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“Impressive. I bet it saves him a lot of time,” Sarah said.
“It would if he used it,” she said with a frustrated sigh. “He’s old-school and prefers his clipboard.”
Come on, Wes!His daughter creates a program to make his life easier and he refuses to use it? Sounded like poor time management and also a way to create a gap between father and daughter, but who was she to judge? She had no idea what their lives were like. “Well, maybe I can help you make it available to other coaches,” she said, ignoring the voice in her mind that warned her about getting involved in Wes’s business or too close to a little girl she could easily adore. She sensed that Marissa could use a friend—someone who understood her.
“You’d help me with that?” Her eyes widened, and Sarah was happy that maybe she’d helped to ease the disappointment about camp just a little.
Maybe she could ease it a lot. And maybe the little girl might be able to help her with her own dilemma. She was a kid, after all. Who better to advise Sarah on technology that kids would want to use?
She hesitated briefly, then decided to go for it before she could overthink. “Hey, how would you like to be my intern this summer? Help me with my app programming and I can help you get yours to market?”
Marissa’s eyes lit up as though Sarah had just given her a new puppy. “Really? You’d help me sell my app?”
Sarah nodded. “If you want to…”
“I do!” Her head bobbed up and down so fast, it looked like it might pop off.
Sarah laughed. “Great…so start tomorrow?”
“Not right now?” The little girl’s pout immediately reminded Sarah of Wes, and she felt an inexplicable tug at her heart. A terrifying, unsafe tug…
“We should probably talk to your dad about it first.” That realization came a few minutes too late. Hopefully Wes wouldn’t have an issue with this. It would be tough if she’d offered a consolation to Marissa only to have him shoot it down. And her own job might be dependent on this collaboration. If she didn’t get something impressive to Gail soon, she could kiss the pending promotion goodbye.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Marissa said. “I’ll ask him at lunchtime after he has his ice cream. Sugar always makes him more agreeable.”
Sarah laughed as she got up from the swing but paused as Marissa reached out to touch her hand.
“Hey, Sarah, thank you,” she said.
And that little tug at her heart wasn’t so little anymore.
Chapter Seven
Wes climbed the stairs to the living quarters of the B&B after lunch. From the hallway outside the master bedroom, he saw Sarah sitting at her laptop at the desk. She’d changed into jean shorts and a tank top, and her long, tanned legs stretched out under the desk, her pale-seafoam-green-painted toes stealing his focus. Had those legs always been that shapely? His mouth was slightly dry and his palms were clammy.
He hesitated. Maybe he should come back. She looked busy.
Nope, he had to do this now.
He knocked on her open door, and she looked nervous when she turned to see him standing in the entrance. “Hi…”
“Hi.”Just say thank you and go back to work. He cleared his throat. “So, good news, there’s no sign of termites, just wood rot.” So he was postponing his gratitude. Truth was, he was still feeling conflicted about Sarah’s offer to let Marissa work with her that summer. Not about letting Marissa do it. Hell, he hoped to avoid having to say no to Marissa again for quite some time to make up for the camp disappointment. But he was torn between his gratitude toward Sarah and a reluctance to start letting his guard down around her.
He was already attracted to her, and this situation could become…dangerous. He had no intentions of opening himself up to a woman who hadn’t exactly been warm and fuzzy toward him since he’d rescued her from a staircase. Or one hell-bent on getting back to her life in the city as quickly as possible.
“Oh, great,” she said. “I was seriously freaked out thinking those little creatures were eating through the place.”
“Yeah. Well, they’re not. So that’s a relief.” He stared at his work boots and licked his upper lip. Should he say something about his reaction to her prodding into his life earlier? He hadn’t meant to lose his cool. “Hey, sorry about earlier.”
“No, it wasn’t my place to say anything.”
“Still, I shouldn’t have gotten so upset.” He paused. “Marissa told me what you did…offering her an internship.”
Her expression was one of regret. “Did I overstep again? The offer just came out, but I’m sorry, I should have asked you first,” she said quickly.
“No! No, it’s fine.” He cleared his throat again. “It’s actually really amazing of you to do that for her.” His gaze locked on hers, and the heat radiating through him had nothing to do with the un-air-conditioned room. How had he never noticed how dark brown her eyes were? Or the bright starburst pattern around the center? It was all he could see now.
Sarah’s chest rose and fell in relief, and she looked away first. “It was nothing. I could actually use the help with some of my coding…a few things I’m working on. A different perspective of sorts.”
