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“Come on, Ollie,” he called and started up the stairs. Opening the door, he was met with the delectable aroma of fresh coffee and…something sweeter with a hint of lemon. Muffins?
Ollie seemed to be of the same opinion and he practically dragged Jack into the kitchen where Daisy was elbow deep in a mixing bowl. Her hair pinned a little tidier to the top of her head, a touch of red on those lips, she was a vision.
“Good morning,” he offered, bending down to unclasp Ollie’s leash.
She barely paused her whisking as she met his gaze. “Morning. There’s coffee,” she said, motioning toward the coffeemaker behind her.
“Thanks. Wow. It smells really good in here. You must have woken up just after I left.”
“I’m afraid I didn’t sleep much, not wedged between three sets of knobby knees and elbows,” she said and winced, taking a second to crook her neck to the right. “I made enough for you and Lily to join us, if you’d like.”
“That’s generous of you. If it won’t put you out, then that would be perfect.”
“Not at all. This is kind of what I do best.”
That’s right. The loan application had mentioned something about starting a bakery. He headed to the coffeepot and poured himself a generous mug before returning to the other side of the counter. He took a sip.
“Mm. This is great. To tell you the truth, I almost expected to wake up and find you had packed up and slipped away in the middle of the night.”
She grinned a little sheepishly, her brown eyes revealing that he might not have been far from the truth. “To be honest, I probably would have but we ran into some other unexpected problems last night. My car died about twenty minutes out from here, so it’s at some garage hopefully being looked at soon.”
“Ah. No wonder I didn’t notice anyone
was here when Lily and I arrived last night.”
Behind her, the timer went off and she set her bowl down and went to the oven to peek inside. Satisfied with the progress, she grabbed a hot pad and pulled two trays of muffins—lemon scented and sprinkled with poppy seeds, it looked like—from the oven and set them on the counter.
While she flipped the muffins out of the pan and onto a towel, he continued. “Sounds like you have enough to worry about, so let me assure you that Lily and I will clear out and leave you and the kids by this afternoon.”
She frowned. “That hardly seems fair to you guys.”
“It’s not a problem. I’ll call my office and have them look into finding some other house or hotel where we can stay.”
She bit her bottom lip, appearing conflicted. “I don’t know. Coming in, everything seemed pretty booked thanks to the holiday…”
“Don’t worry, if nothing turns up, Lily will be more than ecstatic to return home. She wasn’t that excited about the whole trip in the first place.” The sound of a door opening upstairs told him they were probably going to have a visitor soon. “If it’s okay, I’m going to go take a quick shower. Lily’s got at least another hour of sleep before she heads down but if she does, just let her know I’ll be only a few minutes.”
“Of course. Go. The eggs should be ready by then anyway.”
With his mug in hand and Ollie comfortable near Daisy’s feet, he headed across the room to the hall leading to his room.
It was hard not to feel a sense of disappointment at knowing that no matter how much he might be intrigued enough to want to stay longer, he and his daughter would have to leave this place sometime today.
…
Daisy watched Jack Harrison walk away a little longer than she should, something she blamed on his shorts. Or rather, how he filled out said shorts.
Not that he was wearing eighties-style short shorts that left little to the imagination. His shorts reached the respectable mid-thigh level, just enough to give her a tantalizing glimpse of strong well-muscled thighs and well-toned calves.
She almost laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of it all. Her ogling one of the most eligible, and by far sexiest, bachelors in her state. Fortunately, the only witness to her drooling was a pup at her feet who was doing some of his own.
“You know what I was thinking, don’t you, boy?” she whispered before shaking her head. Now she was talking to a dog. She wasn’t particularly accustomed to having a dog around and, despite her son’s almost obsessive pleading with her to get one of their own this past year, she just didn’t see herself as much of a dog person.
Were they cute? Of course. But they also required a lot of time and attention, things that with three kids, she already felt was in short supply.
The dog rested his head on his paws and closed his eyes, appearing almost content. She supposed as dogs went, this one—Ollie, she believed—seemed tolerable.
“Morning,” her aunt almost sang, like a woman who’d gotten an envious eight-plus hours of sleep as she sauntered into the room. Just over seventy, Glenda had the spirit and wit of any twenty-year-old woman. Although in recent months, her age had become more a force to be reckoned with, which only made Daisy feel guiltier, seeing as she took advantage of the woman’s generous nature more often that she should.
