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I smiled. “Sure.”

Chapter 20

Alexis

I spent the day helping Daniel with his chores, and it was work. We cleaned up the breakfast disaster, and then we had to go do the rooms. Make the beds, clean the bathrooms. I had never scrubbed a shower before. It was exhausting.

And he did this every day.

It gave me a whole new appreciation for my housekeeper.

Bri liked to say she could tell I’d never cried in a walk-in fridge before. I’d never worked retail or in a restaurant. She said it should be mandatory that everyone work at a fast-food place for six months because it changes you, and I think this is what she meant.

It made me think about every time I left a dirty makeup wipe on the counter, or I tossed my shoes on the floor and came back to them put away. I must seem so rude, I realized.

By the time Jessica and Gabby came back from their bike ride, I’d calmed down a little.

I went to dinner at Jane’s with them. Daniel told me Liz wasn’t working, thank God, so nobody there recognized me. And the food was good. I don’t know what they were talking about. I liked it. Doreen was there, and she said they sourced their produce locally. The eggs and milk came from Doug’s farm.

We came back after dinner and spent a few hours in the screened-in gazebo by the river, drinking wine and hanging out. It was Saturday, so Daniel was at the VFW calling bingo, and I didn’t even get to see him around the house. I would rather have been there with him than here with Gabby and Jessica.

I still wasn’t happy with either of them. But Gabby promised she wouldn’t write a review, so at least Daniel was spared that.

I snuck back in to sleep with him after they finally went to bed at midnight. I woke up at 5:45 again when he did and went back to my room. And that was it. The weekend was over.

Our last breakfast Sunday morning was uneventful—and really good. Gabby asked for the recipe for the lingonberry crepes Daniel had made, and he gave her a laminated recipe card on Grant House cardstock that he already had printed and waiting.

He was an excellent host. I felt confident that despite the squirrel/acorn debacle, he’d adequately redeemed the Grant House in the eyes of my friends.

I didn’t need any redemption from him. I was very happy with the service I got. All weekend. Seven times.

We were loading our bags in the car to go home, and I had the saddest feeling.

I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to go back to the real world and my crappy situation with Neil.

And the other thing. I didn’t feel like I got enough time with Daniel.

I started thinking about when I would come again, and I realized I was already canceling plans with other people in my head to make time to be here. I’d gone from being positive I was never going to see him again, to seeing him being the only thing I felt like doing.

Somewhere deep in the back of my brain, a warning signal flashed.

I was having more fun with him than I expected. I wanted to spend more time with him than I expected—and this wasn’t a good thing. It felt good, but it wasn’t.

I couldn’t develop a dependency on someone I couldn’t have long term. And Daniel I could not have long term.

Chemistry and things in common aside, Daniel would never work in my life. He was too young, too far away.

He was too different…

I knew this. But I was getting ahead of myself. All this was just the excitement of something new. These feelings would fizzle out. In a few months we’d get tired of each other, and this would run its course, and we’d both move on. I wasn’t going to worry about it.

I dropped my bag in the trunk and came around to the side of the SUV where Gabby was leaning, looking at her screen.

She had TripAdvisor up. There was a one-star rating at the top of the page.

When she saw me, she tucked her phone into her purse.

“What are you doing?” I asked, crossing my arms.