If she didn’t already know that she’d learn soon enough.

Inside, he took a look at the wire running across the kitchen ceiling to the light fixture and traced it back. The cable had been run along the surface rather than buried in the stone, and as far as he could see, there was nothing wrong with the wiring itself. One section had sagged where a clip had pulled away from the ceiling, though, and the whole thing looked untidy enough to bother him.

It was fine for now. He’d secure it properly tomorrow. He stood looking at it for a moment. Tomorrow? How many tomorrows was he planning on being here? He turned away before he got too far into that question and opened the fridge instead.

There were plenty of eggs, and he already knew Bea liked omelets, so that was easy enough. He could put together a salad with tomatoes and feta, and they had bread from the bakery and olives too. He nodded to himself. Plenty there to make them something decent.

He’d just started opening cupboards in search of a pan—and discovered that absolutely nothing in this kitchen seemed to be where he thought it should be—when his phone rang.

Cash. He scowled at the screen before answering. “What’s up?”

“I’m calling to ask you the same thing, bud. What happened to you?”

“What do you mean? Nothing happened to me. Why?”

“You didn’t make it to the villa. I woke up to an email asking why nobody checked in.”

“Oh, shit. I didn’t think about that. Should’ve let you know.”

“Not a problem. I was worried about you, that’s all.”

Blane leaned back against the counter. “Bullshit.”

Cash laughed. “What do you mean, bullshit? That’s not a nice thing to say. I book you a villa, you don’t show up, I hear about it, so I call to find out if you’re all right. Where’s the bullshit in that?”

Blane had to laugh. “You know damn well where. You’re not worried about me. You’re prying; you want to know where I am.”

Cash laughed with him. “Half right. I’ve got a pretty damn good idea where you are, and I’m hoping I’m right. But yeah, I’m prying. How’s it going? You’re with Bea, right?”

Blane glanced outside. “Yeah, I am. I was gonna head over to that place you booked, but Jesus, Cash, why the hell did you book me something like that?”

“It was all I could find close by. And I figured if you wanted to invite Bea over to your place, it wouldn’t be a bad one. You’ve got the pool, the ocean view—”

Blane shook his head with a smile. “And all that shit matters to you. You know me better than that.”

“Normally I’d say yeah, but I don’t know you when there’s a woman involved. I didn’t know if you’d want…” Cash stopped. “Hell, I didn’t know.”

“Surely to God you didn’t think I’d want to impress her. Not with a house with a view and a pool anyway.”

“I didn’t know what to think. Figured it couldn’t do any harm. But that’s beside the point now. You stayed with Bea. That’s way better.” There was a pause. “Want me to keep the place in case you decide to move over there?”

“No. I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here.”

It was only when Cash laughed that Blane realized how adamant he must have sounded.

“Things are going well, then?”

He looked through the window to where Bea stood in the middle of the yard, a tray of plants in her hands as she looked around with a small smile on her face.

“Yeah, Cash. It’s going great.” His smile faded. “But wait. Do you need me?”

“Would I have booked that villa for three weeks if I did?”

Blane sucked in a breath. “Three weeks?”

“Yeah. I’d give you longer, but we’ve got all the teams coming in next month, remember? You, me, and Mav all need to be here for that.”