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Nine
Hallie didn’t make a habit of drinking too much, but she’d had such a good time with Presley and Cassandra last night she’d accidentally overindulged. She arrived at Gavin’s new house with a headache and a very large cup of coffee. She supposed she could’ve put him off for another day or two, but that wasn’t her style. She’d promised to be here at nine thirty in the morning, so here she was, at 9:27 a.m. He needed her help, after all.
And a few more kisses, her mind happily suggested.
The more she thought about kissing him, the more nervous she became. She couldn’t very well attack him when he answered the door, now could she? And she was terrified to ask for a kiss. What if he responded with an apologetic refusal? She’d die. Which meant if they did kiss, it’d have to be unplanned—like the first time she’d kissed him. The spontaneous kiss had worked out okay. She thought.
The driveway curved through two lines of tall trees, sun filtering through their leaves. When those trees gave way to the house, she gasped.
Gavin’s droolworthy home was perched on a slight incline overlooking both the main lake as well as the smaller, private lake that he owned a portion of. The log cabin–style A-frame was enormous, with copious windows and several balconies.
She stepped from her car and craned her head to take in a wide balcony on the second floor. Beyond a pair of double doors rose high cathedral ceilings. “Wow,” she heard herself whisper. Someone else heard her, as well.
“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”
Startled by Gavin’s sudden appearance next to her, she jolted, placing her hand over her racing heart as she gave him a smile. “Where did you come from? You scared the life out of me.”
“You look plenty alive to me, Hals.” He grinned, his gaze briefly flicking to her lips before returning to the house. His place wasn’t quite as big as Cash’s sprawling mansion but was in no way quaint. “Fifty-three hundred square feet,” he said as if reading her mind.
“How many people are going to live here with you?” she teased.
“I know, right? The plans made it seem smaller. Come on, I’ll show you around.”
She followed him in, walking up a short set of stairs to the front door. That door opened to an enormous kitchen and living room. The bold, dark wooden beams overhead were modern, charcoal gray set against a backdrop of pale pine.
“I paid extra for those.” On anyone else it would’ve sounded like a brag, but she knew Gavin was simply being conversational. She’d always admired his ability to simply say what he thought. She overthought everything.
“Well, they were worth it.” She stepped into the kitchen and stood between two massive islands, each with their own built-in sinks. Black bar stools were pushed beneath the overhang of one of the islands, each seat tall and padded, with shining silver rivets bolted into the leather.
“Clearly nothing needs to be done in this room,” she said as she took in the gorgeous space. Behind the glass-doored cabinets were rows of cookbooks and canisters, as if every detail had already been decided.
“The kitchen is the only part of the house that is done. Come with me.”
After a tour of the bedrooms—she was still trying to wrap her head around why he had six of them—she saw what Gavin meant. Two bedrooms were unfurnished, and the others weren’t furnished to capacity.
In the master bedroom’s walk-in closet, she smiled at the array of mismatched plastic hangers. She pointed at him with a turquoise blue one. “Tell me this is on your designer’s list.”
“You’re in charge of this mess, not me.” He took the hanger, bringing him a step closer to her. The closet wasn’t small but seemed to shrink when he leaned one shoulder on the door frame and gave her a sexy grin.
“Wooden hangers,” she managed, clearing her throat and her head of the idea of kissing him again. Standing over her, he was almost imposing. When he’d been across from her in the car, she’d been eye to eye with him. There had been no need to push to her toes or drag his mouth down to hers. Both of which she’d have to do if she kissed him now. Was it hot in here? She tore her eyes from his tempting frame to admire the built-in shelves and silver rods where his clothes hung in no particular order. “Dark brown or black hangers would be best.”
She removed a suit jacket from in between two shirts and hung it with the other jackets, and then she moved a pair of suit pants to the lower rung before she realized what she was doing was strangely intimate.
“Sorry.” She backed away from his clothes. “I didn’t mean to invade your space.”
“Don’t be.” He straightened from the door frame and stepped deeper into the closet, his lips flinching as he looked at her lips again. “You invaded my space once before. You didn’t hear me complaining, did you?”
Heat flushed her neck and face when he leaned a hair’s breadth closer. Maybe she wouldn’t have to initiate their next kiss. He was going to do it for her. She tipped her chin to accept what he was about to offer when a female voice punctuated the air.
“Yoo-hoo! Gav?”
Head still tilted downward, he didn’t move an inch, but Hallie did. She sprang away from him and darted out of the closet as a tall, dark-skinned woman stepped into the bedroom.
“You must be Ruby,” Hallie said as Gavin came to stand next to her.
“Yes. I am.” Ruby propped a hand on one of her hips, her expression curious as it snapped from Hallie to Gavin. The other woman was showing off her curves in an exotically patterned dress, her shoes tall and strappy.
“This is Hallie,” Gavin introduced. “She’s going to be handling any and all questions you may have about decorating this beast.”
