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Chapter Five
Of course, once Elisewas back at Wayne’s house, her knees clacked together and she felt on the verge of collapse. She nearly missed the edge of the couch as she fell back onto it. Wayne stood over her, still wearing that fireman’s hat, and placed his hands on his hips.
“Alex is right about one thing,” he said.
“What’s that? That I’m a liar? That I’m an arsonist?” Elise asked, her eyes closing.
“No.” Wayne chuckled good-naturedly. “Just that wherever you go, trouble seems to follow.”
Elise groaned and fell to the side along the couch. “I promise. Back home in Los Angeles, I’m about as boring as they come.”
“Boring? Elise Darby? Elise Darby, on the hunt for her missing father on an island she’s never been to before?” Wayne said. “I don’t think so. If this is new behavior for you, then I reckon you had it in you all the time. You just were waiting for the perfect time to tap into it.”
“I can’t tell if that’s a compliment or not,” Elise said.
Wayne laughed, disappeared into his bedroom, then reappeared in just a pair of pajama bottoms and a dark grey t-shirt. There was something funny about seeing his feet bare for the first time. They were large, tan, with perfectly-rounded toenails.
It was intimate, seeing someone’s feet.
Elise had forgotten that about men.
But then again, she hadn’t “slept over” at a guy’s house for the first time since she’d slept over with Sean—in his actual dorm room, in a bunk bed.
The idea of crawling up a bunk bed made her shiver.
“I can see you’re zonked,” Wayne said. “So I’ve made up the bed for you. Different sheets and all that. I’m a gentleman.”
“Oh? Really?” Elise was surprised. What would a bachelor know about changing the sheets for a lady? “Is this a five-class hotel?”
“It’s Chez Wayne,” Wayne said, teasing her. “Bienvenue!”
“Is that French? I barely know it, but my daughter spoke it in high school.” Elise forced herself upright and rubbed her eyes. When she forced her eyes to open again, she found Wayne beaming at her. “You’re so proud of yourself for knowing a single word of French, aren’t you?”
“Mackinac’s an old French colony,” he told her with a little shrug. “It’s in my blood.”
Elise limped toward the bedroom, while Wayne chased after her, offering a toothbrush, a clean t-shirt, a wi-fi password. Elise grinned sheepishly while he opened up the toothbrush package and passed it over.
“Bright pink. I never took you for a girly guy,” she said, lifting the toothbrush.
“I full of surprises.”
What did Alex mean about Wayne? You’re in for a world of hurt?
What the heck?
He seemed like the best guy in the world.
“I have to get to the coffee shop early tomorrow morning,” Wayne said. “The oven is still a bit busty, and I just want to be there just in case something happens.”
“We don’t need another fire on our hands,” Elise affirmed.
“Good luck with the cops. I’ll leave a spare key for you on the kitchen counter. You can make coffee, go through the pantry, eat and drink whatever you find.”
“That’s a risky offer for you. You don’t know what kind of eater I am yet,” Elise said, making a joke.
“You can eat me out of house and home if you want,” Wayne said, placing his hand across his heart. “I probably deserve it.”
Elise wished him goodnight and then clipped the door closed. She stood at the center of a woven rug and blinked out at the bedroom, which simmered with smells that were Wayne and only Wayne. The bedroom was stylized beautifully, in a way that didn’t exactly scream,Wayne, Mackinac Island Bachelor.Why? Had maybe Anna helped him decorate it? Another girlfriend?
