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“I don’t know. I’ll take her home with me and try again to find her a home.”

As Leah looked at Shaun, she noticed the lines etching his eyes. He looked tired. And here she was badgering him with questions.

But she had one more question. “If Mochi hadn’t eaten, I’m guessing you didn’t eat either. Right?”

He hesitated. “I have a snack bar in my bag. It’ll tide me over until morning.”

So, he was the strong silent type when it came to taking care of himself. She got up and moved to the fridge.

She opened the door and peered inside. “I have some leftover sausage and pancakes if you’re interested.”

“Leftover pancakes?”

She nodded as she turned back to him. “Just add some butter and microwave them. They come out hot and tender.”

“Are you sure you don’t mind?”

“Not at all.” She pulled out the plate of four small pancakes. She also grabbed the sausages.

In no time at all, he had food in front of him and a puppy lying down by his feet. She didn’t normally go out of her way like this for guests. She fed them breakfast, and then they were on their own, but there was something about Shaun that was different. She just couldn’t put her finger on what it was.

He glanced up at her. “I feel guilty for eating when you aren’t.”

She waved away his worries. “I ate a while ago. I was just doing the prep work for tomorrow morning before you showed up.”

“Do you work the evening shift?”

“And the morning shift and the afternoon shift.”

His gray eyes widened. “Wait. Do you own this place?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.” When his brows rose high on his forehead, she said, “I recently inherited it from my grandmother.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry for your loss.”

She moved from the table and dampened a dish cloth. “Actually, I never knew her. She was my mother’s mother, and they didn’t speak.” She began wiping the counters that had already been cleaned. “At least not during my life.”

“That must have been rough for you.”

She shrugged like it didn’t matter, but deep inside it mattered a lot to her. Growing up it had just been her and her mother. While her friends had fathers, grandparents, aunts, and uncles, for her it had just been the two of them.

She’d asked her mother about her extended family, but her mother would just tell her that they didn’t need anyone else.

“It was quite a surprise when a private detective tracked me down and let me know that I’d inherited my grandmother’s estate.” Estate made it sound grander than it was. In the time it had taken for them to find her, the accountant who’d handled her grandmother’s money embezzled her savings along with his other clients’ and then fled the country.

Now she was left trying to keep the inn running on her meager savings and the inn’s modest income until she was able to sell it. A month had never felt so long.

The scraping of the chair across the tile floor drew her from her thoughts. She turned to find Shaun carrying his empty plate to the sink. And then to her surprise, he grabbed a dish cloth, dampened it, and then added soap.

As he began to wash the plate, she rushed over. “You don’t have to do that.”

“My father taught me to be a good houseguest. Besides, you fed me, and you didn’t need to.” After scrubbing both sides of the plate, he rinsed it off, and then placed it in the drying rack. Then he picked up the utensils to clean them. “The food was delicious. You’re a really good cook.”

She smiled. It’d been a while since anyone took the time to compliment her cooking. “Thank you. If you liked that, just wait until breakfast in the morning.”

He rinsed off the utensils and added them to the drying rack. “I look forward to it.”

After drying his hands, he turned, and their gazes caught and held. Her heart skipped a beat. She knew she should move, but her body would not cooperate. Instead, she felt herself wondering what secrets were hidden behind his gray eyes.